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December 1, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
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My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume Three

I’ve been writing this blog for six or seven years. I thought readers might find it useful for me to dig back in the “archives” and highlight my choices for some of the best posts that appeared during that time.

The first list in this series, My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume One, focused on the year 2007 and included a fair amount of still-useful material (at least in my opinion).

I’d say the same thing about my review of posts from 2008, which you can find in My Best Posts Over The Years — Volume Two.

Here in Volume Three I’ll identify the best of 2009:

I posted what has turned out to be the most popular piece I’ve every posted — The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom (which, as I do for most of my “The Best” lists, I continue to update).

The Best Teacher Resources For “TED Talks” (& Similar Presentations) has been similarly popular over the years.

And The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience” is another long-time popular list that was published that year.

I had my first book published that year, Building Parent Engagement In Schools, and started by other blog, Engaging Parents In School. And I began publishing an annual list of my best posts on parent engagement.

Some “unusual” lists that I like, and which came out in 2009 include:

The Best Sites For Walking In Someone Else’s Shoes

The Best Sites To Learn About Walls That Separate Us

The Best Images Of Weird, Cool & Neat-Looking Buildings (& Ways To Design Your Own)

I still regularly use The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers and The Best Sites For Free ESL/EFL Hand-Outs & Worksheets.

And my students love The Best Places To Read & Write “Choose Your Own Adventure” Stories.

I wrote Teaching Secrets: The Last Day of School for Education Week, and Parent Involvement or Parent Engagement? for Learning First.

I also wrote an Ed Week article on making home visits to parents.

That year, I taught one U.S. History class in the classroom and another in the computer lab. I wrote about how it went here.

I reflect on the difference in career goals that I see in my mainstream and ELL students in The Hopes And Dreams Of My Students.

I wrote some decent posts on classroom management issues and lesson plans:

“I’ll Work If You Give Me Candy”

What Do You Do To Keep Students (& You!) Focused Near The End Of The School Year?

Want To Know What’s Happened Since My “Marshmallow” & “Visualizing Success” Lessons

Student Goal-Setting Lesson I’m Trying Out On Monday

The Importance Of Saying “I’m Sorry” To Students

When You Have A Sub…

Improvisation In The ESL/EFL Classroom — At Least In Mine

“How Students Can Grow Their Brains”

Answers To “What Do You Do On The First Day Of School?”

And here are some interesting education policy-related posts:

“Data-Driven” Versus “Data-Informed”

Evaluating Teachers In Order To Fire Them?

Is Figuring Out How To Make Schools Better A Puzzle Or A Mystery?

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

“I just thought it would end differently this time”

Compasses Or Road Maps?

“Does Slow and Steady Win the Race?”

What Would Paulo Freire Do If He Was A School Superintendent?

Here are some posts to particularly useful sites that are still in operation:

Culture Crossing

The Art Of Storytelling

“Funniest videos about teaching / learning English”

The Fun Theory

And check out this essay on “The Best Teacher I Ever Had.”

May 7, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

How Reading Strategies Can Increase Student Engagement

A few days ago, both Daniel Willingham and Robert Pondiscio — two thinkers and educators whose opinions I value highly — wrote posts critical of the use (or, perhaps, the over-use) of teaching reading strategies to students. They both suggest that this can result in making students feel bored by reading.

I certainly agree that teachers misusing reading strategies in class can indeed, as Dan Willingham put it, cause “collateral damage.” I’d also suggest that poor teaching of just about anything can have a similar result.

Done well, regular teaching and reinforcing of reading strategies can have the opposite result, and I see it in my classroom, and the classrooms of my colleagues, everyday.

Reading strategies are not just for comprehension — they are also for engagement.

We don’t have students explicitly apply them (or, if they do, very seldom) during their pleasure reading. But for reading text they are unfamiliar with and often, at least initially, not interested in (especially informational text in English and in content area classes) reading strategies like highlighting, visualizing, connecting, asking questions, evaluating, and summarizing provide a tool for students to extend their thinking and also a provide a system for accountability. Explicitly being challenged to ask questions, expand those questions to higher level orders of thinking, and then share them with their classmates agitates everyone to wonder and explore what the answers might be. Some reluctant readers become more engaged when they know they can draw and visualize what they are reading. Pushing students to consciously agree or disagree with what they read and provide evidence for their beliefs helps students develop needed critical thinking skills. And, yes, all that engagement reinforces comprehension, too.

