2-13-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL:

Friday’s New Sochi Resources (Including Lots Of Useful Videos)

Here are today’s additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: Winter speed demons is an interactive from The Washington Post. Charts: The Most Ridiculously Expensive Olympics Ever is from Mother Jones. Teaching the Sochi Olympics | English Language Arts, Journalism and Fine Arts is from The New York Times Learning Network. Sochi 2014 Olympics: Reaching the p

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min hide  //  save

Some Last Valentine’s Day Resources

Here are a few last additions (at least, for this year!) to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day: A History of the Day of Love is from Voices Of America’s Learning English, and includes a number of resources. Heads Up English has a good Valentine’s Day exercise. Why do we celebrate Valentine’s Day? is from EFL Smart Blog. Explore more infographics like this one on the w

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min 

Videos: These Are Not The Kind Of Snow Day Announcements I Remember….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 22min 

February’s Best Tweets — Part Two

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 this post. If you don’t use Twitter, yo

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2min 

Haiku Deck Announces iPhone Version That Lets You Control Your Presentations

Haiku Deck, an iPad app which now has a Web version, may very well be the best tool for creating online slideshows that are out there. It’s  on The Best Ways To Create Online Slideshows list.  Richard Byrne has made a tutorial explaining how to use the web version, though it’s pretty darn easy to use. Now, they’ve just unveiled a iPhone app that, among other things, lets you use it as a remote co

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8min 

“Love English” Awards Are A Great Place To Find Useful ESL/ELL Websites

Macmillan Publishers annually sponsor a “Love English” award contest for websites and blogs emphasizing support for English Language Learners. I view these kids of contests as not particularly important in terms of who wins, and much more useful as a way to learn about new sources of useful information. I think the list of nominated websites looks particularly interesting since a number of them a

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

YESTERDAY

Thursday’s Updated Sochi Resources

Here are some new good additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Sochi 2014 Winter Olympic Games: This amazing interactive map is certainly one of the best resources created around the Winter Olympics. Teaching the Sochi Olympics | Science, Health and Math is from The New York Times Learning Network. Check out this neat NY Times interactive on Olympics gear used by the athletes. Looking

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h 

“Thinglink” Announces Free Virtual Classrooms

I’ve previously posted about Thinglink, the online photo annotation tool that is sort of like a Picture Word Inductive Model for the Web (I describe the PWIM in detail in an ASCD Educational Leadership article, Get Organized Around Assets. Thinglink basically allows you to label any image you choose. I’ve embedded an example at the bottom of this post.  It’s already on The Best Ways To Use Photos

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h hide  //  save

This Free Site Will Review Your Work & Show You How To Write It Like Hemingway Would…

Thanks to Katherine Schulten, today I learned about the Hemingway app, a fun site that will evaluate your writing and tell you how to change it to Hemingway’s style. I’ve included a screenshot above of what it had to say about what I believe is the best piece I’ve ever written for publication, Videotaping teachers the right way (not the Gates way). As you can see, it told me the piece was “OK.” T

by Larry Ferlazzo / 8h 

2-12-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: More Valentine’s Day ResourcesHere are some new additions to The Best Sites To Learn About Valentine’s Day: Valentine’s Day – Hitting The Sweet Spots is from the ASIDE blog. Last Minute Love Lessons is from Online TEFL Training. Valentine’s Day – Resources for class is from David’s ESOL Blog.by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h “Why Do T

by mike simpson / 8h 

2-13-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.:

Roberta Galler was everywhere.

Kartemquin Films, the group known most for their award winning movie Hoop Dreams, is making a film about the 1963 Chicago school boycott. It was known as Freedom Day. As part of the process of making the film that have gone on social media, posting pictures of those who participated in the events and asking help in identifying and contacting them. A picture of Roberta Galler was posted on their s

by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

I am a UIC alum. What UIC gave me I didn’t get from the pretty buildings. Support the faculty and staff. #UICStrike.

by Fred Klonsky / 1h 

Eden Martin. Pension questions from the one percent.

Chris Rock explains the difference between being rich and being wealthy. Shaq is rich, but the white man who signed his check is wealthy. Oprah is rich, but Bill Gates is wealthy. If Bill Gates suddenly woke up with Oprah’s money, he’d slit his throat. Eden Martin is the lawyer for the wealthy – for the top 1% of the 1%. Martin was a partner at the law firm Sidley Austin. Martin has served as Pre

1 by Fred Klonsky / 1h hide  //  save

2-12-14 Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher

Fred Klonsky | Daily posts from a retired public school teacher who is just looking at the data.: John Dillon. Tax relief? Here’s a “fair” explanationBy John Dillon who posted this on his blog, Pension Vocabulary. Tax Relief for Illinois and a Revenue Fix! Tax Relief?  Here’s a “Fair” Explanation… I just received my latest update from Republican Representative Dwight Kay.  Representative Dwight ma

by mike simpson / 8h 

2-13-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement":

“The Power Of Parents” Is A Good New Report From Ed Source

The Power Of Parents: Research underscores the impact of parent involvement in schools is a new accessible report from Ed Source (done in collaboration with New America Media. It provides a well-written summary of a fair amount of parent involvement research, and is definitely one of the best overviews out there. It could have been THE best, but it was a little surprising to me that most of the r

12 by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

2-12-14 Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement"

Engaging Parents In School… | Going Beyond Parent "Involvement": What Has Gotten In To These Guys? Now Leader Of Britain’s Labor Party Appears To Call For A “Parent Trigger”I just don’t understand how people who consider themselves progressive here in the United States and, now, in Great Britain can support such a fundamentally undemocratic tool as the parent trigger (where a small numbe

by mike simpson / 8h 

2-13-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online:

Carol Burris Calls For Accountability at the Top for Common Core Mess

...the Regents are “rolling back” what they never did in the first place..... Like Lucy holding the football for poor Charlie Brown, the Regents and Commissioner King have repeatedly set up parents and educators.... Carol Burris  Why do you think the Regents and King and Cuomo are doing this dance? To confuse, obfuscate and derail the growing threat. These tactics work by making the public think t

by ed notes online / 23min hide  //  save

NYC Teacher Writes to Iannuzzi and Mulgrew Regarding Cuomo

Any teachers' union in the State of New York that claims to be on the side of its members while simultaneously stroking Cuomo's extra large ego serves as a lesson in the true meaning of hypocrisy... [we] are FED UP and want some evidence that our union leaders are on our side and capable of standing up and fighting for what's just and fair for teachers.... Roseanne McCosh, former Chapter Leader, P

by ed notes online / 1h 

2-12-14 Ed Notes Online Week

Ed Notes Online: Peter Lamphere: New York takes on Common CoreUNFORTUNATELY, THE New York State United Teachers actually has a mixed record on Common Core. Led by its largest affiliate, New York City's United Federation of Teachers (UFT), the union officially supports the Common Core, but disagrees with the implementation that has occurred, calling for a three-year moratorium on high-stakes conseq

by mike simpson / 8h

2-13-14 V.A.M.: Value Added Measure

V.A.M.: Value Added Measure:

The Costs of Trying to Game the Systems of the Educational Deformers: For Better or For Worse, For Richer, For "Richerer," In Sickness And In Health?

Since 2007, the Bloomberg administration evaluated N.Y.C. schools by assigning single A-F grades.  Due to this junk science, schools were closed, teachers turned into vagrant ATRs and communities split apart. Meanwhile, charter schools gained footholds, pushing the truly public students aside.Schools gamed the system for survival as well as administrative merit pay.  Schools worked hard to find w

by Adam Bergstein / 3h hide  //  save

Let It Not Be Said that the Common-Core Sacrifices Creativity in the Name of College and Career Readiness!

With this new data-based-paint-by-numbers kit, take a few minutes off from test prep and learn that you don't need art classes after all to properly align pixels of color.  Let the divine spark of inspiration pulse through your veins. Recreate Michelangelo's priceless masterpiece, painting by numbers, for only $19.99 plus tax.

by Adam Bergstein / 3h 

 

2-12-14 V.A.M.: Value Added Measure

V.A.M.: Value Added Measure: The Sounds of Failing (Based on Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds of Silence")Governor Andrew Cuomo is tenaciously holding to his APPR schemes to evaluate teachers based largely on student test scores.  Last Spring, 70% of N.Y.S. students failed the Common-Core tests. If one believes in junk science, one might seek to fire 70% of the State's teachers.  In sch

by mike simpson / 9h

2-13-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University):

Denying Racism Has an Evidence Problem

Several years before I wrote an educational biography of Lou LaBrant for my doctoral dissertation, Jeanne Gerlach and Virginia Monseau published Missing Chapters: Ten Pioneering Women in NCTE and English Education for the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE, 1991). Their important volume included a chapter on LaBrant by England and West, but the project also produced a recorded interview

by plthomasedd / 2min

Understanding Privilege (Slack) and Poverty (Scarcity) in a Snow Storm

The snow started in South Carolina on Tuesday, February 11, 2014, and when I woke up Thursday, February 13, the snow continued, laying down a powdery blanket on the ice crust formed with several intervening hours of heavy sleet Wednesday afternoon and evening. This is unusual for the South. The whiteness hides where yards end and the road begins. It is a bit of an unfair characterization—everyone

17 by plthomasedd / 1h 

2-12-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdD

the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University): Standards as Political FootballsStandards as Political Footballs1 by plthomasedd / 3h2-11-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness by P. L. Thomas, EdDthe becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L.

by mike simpson / 9h 

Lacking Fair Basic Aid Plan, Pennsylvania Continues to Starve Philly Schools | janresseger

Lacking Fair Basic Aid Plan, Pennsylvania Continues to Starve Philly Schools | janresseger:

Lacking Fair Basic Aid Plan, Pennsylvania Continues to Starve Philly Schools

Posted on February 13, 2014 by janresseger

The tragedy in the School District of Philadelphia continues.  Here are some of the realities.  Last year after Pennsylvania Governor Tom Corbett cut $1.1 billion out of the state school budget, the district was forced to lay off 4,000 teachers and other staff and close 24 public schools.  The district reassigned thousands of students to new schools last fall and slashed essentials like high school guidance counselors and school nurses.

The schools in Philadelphia have been operating for many years under state control.  The state appointed School Reform Commission, which has implemented a “portfolio school reform plan” designed by consultants at the Boston Consulting Group, currently functions as the closest thing to a school board.  It reports to the governor not the voters.  Portfolio plans emphasize the business strategy called “creative disruption”—closing and opening schools in a perpetual cycle—ending schools with low scores and experimenting with a variety of privatized charter schools.

This year Governor Corbett proposes to add funding in the state budget, but the extra funds are earmarked primarily for increasing the special education subsidy.  Pennsylvania’s Education Law Center charges, “There is no proposed increase to the state’s Basic Education Funding line item, an essential funding source for all K-12 public school students.  Instead the Governor has followed a familiar script—tying his funding proposal ($241 million) to special grants and as-yet-realized sources of revenue…”

Philadelphia Parents United for Public Schools calls Corbett’s budget “a paltry handout,” and