Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
TODAY
“Ideas to Increase Parent Communication in Schools”
Ideas to Increase Parent Communication in Schools is a post by principal Eric Sheninger that includes a number of useful ideas. I’m adding it to A Beginning List Of The Best Resources On Using Technology To Help Engage Parents.
YESTERDAY
A Collection Of Multilingual Pre-School Learning Guides
The State of Massachusetts has an impressive collection of pre-school learning guides for parents. They’re in English, Spanish, Haitian, Khmer, Chinese and Portuguese. They seem very well-designed and accessible with excellent graphics. I’m adding them to The Best Multilingual Resources For Parents.
JUL 18
A Few Potentially Useful Tech Tools For Teacher/Parent Communication
I thought readers might find it useful if I shared a handful of tech tools that might be helpful with teacher/parent communication. Remind 101 is described by teacher Lisa Mims as “a safe way for teachers to text message students and parents without giving out your phone number or requiring theirs!” You can read more about it at her blog post. Over at my other blog, I’ve posted a list of easy ways
JUL 17
Parents & The Common Core Standards
I’m no big fan of the Common Core Standards, but they are a reality for most of us. If teachers are ever in situations where they have to explain them to parents, or if there are parents who want to understand more about them, here are a couple of relatively useful resources: 5 Things Every Parent Needs to Know About The Common Core is from The American Enterprise Institute. The PTA has a series o
Research On The Importance Of Family Dinners
Thanks to Joe Mazza, I learned about a research paper that was just published on the importance of family dinners. Here’s an excerpt, which I suspect shares results that are not surprising to anyone: This year’s study again demonstrates that the magic that happens at family dinners isn’t the food on the table, but the conversations and family engagement around the table. Teens who have frequent
JUL 16
Not Your Typical “Parent University”
I’ve often posted about my concerns related to the parent “leadership” trainings many school districts offer. Today, Education Week ran an article about a parent university program in Middletown, Connecticut which certainly seems to get beyond they typical topics covered by programs of this kind (I wonder if it’s just a coincidence that there seems to be a similar program nearby in New Haven?). Yo
The Best Resources To Help Engage Parents Of Children With Special Needs – Help Me Find More
I’m beginning this list with a few resources, but hope that readers will contribute a lot more. You can see all my parent-engagement related “The Best…” lists here. Here is a very beginning list of The Best Resources To Help Engage Parents Of Children With Special Needs: The LD Navigator is an online tool designed to help health care professionals talk to parents about learning disabilities. Howev
JUL 15
“Getting Parents On Your Side”
Getting Parents On Your Side is a useful post at Mrs. Wideen’s blog. In it, she shares five practices she uses to engage parents in her classroom.
Interesting Research On Immigrant Parents & Their Children
Lesli Maxwell over at Education Week has written a good summary post, Immigrant Paradox Less Consistent in Young Children, Study Finds, about a new student related to English Language Learners. The study itself is lengthy, but has an interesting section on immigrant parents and schools. I was going to copy and paste that section because it’s pretty short, but it unfortunately is “protected” and wo
JUL 14
Using “African Models Of Leadership” To Strengthen Parent Engagement
Black Parental Involvement In South African Rural Schools: Will Parents Every Help In Enhancing Effective School Management is a research paper containing the results of interviews with South African principals and principals. Many of the issues will sound familiar to us in the West. What’s particularly interesting, though, are the comments made by the research about how to respond to the challeng
TODAY
Infographic: “50 Crazy Facts About The Winter Olympics”
The Winter Olympics are coming up in six months, and I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: 50 Crazy Facts About The Winter Olympics [Infographic] infographic
YESTERDAY
“Breaking News English” Now Provides “Leveled” Lessons
Breaking News English, the popular site used by thousands of English teachers around the world, has now begun providing each lesson in multiple levels – from beginners to advanced. And I thought Sean Banville, the site’s creator, was busy before! I wonder how much sleep he’s getting now?
This Looks Cool: Remix A Video For UNESCO
UNESCO and Mozilla just announced a project to Help UNESCO remix educational videos. Here’s an excerpt from the announcement: UNESCO has been using technology to reach under-served populations around the world and they’re calling for people to use Popcorn Maker to help remix educational videos, including ones they’re currently using in rural Pakistan. UNESCO has introduced mobile technologies to d
Video & Transcript Of The Speech President Obama Gave On Trayvon Martin Today
President Obama gave a speech today on the Trayvon Martin verdict. I wouldn’t say it was his best, but he did make some important points. You can read the transcript here, and I’ve embedded the video below. I’ve also included an excerpt from his speech. I’m adding this to The Best Resources For Lessons On Trayvon Martin.
Resources For New Teachers
There are lots of new teachers out there getting ready for the coming school year. They might find The Best Advice For New Teachers useful.
If You Liked Last Week’s Trailer For Upcoming Mandela Movie, You’ll Be Even More Impressed With This One
Here’s the latest trailer for the upcoming movie adaptation of Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela.
JUL 18
More Resources On Student Motivation
Here are some new additions to The Best Posts & Articles On “Motivating” Students: Nine Things Successful People Do Differently is by Heidi Grant Halvorson and appeared in the Harvard Business Review. What makes it particularly useful in class is an online assessment people can take on it — The 9 Things Diagnostic. Student Motivations and Attitudes: The Role of the Affective Domain in Geoscien
Video: “Bow Wow Meow – Animal Sounds in Different Languages”
I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures. Thanks to Michelle Henry for the tip. Bow Wow Meow – Animal Sounds in Different Languages from properniceinnit on Vimeo.
Shocker To All Second Language Teachers: “Singing can help when learning a foreign language”
Results of a new study will come as no surprise to anyone who teaches a second language: “Singing can help when learning a foreign language.” Of course, having a little more research to back you up if people question the melodic tones coming from your classroom can’t hurt. Even more info on the study is here. I’m adding this to The Best Music Websites For Learning English.
Nine California Districts (Including Ours) Seek Waiver From NCLB — Duncan Should Turn It Down
Ed Source and Education Week have provided exceptional coverage to the unprecedented attempt by nine school districts here in California to seek a waiver from No Child Left Behind rules. The state had a waiver request rejected because it wouldn’t agree to including test scores in teacher evaluations. Our district here in Sacramento is one of those nine included in the waiver request. Here’s the en
Mandela Day Video: What He Means to South Africans
Here’s a video from The New York Times that I’m adding to The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela:
Easy New Way To Subscribe To Twitter Via RSS
Last month, Twitter unfortunately killed-off RSS feeds for users of the service. Subscribing to your own Twitter feed is a great way to archive your tweets and make them searchable through whatever RSS Reader you’re using. Of course, now that Google Reader, too, has been killed-off, most of the other readers available right now don’t have a search feature. However, most are promising to deliver th
July’s Best Tweets — Part Three
Every month I make a few short lists 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. I’ve already shared in earlier posts several new resources I found on Twitter — and where I gave credit to those from whom I learned about them. Those are not included again in this post. If you don’t use Twit
JUL 17
“What Should Trayvon Martin Have Done?”
What Should Trayvon Martin Have Done? is an excellent piece in The New Yorker by Amy Davidson. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Lessons On Trayvon Martin. Here’s an excerpt: When I asked on Twitter, there were two sorts of answers about what Martin should have done at this stage of the night: variations on “run straight home” and “not be black.” Those options are themselves mirror images.
Whew! Just Finished First Chapter Of Third Book On Student Motivation
It’s been a somewhat trying three weeks, but I was just able to finish my 17,000 word first chapter for the third volume in my student motivation series (the first one was Helping Students Motivate Themselves and the second was Self-Driven Learning). And, though I’m admittedly biased, I think it’s pretty good. I’ve got to put that book on hold for awhile, now, though (I’m not planning to finish i
Excellent Video: “What Is A Blog?”