I’ve invited Kelly Young, an extraordinary consultant from Pebble Creek Labs for our school (and for many others), to also comment on this issue. I’ve written often about Kelly, who I consider a mentor.

Here are his comments:

I appreciate Mr. Willingham’s spur to open a conversation about the value and weight of reading strategies in the larger milieu of reading instruction.

For openers, I cannot imagine responsible reading instruction without the teaching of reading strategies, though I too worry about appropriate balance and priority.

Just as teachers of music, dance and sports use exercises and drills to refine, expand and enhance learner skills and technique, so should reading teachers give students’ methods and means for making text more available and understandable, and thus enjoyable.

When I take a tennis lesson, I don’t expect to only play during the lesson… I expect to learn strategies through exercises that will expand my skill set. I also don’t expect to just do drills, as I need to apply my sharpened skills to the larger game.

The same holds for reading instruction. Through strategy work, in appropriate balance with general reading and free reading, we make transparent via modeling and practice varied means of engaging with text in novel and more sophisticated levels of thinking. This expansion of reader tools has the effect of broadening and strengthening students’ reading repertoire. Students are asked to read and interact with text through different lenses and points of contact. This arms students with more tools through which to connect with and enjoy reading. Done correctly, it simultaneously makes text more engaging while sharpening and expanding meaning-making competencies.

Done poorly, indeed it feels monotonous and superfluous, though not a reason to deny expanded and powerful tools from students. That is a teaching problem. Reading strategies are not to be confused with teaching methods, they are learning strategies for student to own and apply as needed with varied levels and types of text. They are also not to be confused with assessment and poorly worded multiple-choice questions testing student comprehension. Such “methods” do not teach reading skill; they only test it, weakly.

Reading strategies are an amalgam of tactics and approaches for making reading more available and understandable, more vivid and rich. As with most teaching and learning challenges, the magic is in the right mix of applied practice and inquiry. More tools, and more understanding of these tools, only enriches the reading and learning experience.

How do you use reading strategies in your classroom?

(see Robert Pondiscio’s thoughtful response in the comments)

February 18, 2012
by Larry Ferlazzo
2 Comments

What Can Teachers Learn From Target?

Today’s New York Times Magazine has a pretty scary article about how the retail giant Target tracks what’s going on in the lives of customers and uses that information to get us to buy more stuff from them. It’s definitely worth reading the whole piece.

As I mentioned, it’s scary — in addition to being creepy. Nevertheless, the article does highlight some strategies that can be used for good in the classroom and not only for not-so-good things in the quest for corporate profit.

Here are three points that struck me in the article:

The Effectiveness of Inductive Learning: Target uses inductive learning to analyse information, look for information, and apply and extend what it learns — the typical steps in the inductive learning process:

For companies like Target, the exhaustive rendering of our conscious and unconscious patterns into data sets and algorithms has revolutionized what they know about us and, therefore, how precisely they can sell.

Inductive learning is an extremely effective teaching and learning process that’s used by other companies as well, including Google Translate. Last year, a major study written about by Robert Marzano found inductive learning to be far more effective than direct instruction in the classroom.

The Importance Of Automaticity & Chunking: The article discusses Target’s efforts to shape shopping habits, and discusses automaticity and chunking. It includes a good story that I will be using with my students when we discuss why I ask them to use explicit reading strategies (asking a question, visualizing, etc.) often when we’re reading texts:

Take backing your car out of the driveway. When you ﬁrst learned to drive, that act required a major dose of concentration, and for good reason: it involves peering into the rearview and side mirrors and checking for obstacles, putting your foot on the brake, moving the gearshift into reverse, removing your foot from the brake, estimating the distance between the garage and the street while keeping the wheels aligned, calculating how images in the mirrors translate into actual distances, all while applying differing amounts of pressure to the gas pedal and brake.

Now, you perform that series of actions every time you pull into the street without thinking very much. Your brain has chunked large parts of it.

