CURMUDGUCATION: Bernie Addresses Education-- And It Doesn't Suck

CURMUDGUCATION: Bernie Addresses Education-- And It Doesn't Suck

Bernie Addresses Education-- And It Doesn't Suck

The big headline on Friday was that Bernie Sanders was going to call for a ban on for-profit charters, and if the story had stopped there, I would be unimpressed. Hillary Clinton managed to condemn for-profits, and while that's a nice low-hanging fruit for politicians to grab, regular readers of this blog know that a non-profit charter is usually just a for-profit charter with a good money laundering system.

The good news, however, is that the story didn't end there. In fact, some of the other details in the coverage were far more encouraging than the headline.

We can get the best look at Bernie's education platform by simply going to his website. I know!! A major political candidate with an actual education page in their site. It's called "A Thurgood Marshall Plan for Public Education," and while I suggest you take a look, let me hit the highlights for you.

The introduction isn't great. The world has changed so education must, too. The damned PISA test rankings. We should lead the world in college degrees. So far I'm unimpressed. But he also notes that K-12 has become re-segregated, and that has had bad effects for non-wealthy non-white students. Then there's free college. And making teaching attractive again.

Now we're down to the bullet items.

1. Combating racial discrimination and school segregation.

The USED Office of Civil Rights needs to be back in business. More non-white school teachers are needed. End the disparate discipline of Black students, and end the school-to-prison pipeline.

That means increasing funding for community-driven de-segregation strategies. Triple Title I funding. Fund expanded teacher training programs at HBCU.

2. End the Unaccountable Profit-Motive of Charter Schools

The language here is much stronger than that which was reported. Noting that charters had roots in CONTINUE READING: CURMUDGUCATION: Bernie Addresses Education-- And It Doesn't Suck

NYC: Join Me to Celebrate “Class Size Matters” On June 19 | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC: Join Me to Celebrate “Class Size Matters” On June 19 | Diane Ravitch's blog

NYC: Join Me to Celebrate “Class Size Matters” On June 19

If you live in or near New York City, this is the one event you cannot miss. You will meet heroes of the Resistance. The dinner on June 19 is a joyous occasion where great people who care passionately about better education for all children meet, drink, and dine, o behalf of Class Size Matters, the organization founded by Leonie Haimson to fight for smaller classes, higher funding, Student Privacy, and less emphasis on testing.

The honorees are super. Tish James, The recently elected Attorney General of the State of New York, is a champion of public schools. She is also a key figure in demanding public accountability from the Trump Administration, drug manufacturers, and many others.

The event will also honor NYC Kids PAC, an organization that truly puts the interests of children first (unlike others who tried to co-opt the title).

Here is the information you need to order tickets.

Save the date! On Wednesday June 19 we will hold our annual Skinny award dinner at Casa La Femme on 140 Charles St. The honorees will be Attorney General Tish James for her steadfast and courageous leadership in supporting public school students and parents over many years; and NYC Kids PAC, the only political action committee that rates candidates on their positions on public education. Please reserve your ticket now — for a delicious three course dinner with wine and great company besides!

Join me at the Skinny Awards!

Why the Skinny Awards? Because they are the opposite of the Broad Awards! At the Skinny Awards, people are honored for supporting public schools, not privatization. And unlike the Broad Awards, the honorees get a plastic engraved doodad, not a six-figure check.

NYC: Join Me to Celebrate “Class Size Matters” On June 19 | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson On Deeper Learning | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson On Deeper Learning | Diane Ravitch's blog

John Thompson On Deeper Learning

John Thompson is a historian and retired teacher in Oklahoma who blogs frequently.

Reading In Search of Deeper Learning: the Quest to Remake the American High School, by Jal Mehta and Sarah Fine, is like reading the Mueller report. Special prosecutor Robert Mueller compiled a thoroughly researched narrative documenting the Donald Trump’s impeachment-worthy misbehavior and law-breaking but he did not indict the President. Mehta and Fine do the education version of making the case that school reform failed, but they don’t explicitly indict the Billionaires Boys Club for their role in driving deeper learning out of schools.

http://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674988392

My only complaint with Mehta and Fine’s narrative is that it charges the “command and control,” compliance-driven model that is antithetical to modern thinking,” imposed over the last century, without naming the names of corporate reformers who doubled down on socio-engineering an even more odious school culture during the 21^stcentury. 

