Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

…For Teaching ELL, ESL, & EFL

Monthly Archives: July 2011

July 14, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
9 Comments

What Should Teachers Be Doing During Student “Free Voluntary Reading” Time?

Free Voluntary Reading (also known as SSR, Extensive Reading, and a number of other terms) is a key element in the English curriculum at our school — and in many others. It’s basically the practice of having students read a book of their choice during a period of time in class, and encourage that they do the same at home (you an learn more about it at The Best Resources Documenting The Effectiveness of Free Voluntary Reading).

In class, especially during two-period double block mainstream and ESL classes, we generally have students read for the first fifteen or twenty minutes. Kelly Young from Pebble Creek Labs, our extraordinary instructional strategies consultant about whom I have often written, is always pushing us to be active and walking around during this time, talking with students about what they are reading, having them read passages to us, asking them questions, etc.

We all know that what he’s suggesting is the right thing to do. To be honest, though, for many of us, it’s easy to, instead, use a a portion of that time to get ready for the lesson, answer a couple of school emails, clean-up papers from the previous class, or just take a breather for a minute or two. The spirit is willing, but the body sometimes doesn’t follow.

However, a new study might give all of us a little bit of a push to take Kelly’s words more seriously.

In an article in the Journal of Educational Psychology, researchers found that teachers providing individual feedback to students during this kind of reading time was, by far, one of the most effective ways to help improve students’ reading ability. It primarily looked at students using their silent reading time to read class text (thought not exclusively), but it seems close enough to the basic ideas of Free Voluntary Reading that we should carefully consider what they found.

You can watch a video about the study, too, at Best Practices Weekly.

What do you do during the time your students Free Voluntary Reading time, if that’s a practice you use?

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July 14, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
25 Comments

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011 — So Far

I usually just do a year-end list on Web 2.0 Applications For Education and many other topics, but it gets a little crazy having to review all of my zillion posts at once. So, to make it easier for me — and perhaps, to make it a little more useful to readers — I’m going to start publishing mid-year lists, too. These won’t be ranked, unlike my year-end “The Best…” lists, and just because a site appears on a mid-year list doesn’t guarantee it will be included in an end-of-the-year one. But, at least, I won’t have to review all my year’s posts in December…

As usual, in order to make this list, a site had to be:

* accessible to English Language Learners and non-tech savvy users.

* free-of-charge.

* appropriate for classroom use.

* completely browser-based with no download required.

It’s possible that a few of these sites began in 2010, but, if so, I’m including them in this list because they were “new to me” in 2011.

You might want to visit previous editions:

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2010

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2009

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2008

The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education — 2007

(You might also find The Best Ways To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly — 2010 useful)

Here are my choices for The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011 — So Far:

educaplay looks like a great free (as far as I can tell, at least) tool where you can easily create a ton of different kinds of educational interactives that you can link to or embed in your site. These include Riddles, Crosswords, Wordsearch Puzzle, Fill in the texts, Dialogues, Dictations, Jumbled Word, Jumbled Sentence, Matching, Quizzes, and Maps. For at least some of the them, including dictation, it provides the ability to record audio.

tildee lets you very easily create a simple step-by-step tutorial for just about anything. You can add text, maps, videos and photos (unfortunately, though, you can only upload photos — not grab them from the Web). And you don’t even have to register for the service.

Web Doc is a new sorta’ blogging platform that makes it super simple to write individual “docs.” I especially like its ability to search the Web for images within your “doc” and just post it into what you’re writing. It also lets you add a speech bubble to the photo. It has tons more features, including providing an embed code. One of its neatest features is the ability to for people to create their own “Web Doc” as a comment. The problem for classroom use, however, is that it doesn’t appear to allow moderation for comments. So, I think for most teachers, the best option for now (until they add that feature) is to use one of their other nice features — the ability to disable comments. However, since they are embeddable, it would certainly be easy enough to embed it in a post on an Edublog, for example, and just have people leave comments there.

AOL has recently begun AV By AIM, a super-simple video chat room. You just go to the site, say you want to start a chat, and you’re given a unique url that you can use to invite up to four people to join. No registration is required.

Instablogg is a super-easy, super-fast way for students, teachers or anybody to create a webpage, and it doesn’t require registration.

Swayable lets you create a simple survey that can include two photos (you can either upload them or grab them from the Web) and a question.

