Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, August 10, 2019

This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007


This Week With Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

 The latest news and resources in education since 2007





“Q&A Collections: Reading Instruction”
Q&A Collections: Reading Instruction is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts offering advice on Reading Instruction (from the past eight years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

YESTERDAY

Pins Of The Week
I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 19,000 resources there that I haven’t shared on this blog. I thought readers might find it useful if I began sharing a handful of my most recent “pins” each week (I’m not sure if you can see them through an RSS Reader – you might have to click through to the original post). You might also be interested in My Seven Most Popular Pins In 2018
A Look Back: What My Students Say About Teachers Mispronouncing Their Names
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2013. I’m a big advocate of teachers making a point to pronounce student names correctly (see The Best Resources On The Importance Of Correctly Pronouncing Student Names ). I always do a lesson on names as part of the Language unit in my IB Theory of Knowledge classe
“What Are the Best Ways Teachers Can Work With School Librarians?”
What Are the Best Ways Teachers Can Work With School Librarians? is the new question-of-the-week at my Education Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave responses in the comments section there or here…

AUG 08

A Look Back: “Flowchart For When A Day Goes Bad In Classroom Management”
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2013. As regular readers of this blog and my books know, I love teaching at our school. Nevertheless, it is not a “walk in the park.” One hundred percent of our students receive a free breakfast and lunch, and many face other challenges inherent in the inner-city. So
Google Creates Interactive On Indigenous Languages
Google Earth has just unveiled a new Google Earth Tour: Celebrating Indigenous Languages , [which] shares audio recordings from more than 50 Indigenous language speakers. I’m adding it to: The Best Resources For International Mother Language Day The Best Sites For International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People Here’s a video about the new Google interactive:
Mississippi ICE Raids Occurred On The First Day Of School – What Do We Do When It Happens In Our Areas?
BedexpStock / Pixabay You’ve probably already heard about yesterday’s ICE raids on food processing plants in Mississippi, and how they left children with no one to care for them: Those “record-breaking” immigration raids in Mississippi happened on the first day of school. I mean, Jesus, this paragraph: pic.twitter.com/JywRKGA0v7 — Radley Balko (@radleybalko) August 8, 2019 Before I start talking
A Look Back: The Elephant In The Room In The Talent vs. Practice Debate
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2016. An article in last week’s New Yorker, Practice Doesn’t Make Perfect , is the latest salvo in attempts to debunk the popularized mythology that people can become experts in any field through practice. Of course, as I’ve previously written several times, these at
New BBC Video: “Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution explained”
WikiImages / Pixabay I’m adding this new BBC video to The Best Online Resources To Learn About Charles Darwin :

AUG 07

Ed Tech Digest – Special Edition!
I usually just publish one of these posts each week. However, there has been a lot of ed tech news this week. Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be inte
“Teach Students That ‘Failure Is a Step Toward Success'”
Teach Students That ‘Failure Is a Step Toward Success’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Bryan Goodwin, Dr. Laura Greenstein, Margaret Searle, and Jon Saphier wrap up a three-part series on resilience in the classroom. Here are some excerpts:
Results Of Biggest Mindset Study Finds Positive Impact
geralt / Pixabay I’ve been very pleased with the results of emphasizing the growth mindset in my classes and at our school. Today, a paper was published in the journal Nature discussing the results of the largest school-based experiment of the idea, and they found positive results. I posted about the study last year when temporarily published it and invited comments. I’m not absolutely sure, but
Video: Watch Jimmy Kimmel Greet New U.S. Citizens The Right Way
PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay Watch how Jimmy Kimmel greeted new U.S. citizens last night. I’m adding the video to The Best Websites For Learning About Civic Participation & Citizenship .
“CommonLit” Adds Very Helpful Annotation Tool
CommonLit is about one of the very best education sites out there – it’s free, lets you create virtual classrooms, and has zillions of texts. I’ve written a lot about it and it’s on several “Best” lists (see “CommonLit” Now Lets Teachers Create Free Virtual Classrooms ) One of its shortcomings, though, was that though students could answer questions and respond to the text, it didn’t let them ann
Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week
Each week, I publish a post or two containing three or four particularly useful resources on classroom instruction, and you can see them all here. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASS INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART ONE. Here are this week’s picks: Note to Self: Don’t Fear Structured Writing Prompts comes via The National Writing Project. I’m adding it to The Best Scaffolded Wri
Supporting Our Latino Students In The Face Of Hate
The El Paso massacre, President Trump’s white nationalist rhetoric, and the Trump Administration’s anti-immigrant actions have understandably combined to create an atmosphere that can make many of our Latino students and their families feel attacked. You can read more about that effect at: More Hispanic Kids Are Depressed Than Their Peers As Anti-Migrant Rhetoric Rises is from NPR. ‘It Feels Like