Edublogs has just created this video on “What Is A Blog?” I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers and to My Best Posts For Tech Novices (Plus A Few From Other People).
“ColAR” Could Be The Coolest Tablet App Out There, & Here’s How I Would Use It In Class
ColAR is an extraordinary free app that TechCrunch just wrote about (see ColAR Uses Augmented Reality To Bring Your Kid’s Drawing To Life). It’s free, and lets you print out coloring pages from their site, color them in, look at them through the tablet app, and they come alive. Watch this video and prepare to be mesmerized: I could see English Language Learners, and other students, color in the p
Collect Quotes With “Findings”
Findings is a web tool that, once you install a bookmarklet, lets you highlight and save quotations and their sources. Even more importantly, you can search for ones that others have saved even if you haven’t registered. You can turn them into visually attractive quotes that can be shared on social media, though it doesn’t seem that you can take them directly from the site and embed them elsewhere
Video Of Amazing Kids’ Feat
Here’s a perfect GIF from Vine that English Language Learners can watch and describe verbally and in writing. You might also be interested in The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2013 — So Far.
Sites For Learning The Alphabet
Here are some new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Alphabet: Alphablocks is a series of good games at the CBBC, especially this one. Here’s an Alphabet Primer put out by an Anti-Slavery Society in 1846. Thanks to Michelle Henry for the tip.
JUL 16
Video: “The Names Of Nelson Mandela”
Here’s a video from UNICEF: I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela.
A Couple Of Good Common Core Resources
Here are some new additions to The Most Useful Resources For Implementing Common Core: Common Core & Ed Tech looks like a useful blog. The Institute For Learning also has some useful resources.
The New Google Maps Is Now Open To Everybody!
Back in May, I posted about the new Google Maps that was being rolled-out slowly (I’ve re-posted below what I published then). Today, though, Google has made it available to everybody and anybody. TechCrunch explains how to access it: But wait! Don’t head straight over to maps.google.come and expect the new look, just yet. While they’ve ditched the invite queue and the whole having-to-wait bit,
Infographic: “Ramadan In Numbers 2013″
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites To Teach & Learn About Ramadan: Ramadan In Numbers 2013 infographic by wond.
Stop The Presses! Study Finds Student Knowledge Is Important & Best Explored Through “Flipped Flipped Classroom”
The headline of this headline sounds satirical, and is meant that way, but it does actually describe the results of a new Stanford study. The research says that before students learn about something new, their prior knowledge should be activated and then videos should be shown — they really do call it a “flipped flipped classroom.” The study’s twist is that they suggest student’s prior knowledge
“The Best Resources To Help Engage Parents Of Children With Special Needs – Help Me Find More”
I’ve just posted The Best Resources To Help Engage Parents Of Children With Special Needs – Help Me Find More over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. You might find it useful….
Terrific Interview With Rafe Esquith
Valerie Strauss at The Washington Post has published an absolutely terrific interview with famed teacher an author Rafe Esquith. It’s a must-read. In fact, it should go on so many of my “The Best…” lists I’m not sure where to start…. Here’s an excerpt:
JUL 15
More Deliberate Practice Resources
Here are two good new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice (by the way, I have a lesson plan on it in my book, Self-Driven Learning): Becoming a Better Teacher by ‘Deliberate Practice’ is from huntingenglish. How to Stop Being Allergic to Practice is by Daniel Coyle.