Caffein lets you easily create a video chatroom for up to 15 people.

Jux looks like a great way to create nice-looking websites. It’s free and has a “drag-and-drop” interface, plus you can grab images off the web.

Magisto is a new Animoto-like service that lets you upload several short videos and it then somehow “recognizes” the most important parts and turns it into a magically-produced one minute video. It’s still invitation-only, but I got one seconds after I requested one.

Wordlings lets you create word clouds in various shapes, which you can then embed (or get a link to it).

PhotoCollect lets multiple people upload images to the same account — perfect for field trips.

Fakebook is the newest tool over at the excellent ClassTools site (Russel Tarr is the creative genius behind the site). Teachers and students can use it to:

- chart the career of a historical character
- create a timeline of important events
- outline the main plot of a book, play or film
and so on!

Broadcastr is a new site that lets you record audio for up to three minutes and then “attach” it to a map location. It also gives you the url address of your recording. This could be a great resource for English Language Learners and all students. They could write, and then record, reflections from a field trip, describe their home countries, talk about something that happened in a particular place in a work of fiction, and then attach it to that geographical location. In addition to being there for an “authentic audience” (someone other than their teacher and classmates), the link to the recording can be posted on a student/teacher blog or website.

GeoTrio lets you create a virtual tour of just about anyplace on a map. You type in addresses or locations and easily create multiple “stops” that show the Google Street View snapshots of the area. You can also upload your own images. But that’s not all. What really makes GeoTrio stand out is the ability to easily make an audio recording for each stop on the map.

Little Bird Tales lets you easily make slideshows where you can add text and, more importantly for English Language Learners, provide an audio narration. On nice touch is that you can virtually paint/draw artwork in addition to uploading images (unfortunately, the site doesn’t have the ability to grab photos off the web by url addresses). It’s free to use, but I’m unclear on if there will be an eventual cost to use the site. It appears to have an upper limit on the number of shows you can produce.

Thumbscribes lets you create private groups to collaboratively create a story. That private option makes it stand-out from many other similar sites.

Freedom Share is a super, super-easy way to paste and post text, and use it to create a webpage. Making it even better, you can copy and paste images there, too. You can even create a password to make it editable in the future. It makes things very easy for students to create and share online content.

Convore lets you very easily and quickly set-up either private or public group chats. You can use it real time or not in real time. TechCrunch has a more extensive post on it.

After you register (it’s free and easy to do so) at DropEvent and create an “event,” anyone can upload photos to the identified url address, and they can even email them there. These kinds of sites are great for students to use for uploading photos from field trips or other events.

Scoop.it lets you first identify a topic. Then, it continually finds items on the web related to that topic in a nice interface. Then, with one click, it lets you “scoop it” into your own personalized newspaper (that’s what I’m calling it, not them) which you can then share. It’s an ongoing process.

Projeqt is a very new application — you still need an invite to use it– that lets you create what you could call interactive slideshows. In some ways, I might describe it as a more sophisticated Prezi that’s easier to create and less confusing to watch.

Popplet is a new web app that is like Wallwisher on steroids. You can make an online “bulletin-board” with virtual “post-its” (called “popplets), just like in Wallwisher. And, except for the fact you have to register to use it, Popplet is just as easy and, in some ways, easier to use with a lot more functionality. With Popplet, you search for images and videos on the Web directly within the “popplet” instead of copying and pasting the url address (as you need to do in Wallwisher). You can draw within the “popplet” and it doesn’t appear to have an limit on the number of characters you can use. You can connect the “popplets.” You can also embed the whole thing.

Corkboard Me is sort of Wallwisher-clone that is even simpler to use but has fewer features. You just paste virtual sticky-notes on a virtual bulletin board. One nice feature it has is by pasting the url address of an image link, the image will show up on the sticky note. No registration is necessary.

Posterbee is a new web application that basically lets you very easily create your own private social network. In many ways, I think it’s similar to Posterous’ new “Groups” feature — you can add content to it several ways, including directly or via email. I think Posterbee has a nicer design though. In addition, when you add a link, it just shows you the key content in the link without anything extraneous, including leaving out the ads.

At Isle Of Tune, you create music by creating a city. Yes, that’s right, you “drag-and-drop” different parts of a city — homes, cars, trees, etc. — and each one has a musical tone. Then click “Go” and the car prompts the different elements to do their thing. No registration is required, and you’re given the url address of your creation to share. As a bonus to English Language Learners, the different parts of the city are labeled, so students can pick up vocabulary at the same time. Plus, they can describe their musical creations.

