10 Best Podcasts for Language Learning In the last couple months, I’ve posted links to free language courses and the best YouTube channels for language learning. Here’s my final collection of links: The ten best language instruction podcasts. With the free courses, the YouTube channels, and now these podcasts, you have mountains of material to go through–and you don’t have to pay a penny. You literally have no excuse not to get going on learning a language. I love podcasts for three reasons:They’re verbal. So here are my ten personal favorites. HINT: For ease, I’ve linked to the actual websites. 1. The lessons break things down really well and are appropriate for rank beginners. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. Any I missed? LocoMotive Labs: Products - LocoMotive Labs Kid in Story Book Maker makes it easy and fun to create visual stories to support learning, social modeling, and early literacy with your child as the star character. How Kid in Story Book Maker WorksTo personalize the stories, LocoMotive Labs’ unique Locolens™ image detection technology allows you to superimpose your child or student onto the template backgrounds – similar to “green screening.” Just snap a portrait (or use one already saved in your library), and let Locolens™ pluck your “kid” out of the picture and place him or her in the story. As the narrator, you can record your own voice or the child’s voice for each page. Once complete, children will enjoy reading their very own personalized visual story. 4 Steps of Magic 1. 1 2 3 4 Features - Pre-made story templates - Create custom stories with your own images, text, and narration - One-of-a-kind technology makes it simple to superimpose your portraits over the visual narrative - Share via email or Dropbox Templates Reviews
35 Best Websites for Free Educational Videos What are the best websites to watch educational videos? Here are over 35 websites to watch thousands of educational videos covering business, science, health, technology, math, social studies, arts and more. Please bookmark this page or share it if you find this article useful. 1. 5min Offers short, practical how to videos, instructional videos and DIY solutions. 2. A large collection of educational video lectures from the world’s top scholars. 3. Blogs, articles and videos from the world’s top thinkers and leaders. 4. Animated science, health, technology, math, social studies, arts & music videos. 5. Offers thousands of free math and science videos. 6. Features interviews with America’s best thinkers, writers, politicians, entertainers, business leaders, scientists and more. 7. 30,000 video segments from Discovery Education. 8. Provides video lectures, courses, documentaries, books, quizzes, lecture notes and much more. 9. 10. 11. 12. Professional and user-generated how-to educational videos.
Creating a Persuasive Podcast ReadWriteThink couldn't publish all of this great content without literacy experts to write and review for us. If you've got lessons plans, videos, activities, or other ideas you'd like to contribute, we'd love to hear from you. More Find the latest in professional publications, learn new techniques and strategies, and find out how you can connect with other literacy professionals. More Teacher Resources by Grade Your students can save their work with Student Interactives. More Home › Classroom Resources › Lesson Plans Lesson Plan Overview Featured Resources From Theory to Practice This lesson is intended to expand upon students' basic persuasive speaking and research skills. back to top Persuasion Map: As students plan out their persuasive podcasts, they can use this online, interactive tool to map out their opinions and arguments.Podcasting in Plain English video: This video explains the concept of podcasting and how podcasts are generally produced and accessed by others. Zwiers, J. (2004).
Story Maker TeachPaperless Afterschool Lesson Plan - Creating Podcasts Creating Podcasts This lesson was excerpted from the Afterschool Training Toolkit under the promising practice: Living and Working with Technology Description: Who knows how many future reporters and newscasters you might inspire! Learning Goals: Research and write about current events Develop real-life, job-related skills Improving literacy skills Learn to work collaboratively in small groups Use current technology software to create a podcast Materials: Computer with Internet connection, projector, audio player, speakers, and large screen display or interactive whiteboard to display digital pictures (instructor) Software for recording your podcasts on at least one computer downloaded free from Microphone for audio recording An podcast network such as Education Podcast Network, which is devoted to podcasting in education. Preparation: If you have never tried podcasting before, don't be afraid to ask someone, maybe an older student, to help you. What to Do:
Little Bird Tales - Home 100+ Google Tricks for Teachers It's Google's world, we're just teaching in it. Now, we can use it a little more easily. With classes, homework, and projects–not to mention your social life–time is truly at a premium for all teachers, so why not take advantage of the wide world that Google has to offer? From super-effective search tricks to Google tools specifically for education to tricks and tips for using Gmail, Google Docs, and Google Calendar, these tricks will surely save you some precious time. Search Tricks These search tricks can save you time when researching online for your next project or just to find out what time it is across the world, so start using these right away. Convert units. Google Specifically for Education From Google Scholar that returns only results from scholarly literature to learning more about computer science, these Google items will help you at school. Google Scholar. Google Docs 22. 23. 24. 25. 26. 27. 28. 29. 30. 31. Gmail 32. 33. 34. 35. 36. 37. 38. 39. 40. 41. 42. 43. Google Calendar 44.
