3-5-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

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

Resources For Cesar Chavez Day

Cesar Chavez Day is recognized as a holiday by eight states in the U.S., and falls on March 31st — his birthday (or a Monday/Friday that is closest to a weekend). You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About Cesar Chavez.

by Larry Ferlazzo / 52min hide  //  save

March’s Infographics & Interactives Galore – Part One

There are just so many good infographics and interactives out there that I’ve begun a new semi-regular feature called “Infographics & Interactives Galore.” You can see others at A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics and by searching “infographics” on this blog. I’ll still be publishing separate posts to individually highlight especially useful infographics and interactives, but you

by Larry Ferlazzo / 52min 

Getty Images Has Just Become The Number One Source For Images In Social Media — Choose From 40 MILLION!

Getty Images has just unveiled an embed feature for 40 million of their photos, making them available for non-commercial use. 40 MILLION! That’s a lot of images. However, that’s less than a third of the photos on their site, so after searching with a keyword, you have to look for photos that have the embed symbol (circled) on the bottom right, as in the screenshot below: I don’t see how you can

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h 

“Earth Hour” Is On March 29th — Here Are Lots Of Related Resources

Earth Hour, the annual time when people around the world switch-off lights for an hour to bring attention to environmental issues, takes place on March 29th this year. You might find The Best Sites To Learn About “Earth Hour” helpful….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

The Hindu Festival Of Holi Starts On March 17th — Here Are Useful Resources

The Hindu Festival of Holi starts on March 7th this year. To quote from the UPI, “Holi, also called the Festival of Colors, is a popular Hindu spring festival observed in India, and many other countries around the world. Holi, is celebrated by people throwing colored powder and colored water at each other.” You might find The Best Sites To Learn About The Hindu Festival Of Holi useful….

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

Updated World Water Day Resources — It’s On March 22nd

The United Nations designated March 22nd as World Water Day. It’s designed to bring attention to the fact that over one billion people in the world are without access to adequate water, and focuses attention on the growing issue of “water privatization” — forcing many people to pay private companies exorbitant prices to obtain the necessary water to survive. It’s of particular interest this year

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1h 

YESTERDAY

New Online Learning Games For Language-Learning (Plus, A Little Science)

I’ve previously posted how I use online video games for language learning, and have shared links to many of them. Here are two new ones: Here’s a link to the game, Words (click English), and here’s its Walkthrough. Escape from Mr. K’s Room 4 and here is its Walkthrough. This next game is a little different. Citizen Sort creates free online video games where players sort and identify items as par

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h hide  //  save

“TED Talks” Unveils Redesigned Website With New Useful Tools

TED Talks has just unveiled a new design for their website, and it now includes some additional useful tools. You can see their list of the new tools here. They include enhanced videos, the ability to save a list of the talks you’ve watched or want to watch, and the addition to many of the videos of speaker-suggested additional resources. I’m adding this info to The Best Teacher Resources For “TE

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h 

3-4-14 Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day… | …For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL: Video: “WKRP: Venus Explains the Atom” Shows Great Teaching In ActionNeil deGrasse Tyson shared this great video on Google Plus. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Learn About (And View Video Clips Of) Teachers In The Movies:by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h hide  //  save“Building ‘Political Will’ To Retain Teachers In High-Need Sch

by mike simpson / 7h 

3-5-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE:

Communities of color have been decimated by corporate reform. Now anger spreads when it affects white folk like @RBNLake

Robin Lake of Seattle writes: As the director of an education think tank focused on national issues, it feels indulgent to write about my own kids’ experiences in the public school system. But there’s no better way to illustrate one of the reasons my organization pursues the work it does on behalf of students. Let […]

1 by Shaun Johnson / 1h 

The Conversation: Moving ‘quality’ teachers between schools will not help disadvantaged children

Moving ‘quality’ teachers between schools will not help disadvantaged childrenFiled under: PAUL THOMAS: Becoming Radical Tagged: disadvantaged children

5 by plthomasedd / 3h hide  //  save

YESTERDAY

You don’t know the meaning of #dontbackdown

I’m pretty angry.  Yesterday, I was on a panel discussing Teach For America with, among others, Josh Anderson- head of TFA Chicago.  Overall, I thought the panel went well.  Debate was passionate (mostly on my part) but civil.  Still, at the very end, when Josh gave the final remarks of the event, he said something […]