Write Comics is a super-simple tool to create comic strips without requiring any registration.

Qrait is a brand new tool that is not quite open to the general public yet, though I received an invitation two days after requesting one. It describes itself as “A realtime curation platform designed to fulfill the needs of content curators and reduce information overload for the rest of us.” I don’t quite understand what that means, but I do see that it can be used to easily create Internet Scavenger Hunts and Webquests. It lets you create a “molecule” filled with “atoms” (the call each topic a molecule and atoms the different parts of the collection). You can insert a website and notes into each molecule, which will also show a screenshot or even a video. The task for each can also be described. And it’s easy to move the “molecules” around. And, then, best of all, you can embed your whole “molecule” wherever you want, including on a class blog or website.

Imgur is a super-simple photo-sharing site that you can use to upload photos or insert image url addresses. It can come in particularly handy in the classroom because of it’s ease in creating albums where you can title individual photos and write captions — all without registering. Students can categorize photos and describe them.

Knovio might end up being one of the best Web 2.0 applications of the year. You upload a PowerPoint presentation, record a presentation with your microphone and webcam, and then it’s done! It’s free, and it is not open to the public yet, but I received an invitation about five seconds after I requested it.

Slidestaxx is a new tool for creating online slideshows. The nice feature about it is that it’s designed to easily grab videos, images, and websites (among other things) off the web to incorporate in the presentations. In fact, I may be wrong, but it doesn’t even look like you can upload anything from your computer. That’s fine with me, and my students. It would be nice if they were a little clearer about how to use it — it seems you have to “create” a slideshow first before you add anything to it but, again, I might be missing something. Once you figure that out, though, it’s about as simple as can be to create an embeddable show.

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 700 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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July 13, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Visual.ly Launches — A Great Place To See & Create Infographics When They Work Out Tech Problems

(NOTE: Visual.ly now appears to be working fine)

Visual.ly, the long-awaited site where you can see the best of the best infographics and make your own, launched today.

Unfortunately, they seem to be having a lot of technical problems on the site. Perhaps they didn’t anticipate so many people interested in visiting?

I assume they’ll get most of them worked out soon, maybe even by the time you read this post. If not, you can read about what they’re doing at this TechCrunch post and/or watch their video below.

One of their tools that does seem to be working (sort of) is an easy way to make an infographic out of your tweets.

You might also be interested in A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On Infographics.

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July 13, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

The Best Resources For Learning About Rube Goldberg Machines

Rube Goldberg machines are incredibly complex machines designed to do one simple task. They’re a lot of fun to build and to watch, and offer engaging ways for students to learn about science. Designing (on paper or in real-life), building or just viewing them can also provide great language learning opportunities (Dave Dodgson recently wrote about a similar lesson he did with his class).

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About Rube Goldberg Machines:

I’ll start off with links where students can create virtual Rube Goldberg Machines online:

Goldburger To Go comes from PBS.

Build a Rube Goldberg Machine is from Foss Web.

Google has recently created an interactive where you sort of can build a Rube Goldberg Machine. You can read more about it at this TechCrunch post.

You can sort of build a Rube Goldberg-like machine at Tinker Ball.

Here are some great video examples:

Rube Goldberg Photobooth from Crawford & Nelson on Vimeo.

Melvin The Magical Mixed Media Machine from HEYHEYHEY on Vimeo.

Melvin the Machine by HEYHEYHEY from Dezeen on Vimeo.

Boy, The New York Times sure gave me a bunch of additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Rube Goldberg Machines.

They have a feature article on a man who designs them, and interactive feature on one of his creations, and links to several videos, including:

Here are two Rube Goldberg machines built by Target. I especially like the second one focusing on fresh food — it’s ideal for reinforcing vocabulary with English Language Learners (show the video and have students identify what they are seeing):

Feedback is welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at 700 previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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July 12, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Research Studies Of The Week

I often write about research studies from various field and how they can be applied to the classroom. I write individual posts about ones that I think are especially significant, and will continue to do so. However, so many studies are published that it’s hard to keep up. So I’ve started writing a “round-up” of some of them each week or every other week as a regular feature:

A Better Way to Remember reports on a study that provides evidence that if you “cram,” most knowledge will be forgotten quickly, while if you “space” your learning, it will move into long-term memory. The experiments were done with mice, but it sounds like researchers are pretty confident it can be applied to humans, too:

While learning gains in mice that had undergone one hour of massed training were eliminated, those in mice that had undergone the same amount of training spaced out over a four hour period were unaffected….This final discovery suggests that proteins produced during training play a key role in the formation of long-term memories, providing for the first time a neurological explanation for the well-known benefits of spaced learning — as well as a great excuse to take more breaks.

