English Language FAQ: Why do we call today Boxing Day?

English Language FAQ: Why do we call today Boxing Day?: There is no agreement about this but it is not a) because the British liked a good boxing match to work of their Christmas dinners  b) it ...

Merry Christmas to efl.useful.links Readers!

Merry Christmas!

Language Cartoons from ecenglish

Language Cartoons from ecenglish:

2012 in Photos

The idea of showing the year in photos is a good one - a great source for discussion, thinking the things over and just watching how we lived, and maybe predicting how we will.
The Washington Post - 2012's Photos of the Year.
The Wall Street Journal - Year in Photos 2012.
U.S.News - 2012: The Year in Photos.
Forbes - 2012 год в фотографиях.

With the News

Using news sites in class can be of much help: many topics covered, important things discussed, interesting photos shown - all this could be very useful for a teacher at almost any lesson: to start the lesson, to start the discussion, to organise pair or group work, to introduce new vocabulary or even grammar, and other ways the teacher can use news in class.

Teaching Kids News offers "original news articles on topics that are timely, relevant and intriguing, they are written for an elementary and intermediate school audience (grades 2-8) and can be used easily by kids, parents, and teachers".

Much interesting can be found on CBBC Newsround: news reports, pictures, videos, slideshows.

The Daily What has news articles on various topics with related quizes and lesson ideas.

BBC On This Day is a showcase of some of the most significant as well as some of the quirkier stories broadcast by BBC News since 1950. Nearly all the stories contain video or audio and are written as if the event had only just occurred, drawing on archive media, old newspapers and historical reference books.

GIFT GIVING TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD - INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHIC

GIFT GIVING TRADITIONS AROUND THE WORLD - INTERACTIVE INFOGRAPHIC from visual.ly

This interactive gift giving map, brought to you by Cloud 9 Living, is meant for world travelers, study abroad students, those living in or visiting a foreign country; and anyone with curiosity about cultures, traditions and etiquette standards around the world.

The map specifically covers gift giving traditions in China, India, Japan, Brazil, Turkey, Zimbabwe, Italy, Sweden, Bolivia, Tibet, Morocco, Russia, Samoa, Israel and the English Commonwealth. With holidays ranging from Diwali to Christmas, and traditions from gifting yogurt to pulling on earlobes; everyone will learn something new.

Talk Time

iMOMoffers a nice section with really useful TALK printables - conversation starters on various topics: After School Talk, Friends Talk, Pillow Talk, and so on. The tips are good for using in class or at home.
Other iMOM Printables are also very helpful and beautifully designed.
Besides, one can find many other useful things for school and family life at iMOM.

What the World Searched For in 2012

Google|Zeitgeist 2012 is a site that takes a look at the searches that defines 2012:

The resource can be a good thing for a finishing-year lesson - there is much here to remember and discuss.

Great Idea Found! 2012 News Quiz from Jeffrey Hill

Jeffry Hill, the author of The English Blog (a great place really), has just published his 2012 News Quiz - a good idea to close the year.

2012 News Quiz from Jeffrey Hill

Great Resource Found!

PaperZip is a site of "Free Teaching Resources|Beautifully Designed". Literacy, Numeracy, Topics, and Classroom sections offer wonderful printables that techers really need - very useful and very nice. The blog is also of much help, full of good ideas. In addition to PaperZip, the team also run a kids site Discovery Den - "Exploring the Online World" - a very useful place.

Watch This!

The Kid Should See This is a nice video site where kids can watch good instructional videos. The idea is to provide kids with a safe watching environment. The videos cover various topics: nature, art, music, science, technology and more.

KIDEOS collects appropriate for kids videos of various kind. The large collection to choose from.

National Geographic|Kids - worth watching short videos on different topics: Animals, History, Science and others.

Travelling The World

World Wonders Project by Google is a great teaching resource giving the opportunity to explore the world's most wonderful places. It gives much textual, video and photo information on each place, shows it on the world's map with 3D viewing variant. About section gives much help to start working with the resource. Education section offers free downloadable educational packages for classroom use: teacher guides for primary and secondary schools, secondary school history topics, secondary school geography topics.

Interesting: The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers

Edudemic has published The 50 Most Popular Books for Teachers with the Infographic from the Best Education Degrees and some words about The Top 10 Books. It would be really interesting to read them some day and compare with the top books for teachers in one's own culture.

Source: edudemic.com via Favourite on Pinterest

27 Days of European Christmas Customs

27 Days of European Christmas Customs from Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany London is a good way to "travel" Europe in December and read how people in different countries celebrate Christmas. Each date opens the window with a short story and a link to more information, video or audio file.

Ideas for English Language Learners | Celebrate the Holidays

The New Your Times|The Lerning Network has posted Ideas for English Language Learners | Celebrate the Holidays where one can easily find the ideas suitable for his students.

Christmas Fun and Activities

We can have Christmas fun all year around and still there will be much great activities left!
Here are some ideas from various places:
technology rocks. seriously.: Sweet Gingerbread Fun!: Gingerbread Apps: The Talking Gingerbread App  is a free app that lets you interact with the gingerbread man by having him dance  ...

Much on British Council and ESOL Courses.

So you want to be an English Language Teacher? – infographic | Macmillan

So you want to be an English Language Teacher? – infographic | Macmillan

Cartoons in Class

The Association of American Editorial Cartoonists site has the Cartoons for the Classroom section - a good resource to use with upper-intermediate and advanced learners. Teachers are suggested to download the lesson on the cartoon, its blank version for students to write down their own captions and the cartoon evaluation worksheet. The learning standard given are:

Comprehending and evaluating the content and artistic aspects of oral and visual presentations. 
Responding to a variety of written, visual and electronic texts by making connections to students' personal lives and the lives of others; posing social science questions.

There are 235 cartoon lessons in the library now. The teacher can choose the one suitable and either use it as a part of the lesson or create a lesson just around the cartoon.

Reading

The Library of Congress offers much reading. For kids and teens one can find

The Aesop for Children - the interactive book which contains the text of selected fables, color pictures, video and interactive animations;

The Rocket Book - "The upward progress of a rocket, lit in the basement by the janitor's son, causes some strange situations as it passes through 20 floors of apartments!";

The Exquisite Corpse Adventure with MP3 version of all the episodes: "Ever heard of an Exquisite Corpse? It's not what you might think. An Exquisite Corpse is an old game in which people write a phrase on a sheet of paper, fold it over to conceal part of it and pass it on to the next player to do the same. The game ends when someone finishes the story, which is then read aloud.

Our "Exquisite Corpse Adventure" works this way: Jon Scieszka, the National Ambassador for Young People's Literature, has written the first episode, which is "pieced together out of so many parts that it is not possible to describe them all here, so go ahead and just start reading!" He has passed it on to a cast of celebrated writers and illustrators, who must eventually bring the story to an end. 

Every two weeks, there will be a new episode and a new illustration. The story will conclude a year from now. To get bi-weekly updates with new Exquisite Corpse Adventure chapters, click on the subscribe link  at the top of the page. "This story starts with a train rushing through the night...." No one knows where or how it will end!"

and many more.