Chris Spackman ESOL Resources

Resources for English to Speakers of Other Languages teachers and students, and sometimes others.

News and Updates

Added fluxSolarSystem to the Astronomy & Weather section of the Flux dockapps software page. fluxSolarSystem shows a "top" down view of the solar system, and left click pops up a window with some relevant astronomical information.
Also, fixed a bug in fluxCPU that prevented the pop up window from loading correctly.

Added my first high-low novel for adult English Learners. The book is called La Cocina and is the first in what I hope to make a series. High-low books are high interest and low reading difficulty, so that adult English learners can read something they can relate to, but without the difficulty of regular novels for adults. The La Cocina story is complete, but I plan to add some non-fiction readings about food permits, starting a business, and a few other things to it also.
Added a software page for some of the software I've been working with Claude Code to create. Much of it is for Linux systems, not necessarily English Learners or their teachers. That's fine. I'm starting to move more of my stuff here, to keep everything in one place. The first software I'm making available are 17 Window Maker-style dockapps for the Fluxbox slit. If that doesn't mean anything to you, maybe check them out, to see what is possible on an open operating system.

Added Javascript pages to Educator Resources. These are small html pages, with fairly simple javascript, that might be helpful for students and teachers. The first is a simple vocabulary quiz.

Added A Young Lady's LLM Primer — a brief opinion article about Large Language Models as tutors for K-12 students. Young Lady's LLM: I also wrote a short story about LLM / AI agents for students.

Added very, very rough draft of my new book Basics of Working with English Learners (PDF only) in Educator Resources.

Accessibility — posters on how to design for students with various challenges.
Diagnostics — A few diagnostics I've developed for incoming students.
Enhanced Readings — readings to help students build background knowledge before (or in some cases, in place of) grade-level readings.
Javascript pages — small html pages, with fairly simple javascript, that might be helpful for students and teachers.
Know Your Rights — information to help teachers and families understand what schools are required to do to support students. Mostly about English Learner students at the moment.
Professional Development — Some resources from PD that I've lead.

Every Teacher's Guide to Technology^* — is my book about ways that educators can more effectively use technology in their jobs. It is not about ed-tech in the sense of sites that teachers might use with students or have students use in or out of class.
Every Sentient Beings' Guide to Password Security*sentient: Yes, sentient technically refers to the ability to feel, not think. But, most people don't use it that way, and most people, I think, are more familiar with sentient than with sapient. — is about passwords specifically, but also computer security more generally. Good resource for people who want to know more about what they can do to stay secure. Given the huge increases in ransomware attacks, educators should at least (IMHO) know to use a password manager and strong passwords.