July 27, 2018 Free time/Hobbies

Week One

Free Time & Hobbies

TEACHING RESOURCES

NYPL Summer Curriculum: Free Time/Hobbies

You may have noticed that the WIKIS are shutting down soon. 

Never fear! Elke's hard work (she created the wikis) will not be lost! 

We are in the process of creating Google Drives with all of the materials. The folder is set so that anyone with the above link should be able to open it.

The Voice of America Learning English site has a nice set of videos on National Parks: 
VOA National Parks: Lake Clark


Personally, I choose glamping: Camping or Glamping?

Have you read your emails about the NYC Culture Pass? This would be a great thing to take advantage of with your students this summer! Read all about it here:  NYPL/NYC Culture Pass

An oldie but goodie: NYPL: 11 Websites to Practice Your English

Some lesson ideas from the EFL Classroom website: 
Telling Lies

10 Things Project

What Will You Do This Summer Vacation?


TEACHER READING

From the Teaching Games EFL website, a blog post about error correction:

I think it can be extremely useful to include additional steps in your feedback to allow students to self-correct. If students are given a chance to examine, and re-examine, their own work, they are more likely to spot mistakes and learn from them. Read the entire blog post here: Encouraging Self Correction

CLASSROOM SHOWCASE

Please send me pictures, and be sure to include the branch name and level. I need them by the end of the business day on Wednesday. If I already have enough submissions for the week- that just means your pictures will be published the next week. Personally, I think the pictures that you share are the best part of the blog.

Thank you! elizabethschade@nypl.org

CALENDAR

July 30: First day of Summer 2018 term
August 25: Last day of Summer 2018 term
September 28: Tentative Date for ALC Instructional Staff Meeting
October 1: First day of Fall 2018 term
October 8: Columbus Day, NYPL closed
November 12: Veterans Day, NYPL closed
November 21-25: No ALC classes (Thanksgiving)
December 17, Fall 2018 term ends

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

The Connecticut TESOL convention is accepting proposals for its conference on October 20 in Hartford: ConnTESOL Conference 2018

TECH TIPS
From the blog WABISABI: by Lee Watanabe-Crocke

50 Online Teaching Tools You’ve Got to Try Out

Having a database of useful online teaching tools is a great practice for every teacher,

as is a handy stable of great resources like you’ll find in our resources section.  

After all, you can’t do everything on your own and there are many developers out there who

want to help you. The tools below were made for educators—and in many cases by educators—

to help them with many aspects of classroom teaching. Now we bring them to you.

50 Online Teaching Tools

A nice NYPL event you may have missed: 
Immigrants become U.S. citizens at New York Public Library ceremony

Did you read the recent article that advocating replacing libraries with Amazon? 
Read NYPL President Tony Marx's response:

Dear Colleagues, As I’m sure you are all aware, Long Island University Professor Panos Mourdoukoutas caused quite the stir last weekend with his ill-informed Forbes.com article, “Amazon Should Replace Local Libraries to Save Taxpayers Money.” The opinion piece, now removed from the site, argued that public libraries—the most democratic of American institutions—be defunded and eliminated to “save taxpayers lots of money” and to enhance Amazon’s stock. If that argument confuses or infuriates you, you are not alone. Not by far. From the moment the piece was published, thousands of people from around the world took to social media, correcting facts, expressing outrage, and defending public libraries. The reaction was quick, clear, and visceral: libraries are beloved. They are essential. They are relevant. They uniquely serve all people with no motive other than the public good. In the research libraries, they encourage preservation, learning, and creativity. They provide free access to knowledge and opportunity. They bring communities together for open and free discussion, thought, and civic engagement. And they can’t be replaced by coffee houses or bookstores. The public let Professor Mourdoukoutas know, loud and clear, that it supports and embraces public libraries, and that it will not tolerate factually incorrect arguments against their noble mission. Dozens of media outlets took notice and ran stories on the backlash. One described the opinion piece as “disastrously bad.” Another highlighted it in “Today in Bad Ideas.” A third ran a poll asking if Amazon should take over libraries (99% of participants said no). For our part, the Library participated in a VICE piece entitled “No, Amazon Should Not Replace Libraries,” and Christopher Platt was featured in a Fox News piece reiterating our position. WNYC also covered the story and asked New Yorkers to “tell us what you love about your library and what makes it so irreplaceable” on Twitter (feel free to share your stories). All of the news items pointed out what original piece failed to report: our role in closing the digital divide, our increasing program and class attendance, the importance of librarian expertise in both branches and research libraries, programs specifically aimed at helping people in high needs areas, our early literacy efforts, the increasing diversity of materials that we offer, and our unique research collections (just today, The New York Times ran an A1 story about the Schomburg’s acquisition of important Malcolm X manuscripts), amongst many others. For all those omissions, the story had one thing right: “There was a time local libraries offered the local community lots of services in exchange for their tax money.” That’s correct. That time is right now. In New York City, public libraries make up less than 1 percent of the city budget. As you all know so well, for that relatively small investment, New Yorkers have access to books, English classes, wi-fi, research collections, tech training courses, safe spaces, citizenship classes, high-quality story times, teen clubs, job search assistance, and so much more. To have a trusted, welcoming community spaces serving all people in so many ways is absolutely priceless. I thank you for all you do every day to strengthen our communities. Those communities showed their appreciation this weekend with an outpouring of loyalty and love. Yours, Tony

-- Anthony W. Marx | The New York Public Library President

Thank you for all that you do! Have a great week!

TEACHER HUB is a weekly blog of resources and information for instructors and staff of the English for Speakers of Other Languages (ESOL) and Adult Literacy (ABE) programs of the New York Public Library in the Bronx, Manhattan and Staten Island