SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE 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

SPECIAL CORONAVIRUS UPDATE

Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

TODAY

Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

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. Of course, this is a crazy time for “classroom” instruction…. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES ON CLASSROOM INSTRUCTION IN 2019 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: Research-Based Instructional Strategies is from Clearview Schools.

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

BiljaST / Pixabay Six years ago I began this 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. You might also be interested in THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART ONE and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2019 – PART TWO. A

The Best Sites For Creating Not Totally Useless Word Searches

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

I’m not a big fan of using Word Searches in class – I think they’re more busy work and a genuine learning activity. However, I have, on occasion, had students create their own, which classmates than played. You might also be interested in The Best Sites For Making Crossword Puzzles & Hangman Games. Here are a few tools and examples of not totally useless word searches: Thanks to Alison Rostetter

New TED-Ed Video: “How do ventilators work?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 11h

PIRO4D / Pixabay I’m adding TED-Ed’s new lesson and video to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT THE CORONAVIRUS :

What Are Your Favorite Sites For Teaching U.S. History To ELLs?

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

geralt / Pixabay I’ll be teaching United States History to English Language Learners again next year. Unfortunately, one of my “go-to” sites, SAS Curriculum Pathways, is closing up shop, and I’m not sure our school will be able to afford to pay for Brainpop. I’m exploring iCivics (see Wow! It Looks Like iCivics Wants To Be THE One-Stop Shop For Social Studies Teachers ), but wanted to also get su

D.C. Committee Comes Up With Most Detailed Proposal For School Re-Opening That I’ve Seen

by Larry Ferlazzo / 15h

Mayor’s advisers say D.C. schools shouldn’t fully reopen without vaccine or cure is a new article in The Washington Post that provides the most detailed proposal that I’ve yet seen for schools re-opening in the fall. They also recommend that no more than ten people, including the teacher, be present in any classroom. It’s well worth a full read. I’m adding it to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCH

“Teaching Poetry in ‘Playful’ Ways”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 16h

Teaching Poetry in ‘Playful’ Ways is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. Four educators share multiple ways to teach poetry, including by modeling and by mimic writing, so that students can enjoy and appreciate the literary form. Here are some excerpts:

Unsurprising Statistic Of The Day: Many Ed Tech Companies Manipulate Research Findings To Support Their Products

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

In an excellent article, The Hechinger Report finds that many ed tech companies manipulate research findings to show that their products are successful. Ed tech companies promise results, but their claims are often based on shoddy research lays out their research in damning detail. This result isn’t surprising to me. And I can’t really see how it could be surprising to just about anyone. What is

New CBS News Video: “School students around the world return to class, COVID-19-safe classrooms are the new normal”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

This new video from CBS News provides a good overview, along with images, of what school re-openings look like around the world. I’m adding it to THE BEST POSTS PREDICTING WHAT SCHOOLS WILL LOOK LIKE IN THE 

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

Thinking WAY Out of the Education Box | Teacher in a strange land

Thinking WAY Out of the Education Box | Teacher in a strange land

Thinking WAY Out of the Education Box

Heartwarming current ed-news:
Indiana decides that every teacher deserves to be Indiana Teacher of the Year in 2020!

Education Week gives us another five creative ideas for how to pandemic-proof your graduation ceremony!

Don’t miss 10 Ways to Inject a Little Fun into the End of the School Year!

Because that’s about where the education community is, right now— dealing with one crisis at a time.

We adamantly reject the ed-tech dream of empty classrooms and every kid at home with a device. We know how badly that’s worked, even when teachers had six full months to get to know their students, in person. But we can’t quite wrap our heads around what’s next. When we try, it feels like admitting that the prospect of School As We Knew It is probably down for the count.

Three weeks ago, I wrote a blog suggesting that we start thinking about a modified ‘gap year’—an admission that school would not be the same until we had confirmed medical solutions for combatting the coronavirus. So we might try ginning up some creative ideas about what to do with P-16 students in the intervening year. It was pretty amorphous service-learning stuff, with young adults and older teens combining on-line coursework with outdoor work and safe environmental or community health projects, a CCC or Peace Corps Lite, adapted to 2020.

That blog got lots of pushback, some of it downright hostile, with nearly all the angst CONTINUE READING: Thinking WAY Out of the Education Box | Teacher in a strange land

CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

When this originally ran at Forbes.com, there was still some qujestion about the premise. Since then I've updated it with new info from DeVos herself.

For many conservatives, one of the greatest sins perpetrated by Obama’s secretary of education was using the powers of his office to bypass the legislature. Arne Duncan oversaw Race to the Top, which was instrumental in pushing Common Core and other preferred policies into schools across the country. Now Betsy DeVos is using nearly identical tactics to push for her own favorite educational ideas.