AUG 06

Most Popular Posts Of The Week
I’m making a change in the content of the regular feature. In addition to sharing the top five posts that have received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they may have originally been published on an earlier date), I will also include the top five posts that have actually appeared in the past week. Often, these are different posts. You might also be interested in IT’S THE TWELFT
VERY Useful Resources For The First Week Of School
geralt / Pixabay Some teachers have already begun the new school year, while others of us have a week or two of summer vacation left. Here are some new important additions to The Best Resources For Planning The First Day Of School : It's time! Here's a list of back-to-school resources that @irina_mcgrath and I for a strong and start with ELs. Tools from @Larryferlazzo , @MsSalvac , @ValentinaESL
A Look Back: Knowledge Isn’t Power — “Power is Power”
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2013. PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay I’ve been watching “Game of Thrones” on DVD, and just saw this great scene that teaches an important lesson about making change: Knowledge is not power — “Power is power.” During my nineteen year community organizing career, we le
Delightful Video Of Dog “Hide-and-Seek” Perfect For ELLs & Everybody Else
kennedyfotos / Pixabay Showing English Language Learners short fun videos, and then having them describe -verbally and in writing – what they saw is always a language-rich activity. You can see lots of great videos to use at THE BEST FUN VIDEOS FOR ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNERS IN 2019 – PART ONE . Here’s another one: Some pro hide and seek from r/aww
Interesting Evaluation Of Methods For Teaching Writing
picjumbo_com / Pixabay Writing Approaches in Years 3 to 13: Evidence Review is a new report from The Education Endowment Foundation that reviews lots of studies about effective writing instruction. I don’t think any experienced teachers are going to find any big surprises in it. They found three major broader strategies – Writing Process Models (I’d summarize it as guiding students step-by-step t
“Author Interview: ‘Speaking for Ourselves'”
Author Interview: ‘Speaking for Ourselves’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Daisy Han and Lorena Germán agreed to answer a few questions about the new book they have edited, “Speaking For Ourselves.” Here are some excerpts:
Two New Important Interactives About Access To Water
congerdesign / Pixabay Coincidentally, both The New York Times published very depressing interactives on the same day about access to water in the United States and around the world. I’m adding them both to The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About World Water Day : A Quarter of Humanity Faces Looming Water Crises is from The NY Times. Mapping the strain on our water is from The Washington
My Most Popular BAM! Radio Shows In 2019 – So Far
I’ve been taping ten-minute podcasts to accompany of Education Week Teacher columns for several years now, and you can see two hundred of them at All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions . Here are the most popular ones so far in 2019: 1. What Every White Teacher Needs to Know About Teaching Black Girls with Dr. Venus E. Evans-Winters, Terri N. Watson, Ph.D., Yolanda Sealey-Ruiz. 2. Givi

