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

It's Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

A VERY BUSY DAY 

 The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

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 CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: 3 Ways This I Believe Essays Support Writing Instruction is from The National Writing Project. I’m adding it to Tons Of Resource

Pins Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 20,000 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 MOST POPULAR PINS OF 2019 The f

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Research Studies Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

I often write about research studies from various fields and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature . By the way, you mig

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2019 – PART TWO ): A fairer way to judge high schools? This state is trying to find out which schools really help students graduate. is from Chalkbeat looks pretty interesting. ATTENDANCE PLAYBOOK: SMART SOLUTIONS FOR REDUCING CHRONI

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

Eight 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 TWO , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Here are this

Valuable NY Times Column On The Importance Of Compromise

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

The Simple Reason the Left Won’t Stop Losing is the headline of a NY Times column by David Leonhardt. It’s pretty simplistic, and omits some important points, but it’s main message is an important one that progressives – and everyone else – needs to hear. It’s important to be able to compromise. During my nineteen year career as a community organizer, that was always our practical goal, and which

Making Lessons Relevant To Students’ Lives Is Focus Of My Latest BAM! Radio Show

25by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

To Connect Teaching and Learning to Real-World Impact, Do This, Not That is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio Show. Denise Krebs and Rebecca Mieliwocki join me in the discussion, and they have also contributed written commentaries in my Ed Week Teacher column. I’m adding this show to All My BAM Radio Shows – Linked With Descriptions . By the way, the show is now available on iHeartRadi

Have Students Classify Images Of ‘Galactic Interactions’ In Cool Citizen Science Project

by Larry Ferlazzo / 17h

Galaxy Cruise sounds cool: “GALAXY CRUISE” is a Citizen Astronomy project (citizen science project in astronomy) run by the National Astronomical Observatory of Japan (NAOJ). This project utilizes the data from a large-scale survey program using Hyper Suprime-Cam (HSC) , the world’s best wide-field imaging camera mounted on the Subaru Telescope. We hope that, while exploring the Universe captured

Edublogs Has Just Posted THE Guide For Online Learning Caused By School Closures

by Larry Ferlazzo / 19h

I’ve shared quite a few resources at The Best Advice On Teaching K-12 Online (If We Have To Because Of The Coronavirus) – Please Make More Suggestions! However, there is nothing better than a guide just published by Edublogs called RESOURCES FOR TEACHING ONLINE DUE TO SCHOOL CLOSURES: You’ll learn about: Options for structuring your school day Setting up a virtual home base or online platform All

‘Culturally Sustaining Pedagogy Honors the Humanity & Identity of Young People’

by Larry Ferlazzo / 21h

is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Five educators provide recommendations on how to incorporate culturally sustaining pedagogy in the classroom, including offering a four-step process and encouraging teachers to start with educating themselves about their students. Here are some excerpts:

Video: “Why Do We Celebrate International Women’s Day? A Look Back At The History”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Dulcey Lima Today is International Women’s Day! I’m adding this new video from Newsweek to The Best Sites For Learning About Women’s History .

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

Wendy Lecker, Civil Rights Lawyer, Reviews SLAYING GOLIATH | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker, Civil Rights Lawyer, Reviews SLAYING GOLIATH | Diane Ravitch's blog

Wendy Lecker, Civil Rights Lawyer, Reviews SLAYING GOLIATH 

Wendy Lecker is a civil rights lawyer for the Education Law Center who writes regularly for the Hearst Connecticut Media Group and the Stamford (CT) Advocate.

https://www.stamfordadvocate.com/news/article/Wendy-Lecker-A-fighter-against-bad-education-15111892.php

She writes:

Diane Ravitch is rare in American public policy — a public figure who very publicly admitted that the positions she once championed were wrong. Dr. Ravitch is a historian of education and former assistant secretary of education under President George H.W. Bush — and was once a vocal champion of two pillars of education “reform”: school choice and standardized testing. In 2010, she published a book, “The Death and Life of the Great American School System,” in which she meticulously critiqued these policies, and rued her role in pushing them.

Since then, Dr. Ravitch has tirelessly fought ill-conceived and harmful education policies and promotes a vision of public education that she believes is better for children and truer to our democratic ideals. She not only writes and speaks out herself, she also gives voice to many others fighting for public education, known and unknown. CONTINUE READING: Wendy Lecker, Civil Rights Lawyer, Reviews SLAYING GOLIATH | Diane Ravitch's blog

Will Teachers Listen to Their Own Message? | Live Long and Prosper

Will Teachers Listen to Their Own Message? | Live Long and Prosper

Will Teachers Listen to Their Own Message?