Race to the Top was a $4.5 billion program that was part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009, a stimulus package meant to help reverse some of the effects of the Great Recession. States would have the opportunity to get education grants, but they would have to compete for the money by showing how closely they could adhere to the administration’s goals of college- and career-ready standards, high stakes testing, teacher evaluation, and data collection. The administration had tried and failed to get these goals passed into law through Congress. The financial pressure of the Great Recession and the looming penalties for the unachievable goals of No Child Left Behind (100% of students scoring above average on the Big Standardized Test) gave Duncan leverage to bypass Congress entirely. And rather than providing funding for all schools in all states, the program picked winners and losers.

Many conservative critics argued that RTTT and the waivers that followed were illegal. The backlash CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Betsy DeVos Has, In Fact, Become Arne Duncan 2.0

Mitchell Robinson: Welcome Back to School! But Not So Fast… | Eclectablog

Welcome Back to School! But Not So Fast… | Eclectablog

Welcome Back to School! But Not So Fast…

As someone who visits a lot of schools each year to observe student teachers and work with my colleagues in the schools, a few thoughts on these newly-released CDC “back to school” guidelines…

• kids can’t keep their shoes and socks on for a full school day…masks?
• no shared items? everything in school is shared…pencils are shared, books are shared, construction paper is shared, glue is shared, drum sticks and mallets and tubas and bari saxes are shared, desks are shared, art supplies are shared…no school I’ve been in in the past 20 years has enough cubbies for each child to have their own. and let’s not even get started on morning and afternoon kindergarten rooms…
• unless we are reducing class sizes to single digits there is no way to keep desks at a 6 foot distance–and our ed reform friends have been telling us for decades that smaller class sizes are “inefficient and do not improve students’ test scores,” so that one is not happening…
• one child per seat and skip rows on school buses? yeah, right…adding another bus run in a public school budget is like crossing the River Styx–it just ain’t gonna happen.
• we can’t get sneeze guards installed in school salad bars…
• a “one way route” in many schools will require children and teachers exiting the school, walking completely around the building, perhaps in snow, rain, and/or mud, and reentering the school at the other side of the building–and yes, any architect who designed horseshoe-shaped schools was not real bright
• you *might* be able to get teachers to keep their classes in their rooms to eat lunch, but no shared playgrounds? what is a “personal playground”? so no recess? for young children?
• as if a plexiglass shield in a middle school bathroom would remain clean–we haven’t had doors that close in school restrooms for decades; sometimes no doors at all CONTINUE READING: Welcome Back to School! But Not So Fast… | Eclectablog

Billionaires Are The Biggest Threat To Public Schools - PopularResistance.Org

Billionaires Are The Biggest Threat To Public Schools - PopularResistance.Org

BILLIONAIRES ARE THE BIGGEST THREAT TO PUBLIC SCHOOLS

For Education “Disruptors” Like Bill Gates And Betsy DeVos, COVID-19 Isn’t A Crisis—It’s An Opportunity.

The COVID-19 crisis is shaping up to be a golden opportunity for those eager to shake up public education.

In recent months, as schools closed to limit the spread of COVID-19, millions of students, teachers, and administrators have been forced to flip a switch and embrace distance learning. Many states have hinted that this situation could continue well into the next school year.

Now, panic is spreading among public school advocates as key proponents of “disruptive” education models scramble to capitalize on the chaos.

First came the news, in late April, that Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos, who has long been a political and financial supporter of school choice schemes, has been authorized by Congress to hand out $307 million in grant money to state departments of education—provided they use the funds to “reimagine” (read: privatize) K-12 schooling.

Then, in early May, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo announced that he would be working alongside billionaire education reform advocate Bill Gates to construct new ways of delivering instruction in the COVID-19 era.

Gates, of course, has a long history of tinkering with public schools from a philanthropic distance, using his billions to fund everything from small high school programs to the spread of charter schools in post-Hurricane Katrina New Orleans.

Much of Gates’s work has been controversial and short-lived, such as his efforts CONTINUE READING: Billionaires Are The Biggest Threat To Public Schools - PopularResistance.Org

What CDC wants schools, camps to do before reopening - The Washington Post

What CDC wants schools, camps to do before reopening - The Washington Post

Here is exactly what the CDC wants schools and camps to do before reopening

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has finally issued full interim guidance on how schools and other establishments can safely open during the covid-19 pandemic, and below are all the recommendations for schools and camps. They are detailed but worth reading to see the level of care CDC experts want school officials to consider before reopening campuses.