This comes from Dr Kathie Nunley’s Educator’s Newsletter: “…task persistence in young adolescents
is extremely predictive of their income and occupational levels as adults. In males, it’s actually more predictive than even intelligence. Researchers
measured task persistence in 13 year olds and found that high task persistence predicted higher grades throughout high school and higher educational
attainment in adulthood. Andersson, H. & Bergman, L. (20100). “The role of task persistence in young adolescence for successful educational and
occupational attainment in middle adulthood.” Developmental Psychology, May 30, preview (no pagination specified).” I have a lesson on the idea of “grit” in my book, and you can read more about it at The Best Resources For Learning About The Importance Of “Grit”.

I’ve previously posted about the positive effect that plants in the classroom can have in boosting student attention span. Now another study says it can also increase student creativity.

You Say Potato, Scale Says Uh-Oh is a Wall Street Journal report on a study that “quantifies how much weight a person is likely to gain or lose over four years based on one additional daily serving of a range of specific foods.” This article is particularly useful to English Language Learners because it contains a very accessible infographic. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Nutrition & Food Safety.

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July 11, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Sounds Like Things Are Hoppin’ At The AFT Conference!

It sounds like they had at least two great speeches at the American Federation of Teachers Conference today.

One was from Randi Weingarten, the AFT President. You can read her entire speech here, and The New York Times’ article about it here. This was my favorite quote:

“Let’s refuse to be defined by people who are happy to lecture us about the state of public education — but wouldn’t last 10 minutes in a classroom!”

Amen to that!

She was followed by economist Paul Krugman.  It sounds like he made some very important points, too, and you can read about them in Dana Goldstein’s report, Krugman to Teachers’ Union: You’re Not to Blame for the Economic Crisis.

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July 11, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Emphasizing Pride, Not Shame, In Classroom Management

As regular readers of this blog, and readers of my latest book (Helping Students Motivate Themselves), know, I have written a lot (see My Best Posts About Helping Students Develop Their Capacity For Self-Control) about helping students strengthen their capacity for self-control.

Among the strategies I’ve discussed is helping students learn about the famous marshmallow test and, as part of the lesson, encourage them to identify ways they can distract themselves when feeling the tug of temptation (for example, when they want to throw a paper wad at a friend, instead they can think of the fun times they’ve had with him/her).

The Los Angeles Times has just written about a new study that examines self-control from a slightly different perspective (see To resist temptation, forget guilt or shame and think positive). Using a piece of chocolate cake instead of a marshmallow (Boy, I can hear my students now complaining that they want cake instead of candy when we do our own version of the marshmallow test as part of our lesson on self-control :) ), researchers determined that having people think about the pride that they will feel in themselves after resisting temptation was a very successful self-control strategy.

And, interestingly enough, they also found that trying to encourage self-control through the use of shame or guilt actually resulted in people showing less self-control.

When I’m going to have a sub coming in, in addition to students knowing that the substitute will be grading them (and they will be grading themselves) on their behavior using a form I’ve created (see When You Have A Sub), I always make a point of telling the class, “Don’t behave well for the points, and don’t behave well because you don’t want to get sent to the office. Instead, behave well because that’s who you are and because your represent your family.” I say something similar before we go on field trips.

Of course, I am human, and there have been a few times when I’ve reached the end of my rope and I just couldn’t hold back on using shame or guilt…

But this new study, I suspect, may make me pause for reflection during those moments, and cause me to look for other opportunities to reinforce the idea of pride. For example, during the marshmallow test lesson, when asking students to think about how they can distract themselves from bad temptations, I’ll more clearly raise the idea of feeling pride in that accomplishment.  And I’m sure there are other times besides sub days and field trips where I can effectively reinforce that message.

