Engaging Parents In School… - This Week’s “Parent Teacher Chat” On Twitter

Engaging Parents In School… - This Week’s “Parent Teacher Chat” On Twitter:

This Week’s “Parent Teacher Chat” On Twitter

by Larry Ferlazzo

Last month, Joe Mazza wrote a guest post about Parent Teacher Chat on Twitter. Joe has accepted my invitation to write a short post on this blog regularly to announce future topics for these chats:

Special guest Karren Dunkley joins #ptchat this Wednesday, 1/25 at 9PM EST. Ms. Dunkley, Deputy Chief of the School District of Philadelphia, will be discussing parent leadership opportunities, “Demand Parents” and a “Parent University” her organization has set up for families.

Hailing from Jamaica, Ms. Dunkley is helping to increase and improve the participation of families and community in the academic success and personal development of their

Music Shake

by Larry Ferlazzo

Music Shake lets you create….musical tracks quite easily, which you can then embed or post a link to it. You can do those things for free. However, you have to pay if you want to download your music for use in a video or other presentation. In fact, they just created an education arm where schools could purchase licenses for all their students to do just that.

I think it’s fine to just have students, especially English Language Learners, use it to quickly create music and then describe it and have students comment their classmate’s creations.

I’m adding it to The Best Online Sites For Creating Music.

You can learn about Music Shake at TechCrunch.

The Best Critiques Of Ruby Payne

by Larry Ferlazzo

Ruby Payne is a popular consultant to school districts around the United States and, perhaps, the world. I have major concerns about her “deficit” view of low-income students and their families — it smacks of a “blaming the victim” mentality.

I’ve written extensively about the concept of “blame,” and you might be interested in The Best Resources For Helping Students (& The Rest Of Us) Learn The Concept Of Not Blaming Others.

I thought it might also be important, though, to create a “The Best…” list specifically related to Ms. Payne. Her