“Parent Involvement: A Two-Way Partnership with Schools”
Parent Involvement: A Two-Way Partnership with Schools is a useful post by Marilyn Price-Mitchell, Ph.D., who often writes on parent engagement issues. One of the best pieces of information in her post is a chart listing “Helpful Behaviors” and “Harmful Behaviors” related to parent involvement in schools….
Excerpts From My Book On Parent Engagement
As most regular readers know, the first book I wrote was Building Parent Engagement In Schools. If you haven’t seen it yet, you might be interested in reading this excerpt, Parent Involvement or Parent Engagement?, and/or this interview with me about the book.
“‘Public Square’ Website Solicits Parents’ Insights”
‘Public Square’ Website Solicits Parents’ Insights is another good post from Michele Molnar over at Education Week. She reports on how a Florida school district is using social media in an ambitious effort to discuss and plan ways to increase parent involvement, and includes several good links.
“How Do We Want to Engage Parents?”
In “How Do We Want to Engage Parents?”, Timothy Boyle over at The Notebook suggests that school leaders answer three simple questions as they’re determining a parent engagement strategy: How do you engage parents at your school? What would you like to change or add to those efforts? What do you need to make it [...]
This Week’s Parent-Teacher Chat (#ptchat) on Twitter
Guest post by Joe Mazza Engaging Grandparents & Family Friends in Our Schools Every child’s “home” is different. When I was growing up in the early 1980s in a middle class suburb of Philadelphia, I remember seeing my grandparents several times per week, and even spent weeks at a time with them. My grandparents were [...]
“Let’s Read Them a Story! The Parent Factor In Education”
“Let’s Read Them a Story! The Parent Factor In Education” is a new book from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development. The link will take you to a free PDF version of it. The book is pretty impressive — good statistics, great cartoons from The New Yorker, and excellent advice for how parents can [...]
“First Year Highlights: Parent Engagement In Schools”
First Year Highlights: Parent Engagement In Schools is my new Education Week Teacher post. It brings together all my previous columns on parent engagement.
Community Support For Schools
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest In ‘Community Support’ Tops List of Public Education ‘Pluses,’ Michele Molnar over at Education Week writes about a recent article in the American School Board Journal that ranked “community support” for schools as the number one “good thing” for education. The above quote is form that article. Check [...]
“Want to Get Teens Interested in Math and Science? Target Their Parents”
Want to Get Teens Interested in Math and Science? Target Their Parents is from the Association Of Psychological Science and reports on a recent study. Basically, they sent parents a couple of brochures on STEM and asked them to visit a website. The parents in a control group didn’t get any of that extra information. [...]
Ramadan Resources
Ramadan began yesterday, and I’ve just updated The Best Sites To Teach & Learn About Ramadan. Additional suggestions are welcome.
Today’s New Olympics Resources
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics: America’s adopted athletes is a really nice interactive from the BBC profiling immigrants who are competing for the United States. London 2012 Olympics Infographic … Continue reading →
The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberative Practice
Jonah Lehrer provides a good description of the “10,000 hour rule”: The 10,000 hour rule has become a cliche. This is the idea, first espoused by K. Anders Ericsson, a pyschologist at Florida State University, that it takes about 10,000 … Continue reading →
Another Nice Video For ELL Students
Teachers can show this video to English Language Learners and have them write what happened chronologically. In addition, students could be asked why the driver stopped and helped, and share times they have (and, perhaps, have not) been kind and … Continue reading →
Excellent Slideshow From Shelly Terrell On “Working With Images”
Shelly Terrell has created an excellent slideshow called “Working With Images” that shares a number of ideas on how to use images with English Language Learners. I’ve embedded below, but am not sure it will show up in an RSS … Continue reading →
Great Graphic On The Value Of High School & Beyond
The United States Department of Education today launched a new website designed to help students plan for their continuing education — StudentAid.Gov. To tell you the truth, the site looks okay, but I’m not convinced it’s that much more helpful … Continue reading →
More Resources On The Struggles Of Indigenous People
Here are the latest additions to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People (which is August 9th): Indigenous Tribe Rises up in Colombia is a TIME slideshow. Pine Ridge Community Storytelling Project is an interactive from … Continue reading →
“I Side With” Is A Good Tool For Learning About The Presidential Campaign”
I Side With is a new cool interactive for learning about the Presidential campaign. Here’s how NPR describes it: The site’s purpose is to show you which presidential candidate’s views most align with yours by running you through a short … Continue reading →
Today’s The Anniversary Of The First Moon Landing
Neil Armstrong walked on the moon for the first time on July 20th of 1969. You might find The Best Sites To Learn About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing useful. Feel free to make suggestions for additions to the list….
Even More Criticism For “The Dancing Guy” TED Talk
Last month I posted a critique of the popular TED Talk on The Dancing Guy, which is often used to teach leadership lessons. Today, I “double-down” and expand that criticism in a guest post at SmartBrief On Education. Check out … Continue reading →
1200 Categorized IB Theory Of Knowledge Links
My collection of resources for IB Theory of Knowledge classes has grown to 1200 categorized links. TOK teachers and students might also find our class blog useful.
“Dog Burglar” Video Would Be Good For ELL’s
This would be a fun and engaging video to show to English Language Learner students and then write a chronological sequence about what happened…
“FlockDraw” Is One Of The Best Online Drawing Tools Around
FlockDraw, with no registration required, lets you create a virtual room where up to ten people can draw in addition to being able to “chat.” You can save your drawing on the Web. It can’t get much easier than what … Continue reading →
“Ptch” Seems Like “Animoto-Plus” For The iPhone
Ptch is a new iPhone app that lets you easily mix your photos and videos into a neat slideshow with music. It seems to me like Animoto with a more attractive interface, more options and better music. You can read … Continue reading →
The Land That Native Americans Have Lost
Here’s a “movie” showing the loss of Native American land over the past 250 years. You can read more about it at The Atlantic: I’m adding it to The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People, which … Continue reading →
Anthony Bryk Compares Summative Teacher “Evaluation” With Teacher “Improvement” — A Very Smart Video
This twelve minute video of Anthony Bryk from the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching is one of the best things I’ve seen about teacher evaluation. Among other points, he compares summative teacher evaluation with teacher improvement. I learned … Continue reading →
Today’s Olympics Resources
Boy oh boy, great Olympic resources are coming online every day, so I guess I’ll just have a daily update to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics: Olympics 2012: Athletes in training is a photo gallery from … Continue reading →
Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
(Usually, I just post a weekly version of this regular feature. However, sometimes I post an extra “Special Edition” when I have more good links than usual) I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post … Continue reading →
Syria Resources
I’ve just made a number of new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About What’s Happening In Syria. Additional suggestions are welcome…
Foboko Looks Like A Good Place To Write Books Online
Foboko is a new site where you can easily write and publish books online. It similar in most ways to a number of other sites that are on The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online list. The big place … Continue reading →
Halfway Done On Sequel To “Helping Students Motivate Themselves”
Even though my next book will be coming out next month (The ESL/ELL Teacher’s Survival Guide, co-authored with Katie Hull Sypnieski), I’m not letting any “grass grow under my feet” . I just sent my publisher 45% of a sequel … Continue reading →
More On The Olympics
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics: 10 Infographics On The London Olympics Of course, NBC’s Olympics page is a pretty useful place.
Brilliant! Nelson Mandela’s Life Story If Social Media Had Been Around
This short video shows how Nelson Mandela might have written about his life if social media had been around. A video like this could be a great model for students to see before they would do a similar project on … Continue reading →
Check Out This Paralympic Games Video
Immediately following each Olympics (and they use the same facilities) comes the Paralympic Games. Check out this video about them:
More Useful Common Core Resources
Here are new additions to The Most Useful Resources For Implementing Common Core: ASCD has a free newsletter called The Core Connection. Project-Based Learning and Common Core Standards is also from ASCD. And here are new additions to The Best … Continue reading →
Stephen Colbert On The Texas GOP’s Call To Stop Teaching Critical Thinking
The Colbert Report Get More: Colbert Report Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,Video Archive
It’s Nelson Mandela’s Birthday Today
Nelson Mandela is 94 today and, as The Telegraph explains: July 18 is marked as International Nelson Mandela Day, a UN-backed event, when people around the world but particularly in South Africa are asked to spend 67 minutes of their time on … Continue reading →
Online Carbon Calculators
I’ve just updated The Best Online Carbon Calculators. Additional suggestions are welcome…
“Science Of The Summer Olympics”
“Science Of The Summer Olympics” is a series of videos NBC has produced with the National Science Foundation. You can also read more about it here. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics.