Ah, figuring out positive classroom management strategies, and remembering to implement them in the moment, is a constant challenge…

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July 11, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”

I have a huge backlog of resources that I’ve been planning to post about in this blog but, just because of time constraints, have not gotten around to doing. Instead of letting that backlog grow bigger, I regularly grab a few and list them here with a minimal description. It forces me to look through these older links, and help me organize them for my own use. I hope others will find them helpful, too. These are resources that I didn’t include in my “Best Tweets” feature because I had planned to post about them, or because I didn’t even get around to sending a tweet sharing them.

Here are This Week’s “Links I Should Have Posted About, But Didn’t”:

A Traveler’s Guide To The Planets is a National Geographic Channel interactive. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Planets & Space.

The American Library Association has some excellent interactive copyright tools. I’m adding them to The Best Resources To Learn About Copyright Issues. Thanks to BJ Berquist for the tip.

Computer Equity Efforts in Chicago is from Learning First. It describes an effort to provide low-cost computers and internet service to families. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About Schools Providing Home Computers & Internet Access To Students.

The Value Of College, In 2 Graphs comes from NPR. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Showing Students Why They Should Continue Their Academic Career.

The Associated Press has an updated interactive on the Afghanistan War. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Afghanistan War.

The Highly Engaged Classroom was a Marzano Research Webinar presented by Margaret McInteer. You can download a PDF of the presentation, which has a lot of good tips, here.

7 Keys to Blogging Awesomeness is from the HubSpot blog. Thanks to Mike Sansone for the tip. I’m adding it to The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers.

Inspired By Wikipedia, Quora Aims For Relevancy With Topic Groups And Reorganized Topic Pages is a post from TechCrunch. I’ve added it to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Quora Is All About…

Here are some other regular features I post in this blog:

“The Best…” series (which now number 691)

Best Tweets of The Month

The most popular posts on this blog each month

My monthly choices for the best posts on this blog each month

Each month I do an “Interview Of The Month” with a leader in education

Periodically, I post “A Look Back” highlighting older posts that I think are particularly useful

The ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival

Resources that share various “most popular” lists useful to teachers

Interviews with ESL/EFL teachers in “hot spots” around the world.

Articles I’ve written for other publications.

Photo Galleries Of The Week

Research Studies Of The Week

Regular “round-ups” of good posts and articles about school reform

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July 10, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
19 Comments

The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About

NOTE: Google Plus is now open to everyone (including teens), and they’ve announced huge improvements to the service at the same time. You can read more about their improvements here.

Against my better judgment :) , I took advantage of Lee Kolbert’s generous offer today of providing Google+ invites to her Twitter followers. I’m still trying to figure out how, and if, I’m going to find the time for another network (for those of you who don’t know, Google+ is Google’s brand-new effort to create a Facebook-like social network), but enough people whose judgment I respect seem to think it could be a valuable tool. So I’m going to spend some time checking it out.

In the process of beginning to do this exploring, I’ve found some useful resources that I thought I’d share here. Feel free to make other suggestions, too.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning What Google+ Is All About:

I’m going to start off with posts from educators. I’d encourage you not only to read their posts, but the comments others have left on them:

Lee Kolbert has written Google+ (Stay With Me Here).

The Google+ Project: targeted sharing is by Tom Barrett. Tom has also started another one of his fabulous “Interesting Ways” series, this time on Interesting Ways To Use Google+ To Possibly Support Learning.

Google Plus vs. Facebook Video Chat: Why teachers and the education market will (or should) lean towards Google Plus comes from The Tech-Savvy Teacher.

Google Plus and Education is from Teaching, Learning and Technology.

Google+ For Learning is an on-going “Scoop.it”

Will Google+ Replace Twitter or Facebook for Teachers? is from The Mind Shift blog.

What Does Google + Mean for Education is from The Innovative Educator.

EdRoundtable: The Future of Google+ in Education

Google+ in the ESL classroom? is from Mobile ESL.

Google + Google makes the same mistake on the three questions for tech adoption is by Dave Cormier.

Steven Anderson has created a great LiveBinder called Google+ For Educators.

Why Google+ Is an Education Game Changer is from GOOD.

“The G+ Info Blog” has been started by Rich Kiker to to share about its uses in education (& other areas)

How are Educators Using Google Plus Hangouts? is from Mind Shift.

Educators On Google+ is an ever-growing spreadsheet. Add you name to it!

Google+: The Dark Side of the Circle is by Ira Socol.

