Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
TED Talks Starts A New Site, Though I’m Not Really Sure What It Is…
TED Talks has just unveiled a new site called “Ideas.Ted.com”. Here’s how they describe it: ideas.TED.com is built to celebrate this: to track ideas that began decades ago and are now forging our current reality. And to follow new ideas that are still little more than crazy thoughts in their inventors’ heads. Our goal is to provide useful context, relevant backstories and fresh, thought-provoking
May’s Best Tweets – Part Three
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 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 post. If you don’t use Twitter, you can
MAY 15
The Best Commencement Speeches
I’ve published a number of posts about notable commencement addresses, and thought I’d bring them altogether here. I was prompted to do so by Vox’s great post today sharing their picks for The 21 greatest graduation speeches of the last 50 years. Here are my posts (let me know what Vox and I are missing): Animated Video: George Saunders’ Commencement Speech On “The Importance of Kindness” Video:
Edublogs Now Makes It Super-Easy To Embed “Pins” From Pinterest
I’ve posted a number of times about my frustration with the constantly changing process Pinterest provides for making Pins embeddable in blogs and websites. Well, Edublogs now makes it super-simple to do it — just copy and paste a Pin’s url address. You can see screenshots here. Here’s what it looks like: Just another reason why I think Edublogs is the best blogging platform out there!
“Practical Ideas To Help Students & Teachers Stay Organized”
Practical Ideas To Help Students & Teachers Stay Organized is my latest Education Week Teacher post. I share guest responses from three educators — Julia Thompson, Ariel Sacks and Gini Cunningham — as well as contributing my own thoughts. Here are some excerpts:
New World Cup Resources
Here are new additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The 2014 World Cup In Brazil: Brazil 2014: the physics behind the Brazuca is an interactive from The Guardian. Brazilian anti-World Cup protests hit Sao Paulo and Rio is from The BBC. TES Connect has a number of downloadable lessons related to The World Cup. Here’s a link to the official World Cup YouTube Channel. It’s filled with usefu
MAY 14
#BringBackOurGirls Resources
Here are new additions to The Best Resources On The Kidnapped School Girls In Nigeria: Skills and Strategies | Engaging in Causes Via ‘Hashtag Activism’ is a lesson plan from The New York Times Learning Network. The crisis in Nigeria, in 11 maps and charts is from Vox. Boko Haram Says Video Shows Missing Nigerian Girls is from NPR.
More Resources On Race
Here are new additions to A Collection Of Useful Posts, Articles & Videos On Race & Racism: The 9 Most Influential Works of Scientific Racism, Ranked is from io9. The Ultimate, Crystal-Clear Guide to What Racism Is is from GoKicker.
Bunkr Makes Big Improvements In Ability To Create Slideshows, Not Least Of Which Is That It’s Now Free
I posted about Bunkr, a web tool for creating slideshows, last year and was not impressed. I said then that it didn’t appear to make it easy to include image attribution, and that it you had to pay to use it. Today, they unveiled a “new” Bunkr and, though I still didn’t see an easy way to include attribution, the interface does appear a lot smoother and it’s free to use. I wouldn’t say it’s as g
Another Good Video For ELLs: “Hero Cat Saves California Boy From Dog Attack”
Here’s another great video for English Language Learners to watch and then describe in writing and verbally what happens. You can read more about it here.
“How Can We Help Students & Ourselves Stay Organized?”
How Can We Help Students & Ourselves Stay Organized? is the latest “question-of-the-week” at my Education Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave responses here in the comments section or there….
My New BAM! Radio Show Is On Making History Curriculum More Engaging
How Can History Teachers Make the Curriculum More Engaging? is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! radio show, and that will be the subject of a future Ed Week column, too. My guests are Peter Pappas and Sarah Kirby-Gonzalez.
Video: “Around the World in 360° Degrees”
In his own version of “Where The Hell is Matt?”, here’s a guy who took panoramic videos of himself in different places around the world. I don’t think it’s anyway near as interesting as the two “Matt” videos (which are also embedded below), since Matt shows much more interaction with people, but it still could be useful in a Geography class… Matt in 2012: And here’s the original from 2008:
This Week’s Round-Up Of Useful Posts & Articles About Education Policy
Here are some recent pieces about education policy issues that are worth reading: Newark’s Voters Choose New Mayor and New Path is from The New York Times. This is great news for teachers, parents and students. I’ve written quite a bit at my Engaging Parents In School blog. about the twilight zone that Newark schools have entered over the past few years. The Broad Foundation’s Bruce Reed on educa
MAY 13
How Popular Is Your Name?
The Best Places For Students To Learn About…Their Names one of my fairly popular lists — learning about one’s name is a high-interest topic for students. Some relatively new and cool interactive sites have recently come online… One is Zato Novo Baby Names, which gives you a time lapse of the popularity of names in the United States over the years. The Name Navigator seems to be a similar tool. I
Nice New Infographic From “Miniature Earth”
Miniature Earth ranks prominently in The Best Sites That Show Statistics By Reducing The World & The U.S. To 100 People, and they’ve just published this nice new infographic: Explore more visuals like this one on the web’s largest information design community – Visually.