Reflecting On Cues & Rewards: The author’s discussion of cues and rewards, and how to use them to create habits, was particularly intriguing to me:

The process within our brains that creates habits is a three-step loop. First, there is a cue, a trigger that tells your brain to go into automatic mode and which habit to use. Then there is the routine, which can be physical or mental or emotional. Finally, there is a reward, which helps your brain ﬁgure out if this particular loop is worth remembering for the future. Over time, this loop — cue, routine, reward; cue, routine, reward — becomes more and more automatic…..

Luckily, simply understanding how habits work makes them easier to control. Take, for instance, a series of studies conducted a few years ago at Columbia University and the University of Alberta. Researchers wanted to understand how exercise habits emerge. In one project, 256 members of a health-insurance plan were invited to classes stressing the importance of exercise. Half the participants received an extra lesson on the theories of habit formation (the structure of the habit loop) and were asked to identify cues and rewards that might help them develop exercise routines.

The results were dramatic. Over the next four months, those participants who deliberately identified cues and rewards spent twice as much time exercising as their peers. Other studies have yielded similar results. According to another recent paper, if you want to start running in the morning, it’s essential that you choose a simple cue (like always putting on your sneakers before breakfast or leaving your running clothes next to your bed) and a clear reward (like a midday treat or even the sense of accomplishment that comes from ritually recording your miles in a log book). After a while, your brain will start anticipating that reward — craving the treat or the feeling of accomplishment — and there will be a measurable neurological impulse to lace up your jogging shoes each morning.

Charles Duhigg, the article’s author (who also is publishing a book on the topic) made this personal:

I wanted to lose weight.

I had got into a bad habit of going to the cafeteria every afternoon and eating a chocolate-chip cookie, which contributed to my gaining a few pounds. Eight, to be precise. I put a Post-it note on my computer reading “NO MORE COOKIES.” But every afternoon, I managed to ignore that note, wander to the cafeteria, buy a cookie and eat it while chatting with colleagues. Tomorrow, I always promised myself, I’ll muster the willpower to resist.

Tomorrow, I ate another cookie.

When I started interviewing experts in habit formation, I concluded each interview by asking what I should do. The first step, they said, was to figure out my habit loop. The routine was simple: every afternoon, I walked to the cafeteria, bought a cookie and ate it while chatting with friends.

Next came some less obvious questions: What was the cue? Hunger? Boredom? Low blood sugar? And what was the reward? The taste of the cookie itself? The temporary distraction from my work? The chance to socialize with colleagues?

Rewards are powerful because they satisfy cravings, but we’re often not conscious of the urges driving our habits in the first place. So one day, when I felt a cookie impulse, I went outside and took a walk instead. The next day, I went to the cafeteria and bought a coffee. The next, I bought an apple and ate it while chatting with friends. You get the idea. I wanted to test different theories regarding what reward I was really craving. Was it hunger? (In which case the apple should have worked.) Was it the desire for a quick burst of energy? (If so, the coffee should suffice.) Or, as turned out to be the answer, was it that after several hours spent focused on work, I wanted to socialize, to make sure I was up to speed on office gossip, and the cookie was just a convenient excuse? When I walked to a colleague’s desk and chatted for a few minutes, it turned out, my cookie urge was gone.

All that was left was identifying the cue.

Deciphering cues is hard, however. Our lives often contain too much information to figure out what is triggering a particular behavior. Do you eat breakfast at a certain time because you’re hungry? Or because the morning news is on? Or because your kids have started eating? Experiments have shown that most cues fit into one of five categories: location, time, emotional state, other people or the immediately preceding action. So to figure out the cue for my cookie habit, I wrote down five things the moment the urge hit:

Where are you? (Sitting at my desk.)

What time is it? (3:36 p.m.)

What’s your emotional state? (Bored.)

Who else is around? (No one.)

What action preceded the urge? (Answered an e-mail.)

The next day I did the same thing. And the next. Pretty soon, the cue was clear: I always felt an urge to snack around 3:30.

