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Monthly Archives: August 2011

August 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2011 — So Far

I usually just do a year-end list on practical advice 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…

The title of this “The Best…” list is pretty self-explanatory. What you’ll find here are blog posts and articles this year (some written by me, some by others) that were, in my opinion, the ones that offered the best practical advice to teachers this year — suggestions that can help teachers become more effective in the classroom today or tomorrow. Some, however, might not appear on the surface to fit that criteria, but those, I think, might offer insights that could (should?) inform our teaching practice everyday.

For some, the headlines provide enough of an idea of the topic and I haven’t included any further description.

You might also be interested in:

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2010

The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers — 2009

Here are my choices for The Best Articles (And Blog Posts) Offering Practical Advice To Teachers In 2011 — So Far:

Whenever You’re Tempted To Use Punishment As A Classroom Management Tool, Remember This Comic Strip

I’ve previously posted about the Bloom’s Taxonomy of Reflection that Peter Pappas developed. I just discovered that he developed this excellent Prezi about it. I’d also strongly encourage you to read his post that explains it further, as well as one by Langwitches giving an example of how to apply it in the classroom.

The Reflective School by Peter Pappas on Prezi

What Do Teachers Do On Twitter? is a nice slideshow presentation. Thanks to Joe Dale for the tip.

Asking if people are available and have time to talk with you instead of just immediately talking with them dramatically increases the rates of compliance, according to a study.. In the classroom, when a student is acting inappropriately, I generally try to begin with a “Can I talk with you, please?” before intervening. Just framing it as a request, even though the student knows it really isn’t, seems to help de-polarize the situation. And there have been a few times when a student has responded something like “Can you not talk to me right now — give me some time and let’s talk later” and that has also ended up working well.

I’ve written quite a bit about Daniel Pink’s book, Drive, here on this blog (see My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students) and in my new book. I recently saw what I think is the best short description and summary of the book’s key points. Check-out the post “What really motivates us?” at the Barking Up the Wrong Tree blog.

Extraordinary “What If?” Student Project

What A Great Way To Get Comments On Student Blogs!

“Write About A Success That One Of Your Ancestors Had”

Bloomin’ Mathematics is a great post sharing ways to incorporate Bloom’s Taxonomy into teaching math.

The Best Posts About The Power Of Light Touches In The Classroom

I had a fun online chat with over 450 educators at Ed Week. It was on my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves. The transcript of the chat is now available.

Eye On Education, the publisher of my book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges, has placed the entire first chapter on “How To Motivate Students” online. It includes several lesson plans and hand-outs. In addition, you can access all the web resources for the whole book on a special publisher’s page. Just to to my book’s webpage. Right below the image of the cover is a link that says “Click for PDF sample chapters.” That will take you to the sample chapter. On my book’s webpage, if you scroll down a few inches, you’ll also see a link to “Online Resources.” That link will take you a listing of all the recommended links for each chapter of the book.

Asking “Why Not?” & “What If?” As Well As “Why?”

This Would Be A Nice Geography Assessment

How We Can Help Our Students Deal With Stress

These Three Slideshows On “How To Create Sustainable Behavior” Will Keep You Occupied For A Long Time

Top Ten Tips for Assessing Project-Based Learning is a new great — and free — classroom guide from Edutopia.

Students Annotating Text — Part Two

You can read an article I wrote for Teacher Magazine, What ‘Star Wars’ Can Teach Educators About Parent Engagement, without having to register first at this link. It’s a cute headline, but it provides very practical suggestions for teacher/parent meetings.

Ronnie Burt at Edublogs has published what might be the very best guide for helping teachers begin to blog (and for helping veterans get even better) — The ultimate guide to getting started with blogging!

Individualized Computer Support For Students Facing Challenges

Why Teachers Shouldn’t Blog….And Why I Do

What Are Good Inexpensive (& Simple!) Classroom Technology Tools?

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 nearly 700 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

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August 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

“Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength”

In the classroom lessons on self-control I’ve written about here and in my book, I’ve cited and had students read research on the topic by Professor Roy F. Baumeister.

