<p>The number of new tools and features that Ellii has pumped out recently has been extensive and pretty impressive&nbsp;(if we do say so ourselves 😉)!</p>

<p>All types of English teachers and tutors rely on Ellii to run their classes, so our goal has always been to make sure that we&#39;re consistently releasing new and relevant content&nbsp;and that we&rsquo;re designing and developing features that will be useful and intuitive for everyone.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Let&#39;s take a look at our top five platform tools and features! Here&#39;s what we recommend using to keep things fun, simple, and effective while teaching with Ellii.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2>1. Lesson Planner</h2>

<p>With the release of our Lesson Planner in 2023, Ellii made a huge improvement to how teachers can plan, prepare, and administer their classes.</p>

<p>The Lesson Planner is a sleek, simple&nbsp;Kanban board that allows teachers to&nbsp;drag lessons and resources to one of three organizational lanes: Prepping, Teaching, and Taught. This&nbsp;gives teachers a visual overview of what content they&rsquo;re preparing to teach in their upcoming classes, what is currently assigned to their students to work on, and what their students have already finished.<br />
<br />
This amazing organizational feature has teachers raving! Check out our video to learn more about Ellii&rsquo;s built-in Lesson Planner and its many uses.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Lorc2EN3MEs?si=TlAjRq3fdHxOyxTj" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</div>

<h2>2. Grade Feed</h2>

<p>Grading is often a task that teachers find time-consuming and tedious,&nbsp;so we made it our mission to develop a feature that addresses both of these concerns. The result?&nbsp;Grade Feed! <br />
<br />
Grade Feed is an easy-to-use grading tool with one convenient inbox where you can find all of your students&rsquo; completed assignments that require your attention.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Easily read or listen to a student&#39;s submission and then assign&nbsp;a score and star rating, leave a comment or correction, or even record an audio message. Quickly send off your feedback to the student and move on to the next one! <br />
<br />
Working your way through your inbox of assignments to grade is now fun and satisfying to do. Learn more about the Grade Feed feature in our handy tutorial video.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/lk1zLa3MGU0?si=uvD3__IAzeV3wJt2" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</div>

<h2>3. Folders</h2>

<p>Folders have long allowed teachers to save lessons into personalized collections&nbsp;on Ellii. But now Folders are so much more than just an organizational tool for great lesson content. </p>

<p>Finally, you can save lessons, resources, videos, and flashcard sets to a folder;&nbsp;curate your desired teaching order; pin your folder to your class; and import your lesson content into your Lesson Planner. Done and dusted!<br />
<br />
Watch our featured video on how to create and pin custom folders to a class.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ABIX4RDl8Qs?si=FMFR6kOYR3WbA7gB" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</div>

<h2>4. Ellii Polls</h2>

<p>Ellii Polls were unveiled at the start of 2024, and they were a hit with both teachers and students&nbsp;right off the bat! <br />
<br />
This highly engaging feature allows teachers to launch a variety of interactive poll questions in class or online that students can&nbsp;answer in real time with their own personal devices. Yup, you read that correctly. It&rsquo;s that cool.<br />
<br />
Simply choose an Ellii Poll&nbsp;from our ever-growing list and get your students talking! They will be able&nbsp;access the student interface on their smartphones, tablets, or laptops with a QR code. From there, you have control of the poll questions that are sent out to students to respond to&nbsp;and are able to close the poll at any time and display the class&rsquo;s answers. Use Ellii Polls to spark lively discussions and facilitate spontaneous debates on fun and relevant topics your students will love!<br />
<br />
Check out our demo video to learn more about Ellii Polls. Even your quietest students won&rsquo;t be able to resist speaking up with these enticing conversation starters!&nbsp;</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/nwne3fwsfAY?si=_1zGWst9liUsNtF-" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</div>

