Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
More Resources On Nelson Mandela
Quote Of The Day: “For Mandela, Reverence, but Criticism, Too”
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts On Education Policy
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
Infographics On Nelson Mandela
Here are infographics I’m adding to The Best Resources Honoring Nelson Mandela At His Passing….: Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually. by Ad-Rank Source: BestMSWPrograms.com ABC News has an interactive infographic on his lif
The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2013
It’s time for my most popular post each year — the one on new Web 2.0 applications. There are over 1,200 lists now that are categorize and updated regularly. You can see them all here. As usual, in order to make this list, a site had to be: * accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech savvy users. * free-of-charge. * appropriate for classroom use. * completely browser-based with no dow
Video: Maya Angelou’s Tribute To Nelson Mandela — With Subtitles
You may have already seen or heard about “His Day is Done: A Tribute Poem for Nelson Mandela by Maya Angelou,” which was produced by the U.S. Department of State’s Bureau of International Information Programs in December 2013. Here’s a version of it with English subtitles. You can access videos of it with subtitles in numerous other languages here. Unfortunately, the only transcript of the poem I’
Wondering ‘How Gender Influences a Teacher’s Struggles & Successes’
Wondering ‘How Gender Influences a Teacher’s Struggles & Successes’ is my latest post over at Education Week Teacher. It features a guest response from Chicago educator Ray Salazar.
Pearly Harbor Resources
Today is Pearl Harbor Day in the United States. You might find The Best Sites For Learning About Pearl Harbor useful.
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Here are more additions to The Best Resources Honoring Nelson Mandela At His Passing….: 12 Mandela Quotes That Won’t Be In the Corporate Media Obituaries is from common Dreams. See how South Africa changed over Nelson Mandela’s lifetime is from The Washington Post. Rare Footage of Mandela in Prison is from The New York Times. ‘Free Mandela (From the Prison of Fantasy)!’ is also from The NY Times. The Zinn Education Project has a number of resources. World mourns Nelson Mandela (8th December, 2013) is an ESL Lesson Plan from Breaking News English. The World Reacts To Nelson Mandela’s Death is
For Mandela, Reverence, but Criticism, Too is the headline of an article in The New York Times. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles About Compromise.
Here are a few recent useful posts on educational policy issues: I Won’t Say ‘Don’t Join Teach For America’ (Yet) is by Camika Royal. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America. What’s going on behind the curtains in Sacramento City USD is by Alice Mercer. Want to Look Great on Global Education Surveys? Test Only the Top Students is from Business Week. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results. The Most Notable Education Stories of 2013 is from The Atlantic (In case you missed it, you might be interested in my Washing
YESTERDAY
Quote Of The Day: “A Second Look at iPads in Los Angeles”
Larry Cuban has published an insightful critique of the the iPad disaster in Los Angeles, A Second Look at iPads in Los Angeles. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to A Very Beginning List Of The Best Articles On The iPad Debacle In Los Angeles Schools. I’m also adding this article to the same list: Mixed reaction to iPad rollout from L.A. teachers and administrators is from The Los Angeles Times.
DEC 05
Wow…This Is A Pretty Powerful Sandy Hook Video
Here’s a new video ad on gun violence at schools. You can read more about it at The Atlantic, and here’s the YouTube description: December 14, 2013, will mark the one-year anniversary of the tragic shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary. Moms Demand Action for Gun Sense in America is partnering with Mayors Against Illegal Guns to commemorate the anniversary with No More Silence, a campaign to honor the
Another Great Web App Bites The Dust: Bye, Bye Trapit
Trapit has been my favorite “web crawler” to scour the Web each day for news that I’m particularly interested in (for example, “parent engagement” articles. Each morning, it received an email with links to great articles and resources that I would have easily missed. Unfortunately, today it announced it was eliminating its consumer service to do something or other with businesses. So, I’ve deleted
Quote Of The Day: “Our Kids — Coddled or Confident?”