The methodology of Deeper Learning and its findings would seem to provide a final verdict that corporate school reform, like previous top-down reforms, has been a disaster, so maybe I’m being unfair. Mehta and Fine study the most successful schools, that are disproportionately charters, and ask whether they offer deeper, more meaningful learning. They find that even the best of them succumbed to the inherent flaws in the test-driven, competition-driven model. For instance, a top charter, “No Excuses High,” could not fix the behaviorist, controlling essence of their model, and produced a CONTINUE READING: John Thompson On Deeper Learning | Diane Ravitch's blog

Stealing Scarce Education Funds From Students – Age of Awareness – Medium

Stealing Scarce Education Funds From Students – Age of Awareness – Medium

Stealing Scarce Education Funds From Students

“The District has not received payments from Community Preparatory Academy for the months of January 2017 through June 2017, which total to $82,240.97 currently owed to the District.”

- LAUSD Charter School Division

The LAUSD School Board took the rare step of considering the denial of a charter school’s renewal during their April 2, 2019, “special” meeting. In reviewing the hundreds of pages of documents supporting this recommendation, it was clear that the Community Preparatory Academy (CPA) has been in trouble since it was opened five years ago. During public comment I summarized the worst of their offenses for the Board:

In recognition of Autism Awareness Day, I would like to point out that 6.87% of the students at this charter have disabilities. The resident schools median is 12.43%. This discrepancy is a systematic problem throughout the LAUSD.

The Charter School Division is recommending denial now, but the problems are not new. This charter was originally approved in 2014 and has had a net deficit since the 2014–15 fiscal year. It’s ending Fund Balance last year was ($820,303).

That deficit not only affects the students who go to this charter, but it also takes 

Jackie Goldberg: Why I Love This Woman! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jackie Goldberg: Why I Love This Woman! | Diane Ravitch's blog

Jackie Goldberg: Why I Love This Woman!

Capital & Main interviewed Jackie Goldberg about her views, her vision, her hopes for the future. My heart sang and my brain hummed as I read her inspiring words.  

Reading Jackie’s words was like eating comfort food. I kept saying to myself, “Yes! Yes! Yes!”

Read the interview and you will see what I mean.

Jackie knows we are in the middle of a war to save public education. She knows that there is big money determined to kill it. She knows that the hope for the future of our democracy depends in having a well-funded public school system that provides genuine opportunity to all children.

And she is prepared to go to the mat, in Los Angeles and in Sacramento, to get the funding that public schools need and to get the financial accountability that charter schools need.

I am reminded of the first time I met Jackie. It was December 6, 2018. I had heard about her for years as an iconic figure but our paths had never crossed.

Over the past several years, the billionaires were buying seats on the LAUSD and things were looking bleak. I kept hearing about this dynamo Jackie Goldberg, the only one who could turn things around. She was the Cy Young pitcher in the bullpen, the one held in reserve until the ninth inning.

Last December, I went to Los Angeles to receive an CONTINUE READING: Jackie Goldberg: Why I Love This Woman! | Diane Ravitch's blog

DeVos equates lack of school choice with communist East Germany - POLITICO

DeVos equates lack of school choice with communist East Germany - POLITICO

DeVos equates lack of school choice with communist East Germany

Education Secretary Betsy DeVos said Friday that students who lack the means to attend the school of their choice enjoy as much freedom as those in East Germany had under communist rule.

In remarks to the conservative Young America’s Foundation, DeVos recalled her own travels decades ago in which she saw the stark differences between “tyranny and freedom” in East and West Germany. And she lauded President Ronald Reagan’s “purpose and principle” in fighting successfully to tear down the Berlin Wall.

“While that wall was reduced to rubble, there’s another kind of wall that needs tearing down today,” DeVos said at the gathering at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, Calif. “This wall is just as old and just as devastating to those who — through no fault of their own — happen to live on the wrong side.”