<h2>5. Student Picks</h2>

<p>As language teachers, we know that it&rsquo;s MUCH easier to keep our students engaged when they&rsquo;re learning English within the context of a topic that interests them.<br />
<br />
That&rsquo;s why we created Student Picks&mdash;a feature that allows students to show their teachers which lessons they&rsquo;re most interested in studying next!<br />
<br />
Teachers are able to select lesson categories from within Ellii&rsquo;s content library to include in Student Picks and filter by level to determine which lessons are displayed to their students.&nbsp;Students&nbsp;can browse through lesson titles&nbsp;and let their teacher know which ones they&rsquo;d like to study by leaving hearts and essentially casting their vote.&nbsp;<br />
<br />
Student Picks is a great way to make sure you&rsquo;re still achieving your teaching objectives while giving your students agency in what they want to learn! Watch our featured video to learn more.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" referrerpolicy="strict-origin-when-cross-origin" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/VDWJ9vadGZY?si=SAn80SwXuc9k_gkF" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe><br />
&nbsp;</div>

<h3>All five of these features can help you run a more organized, enjoyable, and purposeful class.</h3>


<p>These features were built with your teaching needs in mind and aim to provide you with the tools you need to offer your students the very best learning experience.&nbsp;</p>

<p>We hope you (and your students) love them as much as we do. <br />
<br />
Happy teaching!</p>

Top 5 Features to Get the Most Out of Teaching with Ellii

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Learn how to make the most of your Ellii subscription with tips from our publishing team.

Teaching with Ellii

<p>Using Folders inside Ellii to organize your class content and curate your own teaching order, study packs, courses, or even curricula&nbsp;is a game-changer when it comes to having unique and engaging classes!</p>

<p>Introducing our new and improved Folders that are just as fun to make, simple to share, and now easy to move into any class.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Here&#39;s what&#39;s NEW with Folders!</h2>

<p>Take a look at the changes we&#39;ve recently made:</p>

<ol>
	<li>Entire Folders can now be easily <strong>pinned</strong> to any class for quick access.</li>
	<li>Ellii courses, study packs, videos, and flashcard categories can now be <strong>saved</strong> to Folders.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Pinned Folders can now be <strong>found</strong> in the Content Drawer of your class&#39;s Lesson Planner.</li>
	<li>Folders can be <strong>pinned</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>unpinned</strong> directly inside your class&#39;s Content Drawer.</li>
	<li>Multiple Folder items&nbsp;can be <strong>moved</strong> at the same time into the Saved, Prepping, or Teaching lane&nbsp;of your Lesson Planner.&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Class content from inside your Lesson Planner can now be <strong>exported</strong> into a Folder to be used again in the future.&nbsp;</li>
</ol>

<h3>Can&#39;t wait to start using these new Folder features?</h3>

<p>Watch this video demo to learn all you need to know about these Folder updates and more!</p>

<p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ABIX4RDl8Qs?si=C-AcPqhL6n7H1Mqt" title="YouTube video player" width="560"></iframe></p>

<p>Happy teaching!</p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>


Create & Pin Custom Folders to Your Classes

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Posts describing lessons or activities for the ESL classroom.

Activities

<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of June, we invited you to try one of our recommended class activities to teach about the change in season that occurred&nbsp;on June&nbsp;21. We then asked you to share some pictures with us to show off your students&rsquo;&nbsp;work.&nbsp;</p>

<p>These were the activities we challenged you to do with your students this&nbsp;month:</p>

<p><strong><strong>Activity 1: Vocabulary Builder for Young &amp; Beginner&nbsp;Learners</strong></strong></p>

<p><strong><strong>Activity&nbsp;2: Adverbs of Frequency for Intermediate&nbsp;Learners</strong></strong></p>

<p>To get a bit more background on these activities, make sure to check out the <a data-reactroot="" data-token-index="1" href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-changing-seasons-challenge" rel="noopener noreferrer nofollow" target="_blank">original&nbsp;blog&nbsp;post</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who contributed&nbsp;and submitted pictures to our Video Challenge. We hope these teacher and student submissions inspire you to try&nbsp;out these activities with your own&nbsp;class!</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>This student completed Activity 1 and did a great job identifying the vocabulary terms in the picture. Nicely&nbsp;done!</p>