Our Kids — Coddled or Confident? is an excellent post by John Kuhn, and appeared in Anthony Cody’s Education Week Teacher blog. Here’s an excerpt: I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results.
Resources On The Day Of The Virgin Of Guadalupe
December 12th is a Mexican National Holiday, and an important day for many Mexican-Americans — The Day Of The Virgin Of Guadalupe. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning & Teaching About The Day Of The Virgin Of Guadalupe.
Voting is open! Check out the 2013 Edublog Awards nominees!
Between now and December 18th, you can vote for nominees listed at the Edublog Awards site. As I’ve said in previous years, I feel honored by being “shortlisted” in several of the categories and greatly appreciate those who nominated me. Nevertheless, instead of voting for me, I’d ask that you vote for those who I nominated — if they made the shortlist. If not, vote for one of the other worthy no
The Best Resources Honoring Nelson Mandela At His Passing….
The world loss a great man . I have an exhaustive The Best Sites For Learning About Nelson Mandela list. I thought it would be useful to create a second one highlighting resources coming out now to celebrate his life and mourn his death. I certainly be adding to it in the coming days: English Lesson Plan on Nelson Mandela is from Famous People Lessons. RIP, Nelson Mandela. http://t.co/RwjZ6tlCwn
Video: “Teachers on Newtown 911 tapes were ‘remarkably calm’ amid chaos”
I’m adding this video to yesterday’s post, Resources On The Sandy Hook Shootings: Visit NBCNews.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
DEC 04
December’s Best Tweets — Part One
Every month I make a few short lists highlighting my choices of the best resources I through (and learned from) Twitter, but didn’t necessarily include them in posts here on my blog. I’ve already 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 Twitter, you can a
Here Are My Choices For The Five Best Commentaries On The PISA Results
Boy, there is no shortage of commentaries/summaries on the PISA results from yesterday, and you can find a bunch of good resources at The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results. After wading though a bunch of them, here are what I believe to be the five best ones (though they all don’t necessarily agree with one another): Four lessons on new PISA scores — Ravitch is from The Washingto
Response: How Do You Teach About Knowledge Questions?
A week ago, I published a post headlined: Attention, IB Theory Of Knowledge Teachers! How Do You Teach “Knowledge Questions” (Formerly “Knowledge Issues”)? As I said in the post, I think helping students understand knowledge questions is one of the most challenging tasks I have in class. I’ve invited a number of people to respond to that question, and will be posting their responses over the next
This Is Exactly What I Mean By Connecting Social Emotional Learning & Literacy Instruction….
My drumbeat here on this blog and in my books is about the importance of connecting Social Emotional Learning and literacy instruction. It’s so easy to do, and I’m amazed that so many SEL strategies don’t make that explicit connection. Here’s a short lesson I’m doing tomorrow that illustrates that connection: I always teach a lesson on self-control using the famous marshmallow experiment during t
Resources On The Sandy Hook Shootings
As most readers probably know, the audio recordings of the Sandy Hook 911 calls were released today. That news, and the upcoming one year anniversary of that tragedy, prompts me to share previous related posts: “Sandy Hook Promise Launches ‘Parent Together’ As Tragedy’s One Year Mark Approaches” is from my other blog, Engaging Parents In School. Quote Of The Day: “A Sandy Hook Parent’s Letter to
Video: “The World Outside My Window – Time Lapse of Earth from the ISS”
I’m adding this video to The Best Images Taken In Space:
The Best Places To Find The Most Popular
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, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.” I’ve made quite a few posts that fit into this category, and thought I’d highlight whi
“Awkward Family Photos” Is A Great Source Of ELL Materials
There are tons of ways to use photos in lessons with English Language Learners (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons) and the Awkward Family Photos site is a great source for them. Some are inappropriate for classroom use or just too mean-spirited to use, but there are tons of excellent ones, and the site has an index to easily search by topic, especially by specific holiday. I’m adding it
DEC 03
Excellent Animated Interviews From PBS
Blank On Blank is a PBS feature that creates excellent, short animated interviews with well-known figures. You can see all of them at their YouTube Channel. Here’s an interview with Tupac Shakur they just posted today: You might also be interested in a recently discovered video with Tupac about which I previously posted (we do a unit on him in our tenth-grade English classes).