DeVos said she was describing a figurative wall in the United States that “separates wealthy, powerful or well-connected students from those who aren’t wealthy, powerful or well-connected.”

Families who aren’t wealthy “have about as much education freedom in America today as East Germans had freedom to do anything back then,” she said.

DeVos continued the metaphor further, seemingly drawing a parallel between unions and the “evil empire,” a label that Reagan used to describe the Soviet Union.

“Too many students are up against another ‘empire’ — governments, unions, associations of this and organizations of that,” DeVos said. “It’s an education cabal that protects the status quo at the expense of just about everyone else.”

DeVos has been urging Congress to pass a $5 billion plan to create a new federal tax credit to expand scholarships to help families pay for attending the school of their choice, including private schools.

DeVos equates lack of school choice with communist East Germany - POLITICO

Black Folks, Stop Chasing White Integration. It’s Not the Surest Path to Black Student Achievement - Philly's 7th Ward

Black Folks, Stop Chasing White Integration. It’s Not the Surest Path to Black Student Achievement - Philly's 7th Ward

BLACK FOLKS, STOP CHASING WHITE INTEGRATION. IT’S NOT THE SUREST PATH TO BLACK STUDENT ACHIEVEMENT

We, as a nation, are chasing the wrong things. From Boston to Birmingham, we have seen the ferocious and virulent reaction of white people to the thought of integration. From throwing bricks at school buses full of black kids being bused into lily-white schools to entire school districts either being shut down or wholly seceding to maintain the racial imbalance, we have seen how integration is met.

Let’s stop playing the game. All black schools aren’t damaging to kids; it’s anti-blackness that is proven to be perniciously harmful to kids. As Malcolm X said, “You can’t hate the roots of a tree and not hate the tree.”

Let’s stop ignoring the fact that all-white schools have far more resources than all-black schools, which leads to a deficit in resources for millions of black children. Integration won’t fix a mindset that says it is better for the public dollars to be skewed toward white children at the expense of black children.

AS KWAME TURE REMARKED, “WE WERE NEVER FIGHTING FOR THE RIGHT TO INTEGRATE, WE WERE FIGHTING AGAINST WHITE SUPREMACY.”

Let’s recognize that the false cry that integration is the only way for black kids to achieve is belied by the fact that the perspectives of white parents in the North or the South are often not all that different. Even today in 2019, many white parents’ views closely mirror those of President Dwight D. Eisenhower when he said racist white folks “…are not bad people. All they are concerned about is to see that their sweet little girls are not required to sit in school alongside some big black bucks.” He made the remark to Chief Justice Earl Warren in February 1954, not long after Warren had presided over that CONTINUE READING: Black Folks, Stop Chasing White Integration. It’s Not the Surest Path to Black Student Achievement - Philly's 7th Ward

Do As We Say, Not As We Do - Teacher Habits

Do As We Say, Not As We Do - Teacher Habits

Do As We Say, Not As We Do

For as long as I can remember, education has been accused of being stuck in the stone age and resistant to change. You can’t spend a day on the socials without someone lamenting that schools haven’t adapted to the new world and still operate like 20th-century factories. One way out of our morass, these critics say, is for education to work more like medicine. We should be more scientific, and only do things that have been proven effective through rigorous research.

As teachers, we’ve been inundated with this message. A cottage industry has grown up around studying and reporting on what works in education. Whole libraries have been written. Our evaluations are mostly based on whether and how well we implement research-based practices in our classrooms, with principals ticking them off on checklists. It’s no longer acceptable to use the instructional methods our teachers used with us. Professional development focuses on recent research. Educators shame each other on Twitter over what they perceive to be dated and harmful teaching methods. My school has a poster of John Hattie’s effect sizes hanging – of all places – in the teachers’ lounge; we can’t even escape the guy when we’re eating. There’s a What Works Clearinghouse and the Education Endowment Foundation Toolkit, two resources whose sole purpose is to provide educators with evidence of effective practices.

The message is clear: Teachers make a big difference, and it’s what CONTINUE READING: Do As We Say, Not As We Do - Teacher Habits

Bernie Sanders Calls for Tough Restrictions on Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bernie Sanders Calls for Tough Restrictions on Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Bernie Sanders Calls for Tough Restrictions on Charter Schools

CNN says that Senator Bernie Sanders will deliver a major address on education on Saturday. 