<p><img alt="Summer picture with English beach-related words identifying beach-related objects." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2533/content_Summer-Lesson_Ellii.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher feature 2</h3>

<p>Molly Stevens had a blast doing Activity 2 with her&nbsp;students in class! Her language learners came up with some great examples to use in their interactive classroom&nbsp;activity.</p>

<p>Take a look at what she had to say about this fun game that focused on practicing adverbs of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="300px" src="https://www.videoask.com/a3xiizd6q3uv0f6s83nwivyo7m8yhfwqfqn67fup" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p><img alt="Sticky notes with actions words on them like eat cookies, make new friends, and watch TikTok." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2534/content_Adverbs-of-frequency_Activity.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher &amp; student feature 3</h3>

<p>Our final feature in this month&rsquo;s Student Showcase is from a proud Arizona English teacher and her students! This teacher&nbsp;submitted a response to us explaining how she took our proposed Activity 2 one step&nbsp;further. Check it&nbsp;out!</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/abj2shvkkxg1bfw687fm8p8z50rqhowkdncsmwv7" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>Here are two&nbsp;of the amazing posters her students&nbsp;made.</p>

<p><img alt="A summer-themed poster with palm trees, sunglasses, beach balls, and starfish. Includes examples of adverbs of frequency." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2535/content_Adverbs-of-frequency_Poster.jpg" /></p>

<p><img alt="A winter-themed poster with snowflakes and a deer. Includes examples of adverbs of frequecy." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2536/content_Winter_Poster.jpg" /></p>

<p>We hope you enjoyed seeing&nbsp;some of this month&#39;s&nbsp;incredible work created by English learners from around the world.&nbsp;Feeling inspired? Try one of these activities with&nbsp;your class to teach about the different&nbsp;seasons!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Did you do something creative in class to recognize the change in season this month? Tell us about it in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Changing Seasons Projects

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>

<p>Since June 21 is officially the start of summer in the Northern Hemisphere and the start of winter in the Southern Hemisphere, we&rsquo;re challenging English language teachers around the world to do one of these seasonal activities&nbsp;with their students in&nbsp;class.</p>
</div>

<h2>June&#39;s Student Showcase challenge: Changing seasons</h2>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/fspla9jmh" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>The beginning of a new season is always exciting, isn&rsquo;t it? There are so many fun seasonal activities that we can only do at a certain time of year. What are you looking forward to this&nbsp;June?</p>

<p>To answer this question, we&rsquo;ve come up with some activities that you can do in class with your students to celebrate the changing&nbsp;season.</p>

<p>Start by completing&nbsp;one of the activity challenges&nbsp;below. Then&nbsp;upload your students&rsquo; work through the video above or send it to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> with a brief description for a chance to be featured in our follow-up Student Showcase blog&nbsp;post!</p>

<p>We want to see how different teachers around the world are adapting the same activity to other class and community&nbsp;realities.</p>

<h2>Activity 1: Vocabulary builder for young &amp; beginner learners</h2>

<p>If you&#39;re teaching young learners, we have great vocabulary-building resource activities you can use in class for both <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2958" target="_blank">summer</a> and <a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/126/resources/2957" target="_blank">winter</a>!</p>

<p>For&nbsp;this activity, get your students to color in the picture and label it with the related vocabulary&nbsp;words.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<p><strong>Summer Vocabulary:</strong> sand, crab, waves, sandcastle, sunglasses, sun, starfish, seagull, towel, beach ball<br />
<br />
<strong>Winter Vocabulary:</strong> scarf, snowflake, mitten, snowball, beanie, snowman, snowshoes, ice skates, sled, snowboard</p>
</div>

<h3>Summer Scene Coloring Picture</h3>

<p><img alt="Summer scene coloring activity page: Three people building sandcastles on a sandy beach by the ocean." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2442/content_Summer.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Winter Scene Coloring Picture&nbsp;</h3>

<h3><img alt="Winter scene coloring activity page: Girl throwing snowballs to boy on skates, child sledding, boy building snowman holding a snowboard, old man snowshoeing." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2443/content_Winter.jpg" /></h3>

