Classroom Management Suggestions From My Colleagues is my newest post at my Education Week teacher advice column.
It’s Part Two of a three-part series…..
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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Monthly Archives: December 2011
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
I Like This Interpretation Of “The Hawthorne Effect”
The Hawthorne Effect is generally interpreted this way: people will act differently if they know they are being studied.
I’ve previously posted, though, about a somewhat different, less clinical, interpretation written by Joanne Yatvin, a past president of the National Council of Teachers of English:
the Hawthorne anomaly illustrates the fact that human subjects who know they are part of a scientific experiment may sabotage the study in their eagerness to make it succeed. What it really shows is that, when people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don’t believe they are important, nothing works.”
I quoted her in the context of my thinking about the effect students knowing I wrote about them in articles and in my blog might have on them.
I was reminded of this topic again this week while I was reading a very interesting article on the role of placebos in medical care in The New Yorker (Unfortunately, most of it is behind a paywall). Here’s a quote from it:
If you believe that doctors are particularly attentive, you can get better more rapidly, even if they aren’t. This is known as the Hawthorne effect.
It seems to reinforce Ms. Yatvin’s view, and one we teachers might want to remember — students need to feel important. The word root of important means to “bring in.”
It’s probably a good thing for us to try to remember — as much as possible — to bring in our students’ interests, goals, hopes, lives to the classroom.
To repeat what Ms. Yatvin wrote:
when people believe they are important in a project, anything works, and, conversely, when they don’t believe they are important, nothing works.”
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
BBC Learning For Adults Is A Treasure Trove
BBC Learning For Adults is a treasure trove of very accessible resources for English Language Learners and others to learn in multiple subject areas.
I’m, obviously, particularly interested in the site’s English activities, and it doesn’t disappoint. I’m especially impressed with its collection of games. I’m adding its game collection to The Best Collections Of Online Educational Games.
I’m also adding its punctuation activities to The Best Sites For ELL’s To Learn About Punctuation.
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
Reminder: Join Me On Dec. 13th For A Free Webinar On “Student Motivation & Classroom Management”
Eye On Education is sponsoring a free one hour webinar on December 13th, 4:30 PM Eastern Time, with me to discuss Student Motivation & Classroom Management. You can learn more about the Webinar, and register for it, here.
EOE are the publishers of my last book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves: Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges, and its upcoming sequel. They also graciously provide a choice of free books to educators whose questions I respond to in my Education Week Teacher advice column.
I’ll be discussing specific ways to help students develop intrinsic motivation “on the spot,” as well as lesson plans that combine literacy instruction with long-term strategies to “help students motivate themselves.” I’ll also be covering positive classroom management issues, including dealing with immediate issues and, again, lessons plans to use as building blocks for a classroom community of learners.
I won’t be “blabbing” the entire time, and there will be several periods built-in for questions and discussion. It should be fun!
I hope you’ll join me….
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
The Best Science Sites Of 2011
Here’s the latest in my end-of-the-year “The Best…” lists. As usual, sites on this list must be available free-of-charge and student resources must be accessible to English Language Learners.
You might also be interested in:
The Best Science Sites Of 2011 — So Far
The Best Science Websites — 2010
The Best Science & Math Sites — 2009
The Best Science & Math Websites — 2008
The Best Science Websites For Students & Teachers — 2007
Here are my choices for The Best Science Sites Of 2011:
Number thirteen:
“San Diego Zoo Kids” has tons of accessible information and online games on…animals.
Number twelve:
The Kitchen Pantry Scientist is a neat site to get quick, easy, and inexpensive ideas for science experiments.
Number eleven:
Sizing Up The Universe is a neat interactive from the Smithsonian that does a very good job at helping users gain an understanding of how big planets and moons really are.
Number ten:
The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry (ABPI) has a site with a number of excellent science interactives which provide audio support for the text.
Number nine:
Evolution of renewable energy is a very useful interactive tracing renewable energy use from 8000 BC to the present.
Number eight:
The Exploratorium has reorganized all their interactives into one Explore page.
Number seven:
“Conversations With The Earth” is a new site from the Smithsonian. Here’s how it describes itself:
This exhibition—the first of its kind devoted to indigenous science—provides a Native perspective on global climate change. Through photographs, video, and audio of tribal communities from the Arctic to Brazil, the environmental impact of pollution is found in the stories of imposed mitigation and its consequences on local livelihoods.
