IT'S A BUSY DAY AT 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 A BUSY DAY AT Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day... 

The latest news and resources in education since 2007

Labor Day Is Coming Up – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2h

Labor Day is coming up soon. You might be interested in The Best Websites For Learning About Labor Day .

YESTERDAY

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 9h

Six 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 ONE , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . You might also w

“What Is the Funniest Thing That Has Ever Happened in Your Classroom?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

What Is the Funniest Thing That Has Ever Happened in Your Classroom? is the new question-of-the-week at my Ed Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave responses in the comments section there or here…

A Look Back: We Should Be Obsessed With Racial Equity

by Larry Ferlazzo / 10h

I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2017. I have often shared links to Education Week posts by Walt Gardner in this blog. His pieces are short, to-the-point, and often, in my opinion, right on target. However, I have to say that I was shocked and appalled by his latest post, The ‘Racial Equity’ Obsessi

Video: “A Hidden Life” Might Be A Movie Worth Watching By Students & Teachers

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

ulleo / Pixabay “A Hidden Life” opens in theaters in December. Here is how it’s described: Based on real events, from visionary writer-director Terrence Malick, A HIDDEN LIFE is the story of an unsung hero, Franz Jägerstätter, who refused to fight for the Nazis in World War II. When the Austrian peasant farmer is faced with the threat of execution for treason, it is his unwavering faith and his l

August 15th Is India’s Independence Day – Here Are Related Teaching & Learning Resources

by Larry Ferlazzo / 13h

OpenClipart-Vectors / Pixabay India Independence Day is on August 15th. You might be interested in The Best Sites For Learning About India .

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 21h

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

Google Unveils Two Big Tools For Schools: “Assignments” & “Originality Reports”

37by Larry Ferlazzo / 22h

377053 / Pixabay Google made two big announcements today. I don’t think I can give an accurate description of Assignments, which is why I’ll just link to some other articles and embed a video about it below. It seems to me possibly like a way to assign and grade work if you don’t want to go through the trouble of creating a Google Classroom (it connects to your Google Drive and Docs) but, again,

“Q&A Collections: Writing Instruction”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Q&A Collections: Writing Instruction is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. All Classroom Q&A posts offering advice on Writing Instruction (from the past eight years!) are described and linked to in this compilation post. Here’s an excerpt from one of them:

AUG 13

A Look Back: KQED Interviews Me About Saul Alinsky & His Connection To Teaching

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I thought the summer might be a good time to re-share posts from My All-Time Favorite Posts! list… This post originally appeared in 2016. Two days after Ben Carson suggested that Saul Alinsky was, and Hillary Clinton is, a devil worshiper , the KQED Mindshift blog published an interview with me about how I apply his work in the classroom. Check out Books Teachers Share: Larry Ferlazzo and Rules f

“Author Interview: ‘Working Hard, Working Happy'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Author Interview: ‘Working Hard, Working Happy’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Rita Platt agreed to answer a few questions about her new book, “Working Hard, Working Happy: Cultivating a Culture of Effort and Joy in the Classroom.” Here are some excerpts:

Amazing NY Times Project On The 400th Anniversary Of The Beginning Of Slavery In America

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

KlausHausmann / Pixabay The 1619 Project from The NY Times is edited by Nikole Hannah-Jones, and is an amazing interactive: The 1619 Project is a major initiative from The New York Times observing the 400th anniversary of 

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

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Ald. La Spata needs to dump Moreno's plan for Von Humboldt School

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Ald. La Spata needs to dump Moreno's plan for Von Humboldt School

Ald. La Spata needs to dump Moreno's plan for Von Humboldt School

This from Mina Bloom at Block Club Chicago:

Nearly 200 Humboldt Park residents, teachers and teacher advocates packed into the Von Humboldt Elementary School auditorium this week to weigh in on a long-stalled plan to turn the shuttered school into an apartment complex geared toward teachers. At the chaotic two-hour-long meeting Monday night, the majority of residents who spoke during public comment lambasted the developer behind the project, East Coast-based RBH Group, and Ald. Daniel La Spata (1st). 

They took turns slamming the project, saying it doesn’t address Humboldt Park’s gentrification-fueled displacement problem and that teachers won’t be able to afford the apartments. Some said they’d much rather see officials reopen the school, which closed in 2013 when the district closed a record 50 schools.

“We would like to see the school be back open,” local teacher Jhoanna Maldonado said to cheers. “Whether there’s 10 kids, 100 kids or 2,000 kids in this neighborhood — every kid should deserve to go to their neighborhood school. If that’s not the case, it should be housing for families who have been displaced from our neighborhoods.”

 My note this morning to Ald. La Spata...

