My Best Posts On Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2012 (So Far)
I usually just do a year-end list on parent engagement posts and many other topics, but it gets a little crazy having to review all of my zillion posts at once. So, to make it easier for me — and perhaps, to make it a little more useful to readers — I’m going to start [...]
“What is the most effective way for a school to communicate with parents about potentially sensitive topics?”
ASCD SmartBrief, a great way to get daily education news, just announced poll results to the question: What is the most effective way for a school to communicate with parents about potentially sensitive topics? As one would expect, the number one option was “communication from students’ teachers.” The very close number response, though, seems bizarre [...]
“Parent Cortical Mass” Is A Worthwhile Blog
Parent Cortical Mass seems like a good blog that’s worth recommending to parents. Here’s how it describes itself: The Parent Cortical Mass Blog is for parents striving to get more knowledgeable and skillful at managing kids’ learning and education. We focus on four questions: What does research in learning science have to say to parents? [...]
The Best Resources For Learning About Parent Fundraising & Equity Issues
As public financing for schools goes down, the issue of parent fundraising for schools — and equity issues connected to it — is getting more and more attention. I thought I’d at least get a start on bringing together a few resources on the topic. Additional suggestions are welcome: I’ve written a post titled The [...]
“Parents With Limited English Skills Say City Fails to Help Them”
Parents With Limited English Skills Say City Fails to Help Them is the headline of an article in the New York Times “Schoolbook” today. Boy, New York City has sure had problems with parent engagement.
This Week’s Parent Teacher Chat On Twitter
Upcoming #PTchat: Awards Assemblies – Good for Kids? Wed., 6/20/12 at 9PM EDT During this week’s Parent-Teacher Chat (#PTchat), we’ll discuss the “Awards Assembly,” as for many of us, this event is fresh in our minds. Our school has done an End of Year Awards Assembly for many years, but in recent years, my staff and [...]
U.S. Mayors Vote To Support Parent Trigger — With Their Track Record Of School Success, Why Should Anyone Listen?
The U.S. Conference of Mayors has hitched their wagon to a dying horse, the parent trigger, in a vote on Saturday supporting the idea. Of course, the trigger idea has failed in every attempt. And, as the late Gerald Bracey detailed, mayoral control of schools has a record that is almost as bad.
“Are Schools Meeting The Needs Of Parents?”
“Are Schools Meeting The Needs Of Parents?” is the title of a new post by Peter DeWitt at Education Week. Here’s an excerpt: Schools need to communicate with parents about events, curriculum, student progress, and budgetary issues, but is that communication one sided? There are principals who do not return phone calls to parents or [...]
“Fantastic Fun Face”
Fantastic Fun Face lets you search for an image, adds lots of crazy effects to it, and then save and share it. English Language Learners could create a face and then describe it in writing and orally as a language … Continue reading →
“My Best Posts On Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2012 (So Far)”
I just posted My Best Posts On Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2012 (So Far) over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. You might want to take a look…
“What We Expect Influences Our Behavior”
Many of the lesson plans I share on this blog, and all of the ones in my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves (and in the sequel I’m writing to it now), include having students actually read portions of the academic … Continue reading →
Becoming What We Read….
Here are new additions to The Best Resources On “Becoming What We Read”: Psychologists Discover How People Subconsciously Become Their Favorite Fictional Characters is from Medical Daily. Readers build vivid mental simulations of narrative situations, brain scans suggest is from … Continue reading →
Being Reminded Of The Consequences Of Losing Self-Control Doesn’t Help; Asking About Goals Does
A couple of weeks ago, I posted about a pretty interesting new study that — through brain scans — actually showed what the brain looked like when you are demonstrating self-control and when you are not (see This Is — … Continue reading →
What Are The Best Sites For Smartboard Resources (& For Other IWB’s)?
I’ve never used a Smartboard, though I regularly use smaller versions of $2 interactive whiteboards. And I have a lot of respect for Bill Ferriter’s judgment in most things (see Wasting Money on Whiteboards. . . and Why I Hate … Continue reading →
LeBron James Is Reading A Lot
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest First, congratulations to LeBron James on his first NBA Championship. Second, thanks to LeBron for spending so much reading and making it so public. Here’s a video on why and what he’s reading, … Continue reading →
Technology History
Here are some new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The History Of Technology: When we dreamed of television is from The Verge. 1954-2012 (High-tech vocabulary) is an interactive from Ms. Maufroid.
