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The definitive fact-checking and Internet reference source for urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

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The definitive Internet reference source for researching urban legends, folklore, myths, rumors, and misinformation.

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Fake news tinder
http://factitious.augamestudio.com/#/

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A Year's Worth of Breaking News Notifications

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A Year's Worth of Breaking News Notifications

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The Year in Push Alerts: Why We Couldn't Look Away

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Since Nov. 8, 2016, we've been flooded with breaking news. Here's what it's felt like to live through the onslaught.

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ted-ed

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(NOTE: This is now my regularly updated "regular" list of current events sites. I no longer publish an annual list)
One way to encourage our ESL/EFL students and others to become active citizens in the world is to help them become aware of important news events. Current news can also be a source of high-interest reading, speaking, listening, and writing material, and provide opportunities to stimulate higher-order thinking.

A first step in this process is to provide them with accessible information. This list offers my choices for the top News/Current Events Websites for English Language Learners

English Club provides a monthly text and audio summary of four news stories, including online cloze (fill-in-the-gap) exercises.

Breaking News English has been providing text and audio of the top news stories a few times each week for quite awhile. In addition, it has excellent lesson plans and follow-up activities that can be printed-out.

News English Lessons, a sister site of of Breaking News English that appears to have even more accessible resources for ELL's.

Number six is the CBBC Newsround. This is sort of a version of BBC News designed for younger people. The lay-out, writing, and choice of stories is very inviting.

The BBC Learning English site is attractively designed and has images and audio support for text.

Learning English Voice Of America>
Tween Tribune
News in Levels provides several different "levels" of the same news article and provides audio support for the text. The site is clearly focused on ELLs, with the "lowest" level an image annotated with vocabulary words, which also has audio support. Unfortunately, the site doesn't have interactive activities that students can do, but I guess you can't have everything...

The New York Times has begun a new feature called the Times Minute. It's a one minute video regularly updated during the day highlighting news stories. You can find its archive here. Happily, unlike other similar videos, they don't try to speak very fast so it can be accessible to ELLs. I'm adding it to The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners. Here's a sample:
Newsela Provides "Leveled" News Articles & Quizzes
50 Ways to Teach With Current Events is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Three Teacher-Tested Ways to Encourage Your Students to Follow Current Events This School Year is from The New York Times Learning Network.
Al Jazeera Has Great Audio Reading Of Text Feature On Its News Site
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous "The Best..." lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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The Best News/Current Events Websites For English Language Learners

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(NOTE: This is now my regularly updated "regular" list of current events sites. I no longer publish an annual list) One way to encourage our ESL/EFL students and others to become active citizens in the world is to help them become aware of important news events.

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Due 07/11
Links on 2nd page

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In case you wondered how your presentations will be graded...

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Forgot your presentation date? Check here.

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if you're not sure how to teach the class something, read this

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Photo by Orange42 on Flickr

Have you ever tried to teach a skill, then gotten frustrated at the process because nothing seemed to be getting through?

"It's easy, let me show you. You just do this."

"Like this?"

"No, not like that. Just do THIS."

"Like this?"

"No! ARGH!"

Is it your fault for not being able to get through to the student? Or is it their fault for not understanding something that seems simple?

In most cases, it's your fault.

To teach something successfully you need to know three things. 1) The material, 2) The student, and most importantly 3) The learning process. Most people who fail at teaching fail because of #3.

Knowing the material means that you can explain a difficult skill in a way that makes sense to other people. Knowing the student means that you know what the student doesn't know and what they need to know. Knowing the learning process means knowing the necessary steps everyone needs to take in order to master a new skill.

The learning process includes the following steps:

That's it! There is no other way to master a new skill. To expect someone to master a new skill without going through these 6 steps is expecting the impossible and setting yourself up for failure.

The six steps of the learning process is not a new idea by any means. However, most people tend to forget about them when they teach. This is because the skill we are teaching seems so simple and intuitive to us that we assume the learning process is not necessary. We somehow get the idea that if we just demonstrate it clearly, something would click in the student's head and voila! But unfortunately, there are no shortcuts to learning, unless you're Neo from the Matrix.

