October 25, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Response: Can Teachers Be Friends With Students? — Part One is the first post in a special three-part series on the topic I’m publishing at Education Week Teacher.
Part One is primarily a guest response from educator/author Rick Wormeli.
There’s a lot more to come this Friday and next Wednesday!
October 25, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Worst Parent Engagement Ideas is an unusual list I’ve just posted at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.
Feedback is welcome.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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“How Economic Inequality Harms Societies” is the title of a new TED Talk that I’ve embedded below:
How Economic Inequality Is (Literally) Making Us Sick is a new TIME Magazine article on a similar topic.
I’m adding them to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Bill Gates (co-authored by his wife, Melinda) has written another guest column for The Wall Street Journal one evaluating teachers. It’s arrogantly titled “Grading the Teachers: Schools have a lot to learn from business about how to improve performance, say Bill and Melinda Gates.”
Walt Gardner posted a good critique of their column at Ed Week — Nothing New about Teaching from Bill Gates.
I don’t have much to add to what Walt wrote, except for one thing. The Gates’ keep on referring to a joint Gates/Scholastic survey of teachers, and this is the only one I could find online. In the article, they claim that “Eighty percent said that teacher tenure should be re-evaluated regularly, and as a group they believe that tenure is granted too early in teachers’ careers.”
However, unless I missed it in the survey, or unless I’m looking at the wrong survey, I couldn’t find any such thing. It does say this:
Only 10% of teachers say that teacher tenure is a “very accurate” measure of teacher performance, with 47% saying it is “somewhat accurate” and 42% saying that it is “not at all accurate.” Veteran teachers are more likely than new teachers to say that tenure is at least somewhat accurate. These results do not indicate teacher opposition to the tenure system, but rather skepticism that tenure is an accurate measure of teacher performance.
So, are the Gates’ wildly misrepresenting what the survey says about tenure, or are the claims backed up elsewhere and I’m just not seeing it?
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
The Hindu celebration of Diwali in 2011 will start on Wednesday, the 26th of October and will continue for 5 days until Sunday, the 30th of October.
I’ve just updated The Best Sites For Learning About Diwali.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
This is an all-in-one post on Twitter:
First, I’ll be a guest on #urbaned Chat on Twitter next Sunday at 6:00 PM Pacific/ 9:00 PM Eastern time, and will be discussing motivation.
Second, if you want to know how to participate in a Chat on Twitter, Read Write Web just posted How to Get Started With Twitter Chats.
And, thirdly, 10 New Twitter Tools That Will Get You Tweeting is a useful post worth checking-out.
I’m adding the last two resources to The Best Resources For Beginning To Learn What Twitter Is All About.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the newest additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:
Haunting Ideas: Halloween in the Classroom and ‘On the Street’ is from The New York Times Learning Network.
What will Americans be dressing up as this Halloween? is a useful infographic from Newsweek.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
What’s Missing In The Debate On Senority? is a new report from Annenberg Institute for School Reform. It’s probably the best analysis of the topic that I’ve seen.
I’m adding it to The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Both Why Teacher Tenure Is Important & The Reasons Behind Seniority-Based Layoffs.
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
The Mind Hacks blog revisits an older study that restates why inductive learning, student autonomy, and choice works in the classroom.
The blog also has a useful chart. It’s worth checking-out but, in summary, it discusses findings that students will remember things far better if they bring their own meaning to in a way they choose:
What this research suggests is that, merely in terms of remembering, it would be more effective for students to come up with their own organisation for course material…..You’ll remember better (and understand much better) if you try and re-organise the material you’ve been given in your own way.
If you are a teacher, like me, then this research raises some distrurbing questions. At a University the main form of teaching we do is the lecture, which puts the student in a passive role and, essentially, asks them to “remember this” – an instruction we know to be ineffective. Instead, we should be thinking hard, always, about how to create teaching experiences in which students are more active, and about creating courses in which students are permitted and encouraged to come up with their own organisation of material, rather than just forced to regurgitate ours.
It’s nothing particularly new, but any research that backs up that kind of perspective certainly can’t hurt….
October 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are new additions to “The Best Resources For Showing Students Why They Should Continue Their Academic Career”:
Who is falling out of the middle class, in one chart is from The Washington Post, and shows the importance of education to economic security.
Education Five Times More Important Than Gender for Income is from The Atlantic.
Census: Education Has Greater Effect on Earnings than Race, Gender is from Education Week.
New high school grads not in college face extra-steep job barriers in Sacramento region is from The Sacramento Bee.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Earlier this month, and earlier this year, Professor Sian Beilock released two widely publicized studies — one on the causes of math anxiety among students and the other a related one on “choking” under pressure. The both included potential interventions, including “taking 10 minutes before a high-stakes situation to write about goals and worries.”
I thought it might be useful to bring together a few posts on the studies, since anxiety and stress among students is certainly not limited to math. This “The Best…” list can be looked at as a supplement to The Best Resources For Learning About Teens & Stress.
Here are my choices for The Best Posts & Articles On Recent Study About Student Anxiety:
A change in perspective could be all it takes to succeed in school is from the University of Chicago.
Brain Study Points to Potential Treatments for Math Anxiety is from Education Week.
Brain Imaging Offers Clues to Math Anxiety is a video and article from ABC News.
Here’s a video on the studies from Voice of America Learning English:
Feedback and 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 800 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
5 Comments
Daniel Pink was recently interviewed on a local Washington, D.C. television show along with a local university official. You watch it all here, but I thought the few minutes he spent discussing the role of grades, autonomy and inquiry in education to be particularly thought-provoking. I used Tube Chop to “chop” those two brief segments and have them embedded below. I don’t know if they will come through on an RSS Readers, so you might have to click through to my blog in order to view them.
I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
How to Take Better Advantage of Brain Plasticity is a two minute video of author David Shenk explaining how our brain physically changes as we learn new things. I’ll be adding it to my “brain as a muscle” lesson plan that you can find in My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.
I’m embedding the video here, but it might not come through an RSS Reader. You might have to go directly to my blog to watch it.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Stress Test supposedly analyzes your voice after you repeat a number of words and sentences shown on the screen, and then tells you how “stressed” you’re supposed to be feeling.
They say is uses a process similar to lie detectors. I’m skeptical about its accuracy, but it could be a fun short exercise for English practice if you have a few minutes left in a computer lab sometime.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
It seems to me that Occupy Wall Street has grown so much over the past few weeks that it’s pretty difficult to not discuss it in the classroom. I thought readers might find a list of related resources useful.
Two previously posted “The Best..” lists might also be helpful:
The Best Sites For Learning About Protests In History
The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality
Here are my choices for The Best Resources To Help Students Learn About Occupy Wall Street, and I hope readers will contribute more:
Who Are the 99%? Ways to Teach About Occupy Wall Street is from The New York Times Learning Network.
Occupy: protesters in their own words is a photo gallery from The Guardian.
‘Occupy Wall Street,’ a primer is from The Washington Post.
The Associated Press has an Occupy Wall Street interactive.
Following The Occupy Wall Street Protests is an interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Occupy Wall Street global protests is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe.
Occupy Wall Street Goes Global is a TIME slideshow.
Occupy-apalooza Strikes a Chord is from The New York Times.
What Percent Are You? is an interactive from The Wall Street Journal.
Countless Grievances, One Thread: We’re Angry is from The Wall Street Journal.
Wall St. Protest Isn’t Like Ours, Tea Party Says is also from The New York Times.
Obama: Occupy Wall Street ‘Not That Different’ From Tea Party Protests is from ABC News.
Why You Shouldn’t Compare Occupy Wall Street to the Tea Party is from TIME.
CNN has plenty of related videos.
The wonkiest signs from Occupy Wall Street is from The Washington Post.
Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement is a fascinating interactive infographic from The New York Times.
The Morningside Center has a number of lessons related to Occupy Wall Street.
Moving the Movement: Analyzing the Future of Occupy Wall Street is a very good lesson plan published by The New York Times Learning Network. Considering the removal of protestors from the New York City site, it could be a very timely classroom discussion.
Intermediate English – Occupy Wall Street is from ESOL Courses.
Feedback is welcome.
If you found this post useful, you might want to look at the 800 other “The Best…” lists and consider subscribing to this blog for free.
October 23, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I’ve just updated The Best Teacher Resources For “Foldables.”
Feel free to suggest additional resources.
October 22, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
I’d like to create a “The Best… list of verb tense charts for English Language Learners, plus determine which is the best one for using with my Beginning ELL class.
I’ve been using one, which I’ll share in my eventual list, but I’m assuming there are other good ones out there too. I know there are a whole lot of ones that seem far too unnecessarily complicated….
Share your suggestions in the comments section, and I’ll be sure to credit you in my post.
Thanks!
October 22, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Measurement and Its Discontents is by Robert P. Crease and was just published in The New York Times. It views the idea of “measurement” in historical and philosophical terms. He describes two different kinds of measurement. On is “ontic,” which identifies “how big or small a thing is using a scale, beginning point and unit. Something is x feet long, weighs y pounds or takes z seconds.”
The other is “ontological.” He defines it as involving “less an act than an experience: we sense that things don’t ‘measure up’ to what they could be.” Crease shares a number of examples, and also cautions against the danger of making “ontic” measurements into “ontological” ones, citing measuring teaching ability primarily through student test scores. He asks:
Are the tests administered by schools making students smarter and more educated, or just making us think we know how to evaluate education?
A wise question, indeed…
And one that can also certainly relates to my recent column in The Washington Post about grading character traits…
October 22, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality:
IMF: Income inequality is bad for economic growth is from The Washington Post.
The Limping Middle Class is by Robert Reich and appeared in The New York Times.
Protesters Against Wall Street is from The New York Times.
Corporations Tailoring Product Lines To Reflect Growing Income Inequality is from The Huffington Post.
October 21, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Page O Rama lets you quickly and easily create a website without having to register. I especially like it because you can copy and paste images directly onto the page. Even though there are quite a few “instant” page-building apps, most don’t have that copy-and-paste image option.
I’m adding it to A Few Simple Ways To Introduce Reluctant Colleagues To Technology and to The Best Places Where Students Can Write Online.
