Tame Your Time

On-line timers can be of much help during the lesson. Today a teacher can choose the interactive timers suitable for his lesson idea and plan - such timers are useful of course, and besides they draw students' attention and make the lesson more dynamic:
E.gg Timer
Timer-tab
Steep.it
NextUp
And Bouncy Balls - not a timer, but a fun thing for class management.

Behavior Management

Class Dojo is a classroom tool that helps teachers improve behavior in their classrooms quickly and easily. It  captures and generates data on behavior that teachers can share with parents and administrators. ClassDojo provides instant notifications for the students (‘Well done Josh! +1 for teamwork!’). All fully customizable for the classroom. 
The idea of the site is really nice and the resource is easy to use making the lesson enjoyable both for teachers and students.

EFL Smart Blog

The EFL SMARTblog is a good source of materials for various  topics. Each post is about one topic with discussion ideas, reading, listening and writing activities. It is very convenient if the teacher knows exactly what he needs for a lesson. It also can be a good starting point to plan the work around this or that topic. The resource is mostly for advanced learners. 

Be Happy!

Warmers from British Council

Warmers are always of much help, the more the teacher knows the better. Effective warmers puts the lesson in the right way and that's very important. Here are the warmers from British Council with more ideas in the comments.

Encourage Reading

We Give Books is a great reading resource "combining the joy of reading with the power of helping others".

We Give Books is a digital initiative that enables anyone with access to the Internet to put books in the hands of children who don't have them, simply by reading online. All of the books available for online reading are children's picture books appropriate for children through age ten. There is a mix of fiction and nonfiction, a range of authors, and an equal balance between read-alouds and books for independent readers. 
All the books are available online after registration. Editor's Picks are free for anyone to read.

 

In Class: Surely the books are worth spending the whole lesson reading: listening to the teacher, reading one after another, reading all together, predicting the story with the pictures, telling after-stories about favorite characters and so on as far as the students enjoy the book. 

10 Resources for Australia Day

10 Resources for Australia Day from Teaching News

19 English lessons for apologizing from PhraseMix.com

PhraseMix.com — 19 English lessons for apologizing: 19 situations with listening and explaining each word (phrase) in the given sentence. A very useful resource, especially for advanced learners.
In Class: after introducing the phrase the teacher can ask students to act the situation, to change some details, to combine several situations into one context.

WingClips - Movie Clips that Illustrate and Inspire

WingClips is quite an interesting resource - movie clips from famous films. The clips can be downloaded and used in class. The clips can be searched by Theme, Category, or Movie Title.
In Class: The clips are short and can be easily incorporated into the lesson illustrating or supporting the idea of the lesson. The clips can be used at the beginning of the lesson to introduce, to anticipate the topic. In the flow of the lesson they can be the source of the discussion.

What's Your Favourite Food with the Premier League

Learn English with the Premier League | Premier Skills English presents What's Your Favourite Food Pack. The Pack includes Before You Watch: Questions, The Video (embedded) - the interview with fifteen football fans living or studying in the UK, interactive Activity: Do You Know Where the Food Comes From, interactive Activity: Write the Nationality, and Your Turn: Answer the Questions in the Comments.

In Class: The pack is very good for using as a part of the lesson about food, in the sequence as it is given, or just the way the teacher needs it.

From Free Technology for Teachers

Free Technology for Teachers by Richard Byrne is absolutely great and the same useful. There is always something interesting found and described. Here are the two recent posts about the resources the teachers can use some day:

13 Good Resources for Social Studies Teachers

3 Good Places Where Students Can Watch and Learn About Wildlife

Calendar 2013

It has been written already about Calendar for January 2013 (and other months) from Scholastic.
One more calendar resource today: 2013 Educators' Calendars from TeacherVision is an every-day facts calendar with fun and educationally relevant holidays, events, and celebrations paired with teacher resources. The calendar has online, widget, downloadable versions.

In Class: The calendar is very good for a classroom board. Its online version can be used as an every-day tradition to start the day (the lesson). There is also an idea to use the calendar for students' mini-projects about the days of the month - every student chooses the day and "present" it to others.

