Latest News and Comment from Education

Saturday, July 20, 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





August 9th Is The International Day Of The World’s Indigenous People – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources
Greenstock / Pixabay 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 .

YESTERDAY

New Growth Mindset Study, But The Caveats Are More Interesting Than The Results
geralt / Pixabay The Education Endowment Foundation just came out with a new study on teaching a growth mindset in schools . They concluded that it didn’t have any impact. A fair number of studies have reached the opposite conclusion, especially for students who may be experiencing challenges (see The Best Resources On Helping Our Students Develop A “Growth Mindset” ). What I really found interes
A Look Back – Important Classroom Management Reminder: Curiosity Can Work Better Than Judgment
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. Last summer, I wrote a fairly popular post headlined Leading With Inquiry, Not Judgment .
Over The Top, Ya’ Think? District Tells Parents Kids May Be Sent To Foster Care If Lunch Bill Not Paid
Does it get more ridiculous than the story in this NBC News article, Parents are warned their children could be put in foster care over lunch debt? Here are two useful articles about this kind of “lunch-shaming” that I’ve previously shared: The government already knows how to end school lunch shaming is from CNN. ‘It’s embarrassing to the kids’: Students who owe lunch money will get only a jelly
Shocking – NOT! New Study Finds Educators Tend To Discipline Black Students More Harshly Than White Students
Teacher treatment of students factors into racial gap in school suspensions is a Eureka Alert article that summarizes an important new study. It also says: The analysis found that teachers’ different treatment of black and white students accounted for 46% of the racial gap in suspensions and expulsions from school among 5- to 9-year-old children. It showed that about 21% of the gap could be expla
“Apollo 11 As They Shot It” Is A Cool NY Times Interactive
The New York Times has published a neat interactive combining portions of the conversations the Apollo 11 astronauts had at the time with photos they actually took. It’s called Apollo 11: As They Shot It . I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing.
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
BiljaST / Pixabay Five 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. . Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learn
Free Resources From All My Books
Every few months, I reprint this post so that new subscribers learn about these resources. I have many free resources, including excerpts and student hand-outs, available from all my books. Clicking on the covers will lead you to them. Look for a fourth book in my student motivation series (out in 2022) and a second edition of The ESL/ELL Teachers Survival Guide (out in 2021), along with three bo

JUL 18

Pins Of The Week
I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 18,000 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
New Article On Aristotle & Persuasion Would Be Great For Students – & Teachers – Read
The Art of Persuasion Hasn’t Changed in 2,000 Years is a new article in the Harvard Business Review, and it would be a great one for students to read. The article is very accessible, and provides an overview of the five rhetorical devices Aristotle highlighted in his work, Rhetoric . Anyone who wants to become to become a better public speaker, or be an effective “change agent,” could also find i
A Look Back: The Most Up-To-Date Statistics On English Language Learners In The U.S.
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. Every year I share the annual Condition of Education report from The National Center For E
Video: “Hear the Words of Detained Migrant Children”
kalhh / Pixabay Here’s how The NY Times describes this new video they published: “…children read testimonies given by young migrants detained in Customs and Border Protection facilities. They reveal harrowing stories of children living in cages, going hungry and tending to infants without their parents.” You might also be interested in: The Demonization Of Immigrants As Invaders, And What Teacher
Video: Google Publishes Animated Video “Doodle” About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing
WikiImages / Pixabay Here’s how Google describes this video: 50 years ago, NASA’s Apollo 11 mission changed our world and ideas of what is possible by successfully landing humans on the surface of the moon⁠—and bringing them home safely⁠—for the first time in history. Today’s video Doodle celebrates this moment of human achievement by taking us through the journey to the moon and back, narrated b
“Fluent Key” Looks Like A Wonderful Video Tool For All Teachers
Thanks to the great Cristina Cabal , I learned about Fluent Key this morning. It’s a free tool that lets you choose any video from just about anywhere and turn it into an interactive quiz with many different types of questions. There are also lots of already-created video quizzes. You can use it like Kahoot or Quizizz, too, by choosing a video and giving students a code so they can play it togeth
“What Are the Biggest Mistakes Made in Social Studies Instruction?”
What Are the Biggest Mistakes Made in Social Studies Instruction? 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…

