Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
“Community School Model Seen as Valuable to Rural Areas”
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Community School Model Seen as Valuable to Rural Areas is an interesting article over at Education Week. I’ve written very positively about community schools in the past, as well as expressing my concerns about them.
Making Parents Pay A School Anytime Their Child Is Given Detention Is Not A Wise Parent Engagement Strategy
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
The Noble Network has ten charter schools in Chicago. Parents are charged $5 everytime their child is given a detention: In addition to receiving detention (and, thus, having to pay a fee) for violating rules like having their shoes untied and bringing potato chips to school, Noble Street students can rack up demerits for failing [...]
Guest Post: Did the Tech fail or was there a failure to connect to the Tech?
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
I invited Myrdin Thompson to write a guest commentary on the article discussed in my last post, Tech May Have A Role, But Is Not Cure-All, For Parent Engagement. Myrdin is Contributing Editor at MOMentumNation, Group Leader at RESULTSLouisville, Advocate for the UNF Shot@Life program, White House Champion of Change (Parents on Education), Regional Director [...]
Tech May Have A Role, But Is Not Cure-All, For Parent Engagement
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Web app that links parents to kids’ schools has few takers in Dallas ISD is the headline in a recent Dallas Morning News article. Here are some excerpts: The application, called Parent Portal, makes an extraordinary amount of information available to parents. It shows students’ grades, attendance records and notes from their teachers on how [...]
This week’s #PTchat On Twitter
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Guest post by Joe Mazza On Wednesday, January 2, 2013, weekly #ptchat returns with a goal setting conversation. We’ll discuss short and long term family engagement goals from the classroom, administrative and parent leadership lens. How can we best involve student voice to maximize our engagement goals? Join us at 9PM EDT for our first [...]
“Tour helps ease immigrants’ worries about school menus”
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Tour helps ease immigrants’ worries about school menus is an interesting article from Minnesota about how a school gave Somali refugee parents a tour of their cafeteria and food to allay concerns about food not acceptable to Muslims. Thanks to Ken Libby for the tip.
“Interactive Homework Spurs Parent Involvement, Study Finds”
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Interactive Homework Spurs Parent Involvement, Study Finds is the title of a useful blog post by Sarah Sparks over at Education Week. Here’s an excerpt: Homework assignments that require help from family members can get parents more involved in middle school, a time many parents become less visible in school, concludes a new study in [...]
My Most Popular Parent Engagement Posts Of The Year — 2012
Larry Ferlazzo at Engaging Parents In School... - 1 week ago
Here are the ten most popular posts from this blog over the past year: 1. Another Reason Why We Need To Be Careful How We Speak To Parents About Their Children 2. The Best Sources Of Parent Engagement Advice For Teachers 3. A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Parent Engagement 4. Good Middle School [...]
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Educational Policy Resources
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 10 hours ago
Here are a few relatively recent good posts on education policy issues: Evaluating Teachers of ELLs in the Age of the CCSS is from Colorin Colorado. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher … Continue reading →
Here Are Some Quotes From Me In Dan Pink’s New Book
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 12 hours ago
As a number of people have discovered, Dan Pink interviewed me (and my wife) for his new book, To Sell Is Human, and a few parts of that interview appear in it. That interview is actually a very, very small … Continue reading →
What A Great Video To Show The Importance Of Modeling & Support
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 14 hours ago
“The Best Videos On Parent Engagement”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
I’ve just published The Best Videos On Parent Engagement over at my other blog, Engagement Parents In School. It might be worth a look…
The Best Resources On Peer Assistance & Review (PAR) Programs
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
I’ll be doing a post over at my Education Week Teacher column soon on Peer Assistance and Review programs, and thought it would be useful to compile a short “The Best…” list on the topic. I hope readers will contribute … Continue reading →
“From Cave Paintings to the Internet” Is Quite A Site
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
It’s a little hard to describe From Cave Paintings to the Internet. Here’s what Google Maps Mania has to say about it: an amazing online project to document the history of information and media. The project has a huge scope, … Continue reading →
The Best Sites To Learning About This Month’s Fires In Australia
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
Australia is being hit with terrible fires, and they’re so awful that I thought readers would find a list of resources on them useful. As a resident of California, no stranger to wild fires, my heart goes out to them. … Continue reading →
“Phrase.it” Lets You Easily Add Speech Bubbles To Photos
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
Phrase.it lets you easily add speech bubbles with your text to photos. You can upload your own, or choose a random image from the site. You’re then given a link to your creation. I’m adding it to my surprisingly popular … Continue reading →
