Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

May 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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California Mission Panoramas

It’s fairly important that our students learn about the California Missions — the series of churches the Spaniards set up to convert and abuse Native Americans here. I use lessons about the Missions to help students think about how they would have reacted if they were Native Americans living in California at the time, and to reflect on instances when they and their families had been victims of injustice and how they responded.

I have lots of related accessible links on my website under California, and have just added another one — California Mission Panoramas. It has panoramic images of many of the surviving missions.

While you’re at it, you might be also be interested in The Best Websites To Learn About California.

Thanks to Edtech Gold Rush for the info on the panoramas.

May 2, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Even More Engaging Resources On The Swine Flu

Here are some more additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Swine Flu Outbreak:

Education World has a good printable and some lesson plans titled Kids Can Lower Their Flu Risk.

The Centers For Disease Control has some nice multilingual printables called Stop the Spread of Germs that Make You and Others Sick!. (Thanks to ESL Teachers’ Blog of Substance for the tip).

Killer Flu is an online video game that is not accessible to ELL’s (it doesn’t even seem accessible to me!), but it is interesting. You can read more about it at Water Cooler Games.

Battening Down is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Thermal Scanners Hunt For Swine Flu is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

Here’s an Animated Swine Flu Map.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

More Engaging Resources On The Swine Flu

Here are some more additions to The Best Sites For Learning About The Swine Flu Outbreak:

A Guide To Understanding Germs is a great graphic on hand-washing. It comes from the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in south Florida.

On The Front Lines Of Swine Flu is a new slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Pandemic Panic is a new lesson plan from the New York Times. It would require modification to make it accessible to ELL’s, but it also comes with a companion lesson plan for younger students that might be more accessible.

MSNBC has an article titled Amid swine flu outbreak, racism goes viral
Anti-immigrant hatred spreads on talk radio, Web sites
. Excerpts would be good for classroom discussion.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

BBC News Globe

The BBC has developed what they call a “prototype” of a News Globe. It’s similar to some other sites on The Best Visually Engaging News Sites list — it has a virtual globe globe that you spin, and there are points on it. When you place your cursor on the points a short introduction to a news story based on that location shows-up, and you can click on it to go to the complete report.

I’m adding it to that “The Best…” list.

Thanks to Free Technology For Teachers for the tip.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

The Best Places To Find New Educational Websites

I’m sometimes asked where I learn about all the online resources I post about here, and thought a partial answer to that question might make a good “The Best…” list.

One very important part of the answer can be found in a previous list I wrote — The Best Blogs For Sharing Resources/Links — 2007. Even though it was originally written last year, I have continued to add blogs (and other resources) to it, and would encourage you to subscribe to all of the ones on that list.

In addition, I use the sites listed at The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations.

And I regularly check the sites on The Best Collections Of Educational Links list.

Today, I’ll be sharing additional websites that aren’t blogs (and, in many cases, don’t have an RSS feed). They are generally sites that post about new online resources regularly. I typically check each of these sites about once each week.

One of my future “The Best…” lists will share where I learn about many of the Web 2.0 tools I post about, which are usually not through channels that focus on educational resources.

Here are my picks for The Best Places To Find New Educational Websites (not in any order of preference):

Teachers First Featured Sites publishes a weekly update on new resources they add to an incredible collection of of educational sites. You can sign-up for a weekly email newsletter.

Tech Learning Site Of The Day shares a new webpick each day, along with tons of other educational technology resources. It has an excellent archive of previous picks, too.

Librarians’ Internet Index issues a weekly report on new and noteworthy sites that you can get via email or by RSS feed.

4 Kids publishes a weekly newsletter highlighting several websites for young people. I haven’t figured out any other way to get it other than checking their site, but I might be missing something.

The Internet TESL Journal’s Recently Submitted Links is just one of a zillion resources for English Language Learners that can be found on this site. New links are posted daily (though they periodically stop it when they get spammed a lot — which is the situation now).

Scholastic’s Online Activities and Interactive Learning doesn’t appear to necessarily highlight all their new links (though Scholastic does have a What’s New blog),  but each month I usually find some new additions to their rich collection of online features.

BBC Learning has a newsletter you can subscribe to for finding out about their new online activities.

