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This page has links to some great resources on teaching using comics. It also has links to lesson plans and classroom activities using cartoons.

SoundCloud is a free tool for creating and sharing sound tracks. On Monday I included it in my list of alternatives to Aviary. Today, I showed it to some teachers at the Bancroft School in Massachusetts. When I showed the option for inserting text comments into the sound tracks a teacher spoke up with an idea for using Sound Cloud in a world languages course. The suggestion the teacher made was to have students record spoken tracks on Sound Cloud and share them with her. Then she could use the comment feature to provide feedback that is tied directly to each student's recording. The comments could be tied to the exact second at which a student pronounces something incorrectly, uses the wrong verb form, or to praise a student for pronouncing a new word particularly well. SoundCloud allows you to have up to two hours of recordings stored in your account at one time. After that you need to either delete an old recording or upgrade to a paid plan.

Story Map is a free interactive story planning tool from Read Write Think. Story Maps provides four templates for outlining stories. To use the templates students title their stories then choose one of four templates to outline their stories. The four template choices are conflict, setting, character, and resolution. Students can print their completed templates.

"Online resource for FREE downloadable news lesson plans. Lessons include pre-reading activities, article text, vocabulary exercise, comprehension questions, dicussion questions and writing topics and encourage students to develop speaking skills and are perfect to complement your existing textbooks and lessons."

"The best way for teachers to organize their day"

"Learn English online with the help of this free website brought to you by the British Council and Barclays Premier League. Communicate in two of the world's global languages - English and football. Every section of the site has something to help you learn English. Play vocabulary games in Fun and practise your reading with stories on and off the pitch. Watch videos with exercises, do listening activities and grammar exercises.   We have a special section for Teachers with lesson plans and classroom resources. The Coaches section provides information on the Premier Skills courses around the world."

"New tools and materials to help you in the classroom and with your development, so be sure to come back and find out what's new! Across the site you can find free classroom materials to download, from short activities to full lesson plans, for teaching kids and adults. There are also articles on aspects of teaching, and free teacher development and teacher training materials."

English Lesson Planner is a complete lesson planning solution for English language teachers, schools and teacher training institutions.

The lessons are free. Each lesson has 26 pages of printable activities / handouts. There is a new lesson every two days. The lessons alternate between pre-intermediate and intermediate (plus). All lessons are based on stories currently in the news - as the world's news breaks, teach it. All lessons are also downloadable PDF format. There are 30+ online quizzes for each lesson. Listening files can be downloaded in mp3 format or subscribed to via a podcast. Classroom handouts are readily reproducible. There are graded listenings with each lesson. Thousands of teachers and students say they love using the news lessons.

Great collection of ELT lessons created by George Chilton and Neil McMillan, English teachers based in Barcelona, Spain. Lessons are divided into categories and include the Level, Aim, Topic, Preparation, Stages, Pictures, and Videos.

This is a teacher-friendly alternative to YouTube. Go to the Channels tab to narrow your search. You will find videos on Reading and Writing as well as a whole host of YL material. It even provides a platform for your learners to upload their own videos. Be aware that these types of websites can use up a lot of bandwidth, so are not suitable for schools with poor connectivity.

From Longman publishers a site with general teaching tips for teachers - using video, dealing with noisy teens. There are also some articles for reference and information on teaching methodology.

Google announced today it will host the first Ara Developers' Conference this April. The series of three conferences will show developers what they will be able to do with the company's modular phone project. This is the first word of Project Ara's future since Google announced plans to sell off Motorola for $2.91 billion to Lenovo in January.

Useful resource. Collection of worksheets for using in English Classes on famous people