Latest News and Comment from Education

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Engaging Parents In School… - “Lack Of Responsibility In Parent Trigger Laws”

Engaging Parents In School… - “Lack Of Responsibility In Parent Trigger Laws”:


A Bright Future for Family and Community Engagement?”

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 6 hours ago
A Bright Future for Family and Community Engagement? is a good post from Learning First. It’s a report on a Webinar I’ve previously posted about….

“Lack Of Responsibility In Parent Trigger Laws”

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 8 hours ago
Paul Bruno has written a thoughtful piece over at This Week In Education titled Lack of Responsibility In Parent Trigger Laws. It’s definitely worth reading….

“Parent Jiggernaut Follow-Up: Opting out vs. Opting In”

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 2 days ago
Parent Jiggernaut Follow-Up: Opting out vs. Opting In is a thoughtful post by Rachel Levy. It discusses the issue of if parents should “opt-out” of having their students take standardized tests.

“Parent Engagement: Do you have a policy on that?”

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 2 days ago
Parent Engagement: Do you have a policy on that? is a new post at Parent Involvement Matters. It was written by Myrdin Thompson. It’s worth a read….

Interesting Parents As Partners Webcast Coming Up On Monday

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 3 days ago
How to Work Together not Against Each Other: Parents as Part of the Educational Change Conversation is the title of this Monday’s Parents As Partners Webcast. It looks pretty interesting. You can learn more about it at the link….

“Engaged Families And Communities” Resources

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 4 days ago
The NEA Priority Schools Campaign has a lot of useful parent engagement materials at their “Engaged Families And Communities Resources page. It’s definitely worth a look….

“UK Study: Parents, Not Teachers, Key to Education”

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 5 days ago
A report on a new British study begins this way: A study by the Royal Economic Society, to be presented this week, finds that parental effect on test results is five times that of teachers’ influence. I haven’t gotten a chance to read the study yet, but plenty of other studies have found that non-school [...]

Parent Trigger Fails Yet Again In California

Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 5 days ago
A Southern California school district found– again — that a Parent Revolution petition to initiate the parent trigger came up short. Here’s a Storify from the meeting: [View the story "Parent Trigger Fails Yet Again In California" on Storify]

“MSN.now”

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 hours ago
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 →

The Best Resources For Lessons On Trayvon Martin

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 22 hours ago
I thought it would be useful for readers, and for me, if I began collecting teaching resources on the tragic Trayvon Martin case. I hope people will contribute additional resources. Here are my picks for The Best Resources For Lessons … Continue reading →

More Easter Resources

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 23 hours ago
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Easter And Passover: Nobody Minds Dyeing the Egg, but the Chicken Is Another Story is from The New York Times. Palm Sunday observed around the world is a … Continue reading →

Mythbusters Rube Goldberg Machine

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
Here’s a Mythbusters Rube Goldberg Machine. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Rube Goldberg Machines:

My Upcoming Book On Teaching ELL’s Is On Schedule

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
Katie Hull Sypnieski, my co-author, and I just finished reviewing copy-edits on our manuscript for our upcoming book, The ESL / ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide: Ready-to-Use Strategies, Tools, and Activities for Teaching English Language Learners of All Levels. It was … Continue reading →

A Perfect April Fools Day Post On Value-Added Measurement

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
In light of irresponsible decisions by newspapers in Los Angeles and New York to publish teacher ratings, Matthew Di Carlo over at The Shanker blog has published a perfect April Fools Day post titled Measuring Journalist Quality. The best education … Continue reading →

A Neat Way To Use A Video In Class

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
I posted about a very moving video about a blind dog that was rescued from the garbage, and shared that I was going to have my English Language Learner students watch it and then write sentences describing what they had … Continue reading →

“Round-Up” Of Recent Good Articles & Posts On School Reform

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Here’s a collection of recent education policy articles and posts: Integral to “value-added” is a requirement that some score low is from Gotham Schools. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About The New York Court Decision Releasing … Continue reading →

“Draw A Stickman” Gets Even Better!

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Draw A Stickman was on The Best “Fun” Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too — 2011 list. Here is how I described it there: Draw a Stickman is an amazing adventure where you…draw a stick and he comes to … Continue reading →

Monthly Email Newsletter Sent-Out

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
I just sent out my free monthly email newsletter to about 2,000 subscribers. If you’re interested, you can subscribe here.

March’s Best Posts

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see my previous Best Posts … Continue reading →

March’s “The Best…” Lists — There Are Now 874 Of Them

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Here’s my monthly round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted in February (you can see all 874 of them categorized here): The Best Resources For Learning About the Health Care Debate — March, 2012 The Best Fun Videos About … Continue reading →

“Url2pin” Makes Any Website “Pinnable” On Pinterest

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Url2pin is an extremely easy web tool to use — just copy and paste a url address into it and — within seconds — you have a “pinnable” image you can use on Pinterest. It’s very handy. One negative, however, … Continue reading →

Great Clip Of BIll Moyers Interviewing Howard Zinn

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Here’s a short clip of Bill Moyers interviewing the late Howard Zinn, author of The People’s History Of The United States, in 2009. I’ve also embedded the entire interview right below the clip.

An Extraordinarily Touching (& Must-Watch) Video

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Here’s an extraordinarily touching short video about a blind dog found among some garbage. It’s going to be hard for most people, including my ESL students, not to get a few tears in their eyes. I’ll show it to students … Continue reading →

My United States Class History Blog

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
As regular readers know, this year I’ve been teaching United States History to English Language Learners. I have completely overhauled and updated my class blog from three years ago, and now have a pretty complete blog with resources and assignments … Continue reading →

March’s Best Tweets — Part Two

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
Every month I make a short list highlighting my choices of the best resources I shared through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. Now and then, in order to make it … Continue reading →

More Easter Resources

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Easter And Passover: Easter Egg Hunt Canceled Due To Aggressive Parents is from NPR. Here are the winners of Washington Post’s 2012 “Peeps Diorama Contest” (In case you’re … Continue reading →

“Thinglink” Could Be A Great Tool For ELL’s

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
I’m a big proponent of the Picture Word Inductive Model as a strategy for English Language Learners to develop reading and writing skills (I describe it in detail in this month’s ASCD Educational Leadership in my article, Get Organized Around … Continue reading →

History Of April Fools Day

Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
Here’s a video I’m adding to The Best Sites For Learning About St. Patrick’s Day (& April Fools Day):