November 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Here’s an amazing video of birds that moonwalk. It’s from PBS. I’ve “tube-chopped” the best minute-and-half here, but you can see the entire longer video here. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About Animals.
November 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Edutopia has just published another one of their excellent free guides. This one is titled “Six Tips for Brain-Based Learning.” All you have to do is quickly register on the site, and it’s yours….
I’ve previously posted about other guides they’ve published. You can get them all here.
November 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
5 Comments
The New York Times has a fascinating article today about Lincoln and The Mormons. It explains that he basically made a deal to leave them alone and they left him alone. This is what he told a Mormon leader:
When I was a boy on the farm in Illinois there was a great deal of timber on the farm which we had to clear away. Occasionally we would come to a log which had fallen down. It was too hard to split, too wet to burn, and too heavy to move, so we plowed around it.
In other words, there are some battles not worth fighting, which also happens to be a community organizing axiom.
I also think it’s also a good classroom management guide. We need to “keep on our eyes on the prize” and not get sucked into distracting conflicts.
If a student just keeps on forgetting to bring a pencil to class, I just give him one from a big box of golf pencils I buy at the beginning of each school year. If they don’t have paper, I have stack. I’ve got bigger fish to fry, like helping them developing intrinsic motivation to read the first book in their lives and develop an appetite for learning.
November 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Words Speak Louder Than Money is the title of a study completed earlier this year.
Its conclusion (at least my understanding of its conclusion) is that providing gifts can often been seen by the recipient as as sign that we are expecting something back in return. Giving messages, on the other hand, are much more effective at building trust because it is not as easily interpreted as we want something back. Of course, we need to be careful about the kind of messages we send — you might want to see The Best Resources For Learning How To Best Give Feedback To Students.
It’s just another take on why typical incentives can backfire. In fact, the beginning of the paper cites a number of studies that are new to me on how they can harm intrinsic motivation.
I’m adding this post to My Best Posts On “Motivating” Students.
Thanks to Barking Up The Wrong Tree for the tip.
November 18, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Useful Charts has a very nice compilation of….useful charts.
Here are my favorites:
I really like their English Verb Tenses Explained.
I’m adding Most Famous Photographs of All Time to The Best Sites To See “Photos That Changed The World.”
I’m adding Most Famous Paintings of All Time to The Best Collections Of “The Best” Pieces Of Art Ever Created.
November 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Two days ago, Dean Shareski sent a tweet out about a now-closed GOOD Magazine contest inviting people to redesign the report card (I personally thought the submissions were pretty awful, except for the last one).
But what really struck me was his wondering how students would redesign them…
So, after talking to some teachers at my school, I gave this assignment to my IB Theory of Knowledge students:
Imagine that you have never seen or heard of a report card.
Think about what kind of progress report would offer you the kind of information that would be helpful to your learning. What would it include?
Here are a few examples of what other people have created.
Draw it, and then provide the reasons behind your design. Justify it through the Ways of Knowing: Perception, Reason, Language and Emotion.
This is due on December 2nd.
After they submit them, I’ll scan them and create a slideshow that I’ll post. Other teachers at my school will then show them as models to their students and design their own similar assignments for “redesigning their report card.”
I thought I’d invite readers to consider doing the same with their students. If you do so over the next few months, I’d be happy to post links to their creations or embed slideshows into a “The Best…” list.
Also, coincidentally, a couple of hours after I posted the assignment, I saw this column at CNN by Sam Chaltain, Is it time to redesign the report card?
November 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
How Can Teachers Create A Supportive Environment For Each Other? is the new question of the week at my Education Week Teacher advice column.
Check it out and share your thoughts….
November 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Beginning iPhone Users Like Me:
Hidden iPhone Tricks: Secret Keyboard and Panoramic Photos is from TIME.
Dear Apple, Please Make My iPhone 4S Battery Life Suck Less is from TechCrunch. The tips in the comments section are particularly helpful.
iPhone 4S Battery Life Bugs Got You Down? Try This is also from TechCrunch.
25 Essential Apps for Your New iPhone 4S is from Mashable.
Show and Tell: iPhone 4S is a video from David Pogue at The New York Times.
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
The Guardian has published a very good animated video on income and wealth inequality in the United States. I’m embedding it below, but I’m not sure it will come through on an RSS Reader. If not, you’ll have to click through to the blog to see it. I’m adding it to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality — Help Me Create A Simple Lesson Plan Using Them.
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Today, I realized yet another consequence of writing late night posts — I had forgotten to include one more nominee in my nomination post for this year’s Edublog Awards.
I was a subscriber to John Norton’s Middleweb email newsletter long before he turned it into a blog which is now regularly filled with great resources. It’s getting better and better all the time, and I’m nominating it for “Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog.”
I’ll also add it to my original nominations post.
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Themeefy lets you grab pretty much anything you want off the Web, and add your own materials, to create a personalized magazine that can be shared/embedded wherever you want. It looks pretty neat and simple.
Though it’s different from the other tools on my The Best Sites For Creating Personalized “Newspapers” Online (all the other sites there provide automatically updated resources on the topics of your choice, while you have to manually — at least I think you do — create your magazine at Themeefy), for right now I can’t think of any other place to put it, so I’m adding it there.
Here’s a video on the site:
I haven’t gotten a chance to look over it that carefully, so I may be missing something.
Thanks to Joyce Valenza for the tip.
