Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL
LARRY FERLAZZO’S WEBSITES OF THE DAY
The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About The “Helper’s High”
© 2011 Quinn Dombrowski, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I recently learned about research behind the “helper’s high” — strong feelings people experience from helping others — and am considering preparing a lesson about it. I’ve gathered some resources here, and would love for people to make additional suggestions: The Science of Good Deeds: The ‘helper’s high’ could help you live a longer, healthie
All My Ed Week Posts On Starting A New School Year Well — In One Place!
Q & A Collections: Best Ways To Begin & End The School Year brings together all my Ed Week posts on how to start a new school year well. Here’s an excerpt from one of them: I’m adding the post to The Best Resources For Planning The First Days Of School.
Several More Interactives On Ebola Crisis
© 2014 European Commission DG ECHO, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio Here are some more interactives I’m adding to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus: Deadly Ebola virus on the move in Africa is a Washington Post infographic. Infographic: Ebola By the Numbers is an infographic from TIME. What You Need to Know About the Ebola Outbreak is from The New York Times. Mapping the world’s
International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People Is Aug. 9th — Here Are Related Resources
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.
Rhee Becomes Chair Of Local Charter Schools — Will Have Less Time To Damage Rest Of Us
© 2013 Commonwealth Club, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Michelle Rhee has just been named board chairwoman of St. Hope Schools, the small group of Sacramento charter schools begun by Mayor Kevin Johnson, her husband. With luck, this means she’ll have less time to damage public education elsewhere. Her national organization, StudentsFirst, has also just pulled out of five states. Perhaps the headline
TIME Chooses Its 50 Best Websites Of The Year & There Is One Gem On The List
TIME has just selected their 50 Best Websites of the Year. You’ll know most of them, and most of the others that you don’t know you don’t really need to know. However, usually I find one or two gems on their annual lists, and today is no exception. Quotacle is that gem, and here’s its description: It’s early days for this site, which lets you search for classic movie quotes along with the relevan
McKinsey & Company Projects That Common Core Implementation Will Result In 15% Increase In Dropout Rate
Thanks to Lori Jablonski and Tom Hoffman (I’ve embedded Lori’s tweets below), I learned about a report from the Carnegie Corporation that includes charts created by big-time consultants McKinsey & Company. First, the chart: So, based on my quick reading of the Carnegie report, titled Opportunity by Design: New High School Models for Student Success, unless we create small schools and do blend
Four Very Good Additional Resources On “Flow”
© 2006 Wesley Fryer, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Boy, there sure are a lot of materials about “Flow” online, and there sure is a dearth of good resources among them. However, there are a few good ones that I’m adding to The Best Resources For Learning About “Flow”: Thoughts About Education: Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi is from the John Hopkins School of Education. Here’s an excellent video interview
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2010 RTLibrary, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio 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: Try, try again? Study says no: Trying harder makes it more difficult to learn some aspects of language, neuroscientists find is the headline of a Science Daily article about a s
Video: Stephen Colbert Does A GREAT Job Interviewing Campbell Brown
Campbell Brown, leading the latest Son of Vergara lawsuit attacking teachers, was a guest on The Colbert Show last night. And, boy, did Colbert do a great job. Check out the video below:
More Resources On The Ebola Virus Crisis
© 2014 NIAID, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus: Doctor Infected with Ebola Asks That Experimental Serum Go to Sick Colleague Instead is from The Atlantic. What would happen if Ebola came to the United States? is from Vox. Ebola: Liberia shuts schools to tackle outbreak is from The BBC. Daily chart: Ebola’s spread is from The
With Friends Like David Brooks, Social Emotional Learning Doesn’t Need Any Enemies
New York Times columnist David Brooks is at it again, demonstrating the rapidly growing public face of Social Emotional Learning as a “Let Them Eat Character” strategy (which I wrote about in The Washington Post — The manipulation of Social Emotional Learning). His column today, The Character Factory, quickly dismisses the effectiveness of programs that provide economic assistance to low-income p
JUL 31
Two Videos Showing People “In The Flow”
Here are two videos that I think show people exhibiting “flow.” I’m adding them to The Best Resources For Learning About “Flow.” Let me know if you have other suggestions.
