October 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Unusual — And Important — Parent Engagement Study Validated is the title of my latest post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.
I think it’s pretty intriguing. You might want to check it out.
October 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Chilean miners arguing about who comes up last is the headline of an article in the Telegraph. The article includes links to multimedia features.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Trapped Miners In Chile.
October 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Technology Tools to Get Teachers Started is nice post over at Edutopia.
I’m adding it to My Best Posts For Tech Novices (Plus A Few From Other People).
October 11, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
These links are great both for English Language Learners and for my IB Theory of Knowledge students.
The ELL’s can describe what they see, and both they and the TOK students can use them to debate if they are art, and if so, why.
Here are my choices for The Best Examples of “Unusual” Art:
Carl Warner’s Foodscapes is a slideshow from The Telegraph: “British photographer Carl Warner creates amazing foodscapes: landscapes constructed entirely from fruits and vegetables, cheeses, breads, fish, meat and grains.”
22 Most Impressive Things Ever Made From Balloons
Weird, Wonderful Modern Sculptures is a slideshow from LIFE.
7 Innovative Artists Who Create Art from Trash: Projected, Recycled and Other Amazing Art
15 Gorgeous Examples Of Fruit Art
Pencil sculptures: miniature masterpieces carved into graphite is a slideshow from The Telegraph
Food As Art has several examples of artistic creations made from….food.
7 Weirdest Paintings Passed Off As Art is an article that is pretty self-explanatory.
12 Creatively Placed Street Art includes some pretty ingenious stuff (though one might be considered a little gross).
And here’s a slideshow of Damien Hirst’s art, which definitely qualify as “unusual.”
Turning trash into visionary art is an intriguing slideshow from Slate.
Etch A Sketch art will amaze you is a slideshow from CBS News of some pretty amazing art on Etch-A-Sketch.
Fantastic foodscapes is an MSNBC slideshow of some pretty strange artistic uses of food.
The Art Of Yarn Bombing is a TIME Magazine slideshow.
Whimsical Works of Art, Found Sticking to the Sidewalk is a New York Times article, with photos, of an artist who paints chewing gum discarded on sidewalks.
The World’s Largest Wooden Urban Sculpture is a TIME Magazine slideshow.
Museum of Bad Art: Too bad to be ignored is a slideshow from The Independent.
This video of an artist creating “watermelon art” is pretty amazing:
Watermelon skin carving from Vid Nikolic on Vimeo.
Sculptures by the sea is a slideshow from The San Francisco Chronicle.
World’s Ugliest Public Art is a slideshow from Travel and Leisure.
Feedback is welcome, including additional suggestions.
If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
Untabbed is a new search engine that lets you see a large screenshot of any search result.
It’s very similar, though, to the system that Google began unveiling last week (see Google Search Has Just Gotten Better For English Language Learners). Given that the only difference I can see is that it offers a larger size screenshot of the site — which is a nice feature — there doesn’t seem to be any difference between Untabbed and what Google is rolling-out. In fact, Untabbed even uses Google search results.
I’m still going to add it to The Best Search Engines For ESL/EFL Learners list. I just don’t know how long it’s going to be around.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Last week, a group of School Superintendents wrote an incredibly appalling column in The Washington Post. It is titled How to fix our schools: A manifesto by Joel Klein, Michelle Rhee and other education leaders.
It’s astounding to me that so many smart people could collaborate to write a column that is so awful in so many ways.
It has, fortunately, sparked quite a few others to post better-written and more thoughtful pieces that are accurate and research-based.
Here are my choices for The Best Posts About The Appalling Teacher-Bashing Column Superintendents Wrote In The Washington Post:
The bankrupt ‘school reform manifesto’ of Rhee, Klein, etc. by Valerie Strauss of The Washington Post
Misleading Manifesto by Liam Goldrick
A Manifesto of Errors: Rhee, Klein and the Gang Strike Out by Anthony Cody
How to (Let Someone Else) Fix Our Schools by Justin Baeder at Ed Week
Education: Manifesto versus Manifesto by Kenneth Bernstein
“‘Manifesto’ should be resignation letter” is an excellent piece at The Washington Post.
My own post, What Are These Superintendents Thinking?
Lastly, I’d like to include the letter our Sacramento Superintendent wrote about Waiting For ‘Superman.” It’s not directly connected to The Post column but, coincidentally, he sent it out to staff the same day these other Superintendents published their column in The Post. Too bad they didn’t talk to him first. Check-out What Our Superintendent Says About “Waiting For ‘Superman’”
What’s wrong with the ‘manifesto’ — point by point is the title of an excellent post in The Washington Post’s “Answer Sheet” blog.
Randi Weingarten: Don’t scapegoat America’s teachers is the headline of a guest op-ed piece in The Washington Post by the head of the American Federation of Teachers.
“Rothstein: Why teacher quality can’t be only centerpiece of reform” is a must-read piece by Richard Rothstein in the Washington Post.