“Planwise” Looks Potentially Useful For Learning About Budgets
Planwise is a new free tool that seems to me just about the most ambitious web tool out there for budgeting. It may be a little too complicated for English Language Learners, but it’s worth a look. I’m adding it … Continue reading →
“More Than A Number” Music Video
A couple of weeks ago I posted the lyrics and the audio to a song written by educator Barry Lane (author of numerous books about teaching writing) with Lyrics by Amy Ludwig VanDerwater. They recently released this music video (thanks … Continue reading →
Test Result Idolatry In Tennessee
The Tennessean reports today: Tennessee’s new way of evaluating classrooms “systematically failed” to identify bad teachers and provide them more training, according to a state report published Monday. The Tennessee Department of Education found that instructors who got failing grades … Continue reading →
“The Onion” Does Satire On Teach For America
The Onion has just published a pretty funny “Point/Counterpoint” satire on Teach For America which is very funny, though (as most satire is) not as fair to TFA as it probably could be. The point is written by a “volunteer … Continue reading →
Mobento Lets You Search For Words In Videos
Mobento is a new site that lets you search for words spoken in videos. For now, they have indexed ones from Khan, TED and Stanford, and plan a lot more. It’s pretty straightforward — you type a word into the … Continue reading →
When The Computer Mouse Was Introduced To The World
Here’s a video about the day the computer mouse was introduced to the world. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The History Of Technology.
Wow, This Is Post Number 10,000
This is the ten thousandth post I’ve published on this blog since I started writing it five-and-a-half years ago. That’s a lot of posts! After this year’s crop of “best-of-the-year” lists, I plan on writing some “best-of-the-past-five-year” ones, so that … Continue reading →
Revamped Buffalo Site At The Smithsonian
I’ve often used the Smithsonian site on Buffalo Paintings as part of a lesson with my students. The Buffalo Hide Paintings it describes are very similar to Hmong story cloths. They’ve now completely revamped their site, and it looks very … Continue reading →
“much of what seems real to us is governed by our own perceptions”
When I was a teenager, I met a man who had worked with Gandhi in India. He told me that the key to Gandhi’s success was that “he looked at every problem as an opportunity, not as a pain in … Continue reading →
Funny Daily Show Collection Of Clips On Education
The Daily Show has created a short collection of clips they’ve shown on education: The Daily ShowGet More: Daily Show Full Episodes,Political Humor & Satire Blog,The Daily Show on Facebook If you’re looking for a few more laughs, you might … Continue reading →
“First Year Highlights: Parent Engagement In Schools”
First Year Highlights: Parent Engagement In Schools is my new Education Week Teacher post. It brings together all my previous columns on parent engagement.
Bob Marley Videos
Here are two videos I’m adding to The Best Websites For Learning About Bob Marley. The first is a trailer for documentary that looks good (thanks to Michelle Henry for the tip). The second is from The Biography Channel. That … Continue reading →
More On The Olympics
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The London 2012 Olympics: The evolving Olympic athlete is a neat interactive from CNN. The Telegraph has a constantly updated page on the Olympics. The New York Times … Continue reading →
L.A. Times Writes Shockingly Good Editorial On Schools — With Convenient Amnesia
The Los Angeles Times, the paper guilty of pioneering extraordinary moral lapse of publishing teacher’s value-added ranking (see The Best Posts About The LA Times Article On “Value-Added” Teacher Ratings) just published a shockingly good editorial titled Education’s pendelum: Thinkers … Continue reading →
Are Curators Bowerbirds?
There’s more and more discussion on the web about the role of “curators” (which is sort of what I do with my “The Best…” lists). In fact, awhile I ago I posted The Best Posts & Articles About Curation. Now, … 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 →
Resources On The World’s Indigenous People
The United Nations has declared August 9th to be The International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People. You might be interested in The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People.
The Most Useful Resources For Implementing Common Core — I Hope You’ll Contribute More
(NOTE: Readers have begun to contribute some excellent ideas in the comments. I’ll get around to adding them to the body of this post but, until then, be sure to review the comments, too!) I’m obviously not a real big … Continue reading →
“Speek” Seems Like A Simple Tool For Conference Calls
Speek lets you very simply organize conference calls. The number is unlimited, but they say the quality begins to deteriorate after ten people. It’s free. You quickly register and then you’re given a url address for your call. You email … Continue reading →
Toilet-Training, Incentives & Merit Pay
I’ve written a lot about the dangers of using rewards with students and the dangers of using merit pay with teachers. And I’ve written about economists and schools — Part Two Of “Can’t Economists Stay Away From Schools?” — My … Continue reading →
The Joy Of Discovery
Source: shareasimage.com via Larry on Pinterest The above quote comes from a short NPR essay titled The Problem With Sports On TV. But it’s pretty easy to apply it to the classroom. I’m adding it to The Best Posts … Continue reading →
