The Best Year-End Collections Of Images — 2011
I’m beginning my annual “The Best…” list highlighting “year in review” images. There aren’t a whole lot right now on the date of this post, but they’ll soon be coming out of the woodwork. I figured it would be helpful … Continue reading →
I Love This Article! “The 5 Best Toys of All Time”
The 5 Best Toys of All Time is a must-read article from Wired by Jonathan Liu. “Stick” is ranked as number one. I’d also suggest you read his follow-up piece, Get a Kid the 6th Best Toy of All Time. … Continue reading →
Inexpensive Tech Tools
I recently revised an older post and converted it into The Best Good, Inexpensive & Simple Classroom Technology Tools. Please contribute additional suggestions…..
The Best (and Worst) Education News of 2011
(NOTE: The Huffington Post has also republished this piece) Here’s my humble attempt to identify the best and the worst education news that occurred during the past 12 months. I hope you’ll take time to share your own choices in … Continue reading →
“International Day for the Abolition of Slavery”
Today, December 2nd, is the International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. ESL Holiday Lessons has a lesson for English Language Learners on the day. I’ve also updated The Best Resources For Learning About Human Trafficking Today.
Special ESL/EFL/ELL Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
NOTE: I usually publish a list like this once or twice a week. Today, though, I’m sharing several impressive resources that might hold particular interest for ESL/EFL/ELL teachers. I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to … Continue reading →
Additional Resources On HIV & AIDS
Today is World AIDS Day, and I’ve added many new resources to The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS: World AIDS Day 2011 is a photo gallery from the Sacramento Bee. HIV and Aids: interactive timeline of … Continue reading →
“What Is The Most Important Thing To Remember About Classroom Management?”
What Is The Most Important Thing To Remember About Classroom Management? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher column. As that post explains, the response will be a three-part series. I hope readers will offer … Continue reading →
Best Of TED Talks — 2011
TED has announced 18 ideas that will shape 2012: Counting down TEDTalks on Huffington Post. This is how they describe it: TED and The Huffington Post are launching a year-end collaboration around 18 groundbreaking ideas that premiered on TED.com in … Continue reading →
Create A Simple Online Poll With “Hall”
Hall is a new site that lets you do several things — all apparently without requiring registration — including creating a simple poll. That tool seems the most useful to me, so I’m highlighting it here and adding it to … Continue reading →
There Are Now 816 “The Best…” Lists
There are now 816 categorized “The Best…” lists. That’s a lot of lists…. You can find them categorized by subject here. They are listed chronologically here. The best way to find one that you’re looking for is to go to … Continue reading →
Gun-Toting Santas, Talking Coffee-Mates & Other Christmas “Delights”
Here are the newest additions to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa (by the way, a portion of that list was temporarily missing earlier today, but it’s all back now): Merry Christmas From Lee Friedlander is … Continue reading →
Join Me On Dec. 13th For A Free Webinar On “Student Motivation & Classroom Management”
Eye On Education is sponsoring a free one hour webinar on December 13th, 4:30 PM Eastern Time, with me to discuss Student Motivation & Classroom Management. You can learn more about the Webinar, and register for it, here. EOE are … Continue reading →
The Best Places To Find The Most Popular (& Useful) Resources For Educators –2011
I periodically post “most popular” lists of websites (and books) that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, … Continue reading →
More On Christmas
Here are the newest additions to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa: Here’s a video from The New York Times called “Educating Santa”: Christmas approaches is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe. Christmas – Links … Continue reading →
This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a … Continue reading →
“Several Ways Teachers Can Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other”
Several Ways Teachers Can Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other is my newest post at Education Week Teacher. It including my ideas, and ones from Bill Ferriter and others….
Photo Galleries Of The Week
Obviously, photos can be great educational tools with English Language Learners and with any students (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons). I post about many photo galleries, also called slideshows. To do it in a little more … Continue reading →
Sage Life Advice — Via David Brooks?
All sense of proportion and insight leaves New York Times columnist David Brooks whenever he writes about education (and, more recently, Occupy Wall Street). However, he periodically hits a home run when he tackles other topics. He did so today … Continue reading →
The Best Websites For English Language Learner Students In 2011
This list focuses on sites that ELL students would use directly. Of course, many other sites on my other lists can also be used effectively with ELL’s. You might also be interested in: The Best Websites For English Language Learner … Continue reading →
“What Are Parents Thinking?”
What Are Parents Thinking? is a new article in ASCD Educational Leadership by a “head of school” (I assume that’s another name for principal). He talks about some of his school’s parent involvement/engagement efforts, particularly using online surveys. I’m not a big fan of surveys — in my community organizing career, we always felt that [...]