Once I figured out all the parts of the loop, it seemed fairly easy to change my habit. But the psychologists and neuroscientists warned me that, for my new behavior to stick, I needed to abide by the same principle that guided Procter & Gamble in selling Febreze: To shift the routine — to socialize, rather than eat a cookie — I needed to piggyback on an existing habit. So now, every day around 3:30, I stand up, look around the newsroom for someone to talk to, spend 10 minutes gossiping, then go back to my desk. The cue and reward have stayed the same. Only the routine has shifted. It doesn’t feel like a decision, any more than the M.I.T. rats made a decision to run through the maze. It’s now a habit. I’ve lost 21 pounds since then (12 of them from changing my cookie ritual).

I think this point can be very, very helpful in the classroom with students who want to break habits they have identified as ones they want to change (not to mention with us teachers who might have a few, too).

I’m going to put some thought into it and develop a lesson plan, which I’ll share here at a later date. If you have some ideas of what I should considering including, please leave a comment.

I guess many things can be applied for ill… or for good…..

November 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

The Best Visualizations Of Poverty In The U.S. & Around The World

Poverty is not an “excuse,” as some school reformers charge, but it is a challenge and a reality facing many of our students that has a huge effect on their learning (and our teaching).

I thought it might be useful to take a look at very recent visualizations of poverty in the U.S. and around the world, and plan to update this list in future years.

You might also be interested in The Best Tools For Analyzing Census Data.

Here are my choices for The Best Visualizations Of Poverty In The U.S. & In The World:

IN THE UNITED STATES:

US poverty mapped – interactive is from The Guardian.

A picture of poverty state by state is an interactive from the Associated Press.

Small Area Income & Poverty Estimates (SAIPE) for School Districts, Counties, and States are interactive maps from the U.S. Census. You can read more about them here.

Half In Ten has some excellent visualizations:

Interactive Map: 2010 Poverty Data by State

Interactive Map: 2010 Poverty Data by Congressional District

Interactive Map: Multiple Indicators

America’s poorest poor: the best and worst cities is another interactive from The Guardian.

The Kids Count Data Center is from The Annie Casey Foundation.

The American Human Development Index is from Measure of America.

Below The Line: Portraits of American Poverty is a photo gallery from TIME.

Tracking American Poverty And Policy is from Demos, and may be the best visualization of poverty in the U.S. that’s available.

Poverty in the 50 years since ‘The Other America,’ in five charts is from The Washington Post.

Poverty In The U.S. By The Numbers is from NPR.

The US poverty map in 2011 is a useful interactive from The Guardian.

AROUND THE WORLD:

Maps from Oxfam.

History of Poverty is an interactive from Christian Aid.

The Index Mundi has multiple maps.

The Multidimensional Poverty Index comes from the Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative.

Human Development Index: how does your country compare? is from The Guardian.

Alexander Russo shared this chart today, observing that “That long dark blue line second from the bottom is the USA, one of just two advanced industrial nations with a child poverty rate above 20 percent”:

Source: scholasticadministrator.typepad.com via Larry on Pinterest

“What Eating At The Poverty Line Is Like Around The World” is a very interesting slideshow and project. The photos portray the food that a person in different countries can afford to purchase if they live in poverty.

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 26, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s Population Of 7 Billion

The seven billionth person in the world is projected to be born on Monday, and I thought that this event called for a “The Best…” list.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About Our World’s Population Of 7 Billion:

A global push to 7 billion people is a Washington Post interactive.

Explore Your World is an amazing interactive. Here’s an explanation of it.

The World at 7 Billion is a special TIME Magazine report.

The World Of Seven Billion is from National Geographic.

7 billion: World’s population reaches new milestone is an Associated Press interactive.

Population Seven Billion is a photo gallery from The Atlantic.

Population to Hit 7 Bllion on Halloween is from Breaking News English.

How big was the world’s population when you were born? is an interactive from The Guardian.

Fear of a 7 Billion Population Planet is from The Atlantic.

The upsides of overpopulation is from The Washington Post.

The buzz behind 7 billion people: A milestone and a warning is from CNN.

Country Population: Past, Present, Future is another interactive from The Guardian.

How the world population got to 7 billion – interactive is yet another interactive from The Guardian, and I think it’s particularly interesting.

World Population: 7 Billion is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe.

The world at seven billion is a fascinating interactive from the BBC, which includes the option of figuring out which “number” you were in that 7 billion.

The making of 7 billion is a Washington Post slideshow.