He’s now co-written a new book titled Willpower: Rediscovering the Greatest Human Strength, and an excerpt has been published in The New York Times called Do You Suffer From Decision Fatigue?

Professor Baumeister’s co-author has also written a short accompanying columns to The Times excerpt called Why You Need To Sleep On It.

The underlying research of the article is grounded in the finding, which I’ve written about a lot here (check out “Self-Control As A Limited Energy Resource” In The Classroom and Giving Students “Reflection Cards”), that self-control is a resource that can be depleted, and that we need to be aware of ways to regularly replenish it.

I don’t really have time right now to discuss the Times’ excerpt right now, but will be writing a lengthy post about the book. In the meantime, I’d encourage you to read it, as well as the numerous comments left on the article. A number of them already relate to education, and John Tierney, the co-author, has specifically asked readers to respond to these two questions:

How good is your self-control and decision-making late in the day? Do you use any strategies you’d like to share for conserving willpower and avoiding decision fatigue?

What teacher wouldn’t want help figuring out how their students could learn and develop a few of those strategies? Or perhaps your students are completely focused at 2:00 and 3:00 in the afternoon? :)

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August 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Mary Ann Zehr Leaves Education Week

Mary Ann Zehr, who has covered ELL issues for years at Education Week, has announced her departure to become a high school ESL teacher.

It’s a real loss to all of us, but a huge gain to her future students.

Mary Ann has reported on crucial information and events related to English Language Learners that no one, and I mean no one, else has covered anywhere.

Millions of students in the United States are ELL’s, and their number is growing. We can all hope that, though Mary Ann’s talent, insight, and commitment can’t be fully replaced, Education Work will continue to make coverage of these issues a priority.

Good luck, Mary Ann. I’d encourage people to go over to her last post to leave a comment.

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August 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Posts/Articles On This Year’s Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup Education Poll

Earlier this morning, the results of the latest Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup Poll On Education issues were released. I thought I’d pull together some good analyses and reports on it, and will continue to add to this list.

Here are my choices for The Best Posts/Articles On This Year’s Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup Poll On Education:

Poll: Americans Trust Teachers, Split on Teachers’ Unions is from Education Week.

New poll: Public trusts teachers, likes technology and school choice is from Hechinger Ed.

Here is the poll itself.

I wrote a brief post late last night that shares my various posts on the polls from previous years.

Poll: Parents give thumbs up to local schools is from USA Today.

Stephen Krashen writes about the fact that “parents rate their local schools much more positively than they do schools in the US in general” and points to a Gerald Bracey article that elaborates on why.

Americans Dislike Teachers’ Unions, But Dislike State Governors More is from The Atlantic.

The Public Has Spoken! is from Learning First.

What Americans Think About Teachers Versus What They’re Hearing is from The Shanker Blog.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

If you’ve found this list helpful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might want to also view the over seven hundred other “The Best…” lists.

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August 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Videos For Educators In 2011 — So Far

I usually just do a year-end list of The Best Videos For Educators 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…

You might also be interested in:

Part Two Of The Best Videos For Educators — 2010

The Ten Best Videos For Educators — 2010

And you might also want to see The Best Funny Videos Showing The Importance Of Being Bilingual — Part One and The Best Videos Illustrating Qualities Of A Successful Language Learner.

Here are my choices for The Best Videos For Educators In 2011 — So Far:

Near the end of the extensive Bloom’s Taxonomy lesson I describe in my book, I show some fun videos demonstrating the thinking levels through scenes from Star Wars and Pirates of the Caribbean. Links to those videos can be found at The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom.

The creators of those videos have now made some follow-up ones.

The Pirates of The Caribbean video has been shortened, and the sound has been enhanced so it’s easier to hear the words:

And a sequel to the Star Wars one has been made using clips from The Empire Strikes Back:

Dan Ariely has done a lot of research on motivation. Here’s a short video of him talking about pay for performance. I was particularly struck by something he says near the end. He asks if we were going in for surgery, would we want to tell the surgeon that if he/her does his job well we’ll give him a lot of money and if he doesn’t do his job well we’ll sue him, or would we rather have him just concentrate on doing his job?

Perhaps advocates of merit pay for teachers might want to think about that question, too?

