ELT Pictures

Eltpics is a wonderful ever-expanding and continually updated collection of photographs, based on a weekly theme, collected by teachers, trainers and writers from around the world. These are, in turn, available free to others in the field of ELT under a CC license. Created in October 2010, it includes so far more than 2,000 pictures classified in a couple of dozen categories ranging from 'shopping/ shops' to 'beverages', 'means of transport', 'art and craft' or 'close ups', to mention only a few of the most recent additions. Anyone interested in joining in can tweet an image with the hashtag #eltpics.

icicles close up

International Women's Day

Soviet 8th of March posters and postcards

International Women's Day (IWD), originally called International Working Women’s Day is marked on March 8 every year. Nowadays this is a major day of global celebration of women. In different regions the focus of the celebrations ranges from general celebration of respect, appreciation and love towards women to a celebration for women's economic, political and social achievements. Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the former Soviet bloc. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, in others, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

For further reference [PDF on IWD]

Joining the edusphere...

The use of blogs has become popular in educational contexts.

There are many teacher related blogs on the internet where teachers can share information with one another. This can include specific content that they are working on in their classroom or lessons that they wish to share with other teachers. It is a tool for educators to share ideas with one another on what has worked with students and what has not. In this way the blog often acts as a support system for teachers where they can access ideas, tools, and gain support from other professionals in their field.

Teachers also use blogs as a way to communicate and enhance study outside the classroom environment, posting important information such as homework, important dates, missed lessons, projects, discussion boards, and other useful classroom information that is accessible by all. (retrieved from Wikipedia, Edublog (last visited Mar. 5, 2011). "For further information..."

This new blog is born with this double purpose: on one hand, as the place to share materials, lessons and experiences in the classroom with other English language teachers and on the other hand, as the virtual extension to the classroom itself for my students. Hope you all find it useful.