A colleague gave me two great websites for listening:

A blog: English Teachers Everywhere - I particularly like the "Who's got what?" game and the looped dictation.

And a past blog post from a different writer: The Best Listening Sites for English Language Learners

Mr. Yuck Stickers

I have wanted to do a unit on poison control for a while since a majority of my students are also parents. I just found out that Bartell Drugs hands out Mr. Yuk Stickers for free. I could also have students write to the Pittsburgh Poison Control Center to get some free stickers. Their website also has a Mr. Yuk song!

The phone number on the Mr. Yuk sticker is 1-800-222-1222 and it calls the American Association of Poison Control Centers. Their website features good info, particularly the pages for children and teens. They also have brochures available in 13 languages, and free posters.

Mr. Bean

From the AEIS listserve, someone suggested using Mr. Bean videos as conversation starters and vocabulary builders. They said slapstick in general is good, which I agree with. It's easy to understand and there's not usually too much use of puns or word-play, but you still get authentic language. A great way to implement humor in the classroom.

Here's a link to a Mr. Bean full episode with 3 acts.

Act 1: Mr Bean sits an exam and is blissfully happy until, too late, he realizes that he has studied the wrong maths equations.

Act 2: Mr Bean tries to change into his swimming trunks at the beach without anyone seeing his bits.

Act 3: Mr Bean tries to stifle a sneeze in church.

With Mr. Bean, specifically, it is a British show, so there is a great opportunity for discussion about British vs. American culture and pronunciation. Also because Mr. Bean doesn't speak much, there's great opportunity for students to retell the story by generating their own language.

I'd like to also find something that is American so that we can focus on American pronunciation. Someone suggested Father of the Bride (trailer here) as they said that Steve Martin has pretty clear, slow speech.

I like that idea, but I'm also wondering if there isn't something else with shorter acts that might be better.