Conversations with the Earth offers the voices of the Earth’s traditional stewards in the search for a viable response to the challenges of climate change. In the words of Inupiat leader Patricia Cochran, chair of the Indigenous Peoples Global summit on Climate Change, “We are a harbinger of what is to come, what the rest of the world can expect.”
Without question, the best part of the site shows tons of video interviews with people from all over the world.
Number six:
“Science Of Everyday Life” is a neat interactive timeline of inventions, and comes from Discovery Education.
Number five:
A Journey Through Climate History is a very, very impressive interactive from ABC in Australia. It highlights key events affecting climate change over the past one hundred ten years.
Number four:
National Geographic unveiled a new site to support their extravaganza on “Great Migrations.” It’s an amazing site, filled with incredible videos, interactives, photos — the works — all on animal migrations.
Number three:
Curiosity is a website — and a new television series — from the Discovery Channel. People send in their questions — and there are some fascinating questions — and get accessible multimedia answers in return. You can also apply to become an expert to help answer questions, too.
Number two:
Earlier this year, Richard Byrne posted about a neat BBC interactive on rocks. I was pretty impressed, because it had subtitles and was relatively accessible to English Language Learners. So I explored the site a little further and found that the BBC Schools Bitesize KS3 site had a whole series of similarly accessible activities.
First, go to their main Science page. Next, click on any of the four primary categories:
Organisms, behaviour and health
Chemical and material behaviour
Energy, electricity and forces
The environment, the Earth and the universe
Each of these four sections has multiple “activities,” which are animated exercises that have audio and subtitles.
Number one:
McDougal Littell’s Class Zone site is on many of my Social Studies related “The Best…” lists — their interactives are incredible (the links I have in this post may, or may not, bring you directly to the interactives. If you get sent to a map, just click the subject you’re interested in and click on California. That will lead you to different textbooks — then click on one of them. That will lead you to the interactives). However, I realize I’ve never written about their equally as impressive high school biology sites. It, too, has plenty of interactive, and most provide audio support for the text.
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.
December 8, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
NEA Announces “New Action Agenda”
Dennis Van Roekel, President of the National Education Association, will announce a “new action agenda” Thursday morning around teacher education, professional development, and evaluation.
You can read the full report that he’s releasing,Transforming Teaching: Connecting Professional Responsibility With Student Learning.
The teacher ed recommendations make sense to me. I’m assuming that most college-based programs already have the requirements that are being suggested (though I might very well be wrong in that assessment), including a full year of student teaching and a rigorous performance assessment, and that it’s primarily designed as a critique (and a justifiable one) of alternative certification programs and Teach For America (see The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America).
The professional development recommendations (developing new leadership roles for teachers) seem very similar to the “Teacherpreneur” concept being promoted by my colleagues at The Teacher Leaders Network and The Center For Teaching Quality. I’m interested in hearing from them if I’m correct in that observation. You can read more about “teacherpreneurship” at:
The Coming Age of the Teacherpreneur
What the Heck is a ‘Teacherpreneur’?
Teacherpreneurs: A More Powerful Vision For The Teaching Profession
I found the proposals around teacher evaluation particularly interesting. It emphasizes the idea of Peer Assistance and Review, known as PAR. I’ve been impressed by what I’ve read about how that works in different communities, and have included links to related resources at The Best Resources For Learning About Effective Student & Teacher Assessments, including:
Helping Teachers Help Themselves, The New York Times
I’m assuming many so-called “school reformers” will immediately criticize the report as “too little, too late,” but most would say the same no matter what the union proposed.
I don’t feel that I’m knowledgeable enough to make an accurate assessment of what kind of impact these proposals might have in the national educational policy debate. It does seem to me, though, that its push for new teacher leadership roles and coming down so strongly on the idea of PAR as an evaluation strategy might provide an important new push for both of those important ideas. If a critical mass of locals coalesce around them, they might make for an effective counter-weight to attacks on teachers. And, most importantly, if we can incorporate them into contracts, then students and their families, along with teachers and our entire communities, stand to benefit.
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
International Income Inequality
Income inequality is increasing across much of the developed world, a trend that will continue unless governments move aggressively to arrest it, according to a report released Monday by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The Washington Post began an article with that sentence.
I’m adding it to The Best Resources About Wealth & Income Inequality, along with this video representation of the report:
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Cute Porcupine Videos
The words “cute” and “porcupine” do not naturally go together in my mind, but they do now after watching these videos. I’m adding them to The Best Sites For Learning About Animals:
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Many More “Pictures Of The Year”
As expected, “pictures of the year” and/or “review the year in photos” features are beginning to come fast and furious. Here are new additions to The Best Year-End Collections Of Images — 2011:
TIME Picks the Top 10 Photos of 2011 is from….TIME.
2011: The Year in Photos, Part 1 of 3 comes from The Atlantic.
2011: The Year in Photos, Part 2 of 3 is also from The Atlantic.
National Geographic has a ton of different “best of” photos for the year.
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments
Just Realized My Ed Week Teacher Blog Was Nominated As “Best New Blog”
I just realized that my Education Week Teacher blog, Classroom Q & A With Larry Ferlazzo, made the short list of nominees for The Best New Blog category of the Edublog Awards.
There are a lot of great-looking new blogs on the list worth checking-out.
Voting for mine is fine, but leaving an education related question in the comments section that I can answer there is even better!
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment
More Pearl Harbor Resources
Here are the newest additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Pearl Harbor:
TIME just published a slideshow on Pearl Harbor.
The New York Times Learning Network has a useful lesson plan.
The Los Angeles Times has a Pearl Harbor slideshow.
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
This Week’s “Round-Up” Of Good School Reform Posts & Articles
Here are a few recent good posts related to education policy issues:
Making Sense of International Test Competition is by Walt Gardner at Education Week. I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Getting Some Perspective On International Test Comparison Demagoguery.
When The Legend Becomes Fact, Print The Fact Sheet is from The Shanker Blog. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning About The “Value-Added” Approach Towards Teacher Evaluation.
Variable pay-for-performance is a folly is a very interesting analysis from economists. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea.
Objectively Speaking is an intriguing post about why it might be a bad idea for teachers to write lesson objectives on the board for students to see.
Hey, Researchers and Policymakers: Pay Attention to the Questions Teachers Ask is by Larry Cuban. I’m adding it to The Best Resources For Understanding How To Interpret Education Research.
December 7, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments
The Best Social Studies Sites Of 2011
I’m slowly, but surely, posting end-of-the-year “The Best…” lists. As always, in order for resources to make this list, they need to be available free-of-charge and be accessible to English Language Learners. It’s possible that some of them were available prior to this year, but they are new to me in 2011.
You might also be interested in:
The Best Social Studies Sites Of 2011 — So Far
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2010
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2009
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2008
The Best Social Studies Websites — 2007
Here are my choices for The Best Social Studies Sites Of 2011:
Number eighteen
ViewChange.Org has some pretty amazing short videos from around the world. This is how it describes itself: Using the power of video to tell stories about real people and progress in global development. Believe me, that doesn’t even begin to tell you what’s there.
Number seventeen:
As most readers know, three years ago I put my entire United States History curriculum online.
I’m teaching it again this year — one class to Intermediate English Language Learners and the other to Beginning ELL’s, and am developing an updated version of the curriculum. This online version is more for the Intermediates, but there will be some materials accessible to Beginners, too. You’re welcome to use it, including the uploaded resources there. I’d just ask that you credit the source and not charge others for it.
Number sixteen:
How Many Really? is a BBC interactive that shows you how many people were affected by or participated in major historical events, and then you can compare other numbers with them.
Number fifteen:
“1001 Wonders” is a neat site sharing panoramic photos from United Nations’ World Heritage Sites around the world.
Number fourteen:
A History of Poverty is an animated world map showing where poverty (and prosperity) have been most present over the past two hundred years. You can narrow it down by continent or county, too. It’s from the Christian Aid charity.
Number thirteen:
Google has created a gallery where you can visit historic areas around the world using its Street View feature.
Number twelve:
“Democracy Kids” is a nice series of interactives designed to teach young people about how the United States government operates. It provides audio support for the text, which makes it particularly accessible to English Language Learners. It’s sponsored by several respected civic organizations, including the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Number eleven:
Newspaper Map shows you the front pages of newspapers from around the world, displayed on a Google Map. If it just stopped at that, it wouldn’t be much different from the well-known Newseum display of the same thing. But it doesn’t stop there. Unlike the Newseum, Newspaper Map lets you click on the front page to gain access to the entire newspaper. And, even better, with one quick click, you can choose the language you want the paper translated into. It’s very simple and easy to access.
Number ten:
Mapping America: Every City, Every Block is an amazing interactive from The New York Times that displays U.S. Census data from…everywhere. The New York Times Learning Network also has a simple lesson plan related to it. Connecting the Dots: Interpreting U.S. Census Data is a New York Times Learning Network lesson.
Number nine:
Public Opinion and the Occupy Movement is a fascinating interactive infographic from The New York Times.
Number eight:
How Many Slaves Work For You? is an interactive that helps you determine how many slaves were involved in the products you use.
Number seven:
As regular readers know, I write a lot about using online learning games with students. In fact, if you go to my page listing all 800 “The Best…” lists you’ll see many under “Games.” But Canadian secondary Social Studies teacher Mike Farley has gone far beyond my sharing of games. He writes a blog where he lists the links to fifteen excellent Social Studies-related games. That’s nice, but you can find those links in my “The Best…” lists. But what Mike also shares in his blog are student hand-outs for all those games. I don’t think you’ll find these kinds of resources anywhere else on the Web, and they’re a gold mine! Even if you don’t want to use some of them, they are excellent models that can be easily modified. Go check them out, and I think Mike has earned a big thank you from all of us for creating those materials and sharing them with the rest of us.
Number six:
Products Of Slavery is an impressive online visualization of products throughout the world created through using child or forced labor.
Number five:
This year, Pearson has, among other things, published a new U.S. History textbook and a new text on Ancient Civilizations. Big deal, right? Well, I don’t really care about the paperbound versions, but they has made the book’s online companion sites freely available. They both have some nice interactives.
Go to the sites and then click on each chapter. There are good interactives for each one:
American: History of our Nation
Number four:
I’ve previously highlighted Glencoe’s online videos for social studies, but have now discovered that offer many more free resources to support all their social studies textbooks. They’re useful even if you don’t use their books, though, and they’re freely available. You can start off at their main Social Studies site or at their main site for all their textbooks. From there, it’s easy to navigate to their U.S. History, World History and Geography books. They all have links to videos, “in-motion animations” like this one, interactive maps like this (I especially like these maps because they offer audio support for the text), and different games (I especially like their categorization activities).
Number three:
“If It Were My Home” is a neat interactive that compares the standard of living in the United States to any other country of your choice. The site also has some other neat features.
Number two:
The Daily What: News For Schools In Scotland provides very well-written and accessible articles about world-wide events, and, in addition, provides interactives (such as quizzes) for each one (look for the red question mark on the right column to find the interactives). The articles have both shorter and longer versions available. The site has a lot of other features, but those are only accessible to Scottish teachers and students.
Number one:
SAS Curriculum Pathways has a huge amount of interactives in all subjects. In many of them, students complete the activity online, and then send their work electronically to their teacher (it can also be printed out). And it’s free.
The teacher signs-up and is give a log-in name for all the students in a school. It doesn’t appear that students need their own individual log-in because they have to type in their name before beginning any activity. Let me tell you, that will make using this site immeasurably easy — students won’t have to remember — or forget — individual passwords!
Since I’m teaching US History this year, I mainly focused on those sites, and they looked pretty good and accessible to ELL’s with audio support for the text. The site, though, has resources for all subjects.
In my review of the US History sites, they all appeared engaging, though primarily geared to lower-levels of thinking, primarily comprehension and recall. But since I use the Web generally as a reinforcement tool, that works fine for me.
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.
December 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Sorry, Professors: Deliberate Practice Matters
The New York Times published an opinion piece a couple of weeks ago titled Sorry, Strivers: Talent Matters by two professors. In it, they attempt to dismiss the claim popularized by Malcolm Gladwell that you can reach an extremely high level of skill in just about anything after practicing at it for 10,000 hours. The professors claim that innate intellectual ability and working memory capacity is a key determiner of success.
A number of other researchers have since pointed out that the column’s authors dramatically overstate what their evidence shows. In fact, 45% of improvement was attributed to deliberate practice and only 7% to working memory capacity.
I’ve used the 10,000 hour finding effectively as one way to help students see that it can be possible for them to achieve their hopes and dreams.
A lot of my students have plenty of reasons already why they might not accomplish their goals. Perhaps professors should double-check their figures before coming-up with even more….
December 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
“Several Classroom Management Suggestions — Part One”
Several Classroom Management Suggestions — Part One is my new Education Week Teacher post.
It’s the first of a three-part series where educators share the best classroom management advice they have to offer. Feel free to share your own there, too!
December 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
4 Comments
“We Should Celebrate Mistakes”
(NOTE: You can see videos of my student’s final projects for this unit here)
As regular readers, I’m a fan of Carol Dweck’s work, notwithstanding my critique of her recent New York Times op ed on willpower.
I was recently watching a video of a group discussing Professor Dweck’s book, with her participating via Skype. I was struck by one comment she made, saying “we should celebrate mistakes.”
So, today I began to experiment with a lesson on doing just that. I’m going to refine it a lot more, and I think my colleagues might try it out in a number of different classes and make it even better. Here’s what I’m doing — I’m all ears if you have some ideas. My final version will be adaptable to all levels of students — mainstream and ESL:
Today, I began to very briefly talk about how we learn from our mistakes and, if we aren’t making any, then we’re not taking enough risks. I asked my ESL Beginners to write down what they felt were two common mistakes they made in learning English. They were all pretty broad — pronunciation, remembering new words, etc. They then shared what they wrote in groups of three.
Tomorrow, I’ll ask them to review what they wrote, and then try to remember specific times when they made mistakes in those more general categories. Then, I’ll ask them to write what they learned from each of those experiences. I’ll give the example of “I said ‘bottle’ the wrong way and people couldn’t understand me. My friend helped me learn the correct way to say it.” Students will then share what they wrote in small groups.
Later tomorrow, I’ll create an inductive data set (read more about inductive data sets here) listing each specific example and what they learned from it separately.
On Wednesday, students will need to cut each item out and paste them on a sheet in categories (I’ll probably just use the common general problems they wrote today for the categories they’ll use). I’ll use the typical “moves” of an inductive data set (see the earlier link for information about those, or see my books).
Thursday, they will review the content of each category, think about them, and add new examples they can think of — including mistakes they made and what they learned from each one. Students will share them in groups, and I hope students will see what a vast amount of knowledge they have learned from making mistakes.
Friday, each student will get a Post-It. I’ll ask them to pick one mistake they listed and what they wrote they learned, have them share in the Friday groups where we review weekly homework, and paste them on a “Mistake Wall.” We’ll make this a regular weekly event.
What do you think?
December 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments
“How a Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything”
How a Few Bad Apples Ruin Everything is an article that appeared in the Wall Street Journal describing the disproportionate effect “bad employees” can have on the workplace. Bob Sutton, the author of the article, elaborates on it at his own blog.
There has been one time in my teaching career where it reached the point where a student just had to be moved. There have been other times when I thought life for the class — and for me — would have been a lot better without a student, but it was manageable if I focused a great deal of my time and energy on that particular student. Unfortunately, that took away my attention from others.
John Thompson quotes another author calling this the “Leo Effect,” where one or more students can “bring down performance” in a class, and shares some thoughtful comments about that kind of challenge, including suggesting we develop high quality alternative schools.
Based on what I read about the Turnaround For Children program which, admittedly, is just what I read in this recent New York Times article, it sounds like they might use a somewhat related strategy. Instead of removing the challenging students, though, it sounds like they “confront the 5 percent of students who behave the worst” but keep them in the school.
Clearly, some students face so many challenges that they cannot function in a regular school situation. But when, and who, makes that call? How many chances are students given?
When, if ever, have you reached a point where a student “had to go?” Charters obviously have more options to remove students from their school than non-charters. How should non-charters handle this kind of situation? What criteria should be used? What are our moral, ethical and legal obligations?
December 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On School Reform Issues — 2011
Since I have published so many “The Best…” lists, I thought it might be helpful to readers if I posted a few year-end collections.
You might also be interested in The Best “The Best…” Lists On School Reform Issues — 2010.
Here is A Collection Of “The Best…” Lists On School Reform Issues — 2011:
The Best Posts On Attracting The “Best Candidates” To Teaching
The Best Posts/Articles On This Year’s Phi Delta Kappa and Gallup Education Poll — August, 2011
The Best Articles Describing Alternatives To High-Stakes Testing — Help Me Find More
The Best Commentaries On Steven Brill’s Book, “Class Warfare”
The Best Posts & Articles About The New York Court Decision Releasing Teacher Ratings
The Best Posts About Trust & Education
The Best Posts & Articles On The Save Our Schools March
The Best Articles & Posts On Education Policy In 2011 — So Far — July, 2011
The Best Posts & Articles About Compromise
The Best Resources For Learning About Small Learning Communities
The Best Posts & Articles About The Atlanta Testing Scandal
The Best Resources For Helping Students (& The Rest Of Us) Learn The Concept Of Not Blaming Others
The Best Posts Responding To David Brooks Criticism Of Diane Ravitch (& Many Of The Rest Of Us)
The Best Resources For Learning About The “Next Generation” Of State Testing
The Best Resources For Learning About The Four School Improvement Grant Models
The Best Posts/Articles On National Research Council Finding That Carrots & Sticks Don’t Work
The Best Posts About Attrition Rates At So-Called “Miracle” Schools
The Best Posts Discussing Arrogance & School Reform
A Beginning “The Best…” List On The Dangers Of Privatizing Public Education
The Best Resources For Learning About The “Achievement Gap”
The Best Posts & Articles About “Erase To The Top”
The Best Posts & Articles To Learn About “Fundamental Attribution Error” & Schools
The Best Articles Providing An “Overall” Perspective On Education Policy
The Best Posts & Articles About The Importance Of Teacher (& Student) Working Conditions
The Best Posts Debunking The Myth Of “Five Great Teachers In A Row”
The Best Posts Responding To Bill Gates’ Appallingly Clueless Op-Ed Piece
The Best Resources For Learning Why School Vouchers Are A Bad Idea
The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin
The Best Places To Get Reliable, Valid, Accessible & Useful Education Data
The Best Posts About Michelle Rhee’s Exaggerated Test Scores
The Best Posts & Articles Raising Concerns About Teach For America
The Best Articles Sharing Concerns About Common Core Standards
The Best Resources Showing Why We Need To Be “Data-Informed” & Not “Data-Driven”
The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Why Teacher Tenure Is Important
The Best Resources For Learning Why Teachers Unions Are Important
The Best Posts & Articles About Videotaping Teachers In The Classroom
The Best Resources For Learning About The Role Of Private Foundations In Education Policy
The Best Posts & Articles Explaining Why Schools Should Not Be Run Like Businesses
The Best Resources For Learning Why Teacher Merit Pay Is A Bad Idea
The Best Sites For Learning That Money Does Matter For Schools
The Best Resources To Learn About Finland’s Education System
The Best Places To Learn What Impact A Teacher (& Outside Factors) Have On Student Achievement
December 5, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Some Things I’ll Be Doing Over The Next Few Months….
I thought readers might, or might not, be interested in hearing about some things I’ll be up to over the next few months (in addition to teaching and playing basketball):
* I’ll be doing a free one-hour Webinar on December 13th on Student Motivation and Classroom Management for the publisher of my last book, Eye On Education.
* The 100,000 word book that my colleague Katie Hull and I are writing, The ESL Teacher’s Survival Guide, is going through final edits and will be published by Jossey-Bass in the summer. I think educators might find it very helpful.
* I’m working on a sequel to my last book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves:Practical Answers To Classroom Challenges. That should be published by Eye On Education in early 2013.
* The weekly teacher advice column I’m writing for Education Week Teacher is going strong and has been a lot of fun. Feel free to leave any question related to education that you’d like to ask in the comments section of this post. Thanks again to Eye On Education for giving free books to people who’s questions I use.
* ASCD Educational Leadership will be publishing an article I’ve written on teaching reading to English Language Learners. It’ll be in their March issue on reading.
* I’m working with The New York Times Learning Network on a guest post about student motivation for early in 2012.
* I’ll be leading two workshops at the Colorado Council International Reading Association Annual Conference On Literacy in February.
I’ll keep you posted….
December 5, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments
Even More Population Resources
Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s Population Of 7 Billion:
Explore your world is an amazing interactive. Here’s how it describes itself:
We live in a world of 7 billion people, living in seven continents and more than 200 countries. Though family size (fertility) continues to decline in most places, our numbers are projected to rise for years to come. This dashboard allows you to take a closer look at the world population in 2011 and beyond: Check out populations by region or country. Look at the proportion of young and old. See what various paths the future population growth may take.
Population Control, Marauder Style is a really interesting infographic from The New York Times.
World population still growing, but slowing is an historical interactive from the CBC.
Hans Rosling on global population growth is a TED Talk