“How Do We Deal With ‘History Myths” In The Classroom?”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
How Do We Deal With ‘History Myths” In The Classroom? is the new “question of the week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave your comments here or there…
More On The Gates Foundation “MET” Report
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 day ago
Here are some new additions to A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report: Gates Still Doesn’t Get It! Trapped in a World of Circular Reasoning & Flawed Frameworks is from Bruce Baker. The … Continue reading →
January’s (2013) Best Tweets — Part One
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 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 a … Continue reading →
The “Telephone” Game For Theory of Knowledge Students
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Most teachers of English Language Learners are familiar with the “Telephone” game — you whisper a sentence into a student’s ear and they have to whisper it into another student’s ear and so on — to see what the last … Continue reading →
“Several Ways to Become Better at Teaching Math — Part Two”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
Several Ways to Become Better at Teaching Math — Part Two is my newest Education Week Teacher post. In it, Bob Peterson and Eric Gutstein offer an excerpt from their book, Rethinking Mathematics; Gary Rubinstein contributes an excerpt from his … Continue reading →
JSTOR Now Lets You See A Few Articles For Free
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
This is good news for anyone who ever needs to do a little research — JSTOR, the archive of zillions of research studies and academic articles, will now let you read up to three articles every two weeks, for free. … Continue reading →
Is The “Teach 100″ A Worthy Successor To PostRank?
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 2 days ago
I, and many others, found PostRank to be a very helpful way to evaluate, and learn about, blogs in many areas, including education. However, it joined the ranks of many worthy online tools that were bought by Google and then … Continue reading →
What Is The “Public Return” On Educational Investment?
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) just announced the winners of their contest to develop a visualization of “the economic costs and returns on education.” Here’s a link to the winner and to the runner-up. The don’t seem … Continue reading →
A Beginning List Of The Best Posts On Gates’ Final MET “Effective Teaching” Report
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
The Gates Foundation released its Measures of Effective Teaching Project Releases Final Research Report yesterday, and many of us are still trying to digest it. Here’s a very beginning list of posts about it, and I’ll be adding more and … Continue reading →
The Best Resources On Grading Practices
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
This is the last — for now, at least — “The Best…” list in my student assessment series (though, of course, I’ll be adding new resources to each of them on an ongoing basis). Here are the previous posts in … Continue reading →
A Conversation With A Student
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
Him: “It’s too easy to get an A in this class.” Me: “Why do you say that?” Him: “I have an A. I never get A’s” Me: “Do you do all your work?” Him: “Yes.” Me: “Do you try your … Continue reading →
“Reading Like A Historian” Is Pretty Impressive
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
Reading Like A Historian is an impressive collection of almost ninety U.S. and World History lessons from The Stanford History Education Group. Here’s how they describe the lessons: The Reading Like a Historian curriculum engages students in historical inquiry. Each … Continue reading →
Here Are The Web Tools My Students Are Using For Their Writing….
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
A few months ago I published The Best Ways For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — REVISED, and, based on various District content filter-related issues, am making some changes to it. Even though I … Continue reading →
Nate Silver’s Impeccable VAM Timing
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
One hour after The Gates Foundation released their big report that justified the use of Value-Added Measurement to evaluate teachers, Nate Silver was participating in a question/answer session on the Reddit site. Here’s the first question and his answer: QUESTION: … Continue reading →
Gates Releases Final Report On “Effective Teaching”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 3 days ago
The Gates Foundation Measures Of Effective Teaching has just released its final report, Measures of Effective Teaching Project Releases Final Research Report. In addition, they have issued two other reports, Ensuring Fair and Reliable Measures of Effective Teaching: Culminating Findings … Continue reading →
The Best Resources For Learning About Performance Assessment
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago
This is the second-to-last in a series of “The Best…” lists related to student assessment. The next, and last, post in the series will related to grading. This post focuses on “performance assessment.” Here’s how Linda Darling-Hammond describes it: For … Continue reading →
Rhee Gives California Ed Policies An “F”; CA “Great Results With Diminishing Resources” Report Comes Out At Same Time
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago
At about the same time Michelle Rhee, resident of our fair city of Sacramento, gave California education policies an “F,” a report based on actual research and focused on how students are doing in the classroom was published with the … Continue reading →
Gates Foundation Set To Release Final Teacher Effectiveness Report On Tuesday — I Wonder Why I Don’t Have A Good Feeling About It?
