Movieclips has immediately become an indispensable website in my “teachers’ repertoire” of links.

It has thousands of short video clips from movies and they’re not blocked by our content filter! And they’re available without registering — except for clips that have “mature” content.

That in itself makes it a wonderful resource. But that’s only part of why I like this new site so much.

What makes it a real winner is that that clips are categorized by theme, character, setting, mood, and more. They’re incredibly detailed.

This kind of organization makes it a gold mine for English Language Learners and their teachers. A ready-made video to teach vocabulary or an academic concept is at your finger-tips. Plus, they’re easily used for an activity like “Back To The Screen,” which I explain in The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

In addition, users can create questions about the clip that the site will host. That’s a nice feature, and an opportunity for students to write for an authentic audience. The only tricky part is that in order to do so you have to register for the site, which is easy enough. However, that also gives you access to the mature content clips, so you’d only want to have students use it under supervision.

I’m adding Movieclips to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites For News & History Videos That Won’t Get Blocked By Content Filters (At Least, Not By Ours!).

Thanks to US History Teachers Blog for the tip.

Also, I’m happy to say that this school year CNN’s videos aren’t blocked by our filters, so I’m adding that site to the same list.

I’m particularly impressed, though, with their video. They have ones for every subject, and they’re fairly accessible to English Language Learners.

You may have seen some of them before, but I suspect that some might be new to you. And even if you’ve seen them all, they’re worth watching again…

Today, I learned from Mashable that the video I shared (turning stairs into musical ones to encourage people to use them instead of the escalator) is actually part of a series of clips sponsored by Volkswagen.

You can see all of them at The Fun Theory.

Check out this short video, The Pedagogy of Fun.

There is certainly a good lesson for teachers in it.

Thanks to Jason Flom for the tip.

I’ve been trying to get a little ahead on my posts, and had “finished” my “The Best Internet Sites For English Language Learners — 2009″ when he sent me an email earlier today telling me about a new site called English Central.

Now I have to revise my list because English Central is great!

David has just posted a very thorough post about the site titled English Central – Bringing “voice” and output to learning English. I’d strongly encourage you to read it — I don’t feel any need to “reinvent the wheel.”

A quick description is that it’s a free video site for English Language Learners, lets users listen to parts of the video, then lets them repeat what the characters says and compares it to the original. You get graded on how well you do. It has even more features, but you can read David’s post or check out the site directly. The other great thing about it is that the videos are all appropriate for the classroom, unlike several other ESL video sites that have come online recently.

I’m looking forward to having my students try it out tomorrow.

Nik’s post also includes links to some other excellent resources. I’m going to give it a try later this year.

I’ve added it to The Best Digital Storytelling Resources.

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