Collection Of Excellent Posts, Videos, Quotes & Articles Commenting On PISA Results
Here are some excellent additions to The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results I posted this morning just after they came out: NASSP Statement on PISA Results: Despite Fervor Over Scores, US Continues to Ignore Lessons My View of the PISA Scores is by Diane Ravitch. The PISA Puzzle is by Dana Goldstein. Here are a couple of excerpts from her Slate piece: There’s another PISA result t
The Best Posts & Articles On 2012 PISA Test Results
The Internet is awash today with articles about this morning’s release of the 2012 Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, test results. I’m just quickly posting the best resources I’ve seen this morning, and articles offering real insightful commentary will be coming later. However, I’ve included a few pieces that came out prior to this morning and, of course, you can also check o
DEC 02
“19 Mind-Blowing Tricks Every iPhone And iPad User Should Know”
19 Mind-Blowing Tricks Every iPhone And iPad User Should Know is a post from BuzzFeed that has a lot of helpful advice to iPhone and iPad users. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Beginning iPad Users.
The Best Online Learning Games Of 2013 – Part Two
Time for another annual”The Best…” list…. This covers new games since I posted The Best Online Learning Games Of 2013 — So Far six months ago. As usual, In order to make it on this list, games had to: * be accessible to English Language Learners. * provide exceptionally engaging content. * not provide access to other non-educational games on their site, though there is one on this list that doesn
“International Day for the Abolition of Slavery”
Though the United States has declared January 11th to be Human Trafficking Awareness Day, the United Nations has chosen December 2nd to be International Day for the Abolition of Slavery. So here are two new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Human Trafficking Today: Teaching slavery: tips for tackling the issues in the classroom is from The Guardian. Teaching The “S” Word: Modern
My Best Posts On New Research Studies In 2013 – Part Two
I write many posts about recent research studies and how they can relate practically to the classroom. In fact, I post a regular feature called Research Studies of the Week. In addition, I write individual posts about studies I feel are particularly relevant to my work as a teacher. Here are my best posts on research studies since I published My Best Posts On New Research Studies In 2013 — So Far
Slate’s Podcast Asked Me, ” Does Class Size Matter?”; Guess What My Answer Was…
Dana Goldstein had me as a guest, along with Matthew Chingos from the Brookings Institution, on a Slate podcast of Schooled: Does Class Size Matter? I think it’s a fairly interesting discussion — you be the judge… I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About How Class Size Does Matter.
36th ELT Blog Carnival Just Published!
Eva Buyuksimkesyan has just published the 36th ELT Blog Carnival (formerly known as the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival) and it’s a great one on holiday lessons. Teachers from around the world have contributed posts. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About Christmas, Hanukkah, & Kwanzaa. The next edition will be hosted by Andrea Wade and its about New Year Resolutions! Submit your entries b
Podcast Interview With…Me
Sam Rangel, who hosts a series of podcasts called “Amazing Teacher” did a short interview with me last week and just posted it. You might, or might not, find it useful/interesting…. I’ve embedded it below, though you might want to go directly to his site to explore his other resources and podcasts….
Students Creating Quizzes On Videos For Their Classmates
My latest New York Times post for English Language Learners is on students creating quizzes for their classmates by using videos. It includes a student interactive. I’m adding it to The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them).
