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EmailThis is my 100th post for the TESOL Blog, and I want to take the opportunity to celebrate this milestone by looking over the highlights of the past several years, which started with my introduction on December 21, 2012 and continued with regular posts mostly about educational technology as well as a stint live from the TESOL convention in Portland in 2014.
3 Most Viewed
1. Tech Break: Running Dictations is the post that I wrote that has been viewed the most. In this post, I shared an active and engaging activity where students work in pairs or groups and use all their language skills to compete against the clock and other groups. It has always brought a lot of excitement and energy into my classroom and can be used with just about every language level and age group. For another similar exercise, try Move It, outlined in another post from the tech break series.
2. In second place, there is TED Talks for English Language Teaching, which encourages educators to use TED Talks, one of my favorite resources, with their students. The wide variety of topics is astounding and each one is so unique that students are really challenged to explore and reflect on topics new or old. These videos are available for free and seem to have garnered an increasing amount of attention by educators as evidenced by the thousands of readers interested in this post and the recent inclusion of TED in textbooks.
3. Rounding out the top three is one of my early posts, The Flipped Classroom. If you are unfamiliar with flipping, you can start your journey with this post. I was only able to touch upon some of the basic principles of this approach and there has been a lot more discussion on it since 2013, but I continue to receive and respond to comments which have been very illuminating and encouraging.
3 Most Commented On
1. Speaking of comments, it should come as no surprise that two of the top viewed posts are also on this list of posts with the most comments. The Flipped Classroom really got a great response from readers who were curious about implementing this approach in their classrooms or those in various stages of implementation. The resources shared in the comments section were excellent additions to the conversation.
2. Tech-Break: Running Dictations came in second with comments sharing success stories, asking for clarification on the activity, and both requesting and sharing related resources. Again, the comments extended the topic and were greatly appreciated. If you missed them the first time through, you will want to take a peek at them for even more information.
3. Finally, Tech-Break: Slash Reading, a post sharing another tech-less activity, made the list. Slash reading, as its name suggests, is primarily a reading activity, but there are so many fun things to do with it to engage students more fully. This post generated further discussion with variations and other suggestions in the comments.
With these four posts garnering the most unique hits and comments over the past several years, I hope that you will take the opportunity to check them out if you have not done so already and join the discussions taking place. You can check out my other 99 posts here.
It is always a pleasure interacting with our amazing TESOL Blog readers. Here’s to 100 posts written and 100 more on their way!