Two Pieces On Parent Engagement & Community Organizing That Might Be Worth A Look
Just this week, two short pieces talking about community organizing and parent engagement were published. They might be worth a look: What Inspired Me to Study Parent and Community Engagement at Harvard Education Publishing. Education reform through community action at The Washington Post.
“Building Trust With Parents”
Building Trust With Parents is another excellent post by Chris Wejr. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.
“Parent Involvement…begins with ‘Hello’”
“Parent Involvement…begins with ‘Hello’” is a very thoughtful response to the recent Louisville article about parent involvement there. It’s written by Myrdin Thompson, a former PTA president there.
Informative Parent Involvement Infographic & Article
The Louisville Courier Journal has published an extremely informative infographic about parent involvement. In fact, there’s so much information packed into it that it’s difficult to decipher it all! It accompanies a very long article on parent involvement, which is okay, but doesn’t cover any new ground.
“To Teach a Child: The Parents’ Role”
To Teach a Child: The Parents’ Role is the headline The New York Times gave to a small collection of letters to the editor reacting to Tom Friedman’s piece on parent involvement. None are super-special, but it’s worth a quick look.
“Parents denied chance to observe classroom”
Parents denied chance to observe classroom is the title of a post by Jay Mathews at The Washington Post. Not letting parents who might be sending their child to a school doesn’t seem to me to be the wisest parent engagement policy for a school to have. There are plenty of comments on his post. [...]
“We need to make sure we use words that will build relationships not walls”
The title of this post is the last line from a post titled Hey, That’s My Kid You’re Talking About! It provides some good advice on how teachers speak with parents. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers.
Useful Webinar Notes
Joe Mazza, who blogs about parent engagement issues, participated in The Harvard Family Research Project family involvement webinar I posted about last week. He took some great notes, which he has graciously shared online.
The NY Times’ Tom Friedman On Parent Involvement
New York Times’ columnist Tom Friedman has just published a pretty interesting column on the importance of parent involvement, though I do wish he had a better headline than “How About Better Parents?” In it, he highlights a a couple of new studies (and includes links to them) and quotes one researcher: Schleicher explained to [...]
“The Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit”
The Family Engagement for High School Success Toolkit is a new report from The Harvard Family Research Project and United Way. It may be worth a look.
“Triggering Suspicion”
Even though Parent Revolution and the parent trigger are both on their last legs, they can still do some damage to students, parents and schools. Caroline Grannan writes about what is happening in Pasadena in the article “Triggering suspicion.”
Illinois School Back In NCLB Parent Involvement Compliance
In September, I had posted about a school in Illinois that had been found to be in non-compliance with the parent involvement requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act. I had thought it was interesting because, one, I hadn’t heard of that happening to any other school anywhere and, two, since it’s so easy [...]
Annenberg Article On Parent Engagement & Organizing
Bruno Manno’s “Straw Mom” Argument is the rather odd headline of a good article on parent engagement and community organizing. It’s from the Annenberg Institute on School Reform. I’m adding it to The Best Examples Of Parent Engagement Through Community Organizing.
Important Report On Parent Engagement Released Today
Family-School-Community Partnerships 2.0: Collaborative Strategies to Advance Student Learning is the lengthy name of an excellent report released today by the National Education Association. It highlights sixteen family-school-community partnerships, including the Parent Teacher Home Visit Project. Here are important links: You can access the entire report here. Here’s an overview of the report. And here’s [...]
Parent Trigger R.I.P.
Today, The Los Angeles Times published an editorial reflecting on the parent trigger’s lack of success, and described Parent Revolution’s retooling effort: Instead of choosing the schools for a possible parent trigger and engineering the petitions, Parent Revolution now leaves it up to parents to determine whether they want to initiate major reforms and what [...]
“Why Parent Teacher Conferences Matter”
Why Parent Teacher Conferences Matter is a useful post from a middle school principal, Mr. Bernia. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Parent/Teacher Conferences.
“Pinellas school district tries going to parents”
Pinellas school district tries going to parents is an article about staff from a Florida school making home visits. Generally, I don’t recommend going unannounced, but if a school widely publicizes it throughout the neighborhood and most parents know they’re going to happen on a particular Saturday it can usually work out fine. It sounds [...]
“I Can’t Bake 2.8 Billion Cupcakes”
The New York Times has published a must-see photo of a parent holding a sign saying “I Can’t Bake 2.8 Billion Cupcakes.” She was protesting school aid cuts, combined with tax benefits for the wealthy. You can read more about the reason behind the protest sign at The Times’ article.
“Parents organize to push for better California schools”
Parents organize to push for better California schools is from The Los Angeles Times, and describes a meeting yesterday of parents from throughout the state who are organizing to support schools. I’ve written a number of posts about these kinds of efforts, and creating a “The Best…” list of them is on my “to do” [...]