He will call for a flat ban on for-profit charters.

He supports the NAACP’s call for a moratorium on new charters.

Most important is this:

The Vermont independent also will call for a moratorium on the funding of all public charter school expansion until a national audit on the schools has been completed. Additionally, Sanders will promise to halt the use of public funds to underwrite all new charter schools if he is elected president.

That would mean elimination of the federal charter slush fund, which has wasted nearly $1 billion on schools that never opened or that closed soon after opening. This program, called the Charter Schools Program, was initiated in 1994 to spur innovation. It is currently funded at $440 million a year. Secretary DeVos used the CSP  to give $89 million to KIPP, which is already amply funded by the Waltons, Gates, and other billionaires and is not a needy recipient. She also has given $225 million to IDEA, part of which will be applied to opening 20 charters in El Paso.

If Senator Sanders means to eliminate CSP, that’s a very good step forward.

Every other Democratic candidate should be asked what they will do about the federal charter slush fund.Bernie Sanders Calls for Tough Restrictions on Charter Schools | Diane Ravitch's blog

Citing Harm to Public Education, Bernie Sanders Calls for Ban on For-Profit Charter Schools

"Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system."

Ahead of the official introduction of his sweeping education platform in South Carolina this coming weekend, Sen. Bernie Sanders on Friday became the first 2020 presidential candidate to call for a national ban on for-profit charter schools.

"Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system," Sanders tweeted. "When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools."

Charter schools are led by unaccountable, private bodies, and their growth has drained funding from the public school system. When we are in the White House we will ban for-profit charter schools. https://t.co/LGY3ZaWiVm

— Bernie Sanders (@BernieSanders) May 17, 2019

Sanders's support for banning for-profit charters comes as President Donald Trump's Department of Education—under the leadership of billionaire Betsy DeVos—is pushing for the expansion of charter schools nationwide.

"We need more of them, not fewer," DeVos said of the schools during a congressional hearing earlier this year.

According to CNN—which got an advanced look at Sanders's plan before its official release—the senator's platform will also include a moratorium on federal funding for all public charter schools until a "national audit on the schools has been completed."

CNN reported that the senator will also propose:

• Mandating that charter schools comply with the same oversight requirements as public schools;
• Mandating that at least half of all charter school boards are teachers and parents;
• Disclosing student attrition rates, non-public funding sources, financial interests and other relevant data;
• Matching employment practices at charters with neighboring district schools, including standards set by collective bargaining agreements and restrictions on exorbitant CEO pay;
• Supporting the efforts of charter school teachers to unionize and bringing charter schools to the negotiating table.

"As president I will stand with groups like the NAACP and put a moratorium on federal CONTINUE READING: Citing Harm to Public Education, Bernie Sanders Calls for Ban on For-Profit Charter Schools

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

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 23h

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 2018 – So Far and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2018 – PART TWO . A

“Author Interview: ‘Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources’ Lost to Poverty and Racism”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Author Interview: ‘Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources’ Lost to Poverty and Racism is the headline of my latest column in Education Week Teacher. In it, Cia Verschelden agreed to answer a few questions about her book, “Bandwidth Recovery: Helping Students Reclaim Cognitive Resources Lost to Poverty, Racism and Social Marginalization.” Here are some excerpts:

MAY 16

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

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 2018 – So Far , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . You

Pins Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

I’m fairly active on Pinterest and, in fact, have curated 17,000 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

The NY Times Wants To Know How Teachers Are Talking About Race With Their Students

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Gilbert Mercier via Compfight Dana Goldstein, education reporter for The NY Times, is soliciting feedback from teachers about how they are dealing with race issue in the classroom. The Times has a form for teachers to complete here . She writes: How do you and your students discuss subjects like segregation, immigration, racial inequality, slavery, the Civil War or Native American history? How of

TIME Highlights Young People From Around The World As “Next Generation Leaders”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

geralt / Pixabay TIME Magazine just named ten young people from around the world as “Next Generation Leaders.” Each person is featured in a short video and an accessible article. Apparently, it’s an annual event, and links to previous “leaders” can be found on the same page. I’ve embedded an example – a video about the teenage fighting against climate change, Greta Thunberg. You might also be int

New NPR Video: “Cookie Monster Practices Self-Regulation”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

InspiredImages / Pixabay “It’s Hard To Delay Gratification. Just Ask Cookie Monster” is a new fun video, accompanied by a useful short article , from NPR. I’m adding it to Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control .

