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why not try these apps to calculate your carbon footprint?

https://www.foe.ie/justoneearth/carboncalculator/

https://eingutertag.org/en/id-100-points.html

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carbon footprint calculator for individuals and households

This carbon calculator is provided free to use

Show you care for the environment and communities across the World by Carbon Offsetting.

You can support Carbon Offsetting Projects that both tackle climate change and support impoverished communities across the world. Just click the 'Offset' button after you have finished your calculation. It takes only a few easy clicks and costs only a few Pounds/Dollars/Euros per tonne CO ₂. You also get a personalised Certificate recognising your offsetting - makes an ideal gift too!

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Carbon Footprint Ltd using RADsite CMS (https://www.radsite.co.uk/)

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Use the World's most popular online carbon footprint calculator, and it's FREE. Calculate your carbon emissions from Buildings, Cars, Flights and other sources.

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a teaching idea to develop a TBL (3h) in which students conceive a green product, market it and sell it in a green product exhibition.

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A fantastic material website for environmentally friendly teachers and lessons!

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We're really pleased to be able to welcome Nicola Meldrum to our ELT Footprint blog. Nicola is based in Barcelona and is a freelance teacher trainer and materials writer. She is one of our founding members on the Facebook group and has been active in our on-going projects. In this post she talks about the Charter for a Greener Classroom and its use on training courses.
Teacher training and its ELT footprint
The ELT Footprint facebook group recently published a charter for a greener classroom. (Here is a link to the document and conversation that led to the final version). This charter, the shorter version of which you see below, asks us to be more thoughtful and active in how we reduce our carbon, paper and plastic footprint on the environment. As most English language teaching starts in the training classroom, let's consider how this charter can develop positive attitudes, awareness and practices related from the get go.

I think this charter could be used on day one of any teacher training course to guide and provoke action amongst trainee teachers. The image below is a poster version we can display in centres, near the photocopier, in training rooms and offices. It can be part of the introduction to the course input sessions and be referred to throughout the course by tutors and school staff.

Trainee teachers are usually under a reasonable amount of stress and their environmental footprint may not always be at the forefront of their mind. It is up to teacher trainers to help create awareness and green habits as part of the support on the course. Hopefully, this will then create a greener approach to teaching English when the trainees go off and work in different contexts.

I've been a teacher trainer for over ten years now, working on Certificate and Diploma level courses. The course I manage at the moment is a blended Dip TESOL course so I have thought about how we could impact on trainees pre-service and in-sevice, during online and face-to-face courses to build a separate and complimentary teacher training charter. We need to be the example mentioned in number 7 above!

In the spirit of the ELT Footprint group, we would love to add your ideas to my lists below. Training happens in a multitude of contexts, each with their own challenges relevant to how ELT impacts on our environment. Let's build a training community where we step up and tackle climate problems to create a positive climate footprint in the ELT profession.
Face to face teacher training. Pre-service:

Practice what we preach and keep handouts to an absolute minimum, in fact let's get rid of them entirely.

Don't give out shiny, branded non-recycled notebooks on day one but encourage trainees to take notes on a laptop, phone or tablet. If trainees do like to take hand-written notes, encourage them to use one notebook and try to source recycled notebooks you can give them.Send them any important documents from input sessions electronically.

Get teachers used to planning lessons which require no handouts for students. Build this into our training sessions on lesson planning and discuss it in lesson planning support sessions.

Make environmental impact part of the discussion when giving input sessions on using course books, ELT resources and event methodology.

Include sessions on learner training and include a focus on note taking- can we help students be mindful of how much paper and other materials they use? Can we give them recycled paper to make notes on? There are some nice ideas on this in the existing charter for the classroom [link again].

Encourage discussion about our role as English language teachers and raising awareness of environmental issues. Maybe this can be an interesting part of culture training?

In-service:

In my context, teachers come from all over the world to do part of their assessment on the Diploma. This in itself is problematic for obvious reasons. Things are changing as we move towards video assessments of lessons. However, the gateholders of qualifications such as Trinity and Cambridge still insist, as far as I know, on face-to-face assessments of final teaching observations with their examiners. As course providers, let's put pressure on these institutions to change this.

All of the above but from a more reflective perspective! When trainees come with existing experience, help them to question their practices and those of other teachers in their context.

Open up discussions about the way the ELT profession impacts on the environment.

Online teacher training.
Teacher training and development is increasingly taking place online as platforms for video interaction improve. Teacher trainers can provide guidance, lead input sessions, observe lessons, discuss CPD, mentor and well just about anything via a mobile device or PC. This is a game changer in terms of cutting the training carbon footprint.

However, there is still room for an increased focus on the environment in online teacher training. It is not part of any criteria for teacher development or assessment as far as I know (you may be ahead of the game and have integrated discussion on this). I am not suggesting we start measuring a teacher's effectiveness in the classroom based on how eco friendly they are, but I do think we can make it part of how we manage online training. Once trainers have it in mind they should bring it into the discussion, they can do as they see fit so it's relevant to their context. Here are some things that I do:

When giving feedback on lesson plans in our online Dip TESOL course, I often point out ways the lesson could cut back on printed resources.

In our online classroom, we provide easy to embed articles so teachers don't have to print anything. I have also started building a library of articles online using Google drive.

We encourage teachers to sell books from the reading list to each other locally to avoid buying new ones (sorry authors).

Here are some more things I am considering for the future:

Do some learner training about how to organise learning digitally- there are lots of apps out there! This might cut down on printing and excessive note taking.

Do some research with the trainees on what they think could reduce our environmental footprint.

So, that is the long version of my own personal training charter. Below is a shorter, poster version.

1. Help teachers question their practice.

2. Reduce paper handouts on teacher training courses.

3. If you give trainees notebooks, source recycled, locally printed options.

4. Develop good practice in lesson planning support.

5. Make ELT's environmental impact part of input sessions.

6. Discuss a teacher's role in raising environmental awareness.

7. Put pressure on examination boards to go green.

8. Make your courses blended and flexible to reduce travel.

9. Encourage second hand book buying/sharing.

10. Help teachers manage their learning digitally.

What would you add or change for your own training charter? We look forward to your ideas!

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We're really pleased to be able to welcome Nicola Meldrum to our ELT Footprint blog. Nicola is based in Barcelona and is a freelance teacher trainer and materials writer. She is one of our founding members on the Facebook group and has been active in our on-going projects.

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This month is #PlasticFreeJuly

Learn about it and improve your English with this activity.

You will:

watch a video

look at vocabulary from the video

read the ingredients for plastic free products you can make

Create and share an advertising poster

Are you ready? Enlarge the presentation below and scroll through to do the activity.

Why not celebrate youth having a voice and making demands with this lesson to mark the occasion? This works well with teens and adults at B1 level and above.

Learners will:

make predictions about a picture of young people on strike

read a set of demands created by young people about action on the climate emergency

create their own set of demands on a topic of importance to themselves

World Youth Day Lesson

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This month is #PlasticFreeJuly Learn about it and improve your English with this activity. You will: watch a video look at vocabulary from the video read the ingredients for plastic free products you can make Create and share an advertising poster Are you ready? Enlarge the presentation below and scroll through to do the activity.

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B2 Fashion and environment 45
mins

This ESL fashion lesson plan is based on the Huffington Post video "The Problem with Fast Fashion". It pertains to the issue which is very up-to-date and raises a lot of controversy. Students have a chance to learn a lot of words and phrases connected with fashion as well as the environment.

WORD FORMATION AND VOCABULARY

There are two tasks dealing with vocabulary in this fashion lesson plan. The first one is a word-formation exercise in which students need to come up with adjectives from the words given. All these adjectives are connected with clothing and style, e.g. fashion. All questions include common words and phrases connected with fashion such as classy, unstylish. Moreover, if you have time, you can ask students follow-up questions consisting these words. The next exercise is pair work - discussing questions connected with students' personal attitudes towards in vogue or a fashion victim.

VIDEO AND DISCUSSION

Further, students move to a quiz and discussion concerning the textile industry and its human, social and environmental effects. First of all, they have to guess the correct answers in the quiz. Then, they have to watch the video and check whether they've been right. When watching the second time, students need to write three consequences of fast fashion. The last task is a discussion. As usual, students have to express their opinions on the issue.

EXTRA CONTENT: THE SLOW FASHION MOVEMENT

We bring you here Patreon-exclusive content on Slow Fashion to supplement your discussion about the fashion industry. It includes a bunch of adjectives to talk about the fashion industry (fair, transparent, ecological, long-lasting, etc.) and a lot of speaking opportunities for your students. They will need to rack their brains to discuss the concept of slow fashion and how to be a part of it!

LAST REMARKS

I really like to have this fashion lesson plan before such events as Black Friday or Christmas. The worksheet makes students think about their shopping activity and habits, whereas the video raises awareness in terms of the effects of the careless attitude towards fast fashion.

WORKSHEETS TO DOWNLOAD

E-LESSON PLAN (for teaching online) + EXTRA WORKSHEET
Read this info before becoming a Patron!