Feedback is welcome. If you have written a post about the column, please leave a link in the comments section of this post.
If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Jason Renshaw has been writing an excellent series of posts about teaching ESL/EFL/ELL students the “unplugged” way — without a formal textbook, with few materials, focusing on their lives and interests, and making it “conversation-driven.”
He’s now putting all of the posts in this series on one page, so I’d encourage you to explore The Road to Teaching Unplugged – Ongoing Archive.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
David Deubelbeiss has created a fun slideshow of headlines that have something wrong with them.
As he suggests, they are probably only accessible to advanced English Language Learners. I’m actually just going to use them in my IB Theory of Knowledge class when we study language and with my regular ninth-grade English class when we need a little fun activity. I’d ask both to identify what’s wrong with them.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
In Arizona, undocumented face a choice: Stay in fear, or join exodus is the title of a Washington Post slideshow.
I’m adding it to The Best Sites To Learn About Arizona’s New Immigration Law.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve just completed this round of edits on my forthcoming book, Student Self-Motivation, Responsibility, and Engagement: Practical Answers to Classroom Challenges .
It will be in the hands of the publisher, Eye On Education, soon.
They’ll send it out to a group of reviewers again, I’ll make final edits over Christmas vacation, and it’s supposed to come out in late spring of next year.
In the meantime, if you haven’t done so already, you might want to check-out my previous books, Building Parent Engagement In Schools and English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
High-Tech, Low-Tech, and “No-Tech” Ways to Help ELLs Develop Language and Higher Order Thinking Skills is the title of a Webinar I’ll be doing on October 20th.
It’s sponsored by Linworth Publishing, who have published my books, English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work and Building Parent Engagement In Schools.
The “Organizing Cycle” that I wrote about in my ELL book — building relationships, activating prior knowledge through student stories,
developing student leadership, learning by doing, and reflecting, will be the primary focus of the Webinar, but it will obviously be open to whatever participants want to discuss.
October 10, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
It’s time for another year end list, this time focusing on social studies. You might also be interested in:
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
And, of course, there are 500 other “The Best…” lists, too.
As is the case in all my lists, some of these sites might have been around prior to 2009, but they were new to me this year.
Here are my ranked choices for The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010 (that are accessible to English Language Learners):
Number fifteen: The Lottery Of Life is a neat site from Save The Children. It gives you a chance to see how your life might have looked if you had been born in another country.
Number fourteen: Vote Easy is a very accessible interactive that lets users identify their opinion on several key public policy issues, and then compares those positions with those of local candidates. It’s probably the best site of its kind that I’ve seen, and is certainly accessible to English Language Learners.
Number thirteen: LIFE recently unveiled a neat new feature that lets you search for any photos in its archives and create an online timeline/slideshow that you can share with a unique url address. Their Photo Timeline lets you use their original captions or you can edit them and create your own, as well as writing your own description for your whole creation. After you log-in (you can do so using your Twitter, Facebook, Yahoo, or Google accounts — it would be nice if they allowed on site registration, but I guess you can’t have everything!), it’s just a matter of searching and dragging the photos to your timeline/slideshow.
Number twelve: At the BBC’s Dimensions site you identify an event or object (The Great Wall Of China, a battle, etc.), then type in a zipcode, and then it will overlay the dimensions of that event or object to the zip code you picked.
Number eleven: “Finishing The Dream” is a new collection of 100 videos from NBC News related to the Civil Rights Movement.
Number ten: Numbeo shows the cost-of-living in just about every country in the world, and many cities in the United States.
Number nine: The BBC has developed what they call the News Globe. 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. You type in a query for the types of news you’re looking for.
Number eight: “A Moment In Time” is the compilation of photos that the New York Times organized. Thousands of people from all over the world took a picture at the same moment on May 2nd. It’s an amazing collection. The photos can certainly be used in class to have English Language Learners describe and discuss them. Also, teachers can have their students use the same idea on a smaller scale and develop their own “moments in time.”
Number seven: Earth Pulse: State Of The Earth 2010 is an impressive effort from National Geographic. It has a number of features, including a photo gallery and interactive quiz. Most impressive, though, is an interactive Vital Statistics Map that lets you compare global trends on many topics.
Number six: Critical Past is a new site that has 57,000 “historic” videos from 1893 to the 1990′s — many of them appear to be old newsreels. It seems to be designed to sell them for download, but anyone can view them online for free. It has a very nice search feature.
Number five: “Timelines: Sources From History” is a nifty interactive from the British Library that lets you explore items from its collection using text, video and images. It’s very engaging. The only negative I see is that you can save favorites, but only to a PDF that you can then print-out. There doesn’t appear to be anyway to save it online. That seems a little strange, but maybe I’m missing something.
Number four: The BBC’s “A History Of The World.” is a neat interactive timeline display of historical objects with images and commentary. Not only is it an accessible and engaging way to learn more about world history, but after a quick site registration you can contribute your own historical object choice to the collection and write about it.
Number three: Zinn Education Project: Teaching a People’s History is a collaboration between Rethinking Schools and Teaching for Change! As their announcement states:
The new site features over 75 free, downloadable teaching activities for middle- and high- school students to bring a people’s history to the classroom. These are the best U.S. history-teaching articles from the Rethinking Schools archives. The site also lists hundreds of recommended books, films, and websites. The teaching activities and resources are organized by theme, time period, and grade level.
Though teachers would have to modify the materials to make them accessible to English Language Learners, the site is truly extraordinary.
Number two: Docs Teach from the U.S. National Archives lets you easily create online activities using primary sources. Plus, you can access the interactives that others have created, too. It’s super-easy to register. Creating the interactives is not as intuitive as I would like, but it’s still pretty easy.
Number one: The Time Map Of World History is a super-cool interactive and accessible way to learn about…world history. Using a map and accessible text, it starts at 3500 BC.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.
You might also want to explore the 500 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Earlier this week, The Washington Post published the appalling guest column by several school superintendents. It mentions “Waiting For ‘Superman’” and certainly reinforces its teacher-bashing message.
Our Superintendent here in Sacramento, Jonathan Raymond, and I haven’t always agreed on policy issues (see Why I Oppose Teach For America Coming To Sacramento).
However, those other superintendents could learn from him and his public response to the “Superman” movie that he sent-out this week to all district staff. Here’s an excerpt:
I came away from the movie with an overwhelming sense that we have to stop blaming teachers for problems that have multiple causes, ranging from poor administrative oversight and accountability to a lack of parent engagement. I know how hard teachers work to educate every child and challenge students at their ability level. We need to work equally hard to give our teachers the tools and supports they need to be successful. Let’s stop scapegoating and come together to find solutions that work.
You can read his full letter here.
It would have been nice to have read something like that in the Post’s column by the other superintendents…
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
8 Comments
I’ve written several posts about brain “priming” experiments, and how the idea could be useful in helping get students in a positive frame of mind prior to taking a standardized tests. Some of these successful experiments have included having students complete “sentence scrambles” prior to a test that, once unscrambled, have them saying they are smart.
Ethically, I think doing that sort of thing seems okay to me because it’s pretty innocuous, it’s designed for the very short-term, and, even though it might not work, I figure it can’t hurt, either. And it’s surely less ethically questionable than spending a huge amount of class time on test prep.
A new study on brain priming has just come out, though, and I think it raises more serious ethical questions.
In the experiment, participants were given one of two groups of words — one related to money (like “wealth” and “price”) and other to time (like “clock” and “day”) In the experiment, which was duplicated with the same results, the people with the money words said they would spend the next twenty-four hours focused on working, while the people with the time words said they would spend it with friends.
If these experiments are indeed true, it could certainly be applied to school — students could be given words related to being successful or doing homework. But that doesn’t set well with me. It just seems like I would be trying to manipulate student behavior outside of the classroom and in their lives. Yes, yes, I know, we all try to do that in other ways. But doing it through brain-priming seems different, and I don’t feel comfortable with it.
At the same time, I think doing it before the standardized tests is okay, and don’t feel like there are the same ethical issues for the reasons I’ve already given.
So, what do you think? Is it a valid concern? Does my distinction make sense? Or do you think brain priming is okay in both situations, or in neither one?
I’ll be asking my IB Theory of Knowledge students these same questions when we begin studying ethics, and I’m very interested in hearing what readers think…
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post has just published “The bankrupt ‘school reform manifesto’ of Rhee, Klein, etc.”
It’s her commentary on the recent appalling piece authored by several School Superintendents published by the Post (see What Are These Superintendents Thinking?).
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival has been going on for over three years. You can see all of them here. Every other month, blog posts from English teachers all around the world are combined into one post hosted by a teacher.
Leave a comment on this post if you’d be interested in hosting a future one, and would like more information about what is involved in doing it.
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Ms. Flecha has just posted the Nineteenth Edition Of The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival, and she’s done a great job. You can check-out posts there from twenty ESL/EFL teachers from all around the world.
The next regularly-schedule ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival will be published on December 1st at Sabrina’s Weblog. You can contribute a post to it by using this easy submission form. If the form does not work for some reason, you can send the link to me via my Contact Form.
In addition, Anne Hodgson is organizing a special Blog Carnival on November 1st specifically dedicated to teaching Business English (BE) and English for Specific Purposes (ESP). For more information about that carnival, and to use a form Anne has created for submissions to it, please go to her blog.
You can see all the previous eighteen editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
‘Beyond: Visions of Our Solar System’ is a slideshow from The Washington Post. It shows images from a new Smithsonian exhibition with the same name.
I’m adding it to The Best Images Taken In Space.
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
National Geographic has an impressive feature called “The Ocean.”
I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The World’s Oceans.
Thanks to Julie Mushing for the tip.
October 9, 2010
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Interesting Facts About Halloween” is a good infographic.
I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween.
Thanks to Interesting Pile for the tip.