If you want to teach the difference between correlation & causation, this could be the video for you…..It could be, that is, if you don’t mind using a beer commercial (Showing amazing stuff to the beer is supposed to make it amazing :) ):

Sesame Street has a fun and useful interactive YouTube video on the scientific method. I’m adding it to other interactive videos on The Best — And Easiest — Ways To Use YouTube If, Like Us, Only Teachers Have Access To It (where I also explain how I use them in class):

The PBS News Hour produced this segment on self control and young people. It uses financial literacy as an initial hook, but it’s mainly about the famous marshmallow test and a recent updated study:

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

If you skip through an off-color remark made by the celery near the beginning of this video, it could be a short and fun way to introduce the idea of personification to students. Check out “Meltdown: Where Last Night’s Leftovers Battle For Their Lives”:

MELTDOWN from Dave Green on Vimeo.

Transocean (greatly responsible for last year’s Gulf Oil Spill) just gave their executives huge bonuses because of their…safety record. Jon Stewart does a great short bit on it. It seems to me this is a good example of either Campbell’s Law, or and example of how incentives don’t work, or both.

Well-known and respected author/researcher David Berliner (I’ve posted about his work several times) gives a very understandable explanation of “Campbell’s Law” in this video. The “law” says:

The more any quantitative social indicator is used for social decision-making, the more subject it will be to corruption pressures and the more apt it will be to distort and corrupt the social processes it was intended to monitor.

It’s an important critique of the use of standardized tests in schools for teacher or student evaluation.

The night Diane Ravitch was the guest on the Daily Show was amazing! Here are three clips from it:

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Crisis in the Dairyland – For Richer and Poorer
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor & Satire Blog The Daily Show on Facebook

And here’s a segment from yet another Daily Show:

An amazing book, Teaching 2030:What We Must Do for Our Students and Our Public Schools–Now and in the Future, was published this year. An animated summary of the book is now available, and I’ve embedded it below. It’s worth watching both for the content and for the visuals.

Based on the fact this video has over nine million views on YouTube, I may be the last person who has seen it, but it’s still a great video to get students to think more carefully about their writing:

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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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Gallup Poll On Education Issues Just Released

Every year since 1969 Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup have done a poll on education issues. I’ve previously posted on the results from the last two years.

They just released this year’s results and, instead of reinventing the wheel, I’m just going to suggest you go over to the Hechinger Ed blog to read their summary.  (USA Today also has an article on the results).

Here is one interesting result:

Most people trust public-school teachers and want them to have more freedom in the classroom. Even though a solid majority (68 percent) of respondents said most of the news they hear about teachers is bad, an even higher percentage (71 percent) said they trust public-school teachers to do their jobs. And more still—73 percent—said teachers should be given greater flexibility and not have to follow a strict curriculum.

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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

The Best Articles Describing Alternatives To High-Stakes Testing

I’ve been trying to identify the best articles/posts that describe alternative ways to assess student learning other than high-stakes testing, and would love suggestions from readers for others.

Here’s what I have so far:

Jay Mathews wrote a column in the Washington Post titled Intriguing alternative to rating schools by tests. He speaks very positively about the student assessment process used by the New York Performance Standards Consortium.

The term “performance-based assessment” is a term used to describe one way to evaluate student achievement (the Consortium’s process would fit into this category). This basically means that students are evaluated on work they have “constructed” as opposed to choosing from a list of pre-determined answers. This could mean a writing assessment, similar to what is done in Vermont or Kentucky, or filling-in the blanks in a cloze (there are usually multiple appropriate responses), or describing how a student would develop a science experiment. The Stanford Center For Opportunity Policy In Education has developed a brief that lays-out the case for performance-based assessment and how it might be implemented. You can also learn more about this topic here.

The Other Kind of Testing is a good column by Walt Gardner in Education Week. It’s about “performance-based assessment” for students

Monty Neill from Fair Test has had a commentary published in Ed Week titled A Better Way to Assess Students and Evaluate Schools.

Teachers: How do We Propose to Measure Student Outcomes? by Anthony Cody

Bonnie Bc on Twitter suggested these:

A Child Is Not A Test Score by Monty Neill

Authentic Assessment and Accountability from Fair Test

The Case Against High Stakes Testing from Fair Test

The Morningside Center recommends The Authentic Assessment Toolbox.