4 by Katie Osgood / 9h  

3-4-14 @ The Chalk Face

@ THE CHALK FACE: Some Details on the First NPE ConferenceThe first annual Network for Public Education (NPE) Conference was this past weekend, on Saturday, March 1, and Sunday, March 2, 2014. Below is a news brief on the conference: I participated in the NPE conference as a member of three panel discussions, the topics being investigative journalism, philanthropy (as such is undermining the democ

by mike simpson / 8h 

3-5-14 the becoming radical | A Place for a Pedagogy of Kindness (the public and scholarly writing by P. L. Thomas, Furman University)

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

The Conversation: Moving ‘quality’ teachers between schools will not help disadvantaged children

Moving ‘quality’ teachers between schools will not help disadvantaged children

1 by plthomasedd / 3h 

 3-4-14 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): Ravitch, Lewis, and Kuhn at NPEDiane Ravitch, Why We Will Win Karen Lewis and John Kuhn1 by plthomasedd / 1h hide  //  saveCommon Core Costs Too High, Failure GuaranteedTeaching literacy has been my career and life for over thirty years now. Having grown up in the South

by mike simpson / 8h 

UPDATE: empathyeducates New Survey: Teachers Say Their Voices Aren’t Being Heard + Common Core Costs Too High, Failure Guaranteed

empathyeducates:

New Survey: Teachers Say Their Voices Aren’t Being Heard

By Emily Richmond | Originally Published at Education Writers Association. February 26, 2014 When it comes to having their voices heard, teachers overwhelmingly say they aren’t being listened to on matters of education policy at the state or national level. At the school level, however, 69 percent […]

by empathy / 2h 

Common Core Costs Too High, Failure Guaranteed

By Paul L. Thomas, Ed.D. | Originally Published at The Becoming Radical. March 4, 2014 Teaching literacy has been my career and life for over thirty years now. Having grown up in the South with my own peculiar grasp of so-called standard English, I feel fortunate to […]

by empathy / 7h  

empathyeducates Many L.A. Unified School Libraries, Lacking Staff, are Forced to Shut

empathyeducates: 123PreviousNextMany L.A. Unified School Libraries, Lacking Staff, are Forced to ShutHands raisedRaising their hands, Alexa Martinez, 7, back row, left; Jennifer Hernandez, 6; Helen Hernandez, 7; and Noe Ortiz, 6, are eager to answer a question from library aide Cindy Ramirez after reading the book “Abe Lincoln’s Hat” at San Pedro Elementary School in Los Angeles. (Liz O. Baylen /

by mike simpson / 8h 

3-5-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School:

Andrew Cuomo's Approval Rating Plummets

New Yorkers not so happy with Sheriff Andy these days:New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo's job performance rating has dropped to its lowest level since he took office in January 2011, having tumbled by 10 points since November, according to an NBC 4 New York/Wall Street Journal/Marist College poll.Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat facing re-election this year, saw his job approval among voters statewide fall to 42%,

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Sheldon Silver: What About The Children in The School Trailers?

From Daily Politics:Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver pushed back Wednesday against efforts to boost funding for charter schools.While not ruling out more money for charters, Silver said any effort to aid them must be weighed against other pressing needs in the city, including a space crunch that has kept school children in temporary classroom trailers for years.“When you want to talk about school c

by reality-based edu... / 1h 

Eva Moskowitz: Mayor And Chancellor Not Willing To Learn From Success Academies

Buried near the end of the Times story on the Eva/de Blasio charter fight is this:The mayor’s office noted that while it canceled plans for three Success charter schools last week, it allowed five more to open as planned. It said that it withdrew space from the three not out of animus toward Ms. Moskowitz, but because those schools would have placed elementary school students with high school stud

by reality-based edu... / 0min 

Comptroller Stringer Says NYC Will Have Extra $510 Million In Budget Than Predicted - Can Be Used To Settle Contracts

From the Wall Street Journal:New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer is predicting an extra $510 million in revenue in next year's budget, a windfall that he fears could be eclipsed by the sum needed to settle the city's open labor contracts. Mr. Stringer, who took office Jan. 1, attributed the gain to stronger-than-expected property tax revenue. It marks a slightly rosier financial picture than

by reality-based edu... / 1h hide  //  save

Did Cuomo Administration Officials Coordinate With Charter Operators To Organize Eva's Charter School Rally?

