If you like me love using TED talks in the EFL classroom, this post is a must.

Probably, just like me, you design your own lessons based on TED talks. I find them absolutely inspiring, thought-provoking and an excellent resource for a lesson of English.

Reasons for using TED talks are numerous:

• the length of 5-20 minutes makes them just long and short enough to be used in one 45 minute lesson (state-run schools format),
• I personally feel watching a longer piece of video at the lesson is wasting of precious time, once again TED talks are just right choice length-wise,
• usually, one TED video, regardless of the length is stimulating enough to wrap it up neatly in the web of speaking, writing, listening and reading, thus we cater for all skills in one lesson which is much context based,
• the talks do include texts with a good level of grammar and vocabulary, which usually may be nicely isolated and practised afterwards,
• they are so plentiful that you can always choose something what you like… or your students like 🙂

Wait a minute… If you are here, you’re probably in love with TED talks already, so there’s no need to present all the reasons and advantages. Though, if you need some hint how to go about it, the best source is IELTS Advantage site where you will find all the ways students will benefit from the talks.

And what about assigning your students TED talks and making them comment and  blog about them? That’s what’s happening here: https://tedxproject.wordpress.com

If you think of how you can use TED talks to teach CLIL, maybe http://teachingwithted.pbworks.com/ is a good place. Even if the website is maintained by non EFL teacher it may still be inspiring for us.

Let me just state that I have developed some resources for TED talks and I will share them with you soon, but for now I want to list all the places in the net where I have found ready made TED-based materials and I find them really handy, especially when some sub teaching happens and I am not really prepared for some extra material :-).

So, if you already searched through https://en.islcollective.com http://busyteacher.org  and www.teacherspayteachers.com/ you may look at the blogs of individuals and be amazed:

1. http://esltedtalks.blogspot.com Creme de la creative!!! Here you will find ESL/EFL lessons for intermediate to advanced learners of English based on the TEDTalks and neatly designed by Doug Evans. What’s mostinteresting is Doug uses the scripts for reading comprehension!
2. Kingsway Institute hold a very interesting wiki helping students learn English. If you look closely  that a goldmine of lessons, tasks or question lists for particular TED talks.  Here it is: http://kingswayupper.wikidot.com/search:site/q/TED . I found it especially useful when it comes to listening comprehension.
3. Andrew Jones website is has not only matching design to TED portal but also the biggest number of lessons, meticulously prepared. The resources are well tagged and each is accompanied by a script and activities. http://tedxesl.com is a surefire choice 5 minutes before a lesson 🙂
4. Freeenglishlessonplans by Tim offers two such resources: Pamela Meyer, How to spot a liar and  Daniel Kish, How I use sonar to navigate the world
5. Collection of TED talks lessons on lessonplandigger by Gosia a Polish teacher workin in Spain – a beautifully designed website with valuable and easy to use lesson plans.
6. Karen Joy Sylvester’s lessons based on TED are not only lessons but also various ideas on ur use of talks in EFL classroom.
7. One of my favourite ELT materials bloggers is David Maninwood with his http://efllecturer.blogspot.com/ , his lessons are almost always CLIL like and insightful. The link will lead you to one of David’s evergreen lessons on sense of life but of you search his website for “ted” you will find a lot more.
8. linguahouse has prepared their own share , 16 of them, however some resources are available only after registration, and well some of them are paid, but worth it!
9. TEFLGEEK  has their share as well.
10. Rachel Roberts is TED-wise resourceful at her blog: https://elt-resourceful.com/
11. You may want to stay in touch with ELT Connect where you may notice a lesson on digital tattoos or awesome the word.
12. It’s not difficult to bridge the students’ needs with EFL Tower TED talks mini lessons.
13. Guess what?  TED talks are everywhere, Joanna Melefaki wrote two lesson plans which are available at her blog here.
14. Next is Jamie Keddie and his stream of lessons, among which you will find a lesson on motivation.
15. Mondo’s EFL/ESL world will invite you to http://mondosworld.blogspot.com/2014/10/ted-talks-jeff-smith-business-lesson.html
16. Anita Lewicka’s Friendly Lingua website is also a place where she shares her lesson plans. One of them, on the body language is here.
17. Not only Polish teachers do that, next on the list is Svetlana from Ukraine: https://svetlanaurisman.wordpress.com/?s=Ted
18. Emma Segev has also something to say on Jay Walker’s ‘English Mania’.
19. If you are still insatiable you may grab a lesson here:http://grabalesson.blogspot.com/2012/07/work-life-balance.htm
20. Finally, remember the list is never ending with so many teachers contributing on a daily basis.  Please add more lesson plans in comments below. And maybe we will have a new lesson a day like at this webpage:http://alessonplanaday.tumblr.com