August 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
David Deubelbeiss, the extraordinarily busy man behind EFL Classroom 2.0, has found time to begin compiling a “tag list” of my “The Best…” lists. He doesn’t have all three hundred yet, but he’s working on it 
.
Whenever its completed, it will be another accessible way to find them.
Thanks, Dave!
August 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Magma is a new site that isn’t open to the public yet, but is worth signing-up for to get an invitation.
Among other things, it shows you a continually updated listing of the most viewed videos on YouTube, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Delicious and a bunch more sites. In addition, you can collect your own lists of the ones you want to save.
I’m adding the site to the earlier post where I share how to find the most popular online videos.
August 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
6 Comments
BookRix is a new site that appears to let you very easily upload a document which is then turned into an embeddable virtual book.
I use the word “appears” because I really haven’t had time to try it out yet. It does look easy-to-use, and the final product has a neat interface that I think students would like. The site also seems to have a fairly strict code on content suitability. In addition, you can upload audio books, though I haven’t had time to see if you can record directly on the site or if you have to upload your own mp3 recording.
It’s worth checking out further, but I’m not ready to add it to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”.
If you get a chance to try it out, please let me know what you think.
August 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
This last “The Best…” list was the three-hundredth one I’ve posted over the past year-and-a-half.
You can find them in a few places:
They are all categorized at “The Best…” lists.
They are listed chronologically (more or less) at Websites of The Year.
You can find about twenty or so of them on my website under “The Best Websites.” I began posting them there in an easier format for student self-access. However, I soon discovered that students seemed to be able to access the sites directly from “The Best…” blog posts, so stopped taking the time to reformat them on my website.
I hope you’ve found them helpful. There are many more to come!
August 7, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
8 Comments
This was originally going to be a simple “The Best…” list on ways to easily convert PDF files to Word, and to do the reverse. It started off small when I began, but there has recently been an explosion in sites offering free conversion services, and I just haven’t had time to try them all out, nor put much time to carefully revising this post.
So it’s turned more into a somewhat disjointed “list” of these kinds of services.
I didn’t really understand why I might want to convert a document to a PDF until I read this article listing ten reasons Why To Convert Word To PDF.
Here are links to several online conversion tools:
Now, for the other way around.
One thing that has annoyed me is the difficulty in copying and pasting text from a PDF document I find on the Internet. Sometimes I see a portion of a document, for example, on language learning research that I want to email to someone or incorporate in an something I’m writing (with attribution, of course!), but it won’t allow me to extract a portion of the text.
There’s a free online application that lets me insert the PDF and, in seconds, come out with an editable text from the PDF. It’s called PDF Text Online. It works like a charm, and certainly serves my purposes.
In addition, Zamzar and Cometdocs lets you convert both ways. As do You Convert It and Convert Files. You can also use them to grab and convert YouTube videos for your laptop to show in class (though I never do that and just use the excellent EdublogsTV service). PDF Hammer lets you do the same thing.
And, of course, there’s the appropriately-named site called Convert PDF To Word. And there’s another similarly named tool called PDF To Word. Plus, a newer one is called OCR Terminal.
The HTML PDF Converter will let you convert any webpage into a PDF file. Another very similar site is called HTML to PDF.
PDF My URL is an online app that lets you quickly and easily turn any webpage into a PDF file, too.
Web2PDF is an extremely simple way to convert any webpage into a PDF file. PDF Crowd does the same thing. Create PDF is another good application to easily convert any webpage into a PDF file.
DocsPal is a new web application that lets you easily convert documents and images from one format to another, including PDF to Word and in the reverse.
Online-ConVert lets you convert lots of different files. It wasn’t working for me very well when I tried it, but others speak highly of it.
docDroid is an interesting take on document conversion. You upload a document in pretty much any format you want (Word, PDF, etc.). Then you email the link to someone, who can then download the document in any format you want. In other words, if you think someone might want to convert your doc, it saves them the extra step of having to go to a different document converter to do so.