DEC 01
The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2013 – Part Two
I use short, funny video clips a lot when I’m teaching ELLs, and you can read in detail about how I use them in The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL (& How To Use Them). I’ve posted quite a few of them during the year, and I thought it would be useful to readers — and to me — if I brought them together in one post. The videos on this list have appeared since I published The Best Fun V
The Best “Quotes Of The Day” In 2013 – Part Two
A few months ago, I begin periodically posting “quotes of the day.” In addition, I regularly highlight quotes from guests writing at my Education Week Teacher column. Here are my favorites since I published The Best “Quotes Of The Day” In 2013 – So Far six months ago: The Myth of Teachers Not Changing is a post by Larry Cuban. Here’s an excerpt: Close Reading and Far-Reaching Classroom Discussio
Infographic: “HIV/AIDS: Knowing Is Everything”
I’m adding this infographic to The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS: by antoniodivico. Explore more infographics like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
The Best Resources For Learning About Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks was arrested on this day in 1955. Here are a few resources I’ve pulled together about her life: The Politics of Children’s Literature: What’s Wrong with the Rosa Parks Myth is from The Zinn Education Project. There’s an excellent review of a new biography of the late Rosa Parks in The New York Times, including this great quote: Here are some tweets I’ve seen today: “@BeschlossDC: This
In Case You’ve Been Gone, Here Are All Of My “Best Of 2013″ Lists
Many people may have been on vacation during Thanksgiving break, when I began posting my year-end “Best Of 2013″ lists. There are plenty more to come, but here are the ones I’ve posted over the past several days: The Best Tweets Of 2013 The Best Videos For Educators In 2013 – Part Two The Best Articles I’ve Written In 2013 The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2013 – Part Two The B
The Best Tweets Of 2013
Here’s my latest “The Best…” list. It includes my best tweets since I posted The Best Tweets Of 2013 – So Far. You might also be interested in: Best Tweets Of 2012 Best “Tweets” Of 2011 Best “Tweets” Of 2010 Best “Tweets” Of 2009 I’ve used Storify to “curate” them: [View the story "Best Tweets Of 2013 " on Storify]
NOV 30
The Best Videos For Educators In 2013 – Part Two
Here’s the latest in annual The Best…” posts…. This post includes my choices for videos since I posted The Best Videos For Educators In 2013 – So Far six months ago. You might also be interested in: The Best Videos For Educators In 2012 — Part Two The Best Videos For Educators In 2012 — Part One The Best Videos For Educators In 2011 Part Two Of The Best Videos For Educators — 2010 The Ten Best Vi
The Best Articles I’ve Written In 2013
In addition to the thousands of posts I’ve written in this blog (and in my parent engagement blog) over the past seven years, my six books, and my weekly posts for Education Week Teacher and The New York Times, I’ve also written over one hundred articles for different publications. You can access all of them here. You can also see what I think are The Twelve Best Articles I’ve Written About Edu
“Unspeak” Looks Like An Intriguing Interactive Documentary
Unspeak is described as: an interactive documentary investigating the manipulative power of language. The site looks pretty wild and, if you can figure it out, engaging. I think it would be useful for IB Theory Of Knowledge classes when studying language. Here’s an introductory video to it:
November’s Infographics & Interactives Galore — Part Six
There are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on this blog. I’ll still be publishing separate posts to individually highlight especially useful infographics and interactives, but you
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good Posts On Education Policy
Here are some recent useful posts on education policy issues: iHave a Dream: The unanswered questions behind LA’s ed tech fiasco is from Pando Daily. I’m adding it to A Very Beginning List Of The Best Articles On The iPad Debacle In Los Angeles Schools. Thanks to Lori Jablonski for the tip. Responding to an Uninformed Critique is by Richard Rothstein and Martin Carnoy. I’m adding it to The Best S
This Week In Web 2.0
In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth , I’ve recently begin a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” It’ll be a short compilation of new decent sites that are worth noting, but maybe not necessarily worth a separate post…: I’ve previously posted about Haiku Deck, which now has a Web version and may very well be the best tool for creating online slidesh
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
I’ve started a somewhat regular feature where I a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention: 9 great reasons to use posters in your language classroom is a very good post from Adam Simpson. i-Diots is a good lesson from Film-English that can help teach the importance of delaying gratification. How ‘Seeing’ A Language Ca
The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2013 – Part Two
My annual lists continue… Here are the best comic strips that have appeared since The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2013 — So Far. You might also be interested in: The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2012 — So Far The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2011 Part Two Of The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers — 2010 The Best Comic Strips