Show Me highlights the newest and best online interactives (designed for students) from museums in the United Kingdom.

Ten Cool Sites regularly — more or less — provides recommendations from the fabulous Exploratorium Museum.

Chris Smith does an incredible job with Shambles, which is a support site for international schools and has a huge link collection.

You can sign-up for a free weekly PBS Teachers Newsletter that will provide links to new online resources.

The British Council has great resources for both young people and adults who are learning English. You can subscribe to a monthly newsletter announcing new resources.

Of course, National Geographic is a source of great online resources. They have lots of online newsletters sharing updated materials.

Classroom Tools and Tips from Eduhound is one more good place to find sites. They also send out a free monthly newsletter that you can subscribe to here.

Common Sense Media highlights family friendly resources, including websites. You can subscribe to their weekly update here.

The Schoolzone Webguide provides links, and reviews, of thousands of free websites.

Little Clickers is a monthly compilation of sites on a specific topic.

I’ve written a lot about Ressources pour le College. It’s a constantly updated website that provides resources for English Language Learners.  I can’t say enough positive comments about this site.

Feel free to contribute additional suggestions.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
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ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival Coming-Up!

The deadline for submissions to the next edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival is May 31st, and it will be hosted by Alice Mercer, my Sacramento colleague. You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. Any posts related to the teaching or learning of English, including examples of student work, are welcome.

Nik Peachey hosted the latest edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival, and it’s filled with great posts from around the world and insightful commentary by Nik.

You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

Virginia Education Wizard

The Virginia Educational Wizard is a cool interactive guide to careers and colleges. It’s obviously geared towards students in Virginia, but their Interest Assessment is one of the most engaging ones I’ve seen and would be a useful tool for any students exploring potential careers.

I like that particular tool so much that I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Students Exploring Jobs and Careers.

Thanks to Holly Dilatush for sharing this resource on Twitter.

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Teach English, Teach About The Environment

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a free 133 page downloadable curriculum that connects English language-learning with environmental issues.  It’s called Teach English, Teach About The Environment, and looks pretty good to me.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Introduce Environmental Issues Into The Classroom.

Thanks to Colorin Colorado, which is on The Best Ways To Keep-Up With Current ELL/ESL/EFL News & Research list, for the tip!

May 1, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

What I’ll Be Doing Over The Next Few Months

I’m going to be “up to” a fair number of things during the coming months, and thought I’d give readers a quick “preview.”  I’ll be writing more in the near future about each of these activities a bit more specifically.

My book (written with Lorie Hammond), called Building Parent Engagement In Schools, will be published this summer.  It combines my nineteen years of community organizing with my six years of teaching experience, and offers (at least, in my mind and in the minds of Linworth Publishing) a somewhat unique perspective on what schools can do to more effectively connect with parents.

I’ll be starting a second blog called Engaging Parents In School at about the same time the book comes out. I’ll just be posting there about once a week, and will continue making this blog my primary online presence.  More “The Best…” lists and new posts in the “What Do You Do?” series are coming-up.  In addition, I’ll be writing for In Practice, the group blog written by teachers working in low-income communities that was begun by Alice Mercer).  And I’ll continue to be trying to figure out Twitter.

During the summer, I’ll also be finishing-up another book. This one will be on using community organizing methodology to teach English Language Learners, and it should be published next summer.

My teaching schedule looks interesting, too.  I’ll have a Beginning ESL class for three weeks in the summer (those are always a lot of fun!), and, then, in the fall, I’ll, as usual, be teaching Intermediate English and mainstream ninth-grade English.  The “twist” in my schedule is that I’ll also be teaching a Theory of Knowledge class in our school’s International Baccalaureate program. I’m looking forward to that class, and to seeing if I can modify some of those lessons for my Intermediate English Language Learners. If anybody out there also teaches TOK, I’d be interested in hearing your ideas and getting any help I can!

Another new adventure I’m beginning is becoming part of the Teacher Leaders Network. I’m still getting a handle on what is all involved, but I figure if people like Bill Ferriter and John Norton are leaders in it, it’s something I’m sure to learn a lot from.

Throw-in family time and basketball-playing, plus anything else Alice Mercer tells me to do :) , and it’ll be a “hopping” few months!