PDF Online is another in a long list of tools available to convert files into PDF documents. What makes it stand-out, though, is that David Deubelbeiss says it’s the best he’s found. And David knows his stuff. So if he says it’s the best, that’s good enough for me.
Let me know which ones you think work best!
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
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Everlater is a new web application for people to document their travels. It’s very accessible, and tools like this are excellent for students to document field trips, historical journeys, etc.
I would add it to The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”, where it would join similar sites that are listed there. However, unlike those, Everlater doesn’t allow you to grab images off the Web. At this point, they only let you use your own.
If and when they change that policy, they’ll certainly be put on a “The Best…” list.
Thanks to TechCrunch for the tip.
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Karenne Sylvester has put together an incredible collection of ESL/EFL bloggers responding to the question What advice would you give to another TEFL teacher interested in becoming a blogger?
Thirty-one teachers of English Language Learners responded. Trust me, you don’t want to miss this post.
I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers.
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
SplashCast, a good Web 2.0 tool that I’ve written about, has just announced it’s shutting-down.
It’s just the latest of a string of good applications for education that have bitten the dust recently, including Flowgram.
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
U.S. News and World Report has a very accessible interactive called Find The Best Place to Live.
The user can manipulate some controls to identify what qualities are important to him/her (temperature, housing costs, demographics, fun things to do) and then it shows you the places that meet that criteria.
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
You can see photo excerpts from a new book called Monumental India at this site. They’re pretty impressive images.
I’ve also added some photos from the Sacramento Bee of Sikhs celebrating a holy day in India.
I’ve placed the links on my Geography page under Asia. I’ve place the Sikh images under Religion, too.
August 6, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
This is my usual introduction to one of these “most popular” posts:
As regular readers know, I’ve been posting “most popular” lists of websites that I think educators might find useful. Of course, there are a number of ways to gauge “popularity.” I just view these lists as opportunities to check-out some new sites, and find it interesting to see which ones might be particularly “popular.”
I’ve found that short funny animal videos are great to show to English Language Learner students and then — together — we write about what we saw. In addition, I”ve used an exercise called “back to the screen” (see The Best Popular Movies/TV Shows For ESL/EFL for more information on how it works) with these types of videos.
Animal Planet is a great source for these kinds of videos. They have a page where you can see their most-watched videos of “all time.”
You can see videos of “talking birds, water-skiing squirrels, and multi-talented dogs…”
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
TIME Magazine has just published an infographic titled Leading Cause of Death. It’s a pretty amazing piece of work chocked full with data about smoking cigarettes.
In fact, it may be a bit too “chock full.” It’s pretty “busy,” which might make it less accessible to ELL’s.
Nevertheless, I’m still adding it to The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About The Dangers Of Smoking.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Tomorrow is the 64th anniversay of the atomic dropping of Hiroshima. I thought a “The Best…” list of related resources that are accessible to English Language Learners might be useful.
Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About The Atomic Bombings Of Japan:
The Big Picture has series of photos titled Hiroshima, 64 years ago.
Hiroshima’s 64th Anniversary is the subject of a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.
Voice of America Special English has a report titled Lessons Learned From the Atomic Bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Audio support is provided for the text.
World War II: Hiroshima is another slideshow from LIFE.
Fallout: After A Nuclear Attack is a slideshow from LIFE.
MSNBC has an online video about the aftermath of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombings.
You can read Moment of silence as Hiroshima recalls bomb, which is a report about a commemoration ceremony.
MSNBC also has a slideshow titled Atomic Attacks.
Here’s an article on House Of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Hiroshima.
The New York Times has a Hiroshima slideshow.
The History Channel has a number of short videos on the atomic bombings.
How Stuff Works also has a number of related short videos.
Breaking News English has online materials that provide audio support for the text on the Hiroshima bombing.
ESL Holiday Lessons has a number of good printables on Hiroshima Peace Day.