Three Good Slides On “Flow”
I’ve been doing some research and writing on the concept of “flow” (and continue to interested in hearing suggestions of movie/TV scenes where the characters are exhibiting it). In re-looking at Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s TED Talk (which I’ve embedded at the bottom of this post), three of his slides stood out to me, so I took screenshots to share here and at The Best Resources For Learning About “F
Nice Interactive: “Good Country Index”
The Good Country Index is an interactive map that ranks each country in a variety of areas, including culture, science, prosperity, etc. The rankings are based on data from the United Nations, and you can find more of an explanation here. Thanks to Google Maps Mania for the tip.
Useful Infographic On Immigration Reform
Though I wish it didn’t use the term “illegal immigrant,” I’m still adding this infographic to The Best Resources About The New Push For Immigration Reform: Courtesy of: Infographic World
More Resources On The Connection Between Exercising & Learning
© 2011 Brad Barth, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Resources On How Exercise Helps Learning: Here’s How Kids Can Get Better Grades is from TIME. Can Exercise Close the Achievement Gap? is from Pacific Standard. Study shows elementary and middle schools can get students moving, not just thinking is from Eureka Alert. The Role of Exercise in Bolstering Memory is from Ps
JUL 30
July’s (2014) Best Tweets — Part Five
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
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Education Policy
© 2009 Travis, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are some recent good posts and articles on educational policy issues: “Stupid, absurd, non-defensible”: New NEA president Lily Eskelsen García on the problem with Arne Duncan, standardized tests and the war on teachers is from Salon. The Problem Isn’t Teacher Recruiting; It’s Retention is from The Journal. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Article
“Unite For Literacy” Is An Excellent Site For Beginning Readers
Thanks to a tweet from Barbara Sakamoto, I learned about site called Unite For Literacy. It has over one-hundred simple books in English that the reader can choose to have narrated in English or their choice of many other languages. I’m adding it to The Best Websites To Help Beginning Readers.
“‘Myths & Lies’ That Threaten Our Schools: An Interview With David Berliner & Gene Glass”
‘Myths & Lies’ That Threaten Our Schools: An Interview With David Berliner & Gene Glass is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. In it, David C. Berliner and Gene V. Glass answer a few questions about their book, “50 Myths & Lies That Threaten America’s Public Schools.” Here are a couple of excerpts:
Just Sent-Out Free Monthly Email Newsletter
I’ve just mailed out the June issue of my simple free monthly email newsletter. It has over 2,000 subscribers, and you can subscribe here.
Do You Have Suggestions Of Movie/TV Scenes Showing People In “Flow”?
© 2009 Jordanhill School D&T Dept, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve recently been spending some time thinking about developing a lesson to help my students understand the idea of entering into a “state of flow” — completely absorbed in a learning task. You can read more about the concept at The Best Resources For Learning About “Flow.” Do you have any suggestions of movie or TV scenes showing
July’s Best Posts From This Blog
I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see older Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month (more recent lists can be found here). Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this pas
July’s “The Best” Lists — There Are Now 1,335 Of Them!
Here’s my monthly round-up of new “The Best…” lists I posted this month (you can see all 1,335 of them categorized here): The Best Online Learning Simulation Games & Interactives — Help Me Find More The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus The Best Articles Highlighting Parallel Critiques Of Increasing School & Health Care “Efficiency” The Best Resources On Why Breakfast Is I
JUL 29
The Best Resources For Learning About The Ebola Virus
© 2014 European Commission DG ECHO, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio The Ebola Virus is spreading in Africa, and potentially to an even wider area in the future. Here are some resources to help understand what is happening (and please make your own suggestions in the comments): The Worst Ebola Outbreak in History is Getting Worse is from GoKicker. The deadliest Ebola outbreak in history is happening
Jimmy Fallon Comes Up With Another Good Game For English Language Learners
© 2009 RubyGoes, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio It seems like Jimmy Fallon comes up a new game every year on his show that is easily adaptable to teaching English Language Learners in the classroom. You can see previous ones at I Learn Another Great Game For English Language Learners From Jimmy Fallon. Last night, he played one called “5 Second Summaries” with actor James Fallon. Each of them had five
Just Updated Aesop’s Fables “Best” List
© 2010 Tom Blunt, Flickr | CC-BY-ND | via Wylio I’ve just revised and updated The Best Sites For Using Aesop’s Fables In The Classroom. Additional suggestions are welcome…
JUL 28
All My Ed Week Posts On Teaching Social Studies — In One Place!