I'm surprised to hear that you are continuing your corrupt predecessor's backing for the Von Humboldt condo plan. The current version of plan was originally part of a deal indicted Ald. Joe Moreno worked out with RBH developers, a self-interested community group [that used to oppose gentrification], and with Teach CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Ald. La Spata needs to dump Moreno's plan for Von Humboldt School

Ferris HS teacher Mandy Manning says she was denied entrance to immigrant detention center - KXLY

Ferris HS teacher Mandy Manning says she was denied entrance to immigrant detention center - KXLY

Ferris HS teacher Mandy Manning says she was denied entrance to immigrant detention center

SPOKANE, Wash. - Ferris High School teacher and 2018 National Teacher of the Year Mandy Manning said she was denied entrance to an immigrant detention center in McAllen, Texas on Wednesday. 

In a Facebook post, Manning said she traveled to the center with other members of the American Federation of Teachers to check on the welfare of children. 

Manning was named the National Teacher of the Year in 2018 for her work at Ferris High School's Newcomer Center. She teaches English to refugee and immigrant students and is set to return to Spokane this fall. 

Mandy Manning, NBCT@MandyRheaWrites

Denied entrance McAllen Immigrant prison. After numerous applications to check on the children, were told “AFT does not have a legitimate mission or business purpose for participating on a visit.” They called the police and attempted to tow our vehicles. @TeachersACD @AFTunion

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9:59 AM - Aug 14, 2019

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Randi Weingarten, president of the AFT, was among the group of teachers present on Wednesday. In a tweet, she said Border Patrol members threatened to arrest the group for praying for the children’s wellbeing. 

Randi Weingarten

✔@rweingarten

While doing a vigil in McAllen,Tx, in front of the border facility detaining asylum seeking families...the Border Patrol after first denying our application to visit the children, then threatened to arrest us 4 praying 4 the childrens’ well being @MandyRheaWrites @AFTEVPDeJesus

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10:07 AM - Aug 14, 2019

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AFT said the group handed out bags of books, stuffed animals and blankets to migrant children held at the center. 

Weingarten and AFT have been vocal about the Trump administration’s detention of migrant children, saying they should instead be in classrooms. Weingarten was quoted by PJ Media saying illegal immigration makes America’s public school system “stronger” by bringing more diversity. 

4 News Now has reached out to Manning for further comment on the situation. 

RELATED: Mandy Manning ready to return to classroom after her time as Teacher of the Year

Ferris HS teacher Mandy Manning says she was denied entrance to immigrant detention center - KXLY

Anatomy of a Charter School Fraud – Have You Heard

Anatomy of a Charter School Fraud – Have You Heard

Anatomy of a Charter School Fraud

Step one: become an expert in the regulations governing (and more importantly, not governing) charter schools in your state. Step two: recruit as many students as possible, even students who’ll be attending your schools in name only. Step three: watch the money role in…In the latest episode of Have You Heard we delve into the audacious story of A3 Education and it’s empire of online charter schools. Special guest: Voice of San Diego’s Will Huntsberry. Complete transcript of the episode is here. And if you like our high-quality content, consider supporting us on Patreon – or by making a one-time donation.

Anatomy of a Charter School Fraud – Have You Heard

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Environmental Justice: Water crisis in Newark worse than Flint, on Booker/Christie's watch

Mike Klonsky's Blog: Environmental Justice: Water crisis in Newark worse than Flint, on Booker/Christie's watch

Environmental Justice: Water crisis in Newark worse than Flint, on Booker/Christie's watch

A pallet of bottled water is delivered to a recreation center, Tuesday in Newark. 

Former Newark Mayor and presidential candidate, Sen. Cory Booker is acting like he just discovered that the lead-contaminated water system has been poisoning the children and families of his city for years. The latest figures from federal observers show that children in Newark's Essex County are in fact nearly four times more likely to have elevated blood lead levels than those in Flint.

Now, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has issued a dire warning about lead contamination, and New Jersey environmental officials found a problem with “ineffective corrosion treatment” at one of the city’s two water-treatment facilities.

In addition, according testing found that 2 out of 3 filters tested in three Newark homes failed to effectively reduce lead contamination.

In a tweet on Wednesday, Booker called on the federal government to step in.

"Everyone deserves clean, safe water," Booker wrote. "It's shameful that our national crisis of lead-contaminated water disproportionately hits poor black and brown communities like my own."

But where has Booker been up until this past week when the media started shining light on the crisis? He still hasn't taken any responsibility for the problem even though he was Newark's mayor from 2006 to 2013.

Small point...He might have used that $100M he got from Zuckerberg as a start in alleviating CONTINUE READING: Mike Klonsky's Blog: Environmental Justice: Water crisis in Newark worse than Flint, on Booker/Christie's watch

CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Comparisons In Education

CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Comparisons In Education
The Problem With Comparisons In Education

Which is the best movie: Ghostbusters, Singin' In The Rain, Casablanca, or Avengers: Endgame?