UNESCO’s “Memory Of The World Register”
UNESCO’s Memory of the World Register collects — digitally, I believe — key cultural artifacts from around the world. It’s a little difficult to get a clear sense of how it works — I think its page on Wikipedia is clearer than its own website: UNESCO’s Memory of the World Programme is an international initiative launched to safeguard the documentary heritage of humanity against collective amnesia
The Best Video Clips Demonstrating “Grit” – Help Me Find More
I have a lesson plan in Helping Student Motivate Themselves about grit, and I also have related videos in The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of “Grit”, as well as a number of fun “grit” videos in The Best Videos Illustrating Qualities Of A Successful Language Learner. However, I wanted to find a few more, and thought that some athletic-related ones would be helpful. So I’ve foun
Video: First Human-Powered Helicopter
Here’s a video of the first human-powered helicopter. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Flight:
New Kindle Versions Of My Student Motivation Books (& All Eye On Education Books) Available Soon
As I’ve previously posted, Eye On Education (the publishers of my books, Self-Driven Learning and Helping Students Motivate Themselves, has been purchased by Routledge. As part of that transition, Routledge has temporarily pulled all of the eBook versions, including Kindle, of all Eye On Education books off of the marketplace for “rebranding.” They expect them to be back very soon. In the meantim
Quote Of The Day: “The Opportunity Gap”
The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) has just published a good post titled Never too early to join the rat race … Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher & Outside Factors Have On Student Achievement.
JUL 14
July 18th Is Nelson Mandela International Day
July 18th is Nelson Mandela International Day. Here’s how the United Nations explains it: Every year on 18 July — the day Nelson Mandela was born — the UN joins a call by the Nelson Mandela Foundation to devote 67 minutes of time to helping others, as a way to mark Nelson Mandela International Day. For 67 years Nelson Mandela devoted his life to the service of humanity — as a human rights lawyer,
The Best Advice On Using Education Technology
During this past week, I’ve been lucky enough to see the two best posts I know of offering great advice on how to use educational technology. I thought I’d bring them together in one post, along with links to some of my related “The Best” lists, and invite readers to contribute other resources, too. You may have already seen Bill Ferriter’s image, Technology is a Tool, NOT a Learning Outcome. It’
This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t” — July
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 few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful
Infographic: The Biggest Festivals Around The World
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures: Festival Survival – need to know guide infographic
All My Ed Week Posts On Brain-Based Learning In One Place
I’ve just posted Q & A Collections: Brain-Based Learning over at my Education Week Teacher blog. It brings all my brain-based learning posts there together in one place. I’m also adding it to The Best Resources On “Brain-Based Learning” — Help Me Find More.
JUL 13
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
I’ve started 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: ELLs Need More Attention in Common Assessment Groups, Reports Say is from Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Next Generation” Of State Testing. Assessment of ELLs on the CCSS is fro
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts & Articles On Education Policy
Here’s a list of relatively recent good posts, articles and videos on education policy issues: How many ‘nightmare’ teachers are really out there? is from Valerie Strauss’ blog in The Washington Post. Why schools aren’t businesses: The blueberry story is from The Washington Post and tells a well-known story, but provides a little more context to it. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles
Thoughtful Resources On Trayvon Martin Case & Verdict
The verdict is in, and here are some thoughtful additions to The Best Resources For Lessons On Trayvon Martin. Feel free to suggest additions: RT @donnabrazile: I respect the verdict,but still believe Zimmerman had upper hand & chose 2 profile,follow & later kill an unarmed teenager — Larry Ferlazzo (@Larryferlazzo) July 14, 2013 RT @joseiswriting: I wish this weren't about race. But it i
The Best Videos & Articles Where Athletes Explain How Reading & Writing Well Has Helped Their Career – Help Me Find More
It’s not unusual for me students to tell me that they don’t have to worry about reading and writing well because they are planning on being a professional basketball player, skateboarder, etc. I’ve got responses to that (though am happy to hear what readers say to it), but I think having students hear directly from athletes themselves saying how reading and writing well has helped their sports ca
“Poverty and Race in America, Then and Now” Is A Useful Mapping Site
Poverty and Race in America, Then and Now lets you look at any metropolitan area in the United States and compare poverty in it in 1980, 190, 2000 or 2010. You can view the comparison on a “sliding” map, though I wish it just showed you the same locations in two screens — that would make it a little easier to compare to the two views (you’ll see what I mean when you visit the site). I’m adding it