Visualizing How A Population Grows To 7 Billion is from NPR.

Well, Hello There, Seven Billion is a Wall Street Journal slideshow.

The World’s Top 50, Over Time is an interactive chart from the Journal projecting how different countries population is projected to change over the next fifty years.

Crowded Planet is a special feature from The Guardian.

Picturing 7 Billion is from The New York Times.

Making Sense of 7 Billion People is from Wired.

Bringing Up the Issue of Population Growth is from The New York Times.

World Population Hits 7 Billion is an interactive from USA Today.

We are 7 billion is a video from The Economist.

Who Is The World’s Seve Billionth Person? is a TIME slideshow.

Feeding 7 billion and our fragile environment is a photo gallery from The Boston Globe.

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.

Pictured: A World at 7 Billion is an amazing New York Times project.

Do the dead outnumber the living? is from The BBC.

I’ve previously shared videos of Hans Rosling, data magician.

He has a new TED Talk out, and it’s called Religions and Babies. I’m embedding it below:

Beyond 7 billion is a pretty impressive interactive from The Los Angeles Times.

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.

April 29, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Using “Descriptive Norms” In The Classroom

I recently read about a study that’s a couple of years old that examined different ways that hotels used to encourage guests to conserve water and energy by reusing towels. The New York Times reported on it, and here’s a link to the actual study.

The New York Times reported:

Some guests in a chain hotel saw a sign urging them to “help save the environment” by returning their towels to the rack. Others saw a customized sign that cited their room numbers —saying, for example, “75 percent of the guests who stayed in this room (room 313)” had reused their towels. Other signs prompted guests to join their fellow “citizens” or “men and women” in helping the environment.

By a healthy margin, signs that cited the guests’ room numbers worked best.

The study explains it worked this way because people were:

getting information about social norms. Specifically, they

are getting information about descriptive norms, which refer

to how most people behave in a situation. Descriptive norms

motivate both private and public actions by informing individuals

of what is likely to be effective or adaptive behavior

in that situation (Cialdini, Kallgren, and Reno 1991).

A wide variety of research shows that the behavior of others

in the social environment shapes individuals’ interpretations

of, and responses to, the situation

…getting information about social norms. Specifically, they are getting information about descriptive norms, which refer to how most people behave in a situation. Descriptive norms motivate both private and public actions by informing individuals of what is likely to be effective or adaptive behavior in that situation. A wide variety of research shows that the behavior of others in the social environment shapes individuals’ interpretations of, and responses to, the situation especially in novel, ambiguous, or uncertain situations.

This got me wondering if and how I use this strategy in the classroom. One way I thought of was how I introduced books to my students — I have my classroom library divided into categories, and one of them is called “popular books.” These are the ones previous classes have found to be the most interesting. My students always tend to spend a lot of time checking those out, and, I’m sure, read ones they wouldn’t have looked at if others hadn’t found them popular.

Another time I use this strategy is when I introduce visualizing for success to students. When I explain how many students have done it in the past, I believe it makes it more enticing for my present students.

I don’t necessarily think this strategy changes any longterm behavior, but it does seem to make students more open to trying new things. They may ultimately decide not to pursue it further, but at least they have tried it based on their own initiative.

Are there times when you’ve used “descriptive norms” in your classroom? I’m wondering if there are other opportunities I’m missing….

April 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
3 Comments

Visualization Update

Regular readers know that I’m a big believer in helping students use visualization techniques in the classroom (see My Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success”).

I’ve continued to do it this year, and a good portion of my students seem to be taking it seriously (during the one minute time we do it each day students have the option of doing it or just being quiet). Though I haven’t taken the time to compare English assessment results this year as I have in the past (those who do it have typically had bigger increases), it’s clear that just taking the one minute of calmness helps the classroom atmosphere in general. It’s pretty obvious that on the days we forget to do it, things can often be a bit crazier.

About half of my mainstream ninth-grade students visualize; about two-thirds of my advanced English ninth-grade class do it; and about three-fourths of my Intermediate English students do so. As part of their regular Friday reflections, I periodically ask students if they are visualizing and, if they are, ask them to write what they see. Students know there is no negative consequence if they are not.