Last week, the CDC released short “decision trees” in six areas but held off on this more detailed version because that is all the Trump administration would allow the country’s premier health agency to do then. The CDC later published the extensive set of guidelines on its website without announcing the move.

President Trump has repeatedly urged states to allow businesses and other sectors of the economy and civic life to reopen and has mocked calls by experts such as Anthony S. Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, to go slowly so as not to spark a surge in novel coronavirus cases.

The new extended guidance covers reopening schools, child-care facilities, restaurants and mass transit, as explained in this Washington Post story. You can also read the entire set of guidelines at the bottom of this post.

The CDC made clear that opening many institutions should be guided by the transmission rates of the novel coronavirus in each community.

Here’s what the CDC issued for schools and camps, complete with every link the agency provided.

Sign up for our Coronavirus Updates newsletter to track the outbreak. All stories linked in the newsletter are free to access.

INTERIM GUIDANCE FOR SCHOOLS AND DAY CAMPS

As communities consider a gradual scale up of activities toward pre-covid-19 operating practices in centers for learning, such as K-12 schools and summer day camps, CDC offers the following recommendations to keep communities safe while resuming peer-to-peer learning and providing crucial support for parents and guardians returning to work. CONTINUE READING: What CDC wants schools, camps to do before reopening - The Washington Post

Meet Dr. Cade Brumley – Educate Louisiana

Meet Dr. Cade Brumley – Educate Louisiana

Meet Dr. Cade Brumley

Today, the Louisiana Board of Elementary and Secondary Education (BESE) appointed a successor to John White who has been recognized by national publications as not only the longest serving of any state superintendent of education, but also the most controversial. Today marks the end of a reign of terror in which the only way was White’s way.

Dr. Cade Brumley first caught my attention back in late 2016, or early 2017. One of the non-profit education reform groups with inappropriate influence over education policy was repeatedly giving subtle praise to him. I’ve learned after seven years of advocating for education, when these groups support something, or someone, there’s a connection somewhere, or a plan. A little digging revealed that Brumley had participated in the Broad Superintendent’s Academy, the Harvard Institute for Superintendents, and National Institute for Excellence in Teaching programs which are heavily funded fronts for education reform policy. Connection found.

After a couple of conversations with friends who live in DeSoto parish, the small rural school district where Brumley served as superintendent, I learned that he was widely regarded and respected as a straight-shooting school leader and a genuinely good guy.

I followed him on Twitter for a few months, noting that his comments related to school policy were often in line with mine, and occasionally opposite of John White. I decided to reach out to him and ask him to explain the affiliation with the fellowships. CONTINUE READING: Meet Dr. Cade Brumley – Educate Louisiana

California education chief says schools can’t open without masks

California education chief says schools can’t open without masks

California education chief says schools can’t open without masks

SACRAMENTO — California has a major goal to meet before schools can reopen: acquiring masks for teachers and more than 6 million students.

Local school districts will decide when they will welcome students back to physical classrooms and the state is not mandating a common opening date, state Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond said Wednesday. But he made one thing clear: Personal protective equipment is a must.

"They need lots of personal protective equipment. There have to be masks and hand sanitizer and the ability for hand washing and other resources for our schools to open safely," Thurmond said in a news conference. "We know that having access to this personal protective equipment is a critical factor in the ability to reopen. Quite frankly, our schools cannot reopen without it."

The state Legislature passed Gov. Gavin Newsom's coronavirus relief package in March, which included $100 million for personal protective equipment and cleaning for schools that remained open, but more will be needed to accommodate all of the state's schools in the social distancing era, Thurmond said.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommended face coverings, desks spaced six feet apart, and, if feasible, daily health checks in schools as part of detailed guidance quietly published this week.

While Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti has said his area schools will not be able to safely reopen until students can be tested for the coronavirus "at least weekly, if not more frequently," Thurmond has been silent on the issue of testing.

Most districts in the state are sticking with their original start dates of late August CONTINUE READING: California education chief says schools can’t open without masks

States of Shock: the Coming Budget Calamity – Have You Heard

States of Shock: the Coming Budget Calamity – Have You Heard

States of Shock: the Coming Budget Calamity

A looming budget calamity worse than the Great Recession could mean mass teacher layoffs and deep cuts to school spending. In our latest episode Have You Heard previews the bleak budget forecast, how to avert it, and why the GOP seems to want states to go broke. Experts Bruce Baker, Sarah Reckhow and Jesse Rothstein weigh in, and, in a sign of what’s to come, we meet a teacher whose alternative school is going online and for-profit next year. Full transcript of the episode is here. And if you enjoy Have You Heard, please consider supporting us on Patreon.