<h2>Activity&nbsp;2: Adverbs of frequency for intermediate learners</h2>

<p>Take advantage of the theme of changing seasons to teach your intermediate students about <strong>adverbs of&nbsp;frequency</strong>.</p>

<p>Use our <a href="http://ellii.com/resource_categories/103/resources/2234" target="_&quot;blank&quot;">Adverbs of Frequency</a>&nbsp;lesson and then try this activity to learn more about how your students spend their time during the winter and&nbsp;summer&nbsp;seasons!</p>

<p>This activity can be done in class or online. Get started by&nbsp;following these three simple&nbsp;steps:</p>

<h3>Step 1</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Distribute five&nbsp;slips of paper to each student and have them write an action on each slip. Provide them with examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students write five&nbsp;actions on a piece of paper or in a private document on their computer or device. Provide them with&nbsp;examples such as &ldquo;sleep under the stars,&rdquo; &ldquo;play ice hockey,&rdquo; &ldquo;plant flowers in the garden,&rdquo;&nbsp;etc.</p>

<h3>Step 2</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Collect the slips of paper and mix them up. Divide your students into groups of four or five. Then divide up the slips and hand them out to the&nbsp;groups.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Divide your students into groups of four or five and send them into breakout rooms. If this isn&#39;t possible, you can always do this activity together as an entire&nbsp;class.</p>

<h3>Step 3</h3>

<p><strong>In class:</strong> Have your students take turns picking up a card and forming a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<p><strong>Online:</strong> Have your students take turns using the actions they wrote down to&nbsp;form a question using &ldquo;how often&rdquo; and &ldquo;in the winter/summer.&rdquo; Each group member should then answer using an adverb of&nbsp;frequency.</p>

<h3>Example</h3>

<table class="horizontal">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;1:</th>
			<td>How often do you go swimming in the summer?</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;2:</th>
			<td>I <strong>often</strong> go swimming in the summer at my cottage.</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;3:</th>
			<td>I <strong>never</strong> go swimming in the summer because I don&rsquo;t know how to swim!</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<th>Student&nbsp;4:</th>
			<td>I <strong>usually</strong> go swimming in my backyard pool when the weather is nice.</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

<p>Check out this&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/adverbs-of-frequency" target="_blank">blog post</a>&nbsp;to&nbsp;learn&nbsp;more about&nbsp;adverbs of frequency and how to teach them to your&nbsp;students.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5><strong>Submit your students&rsquo; work and&nbsp;get featured</strong></h5>

<p>Complete one of the activity challenges listed above, and then send over your students&rsquo; amazing projects to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=June Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> by&nbsp;<strong>June 28, 2022</strong>. Don&rsquo;t forget to give us a brief description of your students&rsquo;&nbsp;work!</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ll select a few submissions at random and feature them at the end of the month in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post. We can&rsquo;t wait to see what you come up&nbsp;with!</p>
</div>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/everyday-topics/weather" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
	<li class="flashcards"><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/weather-nature-environment/weather-seasons" target="_blank">Weather &amp; Seasons</a></li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Changing Seasons Challenge

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly&nbsp;<strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of May, we recognized Mental Health Awareness month by challenging teachers like you to complete one of our positive mental health class activities with your students. We then asked you to share some pictures with us to show off your&nbsp;students&rsquo; work! Take a look at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">original post</a>&nbsp;that inspired these&nbsp;submissions.</p>

<p>Thank you to everyone who&nbsp;answered&nbsp;our Video Challenge. We hope&nbsp;these teacher and student submissions inspire you to try new and creative activities with your&nbsp;class.&nbsp;</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>This student completed Challenge 1 with their class and wrote out a&nbsp;list of&nbsp;positive affirmations using some of our recommended sentence structures. The final results are guaranteed to make you&nbsp;smile.</p>

<p>Here are just a few of the affirmations they came up&nbsp;with:</p>

<ul>
	<li>I am smart. I am brave. I am strong.</li>
	<li>I try my best. I work hard. I study a lot.</li>
	<li>I am proud of myself for learning English.</li>
</ul>