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago
The Gates Foundation is set to release the final report of its three-year project on teacher effectiveness on Tuesday. You can read about the concerns that I, and many others, had about it’s mid-term report a year ago at The … Continue reading →
Intriguing Gallup Student Poll Results, But Not Something I’d Quote A Lot
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 4 days ago
Gallup just came out with their annual Gallup Student Poll and, at first glance, it looks pretty depressing. But, that’s only at first glance: Their public announcement it says, “Gallup research strongly suggests that the longer students stay in school, … Continue reading →
“How to Shoot Great Video with Your Smartphone”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
I learned about this video from 10,000 Words. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning Beginning Photography Tips.
Video: “Trombone Silliness”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
How would it feel being a trombone? Here’s a lighthearted addition to The Best Sites For Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes:
Help Me Find Move/TV Scenes Showing “Thinking Outside Of The Box”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
I’m looking for short movie/TV scenes that demonstrate “thinking outside of the box.” Do you have any suggestions? I’ll use them to put together a “The Best…” list and, of course, will give credit to people making suggestions. Thanks!
A “Taxonomy For Understanding”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
Terry Heick has developed a “Simple Taxonomy For Understanding” over at TeachThought that’s worth a look. He says he borrowed some elements from the Understanding By Design “Six Facets Of Understanding,” and I’ve embedded a slideshare presentation about them below: … Continue reading →
“Design Thinking” & Classroom Reality
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
Tonight’s Sixty Minutes program has an interview with David Kelley, known for “design thinking,” which “refers to incorporating human behavior into design.” TED also has some of his talks on video. I’ve embedded a preview from tonight’s show below, though … Continue reading →
Nice Bilingual Interactive On Citizenship Preparation
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 5 days ago
Pumarosa has long been on The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English list. Now, though, Paul Rogers, the site’s creator, has decided to allow free access to its Civics and U.S. History section. Because of that, I’m also … Continue reading →
Special Edition Of “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
(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 →
Annotate Videos With HapYak
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
HapYak lets you annotate any YouTube or Vimeo video with text (including url addresses) or freestyle drawing. The Adventures With Technology blog has an interesting lesson plan using HapYak with second language learners. Thanks to Joe Dale for the tip. … Continue reading →
Article AND Videos: “A Pickpocket’s Tale”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
You may have already read or heard about the excellent feature article in this week’s New Yorker, A Pickpocket’s Tale. It’s about performer Apollo Robbins and his legendary skills at using what he and scientists know about attention to…steal things. … Continue reading →
This Is Really Good: “Best Of 2012″ From Letters Of Note
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
Letters of Note regularly highlights incredibly engaging…letters — often written by historical figures. I’ve periodically highlighted some of them here. They published their Best Of 2012, and it’s really good. Thanks to Ed Yong for the tip.
Excellent Five Minute Interview With Dan Pink
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
Dan Pink was interviewed on CBS this morning, and it really gets at some key elements of motivation and goal-setting. There’s nothing new there for people familiar with his work, but it’s a great piece to show to colleagues and … Continue reading →
“Several Ways to Become Better at Teaching Math”
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 6 days ago
Several Ways to Become Better at Teaching Math is my new post over at Education Week Teacher. It includes guest responses from José Vilson, Shawn Cornally and Dan Meyer.
A Collection Of “Best…” Lists On Vocabulary Development
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 week ago
I thought it might be useful to readers if I brought together all my vocabulary-related “Best…” lists together in one post. Some may need to be updated, but even if you find some dead links, the vast majority should still … Continue reading →
“Hashtag” is the 2012 Word of the Year
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 week ago
The American Dialect Society has just named “hashtag” its word of the year. You can see all the other winners at the same link. I’m adding the info to The Best “Words Of The Year” Features For 2012.
More Evidence Showing The Dangers Of Using High-Stakes Testing For Teacher Evaluation
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 week ago
I’ve posted a lot about the shortcomings of using Value-Added Measurements (VAM) and, in general, any kind of student test scores in standardized tests in teacher evaluation (see The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation). … Continue reading →
Health Career Videos
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 week ago
The state of Michigan has a nice collection of closed-captioned videos talking about different health careers. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Students Exploring Jobs & Careers. Thanks to Michelle Henry’s great ESL website for the tip.
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
Larry Ferlazzo at Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... - 1 week ago
I’ve have a somewhat regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: Easy English looks like a useful current events site … Continue reading →