Please leave other suggestions in the comments section of this post. Thanks!

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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Teachers Must “Focus Attention On Relationships Among Ideas, Facts & Procedures”

Thanks to Jason Flom on Google+, I learned about a new article titled Closing The Teaching Gap.

In it, the authors describe their research and observation of mathematics teachers from around the world and compare what they saw in “high achieving” countries with what they see in United States classrooms. Even though they talk about math and, of course, the definition of “high achieving” is always debatable, they do make some important points applicable to any kind of teaching.

Here’s an excerpt:

[The was a] striking similarity among higher-achieving countries. About half of the problems in those countries emphasizing relationships [among ideas, facts & procedures] were worked on with students to do just that. The other half…were changed so that students practiced procedures or recalled information they had learned before. In contrast, few problems in the United States with the potential to emphasize mathematical relationships were used to teach those relationships. Nearly all of them were merely used to practice procedures or recall information….Students…ended up with very few opportunities to learn the concepts.”

The authors say that one tool to change this might be for teachers in the U.S. to incorporate the collaborative style of Japanese Lesson Study instead of our existing model of professional development. That sounds good to me!

I suspect their observation of teachers emphasizing recall instead of relationships between concepts holds true in a lot of classrooms besides math ones. I’ve previously posted about research from McRel using 90,000 classroom observations:

Just under two-thirds of observations (60%) indicate that instruction is at the lowest two levels of the Blooms Taxonomy.

At our school, one way we try to help make those relationships connections is through the use of inductive teaching and learning.

Do you agree with the authors’ critique? How do you help students “connect the dots”?

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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Secretary Duncan Announces Virtual Town Hall

From U.S. Department of Education:

The Department of Education announced today that Secretary Arne Duncan will participate in the first-ever #AskArne Twitter Town Hall on August 24, 2011 at 1:30 p.m. EDT. Veteran education journalist John Merrow will moderate the town hall that will also be broadcast live on ED’s ustream channel.

My expectations are low, but I would be happy to be surprised….

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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Good iPhone Apps

Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me:

50 Best iPhone Apps 2011 comes from TIME Magazine.

Lifehacker Pack for iPhone: Our List of the Best iPhone Apps

Add Pictures to Your Audio Recordings with Snoozerr is a Lifehacker post about an app that lets you make an audio recording connected to the photo you’re taking.

100 Cameras in 1 looks like a useful app.

iPhone App From SimpleGeo Discovers the History, Politics & Wildlife Around You

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August 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2011 — So Far

I usually just do a year-end list of The Best Comic Strips 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…

You might also be interested in:

Part Two Of The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers — 2010

The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers — 2010 (And Earlier)

Of course, teachers and students can also make their own comic strips. Check out The Best Ways To Make Comic Strips Online.

Feel free to add your own favorites in the comments section of this post.

Here are my picks for The Best Comic Strips For Students & Teachers In 2011 — So Far:

Whenever You’re Tempted To Use Punishment As A Classroom Management Tool, Remember This Comic Strip: I doubt that there are many of us out there who have not been tempted, and sometimes given into the temptation, to use punishment as a classroom management tool at times. I’ve been guilty of it before and I’ll be guilty of it again, I’m sure. Whenever any of us feel that temptation, though, we might want to remember this Pickles comic strip. It shows what happens next — maybe not as quickly as in the comic, but eventually….

Here’s A Comic Strip To Help Teach The Concept Of “Confirmation Bias”:
Dilbert.com

This comic strip reminds me of so-called experts in school reform who have never taught in a classroom:
Dilbert.com

Here’s another comic strip on Confirmation Bias: This one is from Candorville.

Another strip reformers who have little (if any) direct experience in education but have unhelpful ideas — and the power to push them. A little information can be dangerous. The difference, of course, is that unlike the gophers in this strip, when some “school reformers” push a new and shiny idea that blows up, our students, their families and us are the ones who get hurt. The school reformers usually do fine.