A STATE THAT HATES ITS PUBLIC SCHOOLS

Last year around this time I listed a short (recent) history of the ways the Indiana Republican-dominated legislature and governors hated Indiana’s public schools.

In Indiana: Still hating public education after all these years I discussed how the legislature, under the leadership of Governors Daniels and Pence restricted collective bargaining for Indiana’s teachers, refused to acknowledge with economic support the value of experience and education among Indiana’s teachers, supported rules making it easier for unqualified non-professionals to teach in Indiana’s schools, withdrew due process from teachers’ rights as employees, and stalled funding.

At the end of 2019, Indiana teachers finally got the message and took it to the streets. On November 19th, 2019, fifteen to twenty thousand (depending on CONTINUE READING: Will Teachers Listen to Their Own Message? | Live Long and Prosper

DeVos Defends Trump’s Education Budget. Will Democrats Stick to Promises for Something Better? | janresseger

DeVos Defends Trump’s Education Budget. Will Democrats Stick to Promises for Something Better? | janresseger

DeVos Defends Trump’s Education Budget. Will Democrats Stick to Promises for Something Better?

Betsy DeVos has been on Capitol Hill in recent weeks trying to defend an indefensible, fiscal year 2021 Education Department budget proposal.  She has testified to House and then Senate appropriations subcommittees, where members of Congress deserve credit for defending common sense and the common good by summarily rejecting what Betsy DeVos was trying to sell them.

In late February, DeVos appeared before the House appropriations subcommittee that oversees the budget of the Department of Education.  Education Week‘s Andrew Ujifusa explains: “DeVos defended the Trump fiscal year 2021 budget blueprint that would cut $5.6 billion from the U.S. Department of Education’s current budget of $71.2 billion and roll most federal K-12 programs—29 in total—into a formula-driven block grant… ‘What have we bought with all that spending?’ DeVos asked, before answering her own question that there were merely ‘sad results’….”  Ujifusa continues: “But the most significant moment of the hearing perhaps came when Rep. Nita Lowey, D-N.Y., the chairwoman of the House appropriations committee, told DeVos: ‘We are going to reject this proposal.'”

Last week, DeVos went before the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies. Unlike the House, the U.S. Senate is dominated by a Republican majority, but that fact did not change the response of members of the committee to the proposal DeVos came to defend. The Hill‘s Marty Johnson quotes DeVos’s assessment of American public schools: “DeVos, in her opening statements… claimed that the new $19.4 billion block grant program would ‘unleash new innovation at the state and local level, and continue to expand proven reforms, including public charter schools, magnet CONTINUE READING:DeVos Defends Trump’s Education Budget. Will Democrats Stick to Promises for Something Better? | janresseger

CURMUDGUCATION: The Gates Team Wants To Swing For The Education Fences. Maybe There’s A Better Way For Them To Play.

CURMUDGUCATION: The Gates Team Wants To Swing For The Education Fences. Maybe There’s A Better Way For Them To Play.

The Gates Team Wants To Swing For The Education Fences. Maybe There’s A Better Way For Them To Play.

It says something about Bill Gates that after using the expression “swing for the fences” in the title of his foundation’s annual letter, he also feels the need to explain it:

That’s a phrase many Americans will recognize from baseball. When you swing for the fences, you’re putting every ounce of strength into hitting the ball as far as possible. You know that your bat might miss the ball entirely—but that if you succeed in making contact, the rewards can be huge.

It also explains why, after twenty years, Bill and Melinda Gates have yet to get near the fences on education.

The Gates legacy in education includes several expensive whiffs. There was the small schools initiative, on which he spent $2 billion, and then there was the initiative for improving teachers, which was less expensive, but no more successful. And then there’s the Common Core standards, behind which Gates threw an immeasurable amount of money and influence. All created far more disruption and expense than anything resembling success.

All of these were, in fact, swing for the fences initiatives—attempts to hit a home run that ultimately stirred the air over home plate.

Educators have watched the Gates’ take multiple times at bat and wondered if they have learned CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Gates Team Wants To Swing For The Education Fences. Maybe There’s A Better Way For Them To Play.

And So We Persist (On LuzMaria Rojas-Vilson and Elizabeth Warren and ...) | The Jose Vilson

And So We Persist (On LuzMaria Rojas-Vilson and Elizabeth Warren and ...) | The Jose Vilson

AND SO WE PERSIST (ON LUZMARIA ROJAS-VILSON AND ELIZABETH WARREN AND …)

I’m watching her wince through her knee injury.

