excellent video for yr 10's Mao's last dancer - and yr 12 encountering conflict. gives insight into China today, use of social media and the ways people go about gaining freedom of speech.
Emmanuel was a baby born in a war zone. His is physically disabled. Here he sings 'Imagine' on the x-factor. It is very humbling and provides an example of responding to conflict for students - both from the point of view of emmanuel, his mother, the audience and the judges. This performance provides a good discussion starter, Tissues may be required.
Writing Fix (online resource) Here's an interesting free resource for anyone involved in teaching or learning writing skills. This site has been put together by the writers, teachers and students of the Northern Nevada Writing Project to support the development of writing skills with the Six Trait Model. The site hosts an extensive collection of lessons, activities and other resources. (The Writing Fix is one of 190 web sites sponsored by the National Writing Project in the US.)
Featured prominently at the Writing Fix are two separate "prompt generators". One is called the "Interactive Instant Plot Creator". You press separate buttons to bring up random suggestions for setting, character, and conflict. To go along with this idea generator, there is a downloadable "pre-writing worksheet" as well as a "rough draft worksheet". The other generator is called the "Random Prompt Generator for Writers". This second prompt generator consists of 470 prompts, each of which begins with a question that is followed by a suggested writing task.