The best video on Youtube?

I have been watching this every so often for the last year or so, but then it got used in a presentation at JALT2010, then another at the Kansai ETJ Expo, so I guess it’s gone all mainstream (although, with 33 million views on Youtube, it was probably about as mainstream as you can get).

I think this may be one of the best videos on Youtube. It’s original, quirky, inspiring, has great production values and good music, is extremely feelgood, and gets me all emotional. It would also be really easy to use it in class.

The story behind it is also pretty cool (for bonus points, check out the two videos where he reveals the hoax and then denies it, or track down the Japanese Visa ad starring Matt).

New English Teachers episode

The great English Teachers online series continues with episode 5: Showdown.

Check it out here.

Niigata Teacher Seminar

I just got back from Niigata, where I was invited to present to a great group of teachers from local junior and senior high schools.

My topic was teaching reading and writing to junior and senior high school students, and you can see my presentation slides and notes below:

101111 Niigata Intro
101111 Niigata Reading for JSHS
101111 Niigata Writing for JSHS
101111 Niigata Notes

Thanks for a great day and good luck with your teaching!

TED online videos

Is there anyone out there who isn’t watching TED videos regularly?

Just in case, here are my three favourite ones:

1. Hans Rosling’s 2006 talk on poverty and statistics. Funny, compelling, jaw-dropping, illuminating.

2. Ken Robinson’s 2006 talk on creativity and education. Inspiring, funny, moving.

3. Ray Kurzweil’s 2005 talk on technological change. Amazing, unbelievable, futuristic, hopeful.

And an honourable mention: William Kamkwamba’s talk about building a windmill. Heart-warming, inspiring, wonderful.

What are your favourites? Please post them in the comments and give me more excuses to avoid my MA essay…

Literal music videos -a fun homework assignment?

I was doing some research on Youtube the other day (heh) when I came across an interesting subculture. It seems there are quite a few people that enjoy redoing music videos so that the lyrics describe what is happening in the video. You can see one of my favourites below (the Smashing Pumpkins, doing a teenage angst song from my misguided youth):

I showed it to my daughter and she mentioned that it might be good to practice English with, as it is fairly understandable and has subtitles.

What do you think? There are hundreds of these things on Youtube. They might make a fun homework assignment or filler activity in class…

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