One change I’ve done the year based on the suggestion of our great assistant principal Jim Peterson is to have students take a few seconds before they visualize to look at their “goal sheets” that they have completed and decide which one they want to focus on that day. Also, at his recommendation I encourage students to not only see themselves working towards their goals, but also notice how they’re feeling when they are seeing themselves be successful.

Here are recent comments students have written as part of the Friday reflection in response to my question about what they are visualizing:

I see I’m reading really well and speaking English really well.

I see myself can speak a lot of English.

I visualize that I reading the book.

When I’m doing my visualizing I see myself doing a conversation in English with my friend.

I do not visualize — I just stay calm and breath.

Yes, I visualize. When I visualize I see me succeeding in the things I want to accomplish such as winning the breakdance tournament.

Yes, when I visualize I see myself doing work and talking.

When I visualize, I see myself reading, doing all my classwork and cleaning my binder.

I see myself reading a lot of books.

March 24, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

How Stress Affects Our Students (& Their Parents) — Plus, How We’re Trying To Help

There’s an impressive article in this week’s New Yorker Magazine titled The Poverty Clinic, written by Paul Tough (unfortunately, it’s behind a paywall for now, but the New Yorker usually makes it publicly available at the same url address a week or two following publication).

The article describes research being put into practice that demonstrates high stress levels among children result in serious heath problems as an adult. In fact, it actually alters a person’s DNA in the brain. Scientists found that certain stresses have a direct connection to adult health problems through using a simple nine question Adverse Childhood Experiences (ACE) test.

Here’s an excerpt from the article:

The researchers looked at patients with ACE scores of 7 or higher who didn’t smoke, didn’t drink to excess, and weren’t overweight, and found that their risk of ischemic heart disease (the most common cause of death in the United States) was three hundred and sixty per cent higher than it was for patients with a score of 0. Somehow, the traumatic experiences of their childhoods were having a deleterious effect on their later health, though a pathway that had nothing to do with bad behavior.

The article provides some very accessible descriptions of how stress affects our body, and suggests some ways to help. It cites examples of foster parent education programs that have helped them “be more responsive to the emotional cues of the children.” In studies, the children in these programs show “cortisol patterns that echoed those of children brought up in stable homes.” (Cortisol is the body’s primary stress hormone).

In addition, the article discusses that cognitive-behavioral therapy has been effective with adolescents in reducing stress. There has been a lot written about using cognitive behavior techniques in classroom management, which echo a lot of the ideas in my upcoming book, Helping Students Motivate Themselves. One key element of this strategy is encouraging positive “self-talk.” Visualizing could be another.

One example of this is something I recently tried with a student who has a history of having many behavioral challenges. One day, he and I were talking, and he was telling me he knew he needed to get a handle on his behavior, but he didn’t know how. I told him I wanted to suggest an idea, that he could feel free to reject. I first showed me several different colors of large Post-Its, and asked him to choose one. We then put it on his desk, and I asked him to think of a word or a phrase that he thought would remind him to stay focused on what he was doing, and to remind him to work hard on controlling his behavior. I told him to think about it for awhile, write down whatever he wanted, and let’s just see if it helped.

He was extraordinarily focused that day, and has been the same for the past week. He chose to write down “Future,” and everyday he gets a new post it. When we go to the computer lab, he places it on the screen. Sometimes he has forgotten to get the post-it, but he has been able to maintain his self-control even during those times, he says, “because I say it to myself.”

You can’t tell a whole lot by one week, but it is a start.

My colleague, Katie Hull, and I are creating a life skill lesson (in a long line of ones I’ve posted about in this blog that combine literacy development with social emotional learning, including lessons on the brain, goal-setting, sleep, etc. — more extensive versions are in my book) on the issue of stress management. We’ll uses excerpts from the New Yorker article, along with this article from the Mayo Clinic on Stress Management (though we will not have students take the ACE test for a variety of reasons). We’ve discussed working with students to explore ways to reduce stress, including getting more sleep and eating healthy, plus working together to make a list of potential words or phrases that might help students become calmer during stressful times. We might have them place the phrase or phrases of their choice on their school binder and on other things they see regularly as a reminder to encourage positive self-talk, then have them use it for a week and reflect on how it went.

I’ll let readers know what we end-up actually doing. I’d love to hear your ideas, too.