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
VidCaster is a new site that lets you automatically import all the videos you might have on your account at YouTube (I don’t think they use the term “import” — it may be more like “sync-up”) and create your own video site.
One benefit could be eliminating having to see other videos and comments that you’d find on the YouTube site, which, if you’re showing a video to a class, can be potentially distracting. Of course, there are plenty of other web tools that do that same thing, like Quiet Tube.
The other, potentially much more important benefit — but which I won’t know for sure until I try it out at school tomorrow — is that the videos on VidCaster don’t appear to have YouTube “branding” (you can check my VidCaster Channel here). There might be a slight chance that having them on VidCaster means that they won’t be blocked by school content filters (at least until the content filterers figure it out). Or, if VidCaster is blocked, it might be considerably easier to get a District to let a teacher’s VidCaster’s channel be made accessible to students than a teacher’s YouTube account.
You can learn more about VidCaster at TechCrunch.
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
When students focus on tests, they are thinking about what they need to remember to get a good grade, he said. They are not taking the time to think about why they are learning this information, and why it is important in their life.
That’s the conclusion of a study of 5,000 students taking high school health classes. Students in classes where teachers emphasized the importance of learning information because it would be on the tests were less likely to actually develop healthy habits in their lives than those in classes where the teacher concentrated on the relevance of the information.
But let’s not worry about developing life-long learners — the state tests will be coming up in a few months….
November 16, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Important Report On Parent Engagement Released Today” is the title of a new post at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.
If you have any interest in parent engagement, it’s a “must-read.”
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
Nominations for this year’s Edublog Awards are now open. I think the whole process is a great way to learn about exceptional resources that are out there, so I’m an enthusiastic supporter!
I’m only going to offer nominations for a few categories this year, but I’m making up for that by nominating more than one in some areas:
Best Individual Blog
I’m listing two blogs — The Shanker Blog and This Week In Education. Matthew Di Carlo at The Albert Shanker Institute provides the most accessible, even-handed, and savvy analysis of education research around — he makes that blog a “must-read.” And Alexander Russo’s scouring of mainstream and social media for the most informative news and analysis of today’s education policy issues (plus the thoughtful pieces from John Thompson, his regular contributor) ensure that he’s on the top of my RSS Reader everyday.
Best Group Blog
I have to nominate three blogs for this category: Transform Ed, Powerful Learning Practice, and InterAct. Transform Ed is comprised of posts from many educators connected to the Center For Teaching Quality (I’m a member of the Center’s Teacher Leaders Network, but don’t blog at Transform Ed). Many talented educators also blog at Powerful Learning Practice, led by Sheryl Nussbaum-Beach and Will Richardson. InterAct is the blog of Accomplished California Teachers, though its posts have national significance. David B. Cohen, Martha Infante, and Kelly Kovacic are the primary three bloggers there (I’m a member of ACT, but don’t post at its blog).
Most Influential Blog Post
The Relationship Status of Teachers and Educational Technology: It’s Complicated by Roxanna Elden is hands-down the wittiest, and certainly one of the most insightful, pieces I’ve read about the use of ed tech.
Best Teacher Blog
David Deubelbeiss’ blog, EFL 2.0 – Teacher Talk is my nominee in this category. David gives and gives and gives, and then gives some more.
Best School Administrator Blog
The Wejr Board by Chris Wejr consistently posts thoughtful commentary on issues like parent engagement and rewards, awards and incentives.
Best Free Web Tool
I’m going to nominate the top two web tools on my The Best Web 2.0 Applications For Education In 2011 list:
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.
Corkboard Me is sort of a 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.
Best Educational Use Of A Social Network
EFL Classroom 2.0 provides a huge service to ESL/EFL/ELL teachers around the world. It’s a treasure trove of resources and relationships.
Lifetime Achievement
I would be shocked if there is anyone who has helped more educators in the social media world than Sue Waters. I nominate her for this category every year, and every year she is not considered because she’s an employee of Edublogs. “Conflict of interest” or not, she deserves the award!
Best Ed Tech/Resource Sharing Blog
I was a subscriber to John Norton’s Middleweb email newsletter long before he turned it into a blog which is now regularly filled with great resources. It’s getting better and better all the time!
Good luck to my nominees, and to everyone else who gets nominated. I can’t wait to see the entire list and spend a lot of time exploring and learning from them!
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
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.
I’m adding it to The Best Resources To Help Students Learn About Occupy Wall Street.
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I just wanted to remind readers that Eye On Education, the publisher of my “Helping Students Motivate Themselves” book, has the first chapter and online links for the entire book available for free on its website.
In fact, the chapter that’s online is the titled “How Do You Motivate Students” and includes several lesson plans. All you have to do is click on the link that says “Click On PDF Sample Chapters” and it’s yours.
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Several Ways To Tell The Difference Between Good & Bad Education Research” is my newest column at Education Week Teacher.
It includes guest responses from The Shanker Institute’s Matthew Di Carlo and P.L. Thomas from Furman University.
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
I posted about Trapit in June, and it has just opened to the public. I would characterize it as a way to create your own online personalized newspaper, which is why it’s on The Best Sites For Creating Personalized “Newspapers” Online list.
You can read a more thorough description at Read Write Web.
November 15, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
Graph Words is a new very simple visual thesaurus. It’s not as fancy as some of the other similar applications out there, but I think some of them are actually pretty confusing to English Language Learners.
I’m adding it to The Best Reference Websites For English Language Learners.
Thanks to Richard Byrne for the tip.
