If you’re deskwarming in Korea or Japan, and you’re all caught up on lesson-planning, here are some ways to make the most of your time. (Of course, some sites might be banned at your school, but you never know.) I’ve never been in this position myself, but many teachers wind up spending time at their desks for a couple weeks (or more!)–no classes, no students, and few responsibilities (at least, if they’re experienced lesson-planners). It’s a little hard to imagine, but I’ve heard about it from several friends, and who knows, maybe I’ll experience it someday.
Anyway, I dug through my links. I decided to mix the links together, just as I might want to mix the use of my time–professional development, taking a break, and so on.
- Play the beautiful, dreamlike games at Orisinal.
- Find lesson plans, activity ideas, current research, and lots more at Free Online Journals.
- Learn how to use Skype, Ning, wikis, and more for you or your classroom via short videos at Learn it in 5.
- Create an account and edit/contribute to Wikipedia, Wikitravel, and Simple English Wikipedia. Don’t know where to start? Try fixing up the page for your hometown or current neighborhood, translating an article that only exists in the local language, or editing a TESOL-related topic.
- Set up Anki according to the vocabulary-teaching principles that you know, and study.
- Try the novel-like, grown-up versions of “choose your own ending” games at Choice of Games.
- Finally get around to joining that professional organization in your area or seeing what they actually do.
- Watch those TED Talks that you’ve been meaning to (with subtitles, even).
- Read about fascinating things on Metafilter and the endless international help column of AskMetafilter (see orientation if you get distracted by in-jokes sometimes used on the site).
- Improve your CV and your chances of getting that next job/getting into that PhD program by submitting an article/activity/etc. for publication at an online journal (yes, it’s the same link as above, but it’s worth saying!).
- Play the devilishly cute, misleadingly simple games at Eyezmaze Games.
- Start a Facebook fan page for your English program (get permission!), blog, etc.
- Get started on Twitter, which can be a great source of support for English teachers, and join me (my multi-post Twitter guide for English learners mostly applies; find people to follow via my lists).
- Finally start that blog about your adventures overseas, or the local restaurants, or your hobbies.
- Find a site like Just Hungry, Maangchi, or Cooking with (the) Dog (Youtube channel; video starts automatically) to learn to cook like a local.
- Get pulled into the underlying threads of fiction at TV Tropes–if you’re not sure where to go, look up a favorite TV show and wander around from there.
- Watch streaming media in Korean and Japanese to improve your language skills will entertaining yourself: Crunchyroll, MySoju, Drama Fever, Viki, and relevant searches on Youtube and Veoh (e.g., for example.) Whether the content is legal or ethical depends on the site and content, plus your location and perspective.
- Set up Google Reader and add the blogs you want to keep up with (check my sidebar for great ones like The Grand Narrative and English Raven), web comics, etc.
- Read fiction–from classics to cutting-edge sf, there’s plenty online. Try my list of free fiction bookmarks for more. (And if you skip the one fanfiction link, you’ll miss “No Reservations: Narnia.”)
Lots more things to do at my timewasters tag on Delicious.
If you like any of these or know of some better ones, pass them along…
(Not responsible for your boss walking in on you while playing Grow!)
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