“Imagine All The Water” Tells You How Much Water Is Used To Produce Your Shoes, Paper, Etc.
Imagine All The Water is a very accessible and interactive site sponsored by the European Commission. Here’s how The Atlantic describes it: The site Imagine All the Water would like to remind you of how much water you’re using even … Continue reading →
Wikipedia Launches Pilot To Make It Easier To Contribute
Wikipedia announced today a new “visual editor” that will make it much more accessible to contribute to its pages. They’re introducing it slowly, and it doesn’t appear that it will work for most entries for awhile. I think it will … Continue reading →
“The Best Resources For Learning About Parent Fundraising & Equity Issues”
I just posted The Best Resources For Learning About Parent Fundraising & Equity Issues over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. You might also be interested in the collection of all my parent engagement-related “The Best..” lists.
“21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity”
21 Pictures That Will Restore Your Faith In Humanity is from BuzzFeed. Not only are they great photos for everyone to see, quite a few of them would be good to show to students and have them describe — both … Continue reading →
Must-Watch Video On Khan Academy (& Must-Read Post About It)
Justin Reich just posted Don’t Use Khan Academy without Watching this First, and it’s a very important post where he shared this video two teachers (and an important commentary about it), Dave Coffey and John Golden, created: I’m adding it to The Best … Continue reading →
Several New Olympics Resources
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics: The Associated Press has interactives on diving and on gymnastics. The Guardian has a zillion interactives. Interactive: London Summer Olympics venues comes from The … Continue reading →
“Visuals For Foreign Language Instruction”
Visuals For Foreign Language Instruction is from the University of Pittsburgh. Here is how it describes itself: This site contains hundreds of visual aids (illustrations) that can be used to support instructional tasks such as describing objects and people (i.e., … Continue reading →
Can’t Economists Stay Away From Schools? Don’t They Have Enough Other Things To Do?
Just what we need, another study from economists telling us how to make schools more effective (one released earlier this year concluded that “The message is to fire people sooner rather than later” ). This new study, The Behavioralist Goes … Continue reading →
Today Is World Refugee Day
I’ve just made some additions to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day. I haven’t gotten a chance to check all the links there to see if they’re still good, but the ones I checked were still working.
“Where the Hell is Matt? 2012″ (and his 2008 original)
These videos may be good for a geography lesson, and they are also just plain fun: And here’s the original from 2008:
Great Piece On Obama’s Immigration Change (Plus Bonus Video)
Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources On The Obama Administration’s Plan To Partially Implement The DREAM Act (both came from Andrew Sullivan’s blog): Republicans’ Bad-Faith Objections to Letting DREAMers Stay is from Mother Jones, and is really … Continue reading →
Even More Reasons Why We Should Encourage Our Students To Continue Their Academic Career
Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Showing Students Why They Should Continue Their Academic Career: Sweden’s enormous education experiment improved longevity is from Nature. Though Tuition Is Rising, Value of Education Is Rising Too is from … Continue reading →
“The Beneficial Impact Of Immigrants”
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest The above quote came from an op-ed in today’s New York Times by two university researchers – The Beneficial Impact Of Immigrants. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Immigration … Continue reading →
“Somebody Give Me A Grade!”
Bill Ferriter found this video and wrote a must-read commentary about it — Learning about Grading from the Baljeatles. Let’s not turn our students into this, please. This video make a great case for why we need to help our … Continue reading →
“ImageSpike” Seems — Almost — Just Like “Thinglink”
I’ve previously posted about how much I like Thinglink, a free site that lets you turn photos into interactive images (see “Thinglink” Could Be A Great Tool For ELL’s). ImageSpike is a new web tool that is supposed to do … Continue reading →
NY Times Health Care Reform Law Interactive
Who knows what the Supreme Court will decide in the next week or two on health care reform but, for now, this New York Times interactive that takes you through all the different scenarios is the best thing out there … Continue reading →
“Giving Makes Young Children Happy”
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest The above is a quote from a Science Daily report on a new study — see Giving Makes Young Children Happy.