Study: Books Around The House Help Kids, Even If They Don’t Read Them

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Scientific American has just posted about a study that suggests Unread Books at Home Still Spark Literacy Habits . How? “So if we grow up in a house, in a home where parents enjoy books, where books are given as birthday presents and cherished and valued, this is something that becomes a part of our identity and gives us this lifelong incentives to be literacy oriented, to always kind of steer to

FlexClip Looks Like A Great Video-Editing Tool For ELLs, English-Proficient Students & Everybody Else

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

Mediamodifier / Pixabay FlexClip is a free video-editing tool that is super-simple to use. You can use content they already have on their site and add text and your own audio narration, along with music. Or, you can use your own videos or photos. Once you create the video, you then export it. I’m not sure if there is an easier video-editing tool out there – certainly not for free. My creation, th

“What Is Trauma-Informed Teaching?”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 1d

What Is Trauma-Informed Teaching? is the new question-of-the-week at my Education Week Teacher column. Feel free to leave responses in the comments sections there or here…

Google Matches Donations On DonorsChooses To Support #ISeeMe

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

Capri23auto / Pixabay Google has announced they are matching donations to DonorsChoose projects that support inclusion & diversity. You can read more about it at their blog post and at DonorChoose. Here’s what DonorsChoose says about it: Google.org is matching donations to projects from teachers of color, women STEM educators, and projects that help students see their diverse identities reflected

MAY 15

Kahoot! Prepares To Launch English Version Of Tool For Teaching Beginning Readers

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

steveriot1 / Pixabay Kahoot! , the wildly popular game/testing tool ( you can read here about how Carol Salva uses it with English Language Learners), has just purchased a Scandinavian web tool that “gamifies” learning to read and is planning to launch an English version in June. It’s called Poio . Based on the announcement, it’s not quite clear to me if it will be free or payment will be require

Strategies For Making Change

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

geralt / Pixabay Here are three new additions to The Best Posts & Articles On Building Influence & Creating Change : The ‘3.5% rule’: How a small minority can change the world is from the BBC. Dolores Huerta: Revolution in the Fields/Revolución en los Campos Community Engagement Resource is from The Smithsonian. In-Person Protests Are Stronger Than Online Activism is from The Atlantic.

Important Classroom Management Reminder: Curiosity Can Work Better Than Judgment

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

Last summer, I wrote a fairly popular post headlined Leading With Inquiry, Not Judgment . In it, I shared some examples of how first asking why people are doing some things (or not doing some things) prior to declaring judgment on those actions might be an effective strategy in many different arenas, including in the classroom. Today, I read a piece on Medium that elaborated on that same concept,

Video: “The Statue Of Liberty’s Original Torch Finds A New Home”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 2d

Free-Photos / Pixabay I’m adding this new TIME video to The Best Sites For Learning About The Statue Of Liberty :

Most Popular Posts Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

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 Shares A Second Online Carmen Sandiego Game

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

In March, Google unveiled a fun and education Carmen Sandiego game that you could play on Google Earth (see “Where on Google Earth is Carmen Sandiego?” Is A Neat New Geography Game ). Today, they shared a second one, The Tutankhamun’s Mask Caper . In it, “Le Chevre, a master climber and classmate of Carmen Sandiego at VILE Academy, has stolen the priceless artifact. We’re counting on gumshoes eve

MAY 14

Good USA Today Feature On How Black Girls Are Treated Unfairly

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

Pushed out and punished: One woman’s story shows how systems are failing black girls is a new impressive feature from USA Today. You might also be interested in a two-part series at my Education Week Teacher column on the same topic that was guest-hosted by Dr. Terri Watson, “What Does It Mean to Be Young, Black, and Female in America?” Here’s a video accompanying the USA Today article:

“There Is A Lot We Can Learn” From The Story Of Hmong-Americans

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

W. Kamau Bell’s latest episode of his show on CNN, United Shades of America , focuses on Hmong-Americans. You can read more about it at W. Kamau Bell: Hmong-Americans redefined patriotism before my eyes . I’ve embedded a short video excerpt below. I’m adding this info to The Best Websites To Learn About The Hmong .

