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  • Links for ESL Teachers

Accessible Classroom

Read2Me could come in handy for teachers who have a student or students with visual impairments, as I do.
Microsoft Office has a new tool called Immersive Reader. Check out this podcast about it.

African-Canadian History

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These links have come to me courtesy of Irene Moore Davis and other teachers in Canada.
Ancient Africa for Kids
Atlantic Slave Trade and Slave Life in the Americas: a Visual Record
Black History in Canada Education Guide
Black History Month from Government of Canada
Black Illustrations for student projects and yours
Breaking the Colour Barrier - click "curriculum" for lesson plans
Breaking the Ice: The Mary Ann Shadd Story
Buxton Museum, North Buxton, Ontario
CBC Digital Archives - Africville
CBC Digital Archives - clips of accomplishments as well as racism endured
Follow the Drinking Gourd - folk song and YouTube slide show with lyrics
Harriet Tubman Resource Centre on the African Diaspora
Heritage Minute - Viola Desmond
Historica Canada - Black History Canada
Library and Archives Canada - Black History in Canada
Mysteries of Canada: Famous Black Canadians
Nova Scotia Archives - African Nova Scotians in the Age of Slavery and Abolition
Provincial Freeman, The (Windsor)
Redeeming Uncle Tom, a film by Jared Brock documenting the first 40 years of Josiah Henson's life
Toronto Star Classroom Connection - Black History Month
Underground Railroad Interactive Slide Show from Scholastic
Virtual Museum - African Canadian Workers from 1900 to the Second World War
Virtual Museum - Remembering Niagara's Proud Black History
​Voice of the Freeman, The (Windsor)
Windsor Mosaic - African Canadian Community


Literacy

ABCkelly.blogspot.ca is the classroom blog I used with my literacy class. Get ideas there.
Adult Phonics Stories 
is an excellent resource for working on short vowel CVC words.
Books by Teachers
Bow Valley College School of Global Access
Bow Valley College ESL Literacy Readers and
 Learner Page with Audio <-- FANTASTIC RESOURCE ****
Canadian Money Worksheets - Make Your Own!
Changing Lanes - a series of higher level literacy readers with black line illustrations

Hands On! a Collection of ESL Literacy Activities - Immigrant Services Association of Nova Scotia
ICT Games - phonics, sight word and numeracy games for children; could be used in adult ed
JOYofESL was a blog for my peers. Click categories in the sidebar for posts on a particular topic such as pedagogy, classroom reflection, or games read about the nuts and bolts of my classroom practice.
KG Primary Penmanship Font - for penmanship lines
Literacy Printables
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Making It Real: Teaching Pre-literate Adult Refugee Students
LanguageGuide integrates audio and some basics such as alphabet, numbers, and beginner vocab
Multilingual Minnesota is for teachers of low literacy adult ESL.
REEP World is a collection of easy stories supported by excellent pictures on health, work and family.
Screen Clock - Click to advance big analog hands in various increments; it's GREAT for in-class use.
Spelling City - I can't say enough about this site. Read my blog post HERE. 
Starfall - Foundations and Phase I students enjoy using the ABCs and Fun to Read sections.
Storybooks Canada has levelled readers, including CLB 1L, from the African Storybook.
Teacher Training Videos - I HIGHLY recommend to all ESL Literacy instructors, especially new teachers.
Teachers Corner has free worksheet makers, etc.
Teaching Refugees with Limited Formal Schooling
Word Shapes worksheet maker - Click "print without advertisements" to get 12 words to fit.
Worksheet Fun has a few good worksheets for the foundations level.
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Student leads BINGO.

Indigenous Perspectives, Reconciliation

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Deepening Knowledge
Discovering the Secret Path: Resources for the Classroom
​First Peoples - A Guide for Newcomers (to Vancouver)
Indigenous and Northern Affairs - Teaching Resources
Our home ON Native Land - territorial map
Secret Path, The - Animated Movie about Chanie Wencjack
Settler Educators Teaching Indigenous Perspectives and History
WE LEARN TOGETHER - a resource guide



LGBTQ2+ Resources

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Positive Spaces Initiative
The 519

Making Your Own Materials

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30 Free Google Drawing Graphic Organizers
BBC offers their huge database of sound files, but read the terms of use.
Black Illustrations pack will ensure your illustrations are not too Wypipo heavy
KG Primary Penmanship Font is useful for inserting primary penmanship lines in literacy worksheets.
OASIS: Open Accessible Summaries in Language Studies can help you ground your materials in good research.
OpenClipart.org curates images in the public domain.
PhotosForClass.com has many CC0 photos.

Pixabay.com curates a tonne of copyright free images.
Read2Me makes a podcast out of any text!
Readability gauge to ascertain the reading level of your text.
SoundBible has free sound effects you can use in your videos, slide shows, etc.

TheNounProject.com has one gazillion icons.
ZapSplat provides royalty-free sound effects and music for your multimedia projects.


Pedagogy - Keep Abreast of the Best

On my blog, scroll down to see "Other Blogs and Podcasts" on my sidebar.
Join FB Group Global Innovative Language Teachers
Engage with other LINC teachers biweekly on Twitter using #CdnELTchat hashtag.

Promoting Yourself / Branding

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The best decision I've made in order to get quickly up to speed with tools I need in order to do my own branding, to develop a signature palette and set of fonts for my social media posts, workshop flyers, etc., was to take the Classy Graphics with Google Drawing course from Tony Vincent @tonyvincent. It is about $100 USD for six weeks, and Tony packs in so much value for dollar. For more links I learned about during the course, see also "Making Your Own Materials" above.

Canva.com has a palette generator! It's also great for quick and dirty creation of visuals for social media posts.
Colour Theory cheat sheet - (Thanks to reader Mia!)
coolors.co - Use space bar to browse palettes.
This HTML Color Picker is very helpful for previewing how black and white text will look against certain colours, their shades and tints.
Moo is my favourite supplier of business cards. The thick stock and rounded corners work great with my blackboard theme. It's fun to have these on hand at conferences. They come in a sturdy little box.


PTSD and English Language Teaching

Picturecolouring calms
Maria Margaritis' blog post is HERE.
Look on Tutela.ca for her excellent webcast (of a webinar) on PTSD in the Classroom

Please let me know of other valuable resources that I can link to here.


Refugees

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Lifeline Syria has Arabic resources for sponsors.
S'gaw Karen Drum has published hard dictionary and picture dictionary to order; online dictionary is free.
Syrian Cooking is a site that helps you help our Syrian newcomers feel at home.
TeachingRefugees.com


Tech for Teachers and Learners

Digital Literacy: A Comprehensive Guide to Modern Education Technology

If you have a blended classroom, want to present your own webinar independent of a professional association, or want to conduct an online class, Flipgrid could come in very handy. It's been free since MS bought it.
I am taking a class in Google Classroom and looking forward to trying it out for a literacy workshop.
Cult of Pedagogy has recommended OneNote.com for the flipped classroom.
Vocab Victor is an app to help intermediate level students get past the plateau and ramp up their vocab acquisition. See video below.

Other / General Links for ELT and LINC

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I just love The Best of the Reader for their easy, high interest stories, colour photos, and clear layout with adult content. Plus it's Canadian!

Mariette Baker-McDermid has a website with lots of resources for LINC 1-2



LINKS for Learners

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For links I use with my mainstream ESL learners, look at the sidebar of my classroom blog.

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Slides from my November 17, 2021 webinar are HERE.
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