Here are some guides to using Google+ that seem helpful:

A Walkthrough of Google’s New Social Network, Google+ is from The Atlantic.

Over 130 people are collaborating on an impressive continually revised guide to Google+ over at PC World.

A Beginners Guide to Google+ comes from Geek Sugar.

How To Use Google Plus is from Read Write Web.

Google+ Guide: All You Need to Know about Google+ is from BlogTechnika.

Go To Web 20 has suggestions for tools that will “enhance” your Google+ experience.

Getting Started With Google+ is a screencast by Chris Brogan.

Google+: The Complete Guide is from Mashable.

Here are some miscellaneous related posts:

Chris Brogan has 50 thoughts about Google+.

Storytelling and Social Networks: Why Twitter Beats Google Plus is from Read Write Web.

Google+ Pros and Cons is from Mashable.

How Google+ Will Balkanize Your Social Life is from Technology Review.

After Two Weeks, the 20 Most Popular Profiles on Google+ is from The Atlantic.

Here is an infographic comparing Google+ with Facebook.

Start Google+ is a Chrome extension that supposedly lets you easily import your photos from Facebook.

25 Google+ Tips to Enhance Your Google Plus Experience seems to be regularly updated with new “tips.”

20 Google+ tips, tricks and hints is from Tech Radar.

40 Google Plus Tips for Newbies is from Marketing Professor.

Google+ Cheat Sheet

Everything You Need to Know About Google Plus and Photos

How To Send A Direct Or Private Message On Google+

Find People On Google+ seems like a well-organized way to…find people on Google+ (by number of followers, by states, by cities).

Google+ Improves on Facebook is by David Pogue at The New York Times.

You can get a cool shortened Google+ profile url address at http://gplus.to/. For example, mine is http://gplus.to/larryferlazzo. It’s pretty easy to use but, if you need a simple tutorial, you can get it here.

Google Plus Search is a…search engine for Google+

Create RSS Feeds for Google+ Profiles is from Lifehacker.

How to Copy All of Your Facebook Photos to a Google+ Profile is from The Atlantic.

Here’s a video explaining Google+. It’s obviously a sales pitch, but it does provide a useful explanation:

New Sites Offer Circle Recommendations for Google Plus is a Read Write Web post sharing sites that…offer Circle recommendations for Google+. It could be very useful….for people who know what Circles on Google+ are…

7 Ways Google+ Users Are Getting More Out of Their Circles is from Mashable.

Google has created a “What’s New In Google+” page that’s regularly updated.

5 Free Tools for Recording Google+ Hangouts is from Mashable.

The Mother of All Google+ Resource Lists is from The Next Web.

How to Migrate Your Facebook Account and Data to Google+ is from Lifehacker.

Finding and Following People on Google+ has a ton of useful resources.

Google Adds Public Plus Posts to Social Search Results is from Read Write Web.

The Ultimate G+ Collection: A Treasure Trove of Google Plus Tips, Guides, & Resources is just what the title says it is.

20 Ways to Improve Your Google+ Knowledge has some useful info.

Google+ Lets You Search in Real Time — and Supports Hashtags is from Mashable.

Google Apps Users Can Now Hangout (And More) On Google+ is from TechCrunch.

Google+ Resurrects Playback Feature From Wave, Renames It “Ripples” is also from TechCrunch.

Google Plus Finds Sweet Spot Between Facebook & Twitter is from Read Write Web.

Google+ recently launched “Google Pages,” which allow organizations and businesses to participate in the social network. Richard Byrne has a good post describing them.

A Simple Guide To Getting Started On Google+ is from Search Engine People.

Here’s a nice tutorial on how to use Google+ “Hangouts.”

Here are some “Basic Ground Rules For Google+.”

10 Productive Tasks You Should Be Doing On Google+ Right Now comes from ProBlogger.

Google+ Hangouts Are Now Free Conference Calls, Too is from Read Write Web.

Google+ Expands ’On Air’ Hangouts is from TechCrunch.

Tweaks Coming to Google+ Before the End of the Year is from The Atlantic.

Google+ Hangouts Add Screen Sharing to List of Collaboration Tools is from Read Write Web.

How to Use the Google Plus Creative Kit to Edit and Spice Up Your Photos is from Guiding Tech.