It depends, of course, on how we choose to compare them. Based on level of romance? On the happiest ending? Best dancing? Most money made? Best use of Sigourney Weaver? Criteria make all the difference. But it's not just the criteria; it's the problems with criteria that naturally emerge from the mandate to compare.

One of the driving features of modern education reform has been the mandate to compare. Fans of free market education want to be able to compare schools; several reform programs targeted schoolsthat ranked in the bottom five percent. The New Teacher Project (TNTP) made a huge splash in 2009 with "The Widget Effect" arguing that we should compare teachers and make staffing and pay decisions based on the results. Ranking schools is as important to U.S. News as swimsuits are to Sports Illustrated.

There are problems applying comparisons to education.

Comparisons are not measurements. Pat may be ranked the tallest or shortest student in class, but either way, knowing Pat's ranking does not tell me how tall Pat actually is. "Most improved" may make good advertising copy, but your enterprise can be "most improved" and still be terrible.

This problem only increases as we deal with more complex systems. The better a measure is for making comparisons, the worse it is for actually describing the thing being measured.

If we want to describe what makes a particular school great, or where it is falling short of CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: The Problem With Comparisons In Education

Keeping the Why of Writing Instruction in Mind | radical eyes for equity

Keeping the Why of Writing Instruction in Mind | radical eyes for equity

Keeping the Why of Writing Instruction in Mind

While many, including myself, have focused on Jennie Young’s provocative argument that “that we stop teaching [academic citation] entirely” in first-year writing, Young builds to an important and broader point by the end: “Writing instruction is a messy business, and there are few simple fixes for any aspect of it.”

I certainly agree there are no simple fixes, but here I want to consider a foundational need if we are in fact concerned about writing instruction—the “why.”

Writing in 1946, Lou LaBrant asserted, “There are many ways of writing English, and the teacher of composition must know, before he thinks of means for teaching, what kind of writing he thinks important to teach.”

Here, I think, LaBrant is calling for any teacher of writing to understand both the “what” and the “why” before coming to terms with the “how” of teaching writing.

At the K-12 and higher education levels, I suspect there are far more teachers assigning writing than teaching writing, and far more teachers grading writing than giving substantive feedback on writing.

I also would anticipate that too few teachers have investigated the “what” and “why”—in part because they are teaching in a curriculum that is absent a cohesive writing program, some guiding principles for why any teacher is assigning or teaching writing to students.

In a brief exchange with Young, she noted two points from a post of mine CONTINUE READING: Keeping the Why of Writing Instruction in Mind | radical eyes for equity

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read | Diane Ravitch's blog

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read | Diane Ravitch's blog

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read

Pasi Sahlberg and William Doyle have written a wonderful new book about the importance of play for children. Play is important for the healthy development of all children, regardless of their socioeconomic status. It’s title is Let the Children Play. 

Since the passage of no Child Left Behind and the implementation of Race to the Top, the federal government and the states have done their best to stamp out play.

Noted conservative Reformer Checker Finn enjoyed the book but thought it smacked too much of Dewey and Rousseau. Play may be fine for our children, he says, but not for poor children, who need to raise their test scores. No play for them! Sahlberg and Doyle do not agree. They argue that children need to run, jump, imagine, sing, dance, and play-act, whatever their circumstances. It’s called childhood, and all children should have one, not just those who are privileged.

Its time to take a stand on behalf of play, fun, joy for all children.

Let the children play! 

Let the Children Play! A Book You Should Read | Diane Ravitch's blog

4 new studies bolster the case: More money for schools helps low-income students

4 new studies bolster the case: More money for schools helps low-income students

4 new studies bolster the case: More money for schools helps low-income students

Does money matter in education? The answer is increasingly clear.

A 2018 overview of the research on education spending found that more money consistently meant better outcomes for students — higher test scores, higher graduation rates, and sometimes even higher wages as adults. It was enough for Northwestern economist Kirabo Jackson to say the question was “essentially settled.”

Since then, the research hits have just kept on coming.

Four new studies from different parts of the country have come to similar conclusions. In Texas and in Wisconsin, researchers found that spending more translated to higher test scores and boosted college enrollment. Two other studies — one looking at California and another looking across seven states — found that spending more money didn’t affect test scores in more affluent areas, but did boost test scores in higher-poverty districts.

“All four studies find that increased school spending improves student outcomes,” said Jackson.

The findings come as school spending is on the upswing across the country, with states continuing to rebound from the Great Recession and policymakers respond to pressure from striking teachers to invest more in schools. The new research indicates that students are likely to benefit from those increases, even as notable disparities between states like Mississippi and Massachusetts, and between some neighboring school districts, linger.

The studies don’t provide clear answers on how to best use new resources, though, CONTINUE READING: 4 new studies bolster the case: More money for schools helps low-income students