Worldwide Etiquette

The Ultimate Guide to Worldwide Etiquette infographic by universlabs: "Etiquette varies widely from culture to culture. What may be perfectly normal in one country can sometimes be a grave insult in another. This ultimate guide to worldwide etiquette will help you avoid embarrassing (and sometimes dangerous) mistakes during your travels abroad".

In Class: The infographic is easy to use and quite informative. However, one should not rely on the given information completely. In class the infographic can be used to compare the countries, to compare the information with the students' knowledge and experience, to read about one's own country and correct or add the facts if needed.

Compare

The classic Olympic rings are resized to represent 16 different comparisons of inequalities around the globe. In each graphic (created by Gustavo Sousa), Asia is green, Africa is yellow, Europe is black, Oceania is blue, and the Americas are red.

Humanities Enrichment

Humanities Enrichment - Inspiration for history, literature, & social sciences - the collection of interactive resources on various topics: videos, visuals, infographics and others with the links to the original sites.

Classroom Ideas

MyClassroomIdeas is a place where teachers can share their unique classroom ideas with others and have a look at what other people do. A nice way to compare and learn something new.

Daily Starters from Scholastic

Have a look at Daily Starters from Scholastic Teachers for some ideas to start the day or just to feel time. Some new starters every day and the collection of previous ones. The four categories: Language, Math, Fun Fact, Teachable Moment. A good place to get ideas from.

Today's Question

SparkyTeaching helps with question ideas at 365 things to make you go "hmmm..." - is a thinking skills resource, gets the class talking hard about the answer. The daily question vary, from open-ended Math challenges to philosophical issues. There are many ways to use the resource in class: to start the lesson, to start the discussion, to introduce a topic, to fill time and other more creative variants.

SparkyTeaching also offers "Caution! Minds at Work!". It is a free set of 26 downloadable posters,  "the inspiration for which came from hearing about a street artist in New York (called 'TRUE'). He tried to brighten up the otherwise dull journeys of commuters on the subways by producing Health and Safety stickers with alternative, positive messages on. These stickers mimicked the style of the official notices which were displayed on the trains. Where there was once 'Mind The Gap', he stuck his 'Life Instructions' labels encouraging commuters to not hold grudges and smile more".

Exploring with National Geographic

Kids.National Geographic - an awesome place to spend time with kids. Interesting, interactive, useful - much information to get and facts to explore. Teaching English with this site can become real fun - much to read, to play, to watch; the teacher can take something for a lesson or base the whole lesson on some material. The site is very good for students' project working.

Calendar 2013 - Day by Day, Fact by Fact

Calendar for January 2013 (and other months) from Scholastic - a very interesting and useful thing. The Calendar gives the information about this day in history, sometimes with additional links. Why not to make a tradition of starting the day (the lesson) with this Calendar? It is also a good start to introduce the new material. Surely, every teacher will find the way to use it in his lesson.

Playing Snow

Snow Fun  is a nice place with much to play with snow: Snow Apps, Snow Builders, Snowflakes, Snow Games and Stories, Snow Printables, Snowman Smart Notebook Files. Great things to have a great time with kids at school and at home.







There will be The World Day of the Snowman on the 18th of January. Teaching News has a nice celection of The Resources for the World Day of the Snowman:

Grammar and Spell Checker

Ginger - a new grammar and spell checker. Why not to try?

Wikipedia Remembers 2012

From The Children's University of Manchester

The Children's University of Manchester - History, Language, Art and Design, and Science interactives with much useful, interesting and beautifully designed information. The site provides high quality learning opportunities and activities. The Children's University of Manchester has been designed to support KS2 (7-11) teaching and learning both in the classroom and at home. The resources can be used for whole class teaching with a whiteboard and also for group, individual and homework sessions.

Show Me

Show Me is a nice place with "cool stuff from the UK's museums and galleries". The site is packed with games and resources generated by the UK's museums, galleries and heritage sector. The content is designed to help kids enjoy and visit galleries and museums. Much information about various topics and interesting ideas will help make the lessons unforgettable.