Sep 30 2009
Jason Renshaw just posted about a bunch of excellent Halloween materials he has available for free on his English Raven site.
I used them when I was teaching Beginning English Language Learners, and they were a real hit.
I’m adding the link to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween.
Sep 30 2009
Our students can come up with some pretty amazing pieces of work that could be very instructive to others. In order to use student work in that way, we should get permission from them and their parents.
Kathy Schrock has shared a great “Permission To Use Student Work” form developed by the Nauset Public Schools. That link is the form as a downloadable PDF. Here it is in WORD.
Kathy asks that, if you use it, to please keep the attribution for the Nauset Public Schools at the bottom.
Sep 30 2009
Here’s my monthly round-up of “The Best…” lists I’ve posted in September (of course, you can find all 320 or so of them here):
The Best Online Carbon Calculators — September, 2009
The Best Sites To Learn About The September 2009 California Wildfires — September, 2009
The Best Online Interactive Exercises For Writing That Are Not Related To Literary Analysis — September, 2009
The Best Sites Where Students Can Plan Virtual Trips — September, 2009
The Twenty Blogs I Read First… — September, 2009
The Best Resources For Learning About Homework Issues — September, 2009
The Best “Fun” Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too — 2009 — September, 2009
The Best Resources For Learning About Mexico’s Independence Day — September, 2009
The Best Sites To Learn About Georgia’s Floods — September, 2009
The Best Online Resources To Teach About Plagiarism — September, 2009
The Best Resources For Learning Research & Citation Skills — September, 2009
The Best Web Resources For Learning About HIV & AIDS — September, 2009
Part Thirty-Nine Of The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — September, 2009
The Best Sites To Learn About The Tsunami In American Samoa — September, 2009
Sep 30 2009
The Core Knowledge blog writes about a post by Diana Senechal at DoubleX. She writes:
“Schools should stop telling children to be nice and start teaching them to be good.”
Both the Core Knowledge’s commentary and the original post make some great points, and they are both worth reading. I do have two issues with it, though.
One is that it seems to be focused on seeing using literature as the primary way to do that, and I think there are plenty of avenues to help students learn this difference.
The second is that, unfortunately, she bases this idea on a quote from Charles Murray, a researcher who I think has done a fair amount of damage to education. It shouldn’t detract from the usefulness of the point but, as Claus von Zastrow says in a comment on the post, “the guy still creeps me out.”
Sep 30 2009
Here are additions I’ve made to The Best Sites To Learn About The Tsunami In American Samoa:
CNN has an excellent article, video, slideshow, map, and “explainer” about the tsunami — all on the same page.
Tsunami Sweeps Across the South Pacific is the title of a Wall Street Journal slideshow.
Tsunami Sweeps Samoan Islands is a video from The New York Times.
This TV station site has a ton of videos, pictures, and interactives about the tsunami, including an interactive explaining how a tsunami is formed and information about American Samoa.
Sep 30 2009
I don’t have much time this morning, but wanted to put together a quick “The Best…” list about the tsunami in American Samoa yesterday.
This is useful for two reasons: (1) we’re studying Natural Disasters right now in our mainstream ninth-grade English classes and (2) we have a number of Pacific Islanders in our ELD classes.
Also visit The Best Websites For Learning About Natural Disasters.
Here are my choices for The Best Sites To Learn About The Tsunami In American Samoa:
Here are some videos from the Sun-Sentinel newspaper in Florida.
Tsunami carnage in American Samoa is a video from Reuters.
Samoa tsunamis leave over 100 dead is another Reuters video.
Tsunami hit South Pacific islands is a nice accessible text from the CBBC Newsround.
The Brisbane Times in Australia has another video.
The Sydney Morning Herald has yet another video.
CNN has an excellent article, video, slideshow, map, and “explainer” about the tsunami — all on the same page.
Tsunami Sweeps Across the South Pacific is the title of a Wall Street Journal slideshow.
Tsunami Sweeps Somoan Islands is a video from The New York Times.
This TV station site has a ton of videos, pictures, and interactives about the tsunami, including an interactive explaining how a tsunami is formed and information about American Samoa.
Tsunami Strikes South Pacific is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
Quake Triggers Tsunami is a slideshow from ABC News. ABC also has a video that shows the actual tsunami.
Here’s some “raw” video of the actual tsunami.
More Earthquakes After Samoa Tsunami is the name of a “Breaking News English” lesson for ELL’s.
Tsunami: Disaster In Samoa is an interactive graphic from Agence France Presse.
I’ll be adding more to this list later today, but have to head to school right now.
Sep 30 2009
Day/Week In A Sentence is a great reflective activity where educators share a weekly reflection in one sentence. Kevin often “mixes it up” with having people leave their sentence in an audio version, or a comic strip, etc. People also take turns hosting it.
It’s back after a summer hiatus, so consider participating this week.
Day In A Sentence is on The “Best” Blog Carnivals list.
Sep 30 2009
I just wanted to reminder readers that I’ve been updating The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween since I originally published it last year.
You might find it useful.
Sep 30 2009
Big Escape 3 is one of those online video games I post about here that I use with English Language Learners. However, the big difference between this one and most of the others is that Big Escape 3 was developed specifically as an educational game to benefit early readers.
The graphics are good, the tasks are sufficiently engaging, and the reading is accessible. Instead of having to collect a bunch of objects to use in your “escape” — like you do in other “room escape” like games — here you have to collect words.
I’ve posted previously about other games in this series.
I’ve placed the link on my website under Word and Video Games.
Sep 29 2009
The Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles has released four short videos. The short films follow immigrant community members on their quest to learn English and include interviews with leading academics, adult school administrators, ESL teachers and volunteers. The four videos are:
Classroom 206: Making Time for English
The Outcome is Income: Graduating in English
Finding Their Way with English
Sep 29 2009
Wize, which is number two on The Best Sites For Learning Which Consumer Electronics To Buy, has just redesigned its site to make it even better.
You can read about the changes at TechCrunch.
Sep 29 2009
I regularly share my picks for the most useful posts of each month. I also publish a list of the month’s most popular posts, based on the number of times they are “clicked-on.”
I also share a list of Post Rank’s analysis of each month’s top posts. Post Rank uses a variety of ways to measure level of “engagement” that readers have with specific blog posts. I have a constantly updated “widget” on my blog’s sidebar that lists these posts, but I thought a monthly post would be helpful/interesting to subscribers who don’t regularly visit the blog itself.
Here are their rankings for the month of September(actually, all of these posts tied for the highest rank — once a post reaches a “10″ in Post Rank, it can’t go any higher):
Sep 29 2009
Slideshare, the huge host for a zillion slideshows, just announced the winners of The World’s Best Presentations of 2009.
The winner in the Education category is called “A Crime So Monstrous” and is on human trafficking. It will certainly be on my future “The Best…” list on that topic.
Sep 29 2009
I regularly highlight my picks for the nine or ten (or a few more) most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use these in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see back issues of those newsletters here and my previous “Top Ten” picks at Websites Of The Month.
These posts are different from the ones I list under the monthly “Most Popular Blog Posts.” Those are the posts the largest numbers of readers “clicked-on” to read.
Here are the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this past month (not in any order of preference):
“ELL 2.0: How to Make the Most of the Web”
My Book On Teaching English Language Learners
“This Is Your Brain On Learning”
“The Ten Worst Teaching Mistakes”
“Now I Know My Brain Is Growing When I Read Every Night”
“How Much Is A College Degree Worth?”
“State’s exit exams deserve a failing grade”
Reading Logs — Part Two (or “How Students Can Grow Their Brains”)
The Hopes And Dreams Of My Students
“Seeing The Forest Through The Trees”
Concerns About Book “Leveling”
The Best Part Of The President’s Speech & How I’ll Use It
Use Storybird To Create A Story
Great New Website From The BBC For Math, English & Science
The United States (& The World) As A 100 People
“Test scores poor tool for teacher evaluation”
Sep 28 2009
Each month, I publish a feature where I “look back” at posts I’ve made one and two years ago (at about this time). I share ones that I think people might still find useful.
Here are some from one year ago:
One Of The Coolest Online Music Tools Ever!
iKnow! Has Extraordinary Potential
The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About New Orleans
The Best Places To Learn Computer Basics & How To Fix Tech Problems
And here are some interesting ones from two years ago:
HippoCampus For History, Government & Math
Awesome Stories
Sep 28 2009
Afghanistan, September, 2009 is a series of photos from the Boston Globe’s Big Picture blog.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Afghanistan War.
Sep 28 2009
Becoming Americans: Four Centuries of Immigrant Writing is coming out on October 15th, and looks like it might be a great book.
The Sacramento Bee today chose it as its “Top Nonfiction Pick” for the fall. Here is what is said:
If America is a land founded by immigrants, then just what is “American”? It is no single thing but many things mixed together to form a new thing.
Ilan Stavans, a professor at Amherst College in Massachusetts, has gathered the writings of immigrants who put forth their firsthand experiences of jumping into the cauldron of this country.
They came from around the world over a period of four centuries. All arrived in search of opportunity, and all had to navigate the shock of the new. Many found racism and brutal conditions instead of the dreams they had envisioned. A few built empires.
Stavans culled his material from diaries, memoirs, letters, travel notes and stories. As immigration to this country continues, and the politicization of it becomes more visible, perhaps perspectives from the past are more valuable than ever.
Sep 28 2009
“Top Ten Things You Didn’t Know About National Parks” is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.
I’ve added it to The Best Sites For Learning About Yosemite & Other U.S. National Parks.
Sep 28 2009
I’ve just updated The Best Online Resources About Christopher Columbus.
You might want to check them out.
Sep 28 2009
I just sent out my free monthly email newsletter.
I’ve been sending it out for two years, and have about five hundred subscribers now. You can see all the past issues here, and subscribe to it here.
