Funky Flipcharts for the new year

Found this blog article with some really simple and good ideas for using flipcharts with your classes.

Take a fresh look at the BC's LearnEnglish sites

Although you might have used 1 or 2 of the BC's ELT websites, do you really know all that's on offer?

Podcasts
These are a relatively new addition to the site - and a response to users' requests:

• Elementary podcasts have proved especially popular. They offer learners who want to reach the CEF Level A2 (Council of Europe Framework of Reference) an engaging way to improve their listening skills. Up to now, most listening material designed for this level has tended to be bland, boring and patronising. These podcasts, however, sound fresh and natural – their magazine format ensuring a good variety of pace and content – even though the lexis and grammar employed in them are deliberately restricted. Each podcast comes with notes on how to best exploit it and learners can download a comprehensive Support Pack containing activities, explanations plus a transcript of the podcast.

• Also worth checking out are the Professional podcasts which cover a wide range of current issues of particular interest to professional people and also give advice about how to prepare for English language exams. Each podcast is twinned with an article on the same topic and accompanied by complementary activities.

One click access to the suite of websites
The LearnEnglish portal is at http://www.britishcouncil.org/learnenglish.htm and offers a one-click access to the complete suite of websites:

• LearnEnglish Central provides English language practice for everyone, but especially teenagers and adult learners. Why not try out Wordshake – a great way to practise your vocabulary – or Agents Underground where you play the role of a secret agent travelling around London on the underground solving puzzles as you go?

• LearnEnglish Professionals caters for people who move especially in business and professional worlds. For something that’s really entertaining and fun, I recommend J@m, a cartoon series set in a web design company.

• LearnEnglish Kids is aimed at children of infant and primary age and is one of my all-time favourites. First choose a topic and then you will be presented with a splendid list of songs, stories, activities and worksheets related to it. Many of the interactive activities adapt really well for use with IWBs (interactive whiteboards) or data projectors in a whole class setting. It’s also an invaluable resource for parents/carers who want to help children with their English at home.

• Parents and carers can now find specific advice and information on how to share the experience of learning English with children on the LearnEnglish Parents – a site that is specially dedicated to them. For example, there is a very helpful piece on using rhymes with young children with a link to a scary and gripping animated rhyme In the dark, dark, wood .

• While English Online has been designed for Chinese speakers, it’s well-worth a visit. The site has a community format enabling users to become members, maintain their own blog and to add comments or join in on forum discussions. I can particularly recommend Big City Small World for teenage learners. It’s a highly entertaining audio soap that follows the lives of a group of young people from around the world who meet up in a London café.

• Finally, there is Go4english.com, the British Council LearnEnglish offer for the Arab World. The site provides entertaining and user friendly games and activities as well as culturally specific content, such as celebrity interviews and downloadable resources, for teachers in the Arab World.

Comprehensive list of ELT web links

You'll find this at http://www.britishcouncil.org.ua/tclinks/

login: tcstudent

password: student

Simple online voice recorder

No registration, logging on or faffing; just press record, speak and then upload to email or get the embed code... now that´s handy.

http://www.daftdoggy.com/recorder/record.php

A good excuse to set students speaking homework!

Bring students texts to life

Another winner

http://www.pimpampum.net/bookr/index.php


This site allows you to make online books which you can then add photos to liven up. No need to register, just begin by typing in the title of your book and your name, add the next page and then you can begin with your text and continue for as many pages as you need. For each page you can search for related words to create images (uses flickr, the online photo site) to put around the text. The final product looks pretty impressive and I´m sure the students would love it!

When you´ve finished just click "publish", to save the book on the site. You also can "blog this" which will give you the usual embed code to paste on your site. Shame you can´t print.

Adding voice to youtube videos

This is a nice site

http://www.outshouts.com/

just search for a youtube video, load it up then record yourself introducing it. Plenty of ideas for students
eg being the Dj introducing their favourite song
narrating the story of the video but with a few errors that the others have to find
Making some listening questions for other students

I´m sure there´s infinite uses as whatever you can find on youtube you can load on this, so films clips, interviews, even students own work.

Has the usual embed or email facilities so will sit nicely on your blog or wiki.

Two excellent links to Prometheanplanet website - Lots of IWB activities

1st for FCErs - a nice activity to practice Use of English

FCE

2nd the website´s ESL activities - something for everyone

ESL