JUL 17

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 “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 interested in THE BEST ED TECH RESOURCES OF 2019 – PART ONE , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . Yo
A Look Back: Student-Created Summary Videos Of U.S. History Units – Handouts Included
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. jp26jp / Pixabay Having students complete a project reviewing several chapters of a unit f
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: Teaching the Research Process Through Podcasting is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to Best Posts On Writing Instruction . How to Teach
Video: “Europe’s Top Tourist Attractions”
TheAndrasBarta / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from MojoTravels to The Best Geography Sites For Learning About Europe:
Not Good Statistic Of The Day: Teen Suicide Rate Increases
Teens are increasingly depressed, anxious, and suicidal. How can we help? is an important new article from Vox. I’m adding it to The Best Resources Helping Educators Learn About Suicide & Warning Signs .
“Q&A Collections: Teaching Social Studies”
Q&A Collections: Teaching Social Studies is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, all Classroom Q&A posts offering advice on Teaching Social Studies (from the past eight years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

JUL 16

A Look Back: Big New Study On Restorative Practice Offers Useful Data & Missed Opportunities
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. PublicDomainPictures / Pixabay The Rand Corporation recently published a fairly big study
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
“USA Learns,” One The Best Online Tools For Learning English, Gets Even Better!
USA Learns (coincidentally, it’s run by our own Sacramento County Office of Education) is on more of my “Best” lists than you could shake a stick at ( see them all here ). It’s free, engaging, lets both Beginners and Intermediates practice all language-learning domains, and makes it easy for teachers to create virtual classrooms. They’ve just unveiled a new expansion of their site: English 1 Plus
Being A Mentor At Our School May Have Resulted In Improved Grades For The…Mentors
OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay Last week, I posted Another Study Finds That Student Mentors Giving Advice Helps THEM Do Better , which described an interesting study that was a also a little weird – the “mentors” didn’t actually mentor anyone. Instead, they basically wrote a letter to an imaginary student who needed advice and did a few other things for a total of eight minutes. It did reflect pre
“Q&A Collections: Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning”
Q&A Collections: Student Motivation & Social-Emotional Learning is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, all Classroom Q&A posts offering advice on student motivation and social-emotional-learning (from the past eight years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here are two excerpts:

JUL 15

A Look Back: What I Want To Do Better Next School Year – How About You?
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. Prawny / Pixabay We’re on the last two day of our school year, and I thought it would be a
PBS Unveils “Molly Of Denali,” First National Children’s Series With A Native American Lead
Today, PBS unveiled a new animated children’s series with a Native American lead. Molly of Denali is it’s name and: To make sure they got the show right, the Boston public broadcaster WGBH, which produced the show, involved more than 60 people who are Alaska Native, First Nations or Indigenous in writing the scripts, advising on cultural and linguistic issues, recording the theme song and voicing
Responding To Racist “Go Back To Your Country” Trope
So many of our students have had to deal with taunts of “Go back to your country” over the years, and President Trump is doing his best to ensure it goes on for a long time to come. Hate Crimes In U.S. Increased By 17 Percent last year, and I fear the numbers will continue to increase. Behind Trump’s ‘go back’ demand: A long history of rejecting ‘different’ Americans is a good article in the Wash
New Resources On The Apollo 11 Moon Landing
WikiImages / Pixabay Here are new additions to The Best Sites To Learn About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing : Google Earth has added an Apollo 11 interactive . Apollo 17 is an oddly named, though impressive, Apollo 11 interactive . First Men on The Moon is another interactive. One Small Step Back in Time is from Scientific American. The Moon Landing is from National Geographic Kids. Bound for the Moo
“Three Ways To End The School Year Strong” Is My Latest British Council Post – Lots Of Student Hand-outs Included!
geralt / Pixabay Three Ways To End The School Year Strong is the headline of my latest British Council post. It includes lost of student hand-outs. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Finish The School Year Strong . You can see all my past British Council posts here .
Research Studies Of The Week
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
“Author Interview: ‘Breathing New Life Into Book Clubs'”
Author Interview: ‘Breathing New Life Into Book Clubs’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Sonja Cherry-Paul and Dana Johansen explain how teachers–and students–can get the most out of their book clubs, including helping students fall in love with reading. Here are some excerpts:
The World Day against Trafficking in Persons Is On July 30th – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources
sammisreachers / Pixabay The United Nations has declared July 30th to be the World Day against Trafficking in Persons . You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About Human Trafficking Today .

