Some years ago, I watched a TED talk given by the Swedish statistician and physician Hans Rosling and his son. Hans and Ola Rosling: How not to be ignorant about the world | TED Talk.
I also started reading his book ‘Factfulness’.
Continue readingTed Ed videos are short educational videos explaining a various number of different topics in a few minutes. Here I will share a list of those I have already watched or find interesting for future reference.
Continue readingA great website I first found in 2014. And rediscovered in 2023. It has short podcasts you can listen to repeatedly for great learning effect.
Some I’ve listened to lately (updated May 12, 2024)
Related to Béyonce’s new album ‘Cowboy Carter’, there are several great podcasts. For instance: What her cover of ‘Blackbird’ means to a member of the Little Rock Nine.
Sporcle.com is a page that provides a huge collection of quizzes of all kinds. For my classes I like using those where language has to be linked to imagery. There are some very creative ideas on this site waiting to be discovered. You can add them to a class at the end when some time left or at the beginning as an introduction or supplement to a topic.
Continue readingAnother great source are Ted Ed Talks. These are short, five minute videos covering various topics.
Here a list of some of my favorites:
Would you pass the wallet test? In this video we are presented with a moral or ethical dilemma asking how honest we would be in a given situation.
Continue readingOn my visit to London this year, I went to the Tower of London to look at the art project installed to commemorate the British soldiers who died in WWI.
It is quite fascinating as you can see if you go to the link below or google Tower of London.
http://globalnews.ca/news/1491578/photos-red-ceramic-poppies-spill-from-tower-of-london/
November: In the meantime some weeks have past and the sight around the Tower has changed dramatically. Continue reading
Another great page I love to look at with classes, and, additionally, on you tube: How Things are Made – little videos reminiscent of the German show with the Mouse.
Link for 2024 The World Ahead 2024 from The Economist
Link for 2023 The World in 2023 – what to expect
Every year, the British magazine The Economist publishes a special issue that focuses on the events of the coming year. They write about upcoming events, things that might, could or will happen, and report on how on-the-spot their predictions for the previous year were.
This year, their selection of events around the world (Calendar 2014, p 32) was accompanied by a wonderful illustration by Kevin Kallaugher, their editorial cartoonist, and … Continue reading
Every once in a while I like to show groups how the internet can be used to integrate more English into your everyday life, plus just plain interesting stuff worth talking about, watching or listening to.
Below are some of my favorites that I have also listed or mentioned in other posts.
In the end, one of our group brought a page of his interest (I love it when class participants do that), including copies for reading. It was Louis C.K.’s explanation of why he hates smartphones. Continue reading
Youtube has evolved from being a forum for private videos to a platform where all kinds of institutions publish their visual material. Here one of my favorites is TED.
A student of mine showed me a talk given by Colin Stokes (How Movies Teach Manhood). Our classroom has access to the internet and we watched and discussed it together. In the mean time I have shown it to other groups as well.
Colin Stokes talks about his experience as a father Continue reading
Update 2023
Besides providing loads of interesting things to explore, I also find the short topical videos under BBC Reel worth looking into, for instance Food for Thought by the nutritionist Kimberly Wilson.
The BBC homepage provides a range of different kinds of information from current news to specific interests; different media (besides texts you find videos and radio broadcasts), a special page for learners of English, quizzes and many more; in short: great sources for your English improvement; Continue reading