Q & A Collections: Teaching Social Studies is my latest post at Education Week Teacher. It brings together all my social studies posts from the past three years on…teaching social studies. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:
Two More Important Commentaries On Recent Deliberate Practice Study
© 2014 Sacha Chua, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve previously posted about the big new study that raised questions about the role of deliberate practice in becoming an “expert” at something (see Big New Study On Deliberate Practice). Here are two more important commentaries on that study that I’m adding to The Best Resources For Learning About The 10,000 Hour Rule & Deliberate Practice: We’ve
Students Seeing Assets, Not Deficits, In Their Neighborhoods
My favorite lesson each year is when my students compare their neighborhood with the wealthiest neighborhood in Sacramento, and then write a persuasive essay about which one they think is better. At least ninety percent of them choose their neighborhood. You can read — at length — about that lesson at A Lesson Highlighting Community Assets — Not Deficits. Here’s a powerful tweet about Chicago stud
More Resources On Sleep & Teenagers
© 2011 Pink Sherbet Photography, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are a new additions to The Best Resources For Helping Teens Learn About The Importance Of Sleep: Too little sleep may trigger the ‘munchies’ by raising levels of an appetite-controlling molecule is from Science Daily. To Get More Sleep, Get More Sunlight is from Forbes. Experts Make a Case for Later School Start Times is from Ed Week
Video: “Barbecue From Around The World”
I’m adding this video to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Different Cultures:
Create A Map Of Places You Want To See With “KLM Must See”
The KLM Must See Map lets you create a map of most major cities in the world, along with the key places you want to see in them. No registration is required. If you want, you can invite others to make suggestions, too. Once you add sites to your map, you’re also provided with a link to go to where you can find out more about information about it. It’s very easy to use. It does have two drawbacks,
Two Good Resources For Virtual Field Trips
© 2011 Wesley Fryer, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are two new additions to The Best Resources For Finding And Creating Virtual Field Trips: 6 virtual field trips to give lesson plans a boost is from Education Dive. Here’s a map of virtual field trips and webcams that I learned about from Richard Byrne. You can see a bigger version here. View Virtual Tours & Webcams in a larger map
The Best Articles Highlighting Parallel Critiques Of Increasing School & Health Care “Efficiency”
© 2011 401(K) 2012, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio There have been a number of articles and posts over the years highlighting efforts in education and in health care to institute similarly misguided changes in both areas. Here are ones that I’ve seen, and feel free to suggest more: Medicare Penalizes Nearly 1,500 Hospitals For Poor Quality Scores is from NPR, and shows that some hospitals get penal
NY Times Column Skewers Performance Pay
Many school reformers view teacher merit pay as one of the “be all, end all” solutions to the challenges facing schools, even though it’s been found to never work (see The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea). Today, The New York Times published a column that highlights all of what is wrong about merit pay. However, they talk about it in the context of doctors and the m
“Race To The Top Has Been A ‘Fiasco’”
Race To The Top Has Been A ‘Fiasco’ is Part Two in my series on the Race To The Top program, which has just had its fifth anniversary. Today, Barnett Berry, Ariel Sacks, John Thompson, Alice Mercer and David B. Cohen weigh in with their thoughts, and I include comments from readers, too. Here are some excerpts:
JUL 27
Amazing Video: 1980 Bush & Reagan Comments On If Undocumented Children Should Be Able To Attend Schools
This is amazing. What has happened to the Republicans? I’m adding this to The Best Resources About The New Push For Immigration Reform. Remarkable. MT@jdickerson-1980: Reagan & Bush discuss whether the children of illegals should attend school 4 free. https://t.co/0lWrYz1O2V” — Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) July 28, 2014
The Best Resources On Why Breakfast Is Important For Teenagers
© 2009 Jonathan Lin, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’m preparing some new lessons for this year, and one will be on the importance of breakfast. I’m adding this list to The Best Resources To Help Promote A Physically Healthy Lifestyle For Our Students. Let me know if you have other suggestions: Breakfast ‘keeps teenagers lean’ is from the BBC. A Better Breakfast Can Boost a Child’s Brainpower is