“‘Games Absolutely Have a Role in Teaching and Learning!'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

‘Games Absolutely Have a Role in Teaching and Learning!’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Abby Shink, Andrew Kozlowsky, Dr. Michael Young, Bradley Witzel, Heather Stinson, and Andrew Miller share their thoughts on learning games. Here are some excerpts:

Google Unveils New & Impressive Free Reading App: “Rivet”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 3d

Today, Google unveiled a free reading app called Rivet . It has 2,000 free e-books, and tons of features, including reading the words aloud and having students record what they hear – with artificial intelligence then assessing its accuracy. Teachers can create virtual classrooms and, I assume, monitor student progress (the ability to view student reading histories is not appear to be explicitly

MAY 13

SEL Weekly Update

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d

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: Three Ways To Grow From Fail

Video: “The 7 Wonders of the Ancient World, Digitally Reconstructed”

100+by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d

TheDigitalArtist / Pixabay I’m adding this new video from Newsweek to The Best Sites For Learning About Various “Seven Wonders” :

“Author Interview: ‘Adventures in Teacher Leadership'”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 4d

Author Interview: ‘Adventures in Teacher Leadership’ is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Katherine Bassett and Rebecca Mieliwocki agreed to answer a few questions about their (with Joseph Fatheree) new book, “Adventures In Teacher Leadership: Pathways, Strategies and Inspiration For Every Teacher.” Here are some excerpts:

My Latest BAM! Radio Show Is On Ways To Make Small Group Work More Effective

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5d

Five Keys to Successful Student Small Group Work is the topic of my latest ten-minute BAM! Radio show. I’m joined in the conversation by Jill Kester, Karen A. Goeller, and Rachael Williams, who have also all contributed written commentaries to my Education Week Teacher column. You can also now listen to the show on Google Play and Stitcher , in addition to iTunes. I’m adding this show to All My B

MAY 12

“Ways to Use Games Effectively in the Classroom”

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5d

Ways to Use Games Effectively in the Classroom is the headline of my latest Education Week Teacher column. In it, Susan Lafond, Michael Fisher, Eric Schildge, Jennifer Thomas and Adam Powley discuss how…games can be used effectively in the classroom. Here are some excerpts:

The Best Ideas On Peer Review Of Student Writing

by Larry Ferlazzo / 5d

Pexels / Pixabay Peer review of student writing can often be problematic. However, it also has the potential of being a very positive experience for students and teachers alike. I’ve written about it in the past, and shared related resources, but I thought it would be useful to collect them into one “Best” list. You might also be interested in all my many “Best” lists about writing instruction ,

MAY 11

This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Useful Posts & Articles On Ed Policy Issues

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6d

Here are some recent useful posts and articles on educational policy issues (You might also be interested in THE BEST ARTICLES, VIDEOS & POSTS ON EDUCATION POLICY IN 2018 – PART TWO ):’ Things continue to heat up in our district. Here are new additions to A BEGINNING LIST OF THE BEST RESOURCES FOR LEARNING ABOUT OUR SACRAMENTO DISTRICT’S FINANCIAL FIASCO : Want to avoid a state takeover of Sac Ci

Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6d

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 2018 – So Far and THE BEST RESOURCES, ARTICLES & BLOG POSTS FOR TEACHERS OF ELLS IN 2018 – PART TWO . A

Ed Tech Digest

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6d

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 2018 – So Far , as well as checking out all my edtech resources . You

Classroom Instruction Resources Of The Week

by Larry Ferlazzo / 6d

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 2018 – PART TWO. Here are this week’s picks: Using Rubrics to Teach Science Writing is by Michelle Newstadt & Amanda Godley. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Writing In S

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