CBBC Newsround, as always, has a very accessible overview of what happened, including photos.
Scholastic has an interactive called Hiroshima: A Survivor’s Story.
TIME Magazine has a short report that is not accessible to ELL’s, but teachers might want to modify it. It’s called HISTORICAL NOTES: Was Hiroshima Necessary?
Remembering Hiroshima is a Wall Street Journal slideshow.
Hiroshima marks 65th anniversary of atomic bomb attack is a BBC slideshow.
Never-Seen: Hiroshima and Nagasaki is a new slideshow from LIFE.
Hiroshima ceremony marks 65th anniversary of world’s first atomic bomb attack is a slideshow from The Washington Post.
The dropping of the Atomic Bomb, 65 years later is a series of photos from The Denver Post.
I was surprised that I couldn’t really find particularly good lesson plans online about the atomic bombings. This was the best I could find, and would need to be modified for ELL’s. It’s called The Ethics of the Bomb:What Would You Do? I’m hoping readers can point me in the direction of others.
The U.S. Government recently declassified photos taken after the atomic bombing of Hiroshima. Both The New York Times and TIME Magazine have created slideshows from some of the images.
Here are links to Amazing Panoramic Photos Of Hiroshima After The Atomic Bomb Blast.
Here’s a Telegraph slideshow titled Japan marks the 66th anniversary of the atomic bombing of Hiroshima.
As always, suggestions and feedback are welcome.
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.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
You have until August 15th to contribute your ideas to “What Do You Do On The First Day Of School?” Just go to that post and leave a comment.
I’ll be posting contributions, along with some of my own plans, on August 16th.
I know some people have already begun their school year, or will be prior to the 16th. If that’s the case, you might want to go to that post and read some of the great ideas that have already been left.
This is part of my “What Do You Do” series. Previous posts have included:
What Do You Do When You’re Having A Bad Day At School?
What Do You Do To Keep Students (And You!) Focused Near The End Of The Year?
What Do You Do On The Last Day Of Class (Part Two)?
What Do You Do When You Have A Few Minutes Left In Class? — Part Two
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
An Educator’s Guide To VoiceThread is a simple step-by-step PDF document showing how to use the great VoiceThread application. I’m adding the link to The Best Digital Storytelling Resources. Thank to jdornberg for the tip.
I’m adding Sound Bible to The Best Places To Get Royalty-Free Music & Sound Effects. You can read a post at Free Tech For Teachers to learn about this excellent resource.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Teacher Magazine has just published an article I’ve written about teachers making home visits to parents. It’s part of a series written by members of the Teacher Leaders Network.
You have to register (for free) to read the entire article, but it’s a quick process.
You might also be interested in my new blog, Engaging Parents In School.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Easy Guides To Using Today’s Technology are a collection of many “how-to” online videos related to…today’s technology. They’re from an organization called Learn it Teach it.
The videos are designed for teachers, but since they’re closed-captioned, I think they would be accessible to advanced English Language Learners who want to learn more about tech.
I’m adding the link to The Best Eleven Websites For Students To Learn About Computers.
Several people sent a tweet about it on Twitter, and I learned about it from Prestwick House.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Candace Wlliams has just posted the Twelfth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival. She’s calling it “Summer Break Time” and definitely done some great creative things with it. Check-out what bloggers from throughout the world have contributed!
The next ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival will be hosted by the ELL Classroom , and the deadline for submissions will be September 30th, with October 1st the publication date. You can contribute posts by using this easy submission form.
Let me know if you’d like to host future editions.
You can see all the previous editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.
August 5, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Atmosphere Design Lab at the Smithsonian lets you change the mixture of our atmosphere and see its effects.
The language is relatively accessible to Intermediate English Language Learners, and the images are good and the text is short.
I’ve placed the link on my Science page.
August 4, 2009
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Financial Times has developed a fascinating interactive which demonstrates how fast a disease can spread around the world because of air travel.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Swine Flu Outbreak.