<p>Way to go, we love your positivity!</p>

<p><img alt="List of 8 positive affirmations written on paper." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2433/content_positive-affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student feature 2</h3>

<p>The second student featured in this month&rsquo;s Student Showcase completed Challenge 2 with their class. They created a beautiful poster that explains their emotions&nbsp;and what they do when they feel sad, angry, anxious, or scared.</p>

<p><strong>Example:</strong>&nbsp;When I feel anxious...</p>

<p><strong>Student&#39;s reply:&nbsp;</strong>&quot;I go somewhere that I feel safe and take deep breaths. I hug my dog and let my body&nbsp;relax.&quot;</p>

<p><img alt="My emotions poster where students write down how they feel when they're sad, angry, anxious, or scared." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2434/content_my-emotions-poster.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Student Feature 3</h3>

<p>Our final student feature also created a poster but decided to use stickers as their inspiration instead. Some of the stickers include affirmations like &quot;Take care of yourself,&quot; &quot;Share kindness today!&quot; and &quot;Good things are&nbsp;coming.&quot;</p>

<p>After drawing a picture, they wrote out their affirmations under&nbsp;the stickers to practice their spelling and learn a few&nbsp;new phrases.&nbsp;</p>

<p>This is an excellent&nbsp;way to give your students the chance to get creative in class, explore their emotions, and spread some positive&nbsp;vibes!</p>

<p><img alt="Collage of positive affirmation stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2435/content_affirmation-stickers.jpg" /></p>

<p><img alt="Written list of the same positive affirmations found on the stickers." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2436/content_affirmations.jpg" /></p>

<p>We hope you find these projects as inspiring as we do. Try these <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-positive-mental-health-challenge" target="_blank">creative mental health challenges</a>&nbsp;yourself next time you teach about emotions or positive mental&nbsp;health!</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>What kind of activities, projects, or games did your class do for Mental Health Awareness month? Tell us about them&nbsp;in the&nbsp;comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Positive Mental Health Projects

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our monthly <strong>Student Showcase series</strong> where we highlight teacher creativity and show off the amazing work students are doing around the world! Since May is Mental Health Awareness Month, we&rsquo;re challenging English language teachers around the world to try one of these positive self-awareness activities with their students in class.</p>
</div>

<h2>May&#39;s Student Showcase challenge: Positive mental health&nbsp;</h2>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/f0f28zx88" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>We want to support Mental Health Awareness month by promoting <strong>social-emotional learning (SEL)</strong> in the classroom. SEL is an important component of education, especially for newcomers who have the added stress of learning a language in a new school&nbsp;and community.</p>

<p>This month, we came up with&nbsp;two&nbsp;fun SEL activity challenges that you can do in your in-person or online class.</p>

<p>Start by completing&nbsp;one of the challenges below. Then&nbsp;upload your students&rsquo; work through the video above&nbsp;or send it to&nbsp;<a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=May Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a>&nbsp;with a brief description for a chance to be featured in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post! We want to see how different teachers around the world are adapting the same activity to other class and community realities.</p>

<h2>Challenge&nbsp;1: Positive affirmations for language learners</h2>

<p>Get your students to create a list of 20 affirmations.&nbsp;These should be personal, so make sure to give your students lots of time to reflect and come up with meaningful affirmations to help instill positive thinking and self-awareness.</p>

<p>You can use this activity to also practice relevant grammar and sentence structures that you&rsquo;ve been working on in class.</p>

<p>Easily adapt this activity to the level of your students by simplifying the structures or increasing the difficulty. You can do this last one by asking&nbsp;for more complex sentence structures or longer written responses.</p>

<p>Below are&nbsp;examples of grammatical structures your language learners can refer to when constructing their&nbsp;affirmations.</p>