She forces her hips and legs to cooperate while she walks gingerly to the couch. It wasn’t always like this. After graduating from Columbia University with a master’s degree in administration, she went directly to an alternative transfer high school to teach students from ages 15 to 21. She quickly rose from English teacher to assistant principal. In her first year as assistant principal, she would basically run the operations of this school, from programming and professional development to waiting for kids in police custody and in emergency rooms. She reversed attacks on her character and named herself the HBIC of the school.

She never shied away from command and never led her shipmates astray.

In her second year, however, she had other aspirations: her first child and a home for her new family. Under a new principal, she worked tirelessly to cross every t and dot every i. Whatever she didn’t know how to do, she learned on the job. While other adults treated their jobs as a list of compliance measures and commands to hold others responsible for, she understood how the students in her care had been passed over and along too often in their educational careers. Not doing her job was not an option.

Over the next decade or so, she maintained her stellar expectations, work ethic, and energy at the CONTINUE READING: And So We Persist (On LuzMaria Rojas-Vilson and Elizabeth Warren and ...) | The Jose Vilson

Chaz's School Daze: Why Don't Schools Have Hand Sanitizers?

Chaz's School Daze: Why Don't Schools Have Hand Sanitizers?

Why Don't Schools Have Hand Sanitizers?

The DOE is responsible not only in funding and hiring school nurses but should be supplying all schools with adequate toiletries and especially hand sanitizers.  Again if the DOE is failing in their mission to supply hand sanitizers, then principals should be using their budget to pay for them. They should folow the example of the hospitals with no touch hand sanitizes strategically located throughout the building.

I have many colleagues in various schools and few, if any, have hand sanitizers in their schools.  Manny teachers and other staff bring their own personal hand sanitizers to their classroom and offices but few share it with their students.  Moreover, what about school cafeterias, bathrooms, auditoriums, and locker rooms? These common areas are a hotbed for germs and viruses and hand sanitizers are a necessary measure to limit the spread of various germs and viruses.  Let's not forget that many children take mass transit to and from school, buses or trains good places to contract germs and viruses.

While the coronavirus appears not to be fatal for school-age children, CONTINUE READING: Chaz's School Daze: Why Don't Schools Have Hand Sanitizers?

Coronavirus: How to make your own DIY hand sanitizer | Fox News - https://www.foxnews.com/media/how-to-make-your-own-hand-sanitizer on @foxnews

enrique baloyra: Fla. pols outraged by nonprofit waste - unless it's their own - YouTube

Fla. pols outraged by nonprofit waste - unless it's their own - YouTube

Fla. pols outraged by nonprofit waste - unless it's their own

Do you remember the outrage just a few weeks ago after it was reported the Florida Coalition Against Domestic Violence had paid its CEO $millions in taxpayer money?
In response, the governor issued an executive order demanding accountability from nonprofits that receive at least half of their budgets from the state. https://apnews.com/21d2aff04707f3bf02...
But when it comes to holding accountable the private schools that take a $billion in voucher money every year, crickets.
In fact, the legislature is about to pass a bill expanding the deeply flawed program months after the Orlando Sentinel published a series exposing how private schools that accept public funding turn away LGBTQ students and their parents.
It was such a big scandal that several of the program’s biggest funders walked away after issuing statements. Except for Fifth Third Bank. They apparently think discrimination isn’t such a big deal. So they’re back in.
But it’s not just the hatred and bigotry they teach in these schools that Floridians should be concerned about.
Turns out schools that teach discrimination and Creationism aren’t required by the state to administer the same tests that bog down public schools for months every school year.
A recent study by the FSU Learning Systems Institute concluded that only about a quarter of the schools that participate in the voucher program are using Florida’s standardized tests.
And of those that did test, about 66% of students actually regressed in either their reading or math scores or both.
“If private schools are doing such a bang-up job, you’d think legislators would want parents to know all about it.
“Requiring voucher schools to take the FSA would provide an apples-to-apples comparison, though that solution has drawbacks.” https://www.orlandosentinel.com/opini...
Among which, as any teacher worth their classroom experience can tell you, standardized testing is a crude instrument, unsuitable for determining a student’s progress. Mostly used as a cudgel to punish schools that have historically underperformed — mainly due to poverty — and forcing them to close. So that more unaccountable schools can open under the guise of “school choice.”
Regardless the academic outcomes. And turning a blind eye to blatant discrimination.
Because Florida politicians aren’t really interested in eliminating fraud and abuse.
They just want to make sure to get their cut.

Fla. pols outraged by nonprofit waste - unless it's their own - YouTube