In order to understand how the learning process functions, we need to understand how the brain works.

The brain learns by changing the synapses between neurons in the brain to create different neural pathways. This is essentially how the brain encodes information. The brain is constantly managing these pathways, adapting the brain to the world we are in. (Here's a TEDtalk that goes into more detail about brain plasticity.)

Things that you do everyday are considered to be "hard-wired" into your brain because those pathways have been strengthened over time. These apply to skills such as walking or eating. You no longer think about how to walk, you just do it.

When we first encounter a new skill, it seems very foreign to us. We don't yet have the neural pathways in our brains to perform the skill. That is why our first time learning a new skill can often be an awkward and embarrassing experience. But this is a necessary step because that's when our brains are creating the pathways that allow us to get better.

As we continue to practice the new skill, our brains automatically strengthen these new neural pathways. We start to perform the skill faster and more accurately and our progress accelerates. This is the principle behind the simple idea that the more you do something, the better you get at it. In fact, if you perform a certain skill enough, it can even physically change your brain. Evidence for this was discovered by a team at the University of Heidelberg in Germany, which found that the brains of professional musicians contained larger auditory complexes than the brains of non-musicians.

Most people who fail at teaching fail because they do not leverage the power of repetition. A clear explanation or demonstration is important, but it will not create the neural pathways necessary for performing the skill. Without repetition, all you have are weak neural pathways that will likely disappear over time. (This is a big problem with the current educational system. Because students are only required to have a superficial understanding of the skills they're taught, they do not repeat the skill to a point of mastery.)

My advice to anyone trying to teach a skill is to understand how the brain works and to leverage the power of repetition. Give students the time they need to practice their skills until they have achieved mastery. Better yet, teach them how the learning process functions so they become better at learning how to learn.

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Have you ever tried to teach a skill, then gotten frustrated at the process because nothing seemed to be getting through? "It's easy, let me show you. You just do this." "Like this?" "No, not like that. Just do THIS." "Like this?" "No! ARGH!"

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About this Video: So I'm making this video for Mariano Garcia who subscribes to this YouTube channel and follows my weekly videos at www.englishpronunciationroadmap.com. And he posted a comment on one of my videos a couple of weeks ago on intonation and said you know 'great video but which word in a sentence do I stress?'.

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Améliorer Ton Accent En Anglais - Improve your accent: Syllable stress

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Accède directement à mes 10 épisodes préférés pour booster ton vocabulaire en anglais : http://bit.ly/TopSTvids Pour améliorer son accent en anglais, commencez avec les syllables. C'est le premier pas pour améliorer sa prononciation en anglais et ne pas être complexé par son accent.

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Learn swedish

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Hair tutorial

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IF YOU LIKE THIS YOU WILL LOVE MY 1960s MAD MEN BOUFFANT: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_1I13YYbsQ (new!)

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video from 2nd class

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Card trick tutorial

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Easy Great Card Trick Tutorial (Better Quality)

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Cooking video

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Little Recipe of Mine: Basil Shrimp Caprese Salad

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You all know that I love Caprese Salads but thought I'd mix it up a little bit with some Basil Shrimp and Balsamic Reduction *RECIPE BELOW* Subscribe to My Channel Here: http://bit.ly/SubscribeLittleLights Pre-Order My Cookbook here: http://bit.ly/TheSeasonedLifePreOrder Little Recipe of Mine: Basil Shrimp Caprese Salad Recipes Balsamic Reduction: 1 Cup

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Replacing glass in a window

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Robbie shows you how to replace a piece of glass in a wood frame window. Let the expert give you the essential tips to make any home improvement project a snap.

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Rachel Ray cooking

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Jumbo shrimp come together with olive oil, garlic & red pepper for heat. Get the recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/rachael-ray/spicy-shrimp-and-spaghetti-aglio-olio-garlic-and-oil-recipe This video is part of 30 Minute Meals show hosted by Rachael Ray . SHOW DESCRIPTION :Would you believe you can make impressive and delectable meals at home in less time than it takes to get takeout?