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The problem with fast fashion | ESL fashion lesson plan

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B2 Fashion and environment 45 mins This ESL fashion lesson plan is based on the Huffington Post video "The Problem with Fast Fashion". It pertains to the issue which is very up-to-date and raises a lot of controversy. Students have a chance to learn a lot of words and phrases connected with fashion as well as the environment.

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This video is great to introduce and improve discussion on technology and pc use. It's a great resource if you skip the subtitles and work on a prediction activity before watching the video and on a writing-the-script activity while watching.

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Medieval helpdesk with English subtitles

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Try this video for techno-related vocabulary. Make sure to make an engaging pre-activity discussion where students may discuss technology issues.

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Children and young people today are using the immense power of digital media to explore, connect, create, and learn in ways never before imagined. With this power, young people have extraordinary opportunities, and yet they face many potential pitfalls. This site offers lesson plans and activities to improve digital literacy and to make them think critically and behave safely.

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After dealing with the paramount importance of questions, Johanna today puts forward the idea of going beyond questions to enhance comprehension and work on the higher-order thinking skills.

When it comes down to texts, I usually carry out a series of activities which are meant

... to prepare learners before they meet the text: personal response questions to introduce topic, brainstorm topic or vocabulary and fill a table; start from a visual prompt (a pic, a painting, etc), elicit description and prediction;

... to check learners have understood the global meaning of the text: elicit key words from students and make a word cloud to check understanding, but also to reconstruct the text or summarise a text. I sometimes ask them to write comprehension questions to share;

... to really teach reading strategies (process-oriented task): gap filling exercise (to be completed while reading) and list of words that could possibly fill (ask student to guess the gap fill before reading to encourage predictive skills); tasks which combine Listening and note taking (dictogloss), reconstruct the text and compare in pairs or groups;

... to encourage learners to give personal reactions to a text: personal response questions; turn texts into a different text type (interview, diary entry, whatsapp message, a video, ads, a haiku, a radio commercial); to enact talk shows on the topic;

... to stimulate work on other skills (speaking, writing, or the other receptive skill): turn texts into a different text type (interview, diary entry, whatsapp message, a video, an ad, a haiku, a radio commercial); plan and carry out a survey on the text topic (if possible) by asking students to devise questions and go round the class surveying.

We have seen a few approaches for exploiting texts, check comprehension and intervene in the text and shape up follow up activities, activities to stimulate personal response to a text and creative tasks. This set of activities is based on the procedures for working with Written Texts Alan Maley was speaking about in his book "Short and Sweet" (1993): expand and reduce, transfer the media and reformulate, reconstruct and create, analyses and interpret.
There are a few I particularly liked.

This is a type of alternative approach to comprehension questions that allows students not only to write questions for others and before they read, but to cope with the text individually or in group by filling in this table

Before reading a text the student fills in the first column and most importantly the second one. The questions the student writes will make him connect the text to himself and make it more relevant as he wants to know these details. Making the student write the questions and share them with his partner before reading is a type of activity which engages him to read the article and raises his expectations.

2 - UPSUM

Johanna says the best way to check comprehension is to ask students to summarise a text. If we leave behind the traditional approach, some interesting and original activities to sum a text up involve a word count or a time limit, a diagram and an infographic. Infographics produced with Canva stimulate the students' creativity and allow him to really focus on the essential and most important information as well as on organizing it logically. These infographic are ready-made revision papers too.

3 - READ WITH A PEN

An activity I find really useful to include critical thinking into reading consists simply in reading with a pen and marking the text with different symbols to identify parts you feel strongly/mildly about, you find surprising or just needs further discussion and consideration.

😊😊

😊

☹

☹ ☹

!

?

After reading the text individually and marking it, students are asked to work in pairs and discuss the texts starting with the ! and ? parts. After allowing them some time for this co-operative activity, feedback is carried out and a new activity/set of activities are carried out.

Texts RECONSTRUCTION and REWRITING tasks involve dictogloss, gapped texts, and reconstructing a text where some parts have been hidden (a nice activity with the poem Television was introduced to us) or rewriting it from a different perspective or in a different genre or messing it up with it!

I think, therefore I am.

I think, therefore I am smart.

I overthink, therefore I am anxious.

I think, therefore I am confused.

To be, or not to be

Two beers, or not two beers

To bee, or not to bee

(Brexit) Plan B, or no plan B

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After dealing with the paramount importance of questions, Johanna today puts forward the idea of going beyond questions to enhance comprehension and work on the higher-order thinking skills. When it comes down to texts, I usually carry out a series of activities which are meant ...