JUL 14

New Resources On Race & Racism
I’m adding these new resources to various “Best” lists. You can find links to all of those many lists that relate to race and racism at “Best” Lists Of The Week: Resources For Teaching & Learning About Race & Racism: Digging deeper into school racial conversations is by Matthew Kay. I’m adding it to New & Revised: A Collection Of Advice On Talking To Students About Race & Racism . Here’s What I W
A Look Back: How Could I Have Not Known About Google’s “Data GIF Maker”?
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. Apparently, Google unveiled their Data GIF Maker in 2017, but I only learned about it toda
“Don’t ‘Steal the Aha’ From Science Instruction”
Don’t ‘Steal the Aha’ From Science Instruction is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Linda Tolladay, Patrick L. Brown, James P. Concannon, Ross Cooper, and John Almarode share their “nominations” for the biggest mistakes made by science teachers. Here are some excerpts:
It’s Bastille Day! Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources
MustangJoe / Pixabay It’s Bastille Day! You might be interested in The Best Resources For Learning About Bastille Day .
Infographic: “7 Secrets of Advanced English Writing”
Grammar Check has created a very useful infographic titled 7 Secrets Of Advanced English Writing . Unfortunately, its embed code isn’t working, but you can click on the link and check it out! I’m adding it to Editing List For When Teachers Write Books.

JUL 13

This Week In Web 2.0
In yet another attempt to get at the enormous backlog I have of sites worth blogging about, I post a regular feature called “The Week In Web 2.0.” (you might also be interested in THE BEST WEB 2.0 APPLICATIONS FOR EDUCATION IN 2019 – PART ONE). I also sometimes include tech tools or articles about them that might not exactly fit the definition of Web 2.0. You might also be interested in: THE 56 B
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” wh...
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. There’s been a lot of interest in the role curiosity plays in learning (see The Best Posts
SEL Weekly Update
I’ve recently begun this weekly post where I’ll be sharing resources I’m adding to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources or other related “Best” lists. You might also be interested in The Best Social Emotional Learning Resources Of 2018 – So Far. Finally, check out “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources . Here are this week’s picks: The Deficit Lens of the ‘Ach
Another Study Finds That Student Mentors Giving Advice Helps THEM Do Better
A fair amount of research has found that helping others can benefit the “helper” and not just the “helpee” (see The Best Resources On The Value & Practice Of Having Older Students Mentoring Younger Ones and The Best Resources For Teaching & Learning About The “Helper’s High” ). We’ve certainly seen that in having peer mentors at our school. A new study has come out finding that this kind of advic

JUL 12

July 20th Is The 50th Anniversary of The Apollo 11 Moon Landing – Here Are Teaching Resources
WikiImages / Pixabay July 20th is the fiftieth anniversary of the Apollo 11 moon landing. I remember watching it in the living room of our New York City duplex on a black-and-white screen. You might be interested in The Best Sites To Learn About The Apollo 11 Moon Landing . NBC News has an interesting feature celebrating it called #MyMoonshot : The Apollo 11 moon landing changed history — and it
Video: “The problem with America’s college entrance exam”
lecroitg / Pixabay You’ll want to watch this new Vox video about the SAT Exam:
A Look Back: “How The World Votes” Is A Very Impressive Interactive
This blog has recently gained many new readers. Because of that, I thought it might be worth sharing a “A Look Back” where I periodically share my choices for the most important posts from the past twelve years. You can also see all of my choices for “Best” posts here . This post appeared earlier this year. hannahlouise123 / Pixabay How The World Votes is a super-impressive interactive from Al Ja
I Created A New Facebook Page – Feel Free To “Like” It If You Want To Be Notified Of New Blog Posts!
I was nearing the “friends” limit on my Facebook Profile, so I created a new “Larry Ferlazzo – Educator” Page . I’ll be sharing links to new posts there, and will also continue to do the same at my Profile Page . I’ll also share occasional personal updates on my Profile page. Feel free to “like” or not “like” the new Profile Page.
Infographic: “The Most Populous Nations on Earth”
geralt / Pixabay I’m adding this new and useful infographic to The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s Population Of 7 Billion : You will find more infographics at Statista
Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
BiljaST / Pixabay Five 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. . Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learn
Pins Of The Week
I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 18,000 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
This Is The Best Piece You’ll Find On School Desegregation & Busing
The New York Times just published It Was Never About Busing: Court-ordered desegregation worked. But white racism made it hard to accept , by Nikole Hannah-Jones. You won’t find a better column on the issue – anywhere. I’m 




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