Important New Report Questions VAM
An important new report was published today raising major questions about the usefulness of Value-Added Measurement as a teacher evaluation tool. Read about it at The Washington Post’s article, Good teaching, poor test scores: Doubt cast on grading teachers by student performance, and at Education Week’s piece, Studies Highlight Complexities of Using Value-Added Measures. I’m adding this info to
MAY 12
#IRA14 — Useful Tweets From The International Reading Association Convention
I didn’t attend the International Reading Association convention this year, but there sure were some pretty interesting and useful tweets from those who did. Here are a few that caught my eye. I’m adding this collection to My Best Posts On Books: Why They’re Important & How To Help Students Select, Read, Write & Discuss Them. [View the story "#IRA14Useful Tweets From The Internation
A Great New Way To Teach The Difference Between Correlation & Causation
via Spurious Correlations The Internet was awash today in discoveries made by Tyler Vigen, who wrote a computer program that discovers strange correlations and publishes them on his blog. I’m definitely adding this info to The Best Online Resources For Teaching The Difference Between Correlation & Causation, which is an important lesson to teacher, especially in IB Theory of Knowledge classe
“School Leaders Must Focus On ‘Authentic Learning,’ Not ‘Test Prep’”
School Leaders Must Focus On ‘Authentic Learning,’ Not ‘Test Prep’ is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. In Part One of this series, three educators — Anne Reeves, Justin Tarte, and PJ Caposey — shared their responses (I also contributed my own). Today, Justin Baeder and Kelly Young (who I consider my mentor in education) contribute their answers. I include comments from readers, too. Her
My Latest NY Times Post For ELLs is on Mexico, Travel & “Articles”
In my latest NY Times post for English Language Learners, learn about Mexico, words that are “articles,” and how students can create reports on what they would do if they could spend 36 hours in any country. A student interactive and links to models are included. You can see all my previous 50 NY Times posts here.
MAY 11
Using Instagram, Bloom’s Taxonomy & Student Interest As A Fun Part Of A Semester Final
I’ve previously posted about some elements in my upcoming finals (see My Best Posts On Writing Instruction and scroll down near the bottom). Another element I’m trying out this year is having students in all my classes create Instagrams (see other ways I’ve used Instagram and Vine in my classes at The Best Resources For Learning To Use The Video Apps “Vine” & Instagram). They’ll all be somewh
Four Good Links On Classroom Instruction
Here are a number of relatively recent links on classroom instruction: Five Teaching Tips for Helping Students Become ‘Wild Readers’ is by Donalyn Miller, and appeared in Ed Week. What if we approached testing this way? appeared in The Washington Post. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Formative Assessment. 12 Ways to Learn Vocabulary With The New York Times is a nice collect
MAY 10
Two New Excellent College Financial Aid Resources
Here are two new excellent resources on college financial aid. I’m adding them to The Best Financial Aid Resources For Students Planning To Go To College: White House Initiative on Educational Excellence for Hispanics has created the ¡Gradúate! Financial Aid Guide to Success (Guide). You can read more about it here, and download it in English and Spanish. Here’s a video about it: The Five “Qs” o
More Mother’s Day Resources
Here are a few more additions to my very long The Best Sites For Learning About Mother’s Day list: This Is Your Body on Motherhood is a series of infographics from TIME. Cruel Joke: What Will Your Mother’s Day Flowers Cost? is from Common Dreams. Google created a Doodle in 2013 that let you make your own Mother’s Day card, and I think it might still work.
Great GIF: “European Colonial Empires from 1492-2008″
Watch European colonialism rise and fall in seconds in this GIF. Thanks to Vox for the tip, which has also written an accompanying text: I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About World History, which also contains this related video: Watch as 1000 years of European borders change (timelapse map) from Nick Mironenko on Vimeo.
Here’s What I Will — & Won’t — Be Doing Over The Summer…
I’ve still got plenty to do over the last four weeks of school, including working with students to finalize their Theory of Knowledge Oral Presentations (I’ll be posting videos of a few here); preparing some of what I hope to be engaging lessons for all my classes (which I’ll also share here); and setting-up a virtual summer school classroom for students since, once again, our District doesn’t ha
Another Reason Why We Need More Organizing, Not More Dialogue, In Education Policy Fights
There are regular articles and blog posts calling for more dialogue and less confrontation in the debates surrounding education policy issues. Unless it’s done as a tactical move in a larger strategy, I don’t think we have to go out of our way to be rude, but I generally believe that these calls are pretty naive and demonstrate a pipe-dream attitude about how change happens in public life (see Th
Video: A Drone Flies Into An Erupting Volcano
Here’s footage from a drone of the Yasur volcano on Tanna island, Vanuatu. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Volcanoes:
May’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Two
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
Memorial Day Resources
Memorial Day occurs later this month. Reader might be interested in The Best Websites For Learning About Memorial Day.