<ul>
	<li>I am&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>positive adjective</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am <em>strong</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am a(n)&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>noun&nbsp;</em><span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am a <em>survivor.</em></strong></li>
	<li>I&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>simple present verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I <em>work </em>hard.</strong></li>
	<li>I can/will&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>base verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I can <em>get </em>a job. I will <em>succeed</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am thankful&nbsp;for&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>noun</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am thankful for <em>my family</em>.</strong></li>
	<li>I am proud of myself for&nbsp;+&nbsp;<em>ing verb</em>&nbsp;<span style="font-size:12pt"><span style="font-family:Calibri,sans-serif"><span style="font-family:Wingdings"></span></span></span>&nbsp;<strong>I am proud of myself for <em>participating </em>in class.</strong></li>
</ul>

<p>Check out our <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/affirmations-for-english-learners" target="_blank">&quot;20 Affirmations for English Learners&quot;</a> blog post&nbsp;for more inspiration and instruction on this activity!</p>

<h2>Challenge 2: Create a poster</h2>

<p>Get your students to create an informative poster on positive Mental Health Awareness! We&rsquo;re looking for a poster that is solutions-focused.</p>

<p>This activity incorporates SEL and will help&nbsp;students of any age get in tune with their mental state. It will also guide them in recognizing their emotions and how to deal with them.</p>

<p>Ask your students to create a poster on what makes them feel sad, angry, stressed, or anxious. Include pictures and ask your students to think about what makes them feel better in those situations. How can they plan or prepare for these difficult situations by recognizing what helps them cope?</p>

<p><strong>Low-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>When I feel sad, I can talk with my friends.</li>
	<li>When I feel nervous, I can count to 10.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>Intermediate-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>I feel angry and frustrated when I lose things. When I find them again, I feel happy. Therefore, I should be more organized with my things and keep my personal items in specific places so I&rsquo;m less likely to lose them.</li>
</ul>

<p><strong>High-Level Example</strong></p>

<ul>
	<li>Traveling to new places alone makes me feel scared and anxious, but having a map or access to Wi-Fi&nbsp;or an internet connection helps keep me feeling calm and in control of the situation. Knowing that, I can make sure to plan out my trip beforehand, print out maps or save them to my phone, and pay for an international chip or roaming charges so that I know I can always access Wi-Fi&nbsp;to make me feel safe and secure.</li>
</ul>

<div class="white-box">
<h3>Submit your students&rsquo; work and&nbsp;get featured!</h3>

<p>Complete one of the activity challenges listed above, and then send over your students&rsquo; amazing projects to <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com?subject=May Student Showcase">hello@ellii.com</a> by <strong>May 24, 2022</strong>. Don&rsquo;t forget to give us a brief description of your students&rsquo; work!</p>

<p>We&rsquo;ll select a few submissions at random and feature them at the end of the month in our follow-up Student Showcase blog post. We can&rsquo;t wait to see what you come up with!</p>
</div>

<h2>Related</h2>

<ul class="resources">
	<li class="collection"><a href="https://ellii.com/collections/academic-subjects/social-emotional-learning/relationship-skills" target="_blank">Social-Emotional Learning</a></li>
	<li class="blog-post"><a href="https://ellii.com/blog/practicing-mindfulness-in-the-classroom" target="_blank">Practicing Mindfulness in the Classroom</a></li>
</ul>


Student Showcase: Positive Mental Health Challenge

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<div class="white-box">
<p>This post is part of our <strong>Student Showcase</strong> <strong>series,</strong> which highlights teacher creativity&nbsp;and the amazing work students are doing around the&nbsp;world!</p>
</div>

<p>At the beginning of April, we challenged teachers like you to share how you teach about Earth Day. We also asked you to show off some of the activities, projects, games, and pictures your students have created on this topic! Take a peek at the&nbsp;<a href="https://ellii.com/blog/student-showcase-earth-day" target="_blank">original post</a>&nbsp;that inspired these submissions.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Many teachers around the world stepped up&nbsp;and answered our Video Challenge.&nbsp;Take a look at some of the ways teachers introduced this relevant theme into their class, and get inspired by some of the unique posters, artwork, and videos their students&nbsp;made.</p>