How To Use Google+ (A Beginners Guide) is a useful video:

Additional suggestions are 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 over 700 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

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July 10, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

How My Theory Of Knowledge Students Evaluated The Class & Me This Past Year

As regular readers know, I regularly have students in my various classes complete anonymous evaluations which I tabulate and share on this blog and with my colleagues. You can find previous posts about this at My Best Posts On Students Evaluating Classes (And Teachers).

I’m a little behind on this since school ended three weeks ago, but here are the results from my International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge class. After each question, I list representative student responses followed by a short commentary by me:

What are the the two or three most important things you learned in this class?

It’s not so boring to learn.

I learned about fallacies.

Question what we are being told, and not be so fast to believe them.

The truth isn’t always what it seems.

Think beyond your limitations.

Be open-minded.

I think students got what I hoped they would out of the class.

What did you like about this class or how it was taught?

Group work can really expand our knowledge

The class is fun.

It made me feel smart.

It was fun and engaging.

I liked the atmosphere. It was the only class I looked forward to.

I liked working in small groups and teaching others.

I worked very hard at keeping the class engaging, and having students work in small groups, including having them prepare lessons that they taught weekly (to small groups). I specifically push to have the class scheduled during the last period of the day because I think it’s upbeat and energizing, and students seem to feel the same.

How do you think this class could be improved?

The main issue students talked about was that I should be more strict and have greater control over the class. I agree with them here. I feel that I am very good at class management, but I approached this class too loosely this year. The previous year, the class was much smaller (I only had fourteen students) and they were all very highly motivated International Baccalaureate Diploma candidates. This year, at my request, we opened the class to non-IB Diploma candidates and more than doubled its size to thirty-one students. They were a great bunch but, nevertheless, the levels of self-control and motivation were certainly more varied. However, I approached class management the same way I had done previously. It definitely wasn’t “out of control” or “bad,” but it was a strategic error on my part that I will not repeat next year.

A few students also commented that they felt like I talked too much, but I’m not sure I agree. With all the small group work we did, it’s just hard for me to see that this was an issue. I’ll see if I get similar feedback next year. If so, then I’ll know it’s a problem I will need to work on.

What grade would you give Mr. Ferlazzo as a teacher? What do you think he does well? What do you think he could improve?

About sixty percent gave me an “A” and forty percent gave me a “B.” Students said I was good at explaining things. Again, the issue of being more strict and talking too much came up here, too.

Are there ways you think what you learned in this class will help you in the future? If so, what are they?

I learned to question things.

I’ve learned to consider everything before making a judgment.

Working in groups made me a better team player.

My presenting skills improved.

The answers I’ve listed here are good, but I was generally disappointed that many students were not able to see and share how they might be able to apply what they learned in their future lives. Next year, I want to be more intentional about incorporating regular reflection opportunities on this topic, similar to what I wrote about in “Relevance” & Student Learning.

As always, student feedback gives me plenty to think about, and provides even more impetus to improve my craft.

Any feedback is welcome.

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July 9, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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More South Sudan Resources

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About South Sudan’s Independence:

South Sudan Prepares for Independence is a New York Times slideshow.

Independence For South Sudan is a slideshow from The Los Angeles Times.

The World’s Newest Nation is a video from The New York Times:

South Sudan Becomes World’s 193rd Nation is from Breaking News English.

Aljazeera English has a video of independence celebrations.

The Associated Press has a good interactive.

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July 9, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Photo Galleries Of The Week

Obviously, photos can be great educational tools with English Language Learners and with any students (see The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons). I post about many photo galleries, also called slideshows. To do it in a little more organized way, though, I recently began this weekly feature called “Photo Galleries Of The Week.” This post is a “round-up” of online slideshows I’m adding to various “The Best…” lists:

Slide Show: The World’s Biggest Refugee Hot Zones comes from The PBS News Hour. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About World Refugee Day.

50 outrageous cars is a CBS News slideshow. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About “Cool” Cars (& Designing Your Own!).

Photo focus: Summer is a Reuters slideshow. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Summer.

Slate has a slideshow called “School’s Out.” I’m also adding it to The Best list about the summer.

27 cigarette warning labels nixed by the FDA is a slideshow from CBS News. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About The Dangers Of Smoking.

The Hand Art of Yemen’s Protesters is a TIME Magazine slideshow. I’m adding it to The Best Resources To See Who Might Fall Next After Mubarak…

The Universe, To Scale is a TIME Magazine slideshow. I’m adding it to The Best Images Taken In Space.

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