That seems to be the indication from this Daily News story: Cuomo’s appearance before the pro-charter crowd snatched some of the attention that de Blasio and his allies hoped to focus on pre-k funding. Sources with knowledge of the situation say Cuomo urged charter school advocates to turn out for the pro-charter rally. However, Cuomo administration officials denied there was any coordination with

by reality-based edu... / 3h 

3-4-14 Perdido Street School

Perdido Street School: Andrew Cuomo Uses Felon Who Pleaded Guilty To Federal Tax Evasion To Raise Campaign Donations For HimFrom State of Politics:A former Republican state senator and GOP power broker who pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion in 2012 is co-hosting a high-dollar fund-raiser next month in support of Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s re-election effort, Capital Tonight has learned.Addi

by mike simpson / 8h 

Why I should get in-state tuition as an undocumented student | Hechinger Report

Why I should get in-state tuition as an undocumented student | Hechinger Report:

Why I should get in-state tuition as an undocumented student

By Miguel Molina

New Jersey recently became the latest state to join a movement granting equal tuition for undocumented students. But not all do. East Los Angeles College student Miguel Molina shares how the different rules in different states have separated him from his family.

I am told I crossed the border to the United States when I was 2 years old, sitting in the back of a car. But my earliest memories are of South Los Angeles — of my parents staying up until midnight and then waking up every weekday and on Saturdays at 3 a.m. to check on the tamales and boil water mixed with maizena, blocks of chocolate and cinnamon for champurado, a traditional Mexican corn-based drink. My dad would load his yellow vendor tricycle with a huge oya, or pot, of tamales, utensils, and the freshly made champurado. My mom would fill a grocery cart with the prepared foods, which she would push as she walked my sister and me to elementary school.

Miguel Molina

That changed the fall of my senior year in high school. My parents told me they were moving because they feared for their lives. They had reported to the police that a gang member was extorting money from them. When the gang member found out, he threatened to kill them. My parents wanted me to move with them, but I chose to stay to finish high school because I believed there were more opportunities for me in California 

New Book from David Berliner: Update on Manufactured Crisis He Identified 20 Years Ago | janresseger

New Book from David Berliner: Update on Manufactured Crisis He Identified 20 Years Ago | janresseger:

New Book from David Berliner: Update on Manufactured Crisis He Identified 20 Years Ago

Posted on March 5, 2014 by janresseger

In 1995, nearly 20 years ago, Arizona State University education professor David Berliner and University of Missouri professor Bruce Biddle published a prophetic book that anticipated the largely trumped up attack on public education that has brought us vouchers and charter schools; No Child Left Behind with its requirement that the school year be filled with test-prep and high stakes pressure on children and teachers alike; and Race to the Top and the other Obama programs that are transforming the Title I Formula—a civil rights program—into a philanthropy-like grant competition aimed at “incentivizing”  innovation.

In The Manufactured Crisis, Berliner and Biddle wrote:  “The Manufactured Crisis was not an accidental event.  Rather, it appeared within a specific historical context and was led by identifiable critics whose political goals could be furthered by scapegoating educators.  It was also supported from its inception by an assortment of questionable techniques—including misleading methods for analyzing data, distorting reports of findings, and suppressing contradictory evidence.  Moreover, it was tied to misguided schemes for ‘reforming’ education—schemes that would, if adopted, seriously damage American schools.”

Back in 1995, Berliner and Biddle identified serious problems challenging American society and our public schools—income and wealth inequity; stagnation of the economy; racial, ethnic, religious, and linguistic diversity; racial discrimination practiced for years against black Americans; segregation in suburbs and ghettos; violence and drugs; the aging of the population; competing demands for funds; and the restructuring of work.  They concluded, “Unfortunately, many people who propose reforms for education seem to be unaware of these problems and as a result their proposals are unrealistic.  Effective reforms must begin by 

Today, I was offered $1,000. By Teach for America. « inspirEDucation

Today, I was offered $1,000. By Teach for America. « inspirEDucation:

Today, I was offered $1,000. By Teach for America.

And I’m turning it down. Here’s why:

As you all may know, I’ve been very busy recently putting together a student-led education conference for youth in LA called EmpowerED: Los Angeles Student Power 2014. I’m incredibly excited for this event, but have been struggling to raise money to fly in student organizers from all over the country. So I’ve been running a crowd-funding campaign to get the funds to make this personal dream of mine come true. Right now, I am a little less than $1000 short of my goal.

Let’s backtrack to a few months ago, when the ideas were still brewing in my mind. I knew that I wanted to provide a space for students to elevate their student voices and organize together for educational justice, but I wasn’t quite sure how at the time. Also during this time, my organization, Students United for Public Education, an entirely student-led, grassroots organization that defends public ed and believes in elevating student/community voice in the struggle for #edujustice (not #edreform), had just launched its first campaign: Students Resisting Teach for America.

After I started participating in the #resistTFA campaign a few months back, TFA folks started to reach out to me to speak with me about the campaign. They were all very respectful, very amicable, and very open to my ideas. We formed friendships, despite our differences in opinions about TFA, based 

Charter Op-Ed Misrepresents (Big Tree): My Response That They Won’t Print (Small Axe) | Cloaking Inequity

Charter Op-Ed Misrepresents (Big Tree): My Response That They Won’t Print (Small Axe) | Cloaking Inequity:

Charter Op-Ed Misrepresents (Big Tree): My Response That They Won’t Print (Small Axe)

If you are the big tree, we are the small axe, ready to cut you down, to cut you down! Bob Marley

I submitted an Op-Ed two weeks ago to the San Antonio Express News (SAEN) and they have refused to print it. The SAEN has not given the cold shoulder to corporate charter proponents. They printed an Op-Ed by Victoria Rico, a trustee of the George W. Brackenridge Foundation which has poured millions into recruiting and establishing corporate charters to San Antonio. The corporate charters that they are welcoming and desiring? KIPP, IDEA, Great Hearts and BASIS (et al)… Incidentely, each of which have appeared previously at Cloaking Inequity. See:

From Friend to Foe: Austin 1, IDEA 0 and Austin American Statesman’s IDEA fact check

Entire KIPP thread here. Also, “Work Hard, Be Nice?”: A Response to KIPP

Great Heart charters say “Diversity is too hard”

and then there is BASIS: What BASIS?: Nepotism and aggrandizement in charters?

Well, the reality of data and research on corporate charters in Texas and elsewhere did not stop Victoria Rico from proclaiming that “Despite social ills, students in charter schools succeed“ The beauty of social media is that the traditional media can no longer silence counter-narrative and dissent. Here is the response to Rico that the SAEN does not want you to see:

Charter proponents do a disservice to the public by misrepresenting what Texas data actually say when comparing charters to traditional public schools, as Victoria Rico did in a Jan. 16 opinion piece in the San Antonio Express-News.

Rico’s opening salvo was to knock public schools for low college readiness rates and college degree attainment. In a study of Texas data I conducted and published on Cloaking Inequity, my educational policy blog, I showed that the vast majority of schools producing college-ready Latino and African-

NYC Educator: Eva Moskowitz Forges a Way to Student Lobbyist Cuomo's Heart

NYC Educator: Eva Moskowitz Forges a Way to Student Lobbyist Cuomo's Heart:

Eva Moskowitz Forges a Way to Student Lobbyist Cuomo's Heart

When folks who make half a million dollars a year have problems, you'd better believe Andrew Cuomo has solutions. If that bad old Bill de Blasio won't give Eva Moskowitz free rent, well, he'll just take our tax dollars and give it to her.

The Post is very happy about that. That's because Murdoch cares deeply about poor people. I mean, he doesn't want to raise their minimum wage, and he probably doesn't think they should have a minimum wage, but it's very important we have charter schools. How else will someone who's never taught a class in her life become an education expert and get paid 500K per year?

After all, folks like that had to suffer through the millionaire tax that Governor Andy, in a principled stand got rid of. Now that they have that money, he can happily take it away from suburban kids via a Gap Elimination Adjustment that gives them less money. As we all know, the less money people have, and the less support we give our children, the better off they are. Everyone was delighted when the new Common Core tests failed 70% of our children, and the only way to keep up Governor Cuomo's brilliant stats is to give them even less.

Of course, things are different when it comes to Moskowitz Charter Schools. In institutions like these, kids have the opportunity to raise their 

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm -- 'I don't want to be a phony'

Mike Klonsky's SmallTalk Blog: Rahm -- 'I don't want to be a phony':

Rahm -- 'I don't want to be a phony'

Nixon -- "I am not a crook"

Whenever a politician begins by saying something likeRichard Nixon did -- "I am not a crook", you immediately know that they are crooked. When Rahm Emanuel begins his Sun-Times interview with Fran Spielman by saying, "I don't want to be a phony..." well, you get my point.

I mean, how's this for phony?

"Trust me, I don’t want to close schools."

 "I have a lot [union] support..." 

“It’s not that I’m polarizing [or]…not polarizing.'

"I don't want to be a phony"

"CTA never had any of the problems that other mass transit systems had — not just here, but around the country."

"And our streets were plowed and  passable — not just for police and fire, but for everybody." 

"Bruce [Rauner] and I are friends, [but I] totally disagree with him 100 percent on policy...He didn’t help me. We worked on a transaction together. We