AUG 05

New Poll Finds A Lot Of Teachers Are Not Very Happy
This year’s edition of the annual highly-respected PDKPoll of the public’s attitudes toward the public schools has just been published. There are a lot of unhappy teachers out there. You can read the results here (you can skim it pretty quickly). The Washington Post has also written a summary at Poll shows widespread frustration among teachers over pay and respect . You can see my previous posts
A Look Back: Classroom Management Strategy: “Sometimes The Only Thing Worse Than Losing A Fight Is Winning One”
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2013. OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay An old community organizing adage goes like this: “Sometimes the only thing worse than losing a fight is winning one.” In organizing, that can mean your group gave so much to an issue campaign that you’re left with burnt-out leader
“Surging Seas” Shows How Climate Change Will Affect Your Community
Zillow has teamed-up with Climate Central to create the Surging Seas interactive . Type in the name of any coastal location in the United States, and you’ll see what the future holds. And it ain’t pretty. You can read more about it at the Sacramento Bee article, Could your neighborhood be wiped out by climate change? Here’s how to find out. I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Climate C
New USA Today Video: “How to talk to your kids about gun violence”
ambermb / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from USA Today to The Best Resources On Talking With Children About Tragedies :
“Supporting Students’ Capacity to ‘Bounce Back'”
Supporting Students’ Capacity to ‘Bounce Back’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Debbie Silver, Gary Armida, Tamara Fyke, Douglas Reeves, and Michael D. Toth offer their thoughts on how educators can help their students develop resilience. Here are some excerpts:

AUG 04

Ed Tech Digest
Six years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps. You might also be interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART ONE , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . You might also w
Here’s An Opportunity For Students To Write For An Authentic Audience: Give Advice To Their Younger Selves
Hey From The Future lets you write advice to your younger self – and other people who presently are that same age. People then read what your wrote and can “upvote” it if they think it’s good advice. I’m adding it to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”
August 6th Is The Anniversary Of The Hiroshima Atomic Bombing – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources
August 6th marks the anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. You might be interested in: The Best Resources For Learning About The Atomic Bombings Of Japan The Best Sites For Learning About Nuclear Weapons A Beginning List Of The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About The North Korea Missile Crisis
It Doesn’t Matter If It’s “Effective” If Students Won’t Do It
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2014. 455992 / Pixabay 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
“Ways to Promote Resilience in the Classroom”
Ways to Promote Resilience in the Classroom is the headline of the latest post in my Education Week Teacher column. In it, Adeyemi Stembridge, Becky Corr, Julie Hasson, Cindy Terebush, Dr. Cynthia “Mama J” Johnson, and Kelly Wickham Hurst share their suggestions on how to promote resilience in students. Here are some excerpts:
A Look Back: The Demonization Of Immigrants As Invaders, And What Teachers & Students Can Do About It
Yesterday’s El Paso massacre by a white supremacist leads me to re-publish this post…. Free-Photos / Pixabay In the run-up to Tuesday’s election, President Trump and his allies have been using the “migrant caravan,” comprised of refugees fleeing Central American gang violence, to ramp up fear of immigrants as “invaders.” Here’s a video that highlights this hysteria: The killer of eleven worshiper
The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About Gun Control
The shootings in Gilroy, El Paso and Dayton this week have, once again, brought the issue of gun violence (and white supremacy terrorism – see resources on racism here .) to public attention again. I have many lists lists of resources related to gun violence here . I have previously posted one on gun control, but it’s time to post a completely revised and updated one. Here are some resources to b

AUG 03

Check Out My Videos & Hear What’s Coming Up!
Mediamodifier / Pixabay I’ve got about fifteen videos on my video page on topics ranging from student motivation to advice for new teachers. I’ve embedded an example – about differentiated instruction – below. Katie Hull and I are working Education Week to create a four-part series on student motivation – watch for them this fall! In addition, you might or might not be interested in my YouTube ch
A Look Back: Here’s My Chapter On Elements Of A Successful Lesson, Along With Student Hand-Outs THEY Use To Teach
I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2015. Kidaha / Pixabay I’m a big advocate and practitioner of creating opportunities for students to be teachers (see The Best Posts On Helping Students Teach Their Classmates ). I’ve previously posted about how I specifically apply this to my International Baccalaur

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... | The latest news and resources in education since 2007