Fun “I Love Charts” Video
I’m adding this video to A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics: Thanks to Ezra Klein for the tip.
This Sure Is One Impressive Interactive Infographic On The Civil War
The Civil War is quite an impressive interactive infographic on…the Civil War. It shows casualties, stories, and a whole lot more. And it’s a college student’s project. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The American Civil … Continue reading →
ScootPad For Early Math & Reading Lessons
Thanks to reader Michelle Anthony, I’ve learned about ScootPad. It lets teachers set-up virtual classrooms to monitor student progress in grad one-to-three reading and math lessons. And it’s free. I’m adding it to The Best Sites That Students Can Use … Continue reading →
Teachers’ Union Unveils Site To Share Lessons
The American Federation of Teachers has unveiled a new site where educators can upload lessons to share (and, of course, download them, too). It’s called Share A Lesson, and you can read more about it in the New York Times … Continue reading →
Laziest Polar Bear Ever
I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About Polar Bears:
“First Year Highlights: Student Motivation”
First Year Highlights: Student Motivation is the title of my newest column at Education Week Teacher. It brings together links to all my columns on….student motivation.
Yet Another Reason Why We Need To Be Positive With Our Students
From The Optimism Bias by Tali Sharot: extract in The Guardian: To induce expectations of success, she primed college students with words such as smart, intelligent and clever just before asking them to perform a test. To induce expectations of … Continue reading →
What Does “Stop & Frisk” Have To Do With What’s Happening With Our Schools?
Check out this excerpts from today’s New York Times column, Policing by the Numbers: “…the Police Department — where I served from 1983 to 2004 — has become a top-down, micromanaged bureaucracy in which precinct commanders are pitted against one … Continue reading →
“North America home to stunning third of world’s body weight”
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest This is a line from an article on a new report written by the British Medical Council. As the introduction to a fascinating Guardian interactive on the report states: increasing population fatness could … Continue reading →
State-By-State Breakdown Of Who’s Eligible For Immigration Relief — 350,000 In California!
More Than A Million Immigrant Youth Eligible For Deportation Relief is a Learning The Language post at Education Week that shares state-by-state numbers on who’s eligible for the relief promised by last week’s immigration announcement by the Obama Administration. In … Continue reading →
“BeeClip.Edu” Looks Great
Thanks to David Kapuler (I’d recommend you subscribe to his blog), I’ve learned about a new site called BeeClip.Edu. It lets you set-up a virtual classroom where students can create a “scrapbook” or other products using a very simple “drag-and-drop” … Continue reading →
A MiddleWeb Interview With….Me
Middleweb is a longstanding resource newsletter/blog, begun by my friend/colleague/hero John Norton, and has recently expanded very impressively. I’ll soon be posting a interview with John where he will be offering details. And, today, John has posted a Middleweb interview … Continue reading →
Subject Matter Knowledge Versus Pedagogy?
I’ve posted previously about my concerns that that some trends toward teacher preparation have been placing too much emphasize on content knowledge over teaching skills (see How Much “Content” Knowledge Do You Really Need To Be An Effective Teacher? and … Continue reading →
Extraordinary Music Resource From EFL Classroom 2.0
David Deubelbeiss from EFL Classroom 2.0 has put together an extraordinary music resource — a collection of all EFL Clasroom 2.0 song + lyric sheet materials. I’m adding it to The Best Music Websites For Learning English.
“Hans Rosling: Religions and babies”
I’ve previously shared videos of Hans Rosling, data magician. He has a new TED Talk out, and it’s called Religions and Babies. I’m embedding it below, and I’m also adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s … Continue reading →
Accommodations And Compromises (& Two Questions About Them)
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest The above quote is from an extraordinary scene in “The Wire,” my favorite television show of all time, and I’ve embedded a video of that “must watch” scene at the end of this … Continue reading →
On The Importance Of Being Positive In Class
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest This quote comes from a New York Times article headlined A Richer Life by Seeing the Glass Half Full. In it, the author also reports on a recommendation to help develop this kind of … Continue reading →