Four years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention.

You might also be interested in The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2016 – Part Two and The Best Resources, Articles & Blog Posts For Teachers Of ELLs In 2017 – So Far.

By the way, today is the day Katie Hull and I officially began writing our next book on teaching ELLs.  It’s going to be a crazy summer, so I’ll probably be posting less than I have in the past….

Here are this week’s choices:

Drawception is an online site where users play a weird but fun combination of Pictionary and the Telephone game. It’s been around for awhile, but they now finally added the ability to create private virtual rooms so that you can control who you get to play with – a must if teachers are going to use it with students. I’ve added it to The Best Online Games Students Can Play In Private Virtual “Rooms” and just updated the entire list.

In reviewing some of my older posts, I rediscovered The British Game from the British Council. It has a lot of nice videos, but its key quality is having many follow-up interactives for each one. I’ll definitely have my Intermediate students try it out next year.

Another site I revisited is Scott Thornbury’s index at his blog, An A-Z of ELT. Check it out!

Eight Characteristics of Effective (& Awesome) ESL Teachers is from Valentina Gonzalez.

Netflix has begun creating online video “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories. Unfortunately, they only work on a touch screen for now, not within the browser of a computer. These kinds of stories are great for ELLs, though, and I’m adding the info to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.

Google has allowed Voice Dictation for awhile on Google Docs (see Google Docs Expands Voice-Typing Ability Expanding Language-Learning Possibilities). Microsoft is now late to the party and offers an extension to do something similar for Word.

Too Few ELL Students Land in Gifted Classes is from Ed Week.

LingoKids is a new online English program for younger children. They have a supposedly free program for teachers, but you can’t try it out without giving your contact information and then have a representative contact you. You can read more the company at TechCrunch.

North Jersey teen, among first Syrian refugees in U.S., graduates near top of class is from a New Jersey newspaper. Thanks to Alexander Russo for the tip.

Four Teacher Collaboration FAQs is from Tan Huynh.

I recently posted What’s Your Best Lesson For Beginning Or Intermediate English Language Learners? and the two first responses I received were from great teachers:

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words…But How Do We Get Those Words Out? is from Valentina Gonzalez.

Summer Vacation! is from David Deubelbeiss.

Here’s a video from Carol Salva: