“What are some must-see TED talks?” was a question raised at Quora. It includes the vote total based on responses, as well as a tabulation of likes and dislikes on YouTube. The results are intriguing.

I’m adding the link to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations).

A picture is worth a thousand thoughts: inquiry with Bloom’s taxonomy is the title of a very useful resource from Learn NC. It shows a photo, along with the original Bloom’s Taxonomy pyramid. By clicking on each thinking level, you are shown questions about the photo reflecting the level.

It’s a very simple and visual way to teach Bloom’s Taxonomy, and can easily be replicated as a student assignment in any classroom.

I like this interactive A LOT.

I’m adding it both to The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom and to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons.

Thanks to One Stop Learning for the tip.

You can now pre-order my upcoming book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges, on Amazon, if you’d like. It appears the publisher, Eye on Education, is pushing the release date up and saying it will be available on April 8th.

I’ll post the book’s introduction on this blog sometime later this month.

Also, I’m co-authoring a fairly extensive book on teaching ESL with my colleague, Katie Hull. That’s scheduled to be released in July, 2012. I’ll be sharing more about that book over the next year.

In late 2012 or early 2013, a sequel to Helping Students Motivate Themselves should be published. There wasn’t room in the one that will be released next month for a number of chapters I wanted to include, but they’ll all be in the sequel.

I’ve also begun planning another series of books that I hope announce later this year.

Of course, you can always check-out my first two books, Building Parent Engagement In Schools and English Language Learners: Teaching Strategies That Work.

Story Corps, which collects peoples…stories, and which I suspect many of us listen to on NPR in the morning, has recently launched a National Teachers Initiative. Here’s how they describe it:

StoryCorps’ National Teachers Initiative will collect, preserve, and share stories that celebrate the impact of great educators on all of our lives. Focusing on the heroic work of teachers in classrooms across America, the National Teacher’s Initiative is a unifying project of profound importance, inclusive of all ethnicities, cultures, and ages. By focusing on the voices and stories of teachers, the National Teachers Initiative will underscore the influence of educators on our lives and our nation’s future.

To record your story, you need to visit either a permanent Story Corps location or one of their traveling ones. You can find those locations here.

Thanks to Cindy Johanson for the tip.

It’s a ways away, but I wanted readers to know that Education Week will be hosting an online chat with me on April 12th. I’ll post more details as the time grows closer.

It’s titled “Helping Students Motivate Themselves” and will take place on Tuesday, April 12, 2011, 2 p.m. Eastern time. It’s connected to the publication of my new book (it should be out by April 15th) titled Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges.

Here’s the long and shorter description of the Chat:

Long Description:

Larry Ferlazzo will talk about techniques he uses in his classroom to help students to motivate themselves to learn. He draws from his longtime career as a community organizer to help students set and meet goals for themselves in learning and classroom behavior. He combines literacy development with short and rigorous academic lessons on topics such as self-control, personal responsibility, brain growth, and perseverance, and uses many “on-the-spot” interventions — all designed to engage students and connect to their self-interests.

Short Description:

Larry Ferlazzo will talk about techniques he uses in his classroom to help students to motivate themselves to learn, which is the subject of a new book he’s written set to be published this spring.

TED Talks has just announced the launching of “TED-ED.” They are planning to collect videos — shorter than the typical TED Talks ones — that “anyone” can create.

They are taking applications from people who want to participate in the planning of this initiative, and you can see a short video about their plans here.

It could have a lot of potential.

I’m adding this information to The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations).