Wallace and Gromit’s World of Cracking Ideas

Wallace is a great inventor. Well, an inventor at least. As an extension to the highly successful Wallace and Gromit films and in collaboration with the Intellectual Property Office, the Cracking Ideas website is designed to inspire people to invent too. They have a set of activities for various age groups which I think would be good materials for the EFL classroom.

What would you do with these activities in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Wittertainment Code of Conduct

One of my all-time favourite podcasts is Kermode and Mayo’s Film reviews from BBC Radio 5 live. It makes me laugh (sometimes enough to get weird looks from people on public transport or in the street!), and even if I don’t always agree with the reviews, they always make me think.

About a year ago listeners were asked to send in suggestions for acceptable cinema behaviour, and the whole thing was collated into this poster:

There is also an accompanying video, bringing the poster to life:

What would you do with this poster in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

P.S. Hello to Jason Isaacs.

Cat vs Internet (the Oatmeal)

Here is an excerpt from a very funny cartoon from The Oatmeal, about the different methods a cat tries to get its owner’s attention. Click on the image below to see the whole cartoon.

What would you do with this cartoon in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the wcontext it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Advertisement search engine

Karenne Sylvester pointed me in the direction of Moat.com, a search engine for advertisements. To use it, you type in the name of a brand (ones popular in America work best), and it displays a montage of their adverts. You can also choose films, or select ‘random brand’. Here are two examples:

What would you do with this search engine in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Jubilee/Republic

Two topical words this week:

Jubilee

or, for those so inclined:

Republic

That’s it.
What would you do with these words in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Catch-up week

It’s a catch-up week this week. There are many posts for you to choose from, including:

• Wallace and Gromit and the Intellectual Property Office
• Roald Dahl
• Postcrossing
• and many more…

Simply find a post that inspires you, then add a comment telling other teachers how you would use it in class. Then, when you are stuck for inspiration, come back to the site and use the tags to search for an area your students need practice in, use the idea, and let us know how it goes!
Looking forward to hearing more of your ideas!

Floppy Disk

What does this symbol mean to you?

From PSD Graphics

When was the last time you saw one?

That’s the question Scott Hanselman asks in his amusing look at symbols used as icons on computers. In the comments, there is also a very well-thought-out rebuttal by Micheal Lang.

What would you do with this article in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

The Global Pay Scale

This tool from the BBC allows you to find out how your wage compares to average wages around the world. The figures are adjusted to take cost of living into account. It shows about 70 countries.

What would you do with this tool in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Change This

Change This is a site offering manifestos and other ideas to change the world of business and entrepreneurship. It is based on an idea from Seth Godin, and has been existed since 2004.

What would you do with these manifestos in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

This prompt was suggested by Catherine Kennedy, a regular commenter on this blog. Her blog is here.

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Adverts from the 90s

For April, I have planned a month of advert-themed prompts on Infinite ELT Ideas. Here is the fourth and final one:

Here are two adverts which I distinctly remember from my childhood. They still remain among my all-time favourite adverts!

The first is from the Milk Marketing Board, encouraging people to buy milk from the milkman.

The second is for Dime chocolate bars (now known as ‘Daim’).

What would you do with these adverts in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Orange adverts

For April, I have planned a month of advert-themed prompts on Infinite ELT Ideas. Here is the third:

Continuing the cinema theme (guess where I see most of my adverts!), this is one of a series of adverts by the mobile phone company Orange. They are shown just before the film to encourage people to switch off their mobile phones.

What would you do with this advert in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Time for a holiday?

For April, I have planned a month of advert-themed prompts on Infinite ELT Ideas. Here is the second:

Here is another advert from my cinema trip. It advertises the British holiday company Thomson.

What would you do with this advert in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Newspaper adverts

For April, I have planned a month of advert-themed prompts on Infinite ELT Ideas. Here is the first:

I saw these two adverts very soon one after the other before a film at the cinema last week. They advertise two famous newspapers in the UK, The Sun and The Guardian.

While writing this post, I also found a satirical reworking of The Guardian video as if made by The Sun.

What would you do with these videos (separately or together) in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

‘Batman’ pulled over by police in Maryland

An extra Infinite ELT Ideas prompt this week, shared by Laura Patsko on Twitter, and too good to resist! It’s a two-minute video of ‘Batman’ being pulled over by police in Maryland, shared on the BBC News site.

What would you do with this video in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Travel Etiquette: Food and Drink

Travel etiquette is something which often appears in coursebooks. It’s a rich topic for discussion. This article from Lonely Planet has lots of tips about table manners around the world, some of which are ‘corrected’ in the comments below.

What would you do with this article in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

John Fairfax, Who Rowed Across Oceans, Dies at 74

This week’s prompt was suggested by Alan Tait on Twitter.

It’s an obituary for John Fairfax, the first man to row solo across the Atlantic, and with his girlfriend, one of the first people to row across the Pacific. He was a man who sought adventure because it was there and he could.

What would you do with this obituary in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

What makes Britain British

Recently the British television channel Channel 4 created a programme called ‘Make Bradford British‘. It has had very mixed reviews and prompted a lot of debate about multiculturalism, as well as looking at the controversial Citizenship test which those wanting to settle permanently in the UK or claim British citizenship must pass.

On one page of the accompanying website they published a word cloud of tweets shared under the hashtag #MakesYouBritish. This is a screen capture of the results as I write this (the map is updated every minute):

Sam Shepherd tweeted the link to the website and suggested using it in class, which makes it perfect as an Infinite ELT Ideas prompt.

What would you do with these words in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context they are used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

Men rule movie trailers

This video appeared in the BBC online magazine on 6th March 2012. It looks at the roles of men and women in the movie trailer industry.

What would you do with this video in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

PS Thanks to everyone on Twitter who tested the video for me

Dear Photograph

Described in a quote as “digital nostalgia of the highest order”, Dear Photograph asks users to submit photographs of them holding old photos in front of the same place now. Here’s one example:

(There are no copyright notices on the site, but if anyone connected to it needs me to edit this, please let me know)

What would you do with this site in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.

I found this website when it was tweeted by Feed the Teacher.

House

After a string of tech-related prompts, it’s about time I gave you something offline!

Another one-word week:

That’s it.
What would you do with this word in your classroom? You can make any assumptions you like about the context it is used in. Post your ideas in the comments below. All ideas are welcome (there are no wrong answers!)

Click here to find out the idea behind this blog.