Three Creative Podcasts for Your Next Critical Thinking Lesson - Reasoning Mind While a murder case on the internet radio might sound like the last thing a teacher would use to support the implementation of Common Core in a high school classroom, the widely popular podcast “Serial” has instead served to foster critical thinking skills and engagement in the classroom for Michael Godsey’s students. Teachers can even buy the lesson plans he created at Teachers Pay Teachers. Here are 3 other podcasts that can spur engagement and analytical thinking in your classroom: For the Science Teacher: “Invisibilia- How to Become Batman” The story of Daniel Kish is amazing, but he thinks it shouldn’t be. For the Computer Teacher: “Criminal- Episode 2 : Pants on Fire” For teachers who enjoyed Serial, but are concerned that the content is either too long or too mature to include in their classroom, “Criminal” is the perfect alternative. For the Language Arts Teacher: “The Moth Radio Hour: Doctors, Prom, and Ellen” Post by Charlie Deese, Implementation Coordinator
Creative Comic Interview with Bill Zimmerman of MakeBeliefsComix 19 Flares Twitter 15 Facebook 0 Google+ 3 LinkedIn 1 inShare1 19 Flares × It was a great pleasure to interview Bill Zimmerman for last week’s webinar on Creative Comic Collaboration For Fun Fluency development. Bill is the mind, heart and soul behind MakeBeliefsComix.com I’ve been exploring comics websites and creating all kinds of different comic lesson plans for the last few years. This year I’m going into comic-style educational publishing. My children are writing their own comic stories and I’m planning my own educational comics for language learners. But why all this fascination with comics? Watch my presentation and study my slideshow to find out. Webinar Slideshow In the meantime, for every fascination there must be an initial inspiration. I really wanted to talk to Bill Zimmerman about the comic site that has inspired me so much, and I was thrilled when he agreed to do this interview. Let the interview begin: 4) How can storytelling through comics develop creativity and fluency?
Evernote for Education Android App: I use the desktop version at home and the office, the Android app on my HTC One smartphone, my tablets, web version on my Chromebook. The desktop version sync's all of the data to your computer (good for backup) and you can also export your notes in a variety of formats for backup. You can create new notes via desktop, web, or mobile version. You can upload attachments to your notes in Evernote to keep documents organized with the notes they go with. You can also email notes, clip web pages, record audio notes, and scan papers, receipts and more into Evernote. I love Evernote. Does it Cost Money? Yes and No. All accounts have a limit of 100,000 notes. Free accounts have a 60MB upload allowance per month and Premium accounts have a 1024 MB upload allowance. Evernote Premium gives you bigger upload capacity, offers greater sharing options, gives you access to note history, and more. How Can I use Evernote as a Teacher, Student, Administrator? From the Evernote site: 1. 2. 3.
Five-Minute Film Festival: 8 Podcasts for Learning | Edutopia We are currently experiencing a renaissance of audio-only content not seen since the dawn of radio. Thanks to the ubiquity of mobile devices, we can bring amazing shows to our ears anywhere, anytime -- and resourceful educators are finding ways to use these podcasts in the classroom to engage their students. Below is a small selection of my favorites. As with all materials, please preview anything you plan to share with students -- these were produced for a general audience and may contain adult-oriented language or content. Video Playlist: Podcasts for the Classroom Watch the player below to see the whole playlist, or view it on YouTube. RadioLab (10:22) Definitely one of my very favorite listening experiences, RadioLab defies categorization as hosts Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich take on questions of science, philosophy, and human nature with endlessly curious beginner's minds. More Resources on Podcasts for Learning Listening to Podcasts in the Classroom
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