Also, as I’ve previously posted, our school has what I and others consider to be a national model for a Parent University that demonstrates parent engagement at its best. At their next meeting, parent leaders might discuss if they’d like Katie and me to come share what we’ve learned and tried with them, and possible have parents take the ACE test themselves as a tool for self-reflection.

Here are a few other resources on cognitive behavior strategies in the classroom you might find interesting:

Applying Cognitive-Behavioral Techniques to Social Skills Instruction

Improving Behavior and Self-Efficacy Beliefs In the Classroom: Through Cognitive-Behavior Modification

Cognitive Behavior Modification

Also, coincidentally, today Edutopia published an interview with one of the authors of a major study I posted about earlier this year that found this kind of “Social Emotional Learning” (including the other topics I cover in my book) have a significant positive impact on student academic achievement.

March 6, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
1 Comment

The Best Ways For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly (For Their Classmates & Teacher To See)

Our school is divided into seven “Small Learning Communities” (SLC’s). Our SLC’s contain 300 students and twenty teachers each, and we all stay together during the student’s four year high school career (see What Are Small Learning Communities? for more information).

I’m part of the Information Technology SLC, which means that most of my ninth-grade English students also take a basic computer class. Their teacher is gracious enough to let my colleague Katie Hull and me design assignments for our students to do every Friday in their computer class, and sometimes more often. You can see the types of assignments they do at our Ninth-Grade English Class Blog. It’s a huge asset to our class — like having an extra English class period each week.

Sometimes, though, students get done early with the class blog assignments and are unclear about what they should do next. And, since Katie and I are not actually present, we can’t be there to help them out.

I’ve written about the crazy schedule we’re going to have this coming week with some of our students taking the California High School Exit Exam. Because of that, I’m going to have some students for many, many hours on Tuesday and Wednesday. During part of that time when we’re in the computer lab, I’m going to help train a small number of our mainstream ninth-grade students on some easy tools they can use when they’ve finished our assignments early. They, in turn, can show their classmates.

Though these tools are very simple, most are slightly more complicated than the ones I highlighted in The Best Ways For English Language Learners To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly. I’ve continued to try, though, to only include ones that do not require registration. And, even though a few students will be learning how to use them under my supervision this week, I’m only listing tools that I’m confident most students can learn how to use pretty much on their own. All these sites allow students to create content that they will be able post in the comments section of our class blog. Finally, all these sites can challenge students to use higher-order thinking skills. I’ll be making a more simple version of this post over there. They will be able to use them to create online content for any unit we are studying at the time.

You may have noticed that I added a “qualifier” to the title of this post — (For Their Classmates & Teacher To See). The reason for that is that I’m creating another “The Best…” list in the next day or so that highlights what I think are the best places for students to create content that others — beyond their teacher and classmates – can see. I’ll cull them from two of my more popular “The Best…” lists:

The Best Places Where Students Can Write For An “Authentic Audience”

The Best Places Where Students Can Create Online Learning/Teaching Objects For An “Authentic Audience”

Here are my choices for The Best Ways For Advanced ELL’s & Non-ELL’s To Create Online Content Easily & Quickly (For Their Classmates & Teacher To See)):

ANNOTATE A WEBPAGE: WebKlipper lets you easily, without requiring registration, annotate any webpage with virtual post-it notes or a highlighter. You’re then given the url address of the annotated webpage. It’s quite easy to use. Students can use it to demonstrate reading strategies (visualizing, asking questions, making a connection, etc.). Bounce is another option.

MAKE A SLIDESHOW: Bookr is about as easy of a slideshow maker as they get. You can search through images with a tag word, drag them into a flip-like book, and add text.

CREATE A TEST: Testmoz is an app that lets you create an online, self-correcting quiz without having to register.

MAKE A LIST: Thinkmeter lets you makes lists and is designed as a survey-like tool, but I’d like students to use it somewhat differently. If you pick an item from Amazon, it will show an image of the item and, at least if you list a book, it will also show a description of it. In addition, if you insert the url address of an image from the Web, it will show it. You can post the link to your survey wherever you please. You can’t write descriptions of the items as you are making the list. However, once it’s made, you are given the ability to make a comment on each item. I think it’s the best thing out there (that doesn’t require registration) for students to make a list of their favorite books and explain why they picked each one, or, if we’re studying a unit like “Jamaica,” listing the things they like best about the country and explaining why for each one.