<h2>Student Showcase</h2>

<h3>Student feature 1</h3>

<p>In <a href="https://ellii.com/blog/teacher-feature-poonam" target="_blank">Poonam Sharma&rsquo;s</a> class, the students had an energetic discussion on how to reduce, reuse, and recycle.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;My students had a great discussion on how to save our planet for ourselves and the generations to come. One student actually pleaded with tears in her eyes saying, &#39;Please save our Mother (earth).&#39;&quot;</p>

<p class="attribution">&mdash;Poonam Sharma</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Here&#39;s&nbsp;some of the artwork her students created for an Earth Day&nbsp;activity.</p>

<p><img alt="Hand holding an orange watering can with a recycling symbol on it and pouring water over a smiling planet earth" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2337/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_01.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Drawing by Jenny Guan</p>

<p><img alt="Four trees growing out of a smiling planet Earth. Each tree includes a message: save trees, save water, pollution out, plants in." src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2338/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_02.jpg" /></p>

<p class="caption">Drawing by Manchula Kumanan</p>

<h3>Student feature 2</h3>

<p>Julie De Costa challenged her students to create an Enviro News poster and to come up with some event ideas they could host for Earth Day.&nbsp;This work was designed by a LINC 5 class (preparing for CLB level 5) at Coll&egrave;ge Educacentre in Vancouver, Canada.</p>

<p>Take a look at Julie&#39;s video response explaining her class activity!</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/ayvuipfmg2y7iv1ggtrucoy4s1rdobqtjwgiuj46"></iframe></div>

<p>See below an Enviro News poster and three event ideas created by Julie&#39;s&nbsp;students.&nbsp;We love the game idea of wearing a blindfold and having to feel the items to guess if it&#39;s recyclable. How&nbsp;creative!</p>

<p><strong><img alt="Enviro News poster inviting people to an event about the importance of protecting the environment for future generations " src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2350/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_03.jpg" /></strong></p>

<p><img alt="Zero Food Waste culinary event poster" src="https://esllibrary.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/ckeditor/pictures/2351/content_Lise_Student-Showcase-Lise_Student-Showcase-Earth-Day-Projects_04.jpg" /></p>

<h3>Teacher feature 3</h3>

<p>In her Video Challenge, Judy Lee explained how she contributes to helping the environment by changing her personal teaching&nbsp;habits.</p>

<p><iframe allow="autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *;" height="400px" src="https://www.videoask.com/as92iouuuclz7vwlpeyvowlk9ahk0lj94tjfauxx" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<h3>Student feature 4</h3>

<p>Finally, we received a wonderful video submission from an enthusiastic student named Iqra, who took the time to clean up the environment around her house. Iqra is from Afghanistan and currently living in Oshawa, Ontario. Way to go, Iqra! Let&rsquo;s continue making an effort to keep our neighborhoods&nbsp;litter-free.</p>

<div class="videoWrapper"><iframe encrypted-media="" src="https://www.videoask.com/a2kkay0cnykc4oopac6imwssup886t6gvsjyo5f8"></iframe></div>

<p>We&#39;re very pleased to have received so many great Earth Day submissions of student work. Thank you to everyone who participated in Ellii&rsquo;s April Student Showcase, and congratulations to our featured teachers and&nbsp;students!</p>

<p>Another Student Showcase challenge will be coming your way at the beginning of May. Make sure to revisit our blog for next month&#39;s challenge and to follow us on social media so you don&#39;t miss out.</p>

<div class="white-box">
<h5>Share your thoughts</h5>

<p>Did you do something interesting for Earth Day with your class? Tell us about it in the comments&nbsp;below!</p>
</div>


Student Showcase: Earth Day Projects

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<div class="white-box">
<p>Are you proud of the amazing things your students have been doing in class recently? Well, we&rsquo;re curious and want to hear all about it! In our new monthly <strong>Student Showcase</strong> <strong>series</strong>, we&#39;re asking&nbsp;teachers like you to share the creative&nbsp;approaches you&#39;ve taken to&nbsp;teaching your students in class and to show off the incredible work your&nbsp;students have done.&nbsp;</p>

<p>Your students deserve to have their work front and center&nbsp;in our showcase, so stay tuned each month for a new challenge. Follow the <strong>Video Challenge instructions</strong> below for your chance to have your students&#39; work featured on our blog!</p>
</div>