“Breaking News” Is An Engaging Tool For Reading…News
Breaking News is a current events news-reader designed in an intriguing way. You can type in whatever topic you want to read about — soccer, major news, refugees — and you’re provided with a list of headlines to stories about it. Clicking on the headlines will take you to the story. But the real interesting part of the site is that if you click on a globe icon on the upper right of the page, you’
JUL 26
The Best Resources To Help Promote A Physically Healthy Lifestyle For Our Students
© 2014 Juhan Sonin, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I’ve published a fair amount number of posts about lessons and tools I use to help promote a physically healthy lifestyle for my students, including research that shows how essential it is for learning. I thought it would be useful to me, and to readers, if I tried to bring them all together in one post. First, I’ll start off with what I think are the
Still Looking For Student Project Ideas That Include Family Engagement
© 2010 Selena N. B. H., Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Earlier this year, I published The Best Student Projects That Need Family Engagement — Contribute Your Lessons! over at my parent engagement blog. I heard from a number of teachers sharing projects they have their students do that include some kind of specific family involvement, ranging from interviews to collecting bugs. You can read about them
More Online “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories
© 2005 CHRIS DRUMM, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio Here are new additions to The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories: Man vs. Wild: The Game is from The Discovery Network. Here are several simple ones from Scratch. Here’s an interesting one using Vine. You can read more about it here.
Two Good Resources On Asking Good Questions
© 2011 opensource.com, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio Here are two new additions to The Best Posts & Articles About Asking Good Questions: How Questions Promote Cognitive, Social, and Emotional Learning Across Subject Areas is from Edutopia. The AMBQ (A More Beautiful Question) playlist—50+ “question” songs was developed by Warren Berger.
Even More MacGyver Clips Showing “Transfer Of Learning”
© 2008 TNS Sofres, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio I just discovered a MacGyver wiki that has a List of problems solved by MacGyver. It lists all the episodes, along with the problems he solved in each one and how he solved them. In addition, today I discovered that CBS has put all the MacGyver episodes on YouTube. Based on quick review, here are a few more clips I’m adding to The Best Movie Scenes, S
Do You Know Of Movie/TV Scenes Showing The Value Of Taking Risks & Making Mistakes?
© 2011 opensource.com, Flickr | CC-BY-SA | via Wylio I’ve got a ton of resources at The Best Posts, Articles & Videos About Learning From Mistakes & Failures, including the videos that everybody knows (Michael Jordan commercial, Famous Failures, etc.). However, I don’t have any clips from movies or TV shows that illustrate the idea — in a funny or serious way. Do you have any suggestions?
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
© 2010 Rachel Zack, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio 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: Academic Language and ELLs: What Teachers Need to Know is from Colorin Colorado. I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Developing Academic English Skills & Vocabulary. The
July’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part Four
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
Are Researchers Who Helped Popularize VAM Having Second Thoughts?
Two-and-a-half years ago, economists Raj Chetty, John Friedman, and Jonah Rockoff published an extremely influential and well-known study that popularized Value-Added Measurements as a teacher evaluation tool and has caused huge damage to teachers, students and their families. You can see a collection of commentaries on their study here. They have also been public advocates of policy solutions usi
It Doesn’t Matter If It’s “Effective” If Students Won’t Do It
© 2009 US Department of Education, Flickr | CC-BY | via Wylio An article in District Administration Magazine raises issues about the effectiveness of Booktrack, a website and app that provides a “soundtrack” of music, street sounds, etc. to a book (students can also create their own sounds). Some question research (funded by Booktrack) that suggests it improves comprehension. I’ve previously poste