Brent's Blog

Thank you to all the participants in yesterday’s workshop. Here is the list of online resources I promised. Good luck with your various endeavors. Hope we have a chance to cross paths again in the future.

Useful Online Resources

Voice of America – Special English – http://www.voanews.com/learningenglish/home/

BBC Learning English – http://www.bbc.co.uk/worldservice/learningenglish/

Odd, Weird, Strange News Headlines – http://www.AllWeirdNews.com

Corpus Concordance English – http://www.lextutor.ca/concordancers/concord_e.html

Asahi Shimbun (English Edition) – http://www.asahi.com/english/

English Study Direct – http://www.englishstudydirect.com

Interesting Things for ESL Students – http://www.manythings.org/

English Central – http://www.englishcentral.com/

Youtube – http://www.youtube.com

Ted.com – http://www.ted.com

Wikipedia – http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page

Open Education – http://blogs.kqed.org/mindshift/2012/03/how-can-open-education-transform-learning/

This link will take you to short videos that introduce different topics related to Japanese art, society and culture.

http://web-japan.org/jvt/

Here are some video casts posted on the Japan Society website.

http://japansociety.org/content.cfm/arts_culture_society_webcasts

Here are some useful videos and other resources related to Japanese culture and society.

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/at_japan_soc/

I came across this youtube video while looking around for information on Self-Determination Theory (Deci & Ryan) for a presentation I am giving next week in the Philippines about Service Learning. I may use this as listening material in one of the courses I am teaching next semester.

I came across this article in edutopia’s newsletter, and will spend some time visiting the links for ideas on using tech in the classroom and teaching/facilitating 21st century skills.

http://www.edutopia.org/digital-learning-technology-resources

Another fascinating talk by Julian Treasure. This is extremely relevant for me personally, but I also want to share this with my students, other teachers and Directors/Trustees at my daughters school.

Another innovative approach to teaching that I came across. Considering how we might use this in our Content-Based Instruction (CBI) English Program at Konan University. Very intriguing.

A friend forwarded this to me and I thought I would post a link.

I am just finishing Carol Dweck’s book Mindset and wanted to share some thoughts. First, the book is a very easy read and includes quite a few AHA moments. The information and suggestions in the book should be appealing to parents, teachers, consultants, trainers, and almost everyone else. The ideas in the book come from extensive research with a variety of age groups and in a variety of contexts. The argument is that people have or develop one of two mindsets, fixed and growth. People with a fixed mindset basically believe that intelligence and talent are fixed and not amenable. Either you got it or you don’t. They do not like to fail or try hard when faced with a challenge. They would rather stay in their comfort zone, and believe effort is a sign of weakness or lack of intelligence or talent. Conversely, the growth mindset individuals thrive on challenge and see failure as a sign that they need to work or train harder.

Important lessons for educators (and parents) include that the need for thoughtful praise . . . the type of praise we give includes messages about success and failure. Praise about effort and determination are the best.

Carol Dweck’s website includes a questionnaire to test mindset as well as suggestions for how to foster a growth mindset.

http://www.mindsetonline.com/

The book includes even more. I already have plans for including these ideas and suggestions in my own classes as well as workshops and seminars for faculty development meetings and teacher-training workshops. Please let me know if you are interested in collaborating on something MINDSET related.

Cheers!

Mindset – A set of beliefs or way of thinking that determines one’s behavior, outlook and mental attitude.