<h2>April&#39;s Student Showcase:&nbsp;Earth Day</h2>

<p>On April 22, 1970, the very first grassroots demonstration to raise environmental awareness took place in the United States. Approximately 20 million Americans, including thousands of students, took to the streets in peaceful protest. Since this day, April 22 has been known as <strong>Earth Day</strong>.</p>

<p>All around the world, we celebrate and recognize the importance of Earth Day by discussing the many ways in which we can help preserve the environment and make the Earth a cleaner and healthier place for everyone.</p>

<h2>This Month&#39;s Video Challenge</h2>

<p>How do you teach your students about Earth Day? What topics do you focus on? What topics related to the environment are prominent in your community? We&#39;d love for you to show us some of the great activities, projects, games, and artwork your students have created on this topic!</p>

<p>Follow the Video Challenge instructions and submit a short video or text response about your lesson and students&#39; work related to Earth Day.&nbsp;</p>

<h3>Video Challenge Instructions</h3>

<p><iframe allow="camera *; microphone *; autoplay *; encrypted-media *; fullscreen *; display-capture *;" height="600px" src="https://www.videoask.com/fuccs5oss" style="border: none; border-radius: 24px" width="100%"></iframe></p>

<p>You can also send additional pictures or material to us at <a href="mailto:hello@ellii.com">hello@ellii.com</a>. If your submission is chosen, we&#39;ll feature your students&rsquo; work at the end of the month in our follow-up blog post.</p>

<h2>Lessons on Earth Day</h2>

<p>Not sure how to teach about Earth Day? If you&rsquo;re looking for inspiration, here are some&nbsp;lessons and activities for all ages and language levels related to&nbsp;Earth Day and the importance of taking care of our environment.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/113/lessons/2682" target="_blank">Earth Day - Word Bank</a>&nbsp;(Lit &ndash; Pre Beg)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/134/lessons/3662" target="_blank">Earth Day - Word Bank Readers</a>&nbsp;(Beg / CLB 2&ndash;3)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/2199" target="_blank">Earth Day - Holidays &amp; Events</a>&nbsp;(Low Int / CLB 3&ndash;5)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/93/lessons/1877" target="_blank">Earth Day - Holidays &amp; Events</a>&nbsp;(High Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 8&ndash;10)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/resource_categories/107/resources/2142" target="_blank">Earth Day - Idioms Poster</a>&nbsp;(Lit &ndash; Adv / CLB 1&ndash;12)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/flashcards/holidays-events/earth-day" target="_blank">Earth Day - Flashcard Set</a></li>
</ul>

<h2>Related Lessons</h2>

<p>Looking for a lesson related to some of the world&#39;s biggest environmental concerns? From climate change to vanishing honeybees, we&#39;ve got lessons on many Earth Day-related themes.</p>

<p>Check out our top-rated lesson list below or browse through our <a href="https://ellii.com/collections/global-issues/the-environment" target="_blank">Environment</a>&nbsp;collection for all lessons, digital tasks, flashcards, and activities on this topic.</p>

<ul>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/3235" target="_blank">Climate Change</a>&nbsp;(Low Int / CLB 3&ndash;4)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3821" target="_blank">Climate Change and Mental Health</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; High Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/81/lessons/2401" target="_blank">The Great Barrier Reef</a>&nbsp;(Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/73/lessons/1297" target="_blank">The Kyoto Protocol</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 7&ndash;9)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/72/lessons/1280" target="_blank">Vanishing Honeybees</a>&nbsp;(High Int / CLB 6&ndash;8)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/4024" target="_blank">UN Plastics Treaty</a>&nbsp;(High Int &ndash; Adv / CLB 6&ndash;12)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/133/lessons/3698" target="_blank">Amazon Destroys Unsold Items</a>&nbsp;(Int)</li>
	<li><a href="https://ellii.com/courses/82/lessons/2614" target="_blank">Wildfires</a>&nbsp;(Int &ndash; High Int)</li>
</ul>


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Lise Papineau