Hi NAU CALL, I just came upon this interesting corpus-based descriptive vocabulary resource for teachers who use the CEFR. Here's the site's promo: The English Vocabulary Profile offers reliable information about which words (and importantly, which meanings of those words) and phrases are known and used by learners at each level of the Common European Framework (CEF). Cambridge University Press is making the A1-C2 English Vocabulary Profile available free of charge to teachers and educationalists around the world for the time being.

If you need a quick way to randomize something in your class, spin the wheel!

Dipity is a tool for creating timelines. Students could create timelines and view each other's timelines, as well as practice citing sources with this software. Photos can also be view as a flipbook, list or map (if geography is important in your class). I think this tool would be great for teaching history in CBI, or for having students tell their personal story. Students could create a timeline for a loved one, or maybe follow their favorite celebrity. A word of caution: many of the users on this site have created timelines that are NOT classroom-appropriate.

I found this article on NEA's website (which I recommend on it's own). The topic is using social media to enhance the classroom. We've talked about most of the technology in here, but the applications of the resources are focused to younger learners and flipped classrooms. Google Docs are used with middle schoolers to prevent them losing track of the documents. Google forms are used to speed up quiz grading, and cell phones are used to help facilitate meaningful (and safe) field trips. If you are considering a K-12 career, this article might help you be on the cutting edge in interviews and in the classroom. Finally, at the end of the article, you'll find links to other online technologies to try. Happy tech-ing!

This is super cute! Definitely a K-12 resource.  So, with Class Dojo, the teacher projects a class of little monsters on the screen. Each one corresponds to a student. The teacher can give praise (a +1) on screen for being on task, participating, or other positive things. On the flip side, the teacher can also give corrective feedback that displays a -1 by the student's monster. This program also allows the teacher to take attendance, create student behavior reports, and share student reports with parents. Another great feature is the random button, in which one student's monster is selected. This could be great for calling on students to answer questions. I think this would be really motivating for students because it's like a mirror that the whole class can see. However, I can see it being a big adjustment for teachers at first. It might also damage students' face to be reprimanded on screen. I like how this application focuses on behavior, rather than linguistic ability. I think some students benefit from additional feedback on their behavior.

This is a fun little program to aid in classroom management by using a computer microphone to detect the volume in the classroom. If you have a particularly noisy room, the bouncy balls will go crazy, which will clue students in to their noise level. I think this would be fun for K-12 or maybe preschool. I think it might be odd for adults, unless you have a really quiet group and you want them to be louder. They could try to make the balls bounce by using louder voices.

This site, though the interface is about as awesome as Compleat Lexical Tutor, provides a simple self-study tool for academically-oriented students. This resource is appropriate for TOEFL and IELTS preparation, as well as advanced IEP courses. The benefits of this website are the inclusion of a pronunciation and definition for each word, as well as gap-fill exercises to practice using each word in context. The major limitation of this site is that the exercises are only gap-fill.

This site provides a wealth of information about technology for classroom use, as well as current discussions about technology and resources for teachers. I think K-12 teachers should subscribe to the newsletter to stay informed about what's going on in the field. I've been skimming the site, and so far, I've come across interesting research about the use of games in the classroom, as well as serving diverse populations, like special Ed through technology. The strength of this site is it's breadth of topics, but the weakness appears to be the amount of time sorting through everything to find what you want.

This is a useful resource for teachers who want to use Skype in the classroom. The short annotations help seekers decide which lins are most relevant for them. There are resources for teachers looking for classrooms to connect with, for individual learners looking for conversation partners, and much more. I can see this as a go-to source for K-12 and higher ed teachers who need to communicate often (it's free) with people who live far away (it's internet-based).

I stumbled upon this resource while researching the tools and techniques used by a school that I'm applying to teach for.The Reading Assistant is based on speech recognition technology that helps students practice reading aloud (pronunciation) and answer comprehension questions (reading and critical thinking skills). From what I can tell, this paid software is available online, for maximum student convenience. After students complete assignments, teachers receive reports on students' performances. The program claims to have 300 graded readers that align with  US Common Core standards from elementary to high school. To me, the capability of this program to "listen" to students' pronunciation and provide help and individualized feedback is its greatest advantage. The inclusion of a variety of resources for developing vocabulary and work knowledge are also important points for me. Overall, this looks like a useful resource for K-12 schools that want to supplement classroom reading instruction.

This is a quirky website that I used in my high school creative writing class. I think that ESLers could use this page to talk about syllables, pronunciation, and of course rhyming. Through a simple search, students could discover a very wide variety of new words from the suggested rhymes on this site. The attention to phoneme-grapheme association (spelling vs. pronunciation) will reinforce emerging literacy skills. Overall, I just find this to be a fun site for generating ideas and word knowledge.

Wordle isn't necessarily ESL focused, but it does do fun things with language. Teachers can use this application to create vocabulary word splashes that are visually appealing to students, or teachers can let students play with their own words. For example, students can input an essay and world will pick out the most frequent words and put them into a cool design. It's a simple and easy way to manipulate language.

Jennifer ESL could be used in the classroom or for self-study. I really like her videos because she goes into detail about pronunciation. I think she gives explanations that are thorough, but comprehensible for beginning students. I would suggest that students use this resource outside of class for additional practice.

VOA Special English has high-interest stories for language learners that are spoken at a slightly (sometimes more) reduced rate with clear enunciation. I've enjoyed pulling stories off of here for multi-level classes of ESL adults who want to learn more about America. A word of caution, not all stories are totally g-rated (a current story on Rihanna is not something I would use with PIE students). One advantage of VOA is that many stories have full or partial transcripts available as a resource. Many stories also have built in language activities that students can do on their own during class or as homework. While I sometimes find the reduced pace of VOA special English falling short of authentic, overall, I think this is a useful resource for teachers.