I love silly quizzes that tell me which Star Wars character I am or whether I am an introvert or extrovert. I definitely take them with a grain of salt, but I do find them entertaining. What’s more, the suspense creates a great natural motivation to read. So here is…
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Ah success! I feel as though this topic has been done to death. Yet I cannot resist this TED talk by Richard St. John. So short, so simple, so predictable, yet so thought provoking. St. John interviewed over 400 people, some famous, to succinctly summarize the ‘ingredients’ to success. Although…
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The news can be a challenging thing to talk about. For intermediate to advanced students, it can be motivating to talk about real world topics. CNN offers a 10 min news recap every day. You can put the close captions on so the vocabulary can be heard and read and…
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Sometimes deep or thoughtful discussions are good for days when your brain juice is flowing. But today’s lesson is for the days when you just want to talk about silly stuff. Like “if you were a vegetable, which would you be.” Ok, maybe not that one, but you get the…
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Fake news is the term “du jour.” How sharp do you think you are at spotting fake news? What if you were a journalist? If your livelihood depended on your ability to detect fact from fiction? In Markham Nolan’s TED talk “How to separate fact from fiction online” we see…
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Why not indulged is some culture and beauty? I love going to museums. They are like a breath of cultural air. Something about spending time with other people’s stories that inspires me. Pre discussion What type of museum do you enjoy (if at all…you can say you don’t like them…that’s…
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For all you car lovers our there, this is the discussion for you. Business Insider presents one of the world’s largest car collection of cars, with over 45o cars, held by business man Roger Dubbing. So if you want to feast your eyes on plenitudes of chrome and leather, hop…
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I know that the prospect of reading an actual novel in a second language may be much too ambitious a goal. However, I do like to sift through book reviews and talk about what students might like to read. And hey, it might get them interested enough that they will…
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I don’t know anyone who gets up in the morning and says, “I hope I fail today.” Whether we like it or not, our need for success subtly–and not so subtly–influences how we move through our lives. Success can drive us, but also plague us. What’s more, it can be…
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Whether you are for, against or take a neutral position of the Brexit negotiation, it is interesting to see how this deal is affecting British politics. This New York Times video looks at some of the societal issues that prompted the need for Brexit. But now, it seems as though…
