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A monthly blog from EFL Classroom that gives you ideas, resources, and a place to set up your own online classroom. Links to video talks, new online resources, ongoing discussions and blogs, student-created content, ideas for current seasonal holidays, and their own Diigo Group, et al. EFL Classroom has developed well over the past year or so, and is well worth following.

"Teachers who want to put web 2.0 technologies to work for them can find many different free options online. There are tools for creating online classrooms, social networks, student podcasts, web-based flashcards, elearning modules, and much more. Here are 10 free web 2.0 tools for teachers to try in the classroom this year." The first of these, Engrade, looks like it would be useful as an online assignment calendar, gradebook, IM, and progress report system.

More education. Less schooliness. Three Uses of Diigo in the History and Language Arts Classroom

"Each 45-minute webinar will feature clips of real educators teaching students remotely as we explore the most effective ways to engage and educate students in an online classroom." I expect these webinars will be available for some time after the COVID crisis ends, so this may be a good spot to learn more on blended and fully remote teaching. Reasonably price at $149 for a 15-hour course of study. The Teaching Channel has always had very high quality recordings of real classrooms.

"Despite our best efforts as teachers, there simply is not enough class time for working adults to learn English as a second language in the classroom at the speed that many of them need to meet their personal language learning goals. " Article by Alexandra Lowe on learning outside the classroom.

Loads of ideas for using the video camera (mobile phone camera or video recorder) in the classroom. From Nick Peachey's newsletter.

If you prefer to hear about new classroom ideas, reather than just listening, this teacher idea site by the EFL Classroom group is quite good. Donwload and listen in your car on the way to work, or get the Huffduffer app.

"4Teachers.org works to help you integrate technology into your classroom by offering online tools and resources. This site helps teachers locate and create ready-to-use Web lessons, quizzes, rubrics and classroom calendars. There are also tools for student use." Loads of tools.

"The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) provides a foundation for professional development for technology integration and a common vocabulary for talking about effective uses of technology in teaching and learning.... The newly revised TIM was launched in February 2011, and features 100 classroom video example lesson plans, revised and expanded descriptions of student activity, teacher activity, and instructional settings for each TIM cell, focus pages for each characteristic and level, new professional development resources, and indices for grade levels and digital tools. The site includes 25 videos lesson examples in each of four core subject areas - math, science, language arts, and social studies. These lessons were videotaped in classrooms across Florida. "The Technology Integration Matrix (TIM) illustrates how teachers can use technology to enhance learning for K-12 students. The TIM incorporates five interdependent characteristics of meaningful learning environments: active, constructive, goal directed (i.e., reflective), authentic, and collaborative (Jonassen, Howland, Moore, & Marra, 2003). The TIM associates five levels of technology integration (i.e., entry, adoption, adaptation, infusion, and transformation) with each of the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments. Together, the five levels of technology integration and the five characteristics of meaningful learning environments create a matrix of 25 cells. " This is an amazing resource for teacher training. TIM is easily accessbile and recommends you look at grade levels beyond your own for ideas.

"The Khan Academy is a not-for-profit 501(c)(3) with the mission of providing a world-class education to anyone, anywhere. Despite being the work of one man, Salman Khan, this 1600+ video library is the most-used educational video resource as measured by YouTube video views per day and unique users per month. We are complementing this ever-growing library with user-paced exercises--developed as an open source project--allowing the Khan Academy to become the free classroom for the World."

How to use Twitter for your classroom. Another great video by Russell Stannard. that shows you all the ins and outs of this social networking device as it would be used for educational purposes.

A class website is a great way to keep parents and students informed of assignments and other events at school.

These free videos generally show teachers at work in the classroom, leading games and activities, teaching vocabulary and grammar, assessing speech, co-teaching, etc. Would be very useful for the teacher-in-training or for the old dog who would like to see some new tricks.

Wow! This has articles on how to use comics, lesson plans, and links to places on the Web where you can create comics. Excellent blog feature.

Another teacher training site with videos on how-to work in a classroom. A nice one: "Breaking Bad Teaching Habits." Worth a look.