The CASLT ESL and Modern Languages Monthly Newsletter for April 2012 is now available at the following address:

http://www.caslt.org/newsletter/caslt_esl.htm

The CASLT ESL Monthly Newsletter provides news and tips to English as a Second Language (ESL) educators and is a free publication of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers.

The CASLT FSL Monthly Newsletter provides news and tips to French as a Second Language (FSL) educators and is a free publication of the Canadian Association of Second Language Teachers.

VoxTalent
http://www.voxtalent.com/listen.html

This is on the Web site of a Canadian voice over agency.

RMK Voice Over Casting Agencies
http://www.rmk.com.au/

 An Australian voice over agency providing demos of voices of artists, actors and child talent.

The Voiceover Group
http://www.thevoiceovergroup.co.uk

This voice over group is in the UK and provides demo voices from British artists, but also from American, Canadian,  Irish, Welsh and Australasian voice over professionals.

This Web site offers free downloadable and printable resources for use in FSL classes. The teaching resources were designed for Year 7-9 beginners in general and students with special educational needs in particular. The close to 200 documents are in Adobe Acrobat format and make use of images to introduce learners to basic vocabulary in the following categories:  Numbers – Dates – Personal Description – School – Weather – Clothing – Leisure – Food & Drink – Houses – Body – Countries – Routine – Holidays – In Town – Verbs

This new blog was created and is maintained by Mme Aiello.  She sends out the following invitation:

“I’ve recently joined the blogging world from lovely Ontario.  I’d love for more Canadian FSL teachers to check me out at ! I’ll be posting some links to freebies, my comments and thoughts on various educational topics relevant to Core French teachers, middle school teachers, and maybe even parents of FI children (since I’m one of those as well).”

Madame Aiello has also contributed articles in the French section of the Bilingual Teacher Clubhouse 2 blog.

To discover other blogs maintained by Canadian FSL teachers, see our previous articles:

Three More Blogs by Canadian FSL Teachers

Several ESL teachers are now increasingly using this online application to share their ideas and resources with others. Here are a few Pinterest boards maintained by ESL educators:

Pins from Learningenglish-esl.blogspot - This is the Pinterest Board of  an English teacher in a Spanish school in Las Palmas, Canary Islands. She has pinned hundreds of ideas and resources for use with younger ESL learners.

ESL Resources – There are 60 items pinned to this board.

Beth Crumpler ESL – This TESOL certified teacher has pinned over 40 resources for elementary level learners gleaned from various sources on the Internet.

Elementary ESL – Laurie Moulton, a certified elementary and ESOL teacher, gathers “the best ESL materials for kids, especially new English speakers” from various online sources and pins them on her Pinterest boards. Pinboards are categorized as follows: ESL websites for kids; General ESL sites; Animals Unit for ESL/ELL; Body Parts Unit for ESL Kids; Chinese New Year for ESL/ELL; Clothing Unit for ESL Kids; Grammar for ESL kids; Hospital/Health Unit for ESL/ELL; Literacy; Misc. activities/resources for ESL students; Vocabulary for ESL/ELL Kids; Spring Planting Unit; Tools Unit; ESL for homeschoolers.

You can also find a handful of useful resources pinned to the following Pinterest Boards: EFL/ESL – Maintained by Bethany Harven.

The Slideshare presentation below offers to inform you about “Everything you wanted to know about Pinterest. Including: How the idea came about, What’s the big deal?, Stats, facts and demographics, Getting started, What are people pinning?, It’s not just imagery. Some of the more unusual uses, What else can I do?”

There are some copyright issues to consider when using Pinterest to post resources. The Corkboard Connections Blog has a good article on these issues: Permission to Pin Revisited.

“This annual publication focuses on practical teaching ideas for the ESL classroom, classroom technology, reviews of ESL teaching and learning resources and opportunities across Canada for professional development. SHARE is all about professional development and being able to share the best and the most practical teaching ideas online with ESL teachers across Canada.”

Several FSL teachers are now using this online application to share their ideas with others. The following Pinterest Boards are chock  full of resources:

French is a pinboard for “Activities for French Beginners or Primary Early French Immersion.”

Mme Bellefeuille offers several boards with ideas and resources for K-2 French Immersion:  French Immersion Teacher Ideas; La lecture et l’écriture; Les mathématiques; La littérature pour les petits.

French Teaching Resources offers a few resources you can use to teach French. So do Teaching French and French Stuff (learning/teaching French) .

The Slideshare presentation below offers to inform you about “Everything you wanted to know about Pinterest. Including: How the idea came about, What’s the big deal?, Stats, facts and demographics, Getting started, What are people pinning?, It’s not just imagery. Some of the more unusual uses, What else can I do?”

French Immersion Grade 1 is a wiki managed by Geneviève Hawtree, a grade 1 Immersion teacher in the Okanagan Valley (British Columbia). This wiki is meant “a place that teachers will use to share ideas, resources and materials with each other.” Nine teachers have contributed a large number of resources that have been organised by categories in the wiki: L’Action de grâces; l’Halloween; L’hiver; La planification personelle; La Saint Valentin; Le Canada; Le jour du souvenir; Les animaux; Les araignées; Les dinosaures; Les Idées; Les sciences; Les Sons; Les Thèmes. New contributors are welcomed.

frimm, a wiki created by Christey Hughes, who is currently teaching French Immersion at a dual track high school in the Okanagan Valley. On the home page of the wiki, Christey states that this wiki’s purpose is “to share resources that we have created to help new French Immersion educators starting out, as well as to assist each other.” Members are encouraged to add resources. There are relatively few resources at the present time, but great potential for growth as new members join the wiki and make their contributions to it. To see all of the resources that have been uploaded thus far on the wiki, click on “Pages and Files” in the navigation bar on the right.

K1 French Immersion Best Practices is yet another wiki managed by two French Immersion teachers, Shannon Wiebe and Jackie Astrom, who both teach at  Ecole Edwards Elementary School in Airdrie, Alberta for Rocky View Schools. “Our hope is not only to share what we are doing in our classrooms with other teachers but also to encourage and inspire other teachers to share and collaborate with one another”. Contributors to the wiki have already uploaded hundreds of documents and all members are encouraged to share their ideas and resources.

To access the first two wikis, one needs to have an account with wikispace. Registration is free and easily done. Once registered, you will be given the option to join the wiki when you access its main page.

To access the K1 French Immersion Best Practices, all that is required is to go to k1frenchimmersionbestpractices.pbworks.com, click on the “Request access” button, enter you email address, a comment if you wish, and the code letter provided.

If you know of other wikis created by French Immersion teachers to facilitate sharing between teachers, please contact us to let us know and we will add those here.