Have You Heard · #89 States of Shock: the Coming Budget Calamity

States of Shock: the Coming Budget Calamity – Have You Heard

NYC Educator: Can We Safely Reopen Buildings? If So, How?

NYC Educator: Can We Safely Reopen Buildings? If So, How?

Can We Safely Reopen Buildings? If So, How?

We're looking at the possibility of opening our building in September. Will that happen? Your guess is as good as mine, but mine is we will not. Nonetheless, everyone's got to plan otherwise. I imagine a lot of schools would go end to end. That is, half the students enter in the AM, and half in the PM. Teacher schedules in high schools would overlap the sessions. I suppose elementary teachers could prep while other classes are going on, but I don't know much about what they do, so I could be wrong.

Now this will suck for a whole lot of reasons. One is the schedules could easily run 6 AM to noon, and then noon to 6 PM. I don't imagine many people will be happy about either. Another is this will only reduce student population by half, and that may not be enough. In my school, already at 210-220% capacity, it will certainly not suffice.

How do you achieve adequate social distancing to make a school building safe. Well, on top of your end to end programming, you could have students come in every other day, or every other week. You could then have classes stream via video, and the other half of the students could submit work via Google Classroom or something of that nature.

In the case of a building like mine, perhaps students could come in live every third or fourth week. This really underlines the lack of vision of those who run the DOE. As though it weren't bad enough that they had such disregard for us and our students that they forced us to convert classrooms into two, and convert closets into classrooms, the health issue makes it that much worse. And you can't argue that students who get so little face time with teachers are being treated equally. This makes the state's decision to defy the C4E decision, the one that specified lower class sizes, all the more egregious.

As for those who speak of schools being babysitting services, those days are over. Parents will have to make other CONTINUE READING: NYC Educator: Can We Safely Reopen Buildings? If So, How?

About a Teacher (Robert Pondiscio) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

About a Teacher (Robert Pondiscio) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

About a Teacher (Robert Pondiscio)

“Robert Pondiscio, author of How The Other Half Learns: Equality, Excellence, And The Battle Over School Choice, is senior fellow and vice president for external affairs at the Thomas B. Fordham Institute.” This appeared in Education Next May 7, 2020

Few vocations have suffered more in the hands of Hollywood mythmakers than teaching. This is curious. Schools offer a familiar and fertile setting, and teaching is inspiring, aspirational work. There is rich potential for drama in student backstories or in a good teacher’s ability to change a child’s life trajectory. And say all you want about how teachers should be the guide on the side not the sage on the stage, there is a performative aspect to teaching that ought to lend itself to character-driven, compelling storytelling.

All of the elements are there. So why is it so hard to make a good teacher movie?

Mostly, it’s because, when the subject is school, filmmakers have never been able to resist swinging for three-run homers with one man on base. The clichés are legion: the inspiring maverick (Dead Poet’s Society) who unlocks the hidden brilliance of rowdy students (Stand and Deliver) while pushing back doggedly against the system’s low expectations (Lean on Me). Even worse is the subgenre of white savior teacher movies (Freedom Writers, Dangerous Minds) set in CONTINUE READING: About a Teacher (Robert Pondiscio) | Larry Cuban on School Reform and Classroom Practice

Eckhart Tolle Meets John Dewey | tultican

Eckhart Tolle Meets John Dewey | tultican

Eckhart Tolle Meets John Dewey

By Thomas Ultican 5/20/2020

Professor Michael J. Hynes new book Staying Grounded; 12 Principles for Transforming School Leader Effectiveness inspired this title. I have an aversion to self-help writings and new-age philosophy. After reading two chapters, that is exactly how I saw this book. It made me wonder why my friend Diane Ravitch recommended it. After reading a few more chapters, I got it. There is a lot to like. If the principles taught in this book were widely embraced, it would be a boon to education everywhere.

In the introduction Hynes tells the reader that he will reveal his ideas concerning the purpose of schooling and how to ensure that each child reveals their potential. He opens by recommending the “philosophy that recognizes the fact that all children are different and meet them where they are.”

This a great starting point but it runs squarely into the devilish nature of standards based education. At the beginning of the new millennia, the cruel standards based philosophy began dominating classrooms. It was heartbreaking to observe students who although learning; were not learning fast enough. Instead of being encouraged while their intellectual abilities grew, they were crushed and taught to hate learning. That definitely was not meeting “them where they are.”

The book started naturally enough with principle one. It opened by quoting the Buddha, “It is better to conquer yourself than to win a thousand battles.” The point was that a busy administrator needed some regular self care. Buddhist philosophy is known as the inner path. Principle one was all about entering the CONTINUE READING: Eckhart Tolle Meets John Dewey | tultican