Pearls Before Swine

These comic strips are great for Theory of Knowledge classes:

Dilbert.com

This is a link to a great New Yorker cartoon on the limitations of logic.

And here’s a link to a great Candorville strip on knowledge.

Here’s a Dilbert comic strip. Is there any connection to what’s happening in many schools now?

Dilbert.com

Many teachers use Calvin and Hobbes comic strips in lessons. There is now a Calvin and Hobbes search engine where you can type in your query — homework, reading, etc — and then get the text and, in many cases, a link to the strip itself.

Another commentary on school reformers, perhaps:

Dilbert.com

Here’s a Dilbert comic strip on how to communicate effectively (or not):

Did you read my long e-mail?

This New Yorker cartoon gives a picture of the attitude we teachers should NOT have when we ask students to evaluate us and our classes.

And this New Yorker cartoon gives a good picture of the attitude we teachers should NOT have when eliciting ideas from our students. Another New Yorker cartoon provides the same kind of commentary.

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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August 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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The Best Posts On Attracting The “Best Candidates” To Teaching

(NOTE: Apologies to the fine Shanker Blog for “stealing” most of this blog’s title from them :) Be sure to read their post and subscribe to them, too!)

The issue of attracting the “best candidates” to teaching gets a lot of use by some school “reformers” these day, who often imply that many of us are not the “best.”

Here is a short list of posts that offer a good response to that proposition, and I’m hoping readers can suggest more.

Here are my choices for The Best Posts On Attracting The “Best Candidates” To Teaching:

I’m going to start with Matthew Di Carlo’s post from The Shanker Blog (and not just because I stole his title) — Attracting The “Best Candidates” To Teaching.

I wrote Do Teachers REALLY Come From The Bottom Third Of Colleges? Or Is That Statistic A Bunch Of Baloney?

The Myth of the Stupid School Teacher is by David Wees.

Do Teachers Really Come From The “Bottom Third” Of College Graduates? is from The Shanker Blog.

Where do teachers come from? is by John Merrow.

Pop Quiz: Who is the American Teacher? is from TransformEd.

Additional suggestions are welcome.

If you found this post useful, you might want to look at 740 previous “The Best…” lists and also consider subscribing to this blog for free.

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August 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

How Incentives Can Be Productive (But Not In The Way You Might Think)

I’ve written a whole lot in this blog and in my book about the dangers of contingent (if you do that, you will get this) and how they don’t work for promoting anything that requires higher-order thinking.

However, in a new article by Dan Ariely, he finds a way that it can work, though not in the way you might think.

A new study showed that employees who were told they could give reward money to a charity of their choice “claimed to be happier and more satisfied with their jobs.”

A second experiment found even greater improvement when employees were given a gift card and told they could spend it on themselves or on a co-worker. There was no improvement among employees who spent it on themselves, but “vast improvements for those who engaged in prosocial spending.”

How do you think this could play out in the classroom?

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August 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Today’s Round-Up Of Good School Reform Posts

Here are several good reform-related posts that appeared over the past few weeks:

An Ordinary Teacher Talks to Teach for America offers some insightful commentary. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America.

Private Choices, Public Policy & Other People’s Children is an excellent post from School Finance 101.

High-stakes tests and cheating: An inevitable combination? is from The Hechinger Report. I’m adding it to The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad).

A ‘Summary Opinion’ Of The Hoxby NYC Charter School Study is from The Shanker Blog. I’m adding it to The Best Posts & Articles Analyzing Charter Schools.

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August 14, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

Motivation & Rewards

Here are some good recent online resources on motivation and rewards. I’ll be adding this post to My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students:

My Issue With Rewards by Chris Wejr.

Rewards: 2 Parent Perspectives by Chris Wejr.

Why progress matters: 6 questions for Harvard’s Teresa Amabile from Daniel Pink’s blog.

Is Money Enough To Motivate Employees? is a useful infographic.

On the Social Psychology of Agency Relationships: Lay Theories of Motivation Overemphasize Extrinsic Incentives is by Chip Heath.

Undermining quality teaching and learning: A self-determination theory perspective on high-stakes testing (I’m also adding this academic paper to The Best Posts On How To Prepare For Standardized Tests (And Why They’re Bad)).

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