MAKE A MAP: Zee Maps, without registration, lets you create a map and add media by pasting the url address of any photo you grab off the Web.

MAKE A GAME OTHERS CAN PLAY: Jeopardy Labs lets you easily create an online Jeopardy game without having to register. Maybe I’m the only teacher who feels this way, but I’ve always found that playing Jeopardy the way they do on TV — giving players the answer and then they have to come-up with the question — to be overly confusing for students in the classroom. When I’ve played it in class, I’ve just given the questions and had students have to say the answers. Given my feelings about this, even though it’s super simple to use this tool to create the game, I tell my students to ignore the site’s instructions and just write the questions first and the answers second so that the board displays the question.

CREATE A WALLWISHER TO SUMMARIZE DATA SETS: Wallwisher lets you make a virtual wall of “sticky notes” where you can include images, text, and/or videos. Inductive learning is a key part of our teaching at Burbank, and we use what are called “data sets” as a major component of those lessons. You can read more about this categorization tool in both my book on teaching English Language Learners and my upcoming book on Helping Students Motivate Themselves. After students categorize the info in these data sets, they can summarize them and use them to create Wallwishers, as our students did in our Nelson Mandela unit. You can see many examples of their creations in our class blog. (You should be know, though, that Wallwisher has been “acting-up” a bit lately). (Corkboard might be an easier tool to use) You could also use a sites like Copytaste or Freedom Share to do something similar — they both allow just copying and pasting images from the Web.

CREATE AN INTERNET SCAVENGER HUNT: Students have been completing Internet Scavenger Hunts, which are basically a series of questions along with links where they can find the answers. We’ve just been grabbing ones we find on the Web and putting them on our class blog for students to complete, but there’s no reason why students now can’t start making their own. Their classmates can then complete them. Even though there are relatively simple sites that are solely devoted to the creation of scavenger hunts and more sophisticated Webquests (see The Best Places To Create (And Find) Internet Scavenger Hunts & Webquests), I think, for our purposes, just having students come up with a few questions, then list a url address where they can find the answers, and then list a few more questions, etc. would be sufficient for what we want to do. For that purpose, I don’t there’s anything easier than a site like Copytaste (Freedom Share is another one). Students just have to make the list of questions and websites and the page is automatically converted into a website whose url address can be pasted on our class blog.

CREATE A POWERPOINT PRESENTATION: Like the online book and slideshow tools mentioned at the top of this list, converting something they’ve written in class (or writing a short piece in the computer lab about a topic we’re learning) into a PowerPoint presentation and uploading it to Slideshare is another easy way to create web content.

SEND AN E-CARD: In several of our units, we have students write “postcards” to people they know from the places we are studying, sometimes including some of the local dialect or slang. Nations Illustrated has thousands of world images — all of which can easily be converted into an E-Card and posted on a blog (students can send it to themselves or to their teacher). If I was teaching a Social Studies class, Smithsonian Images and Picture History would be other E-Card sources. More sites include Cardkarma, The Guggenheim Museum, and Worldwide Health.

MAKE A “FAKEBOOK” PAGE FOR A HISTORICAL Or FICTIONAL CHARACTER: Fakebook lets you make a fake Facebook page for a historical or fictional character. No registration is required, and students can see a ton of examples here.

MAKE AN ONLINE TUTORIAL: 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. They say they’re adding that ability soon). And you don’t even have to register for the service.

Feedback is welcome.

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

March 4, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
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February’s Best Posts

I regularly highlight my picks for the most useful posts for each month — not including “The Best…” lists. I also use some of them in a more extensive monthly newsletter I send-out. You can see back issues of those newsletters here and my previous Best Posts of the Month at Websites Of The Month.

These posts are different from the ones I list under the monthly “Most Popular Blog Posts.” Those are the posts the largest numbers of readers “clicked-on” to read. I have to admit, I’ve been a bit lax about writing those posts, though.

Here are some of the posts I personally think are the best, and most helpful, ones I’ve written during this past month (not in any order of preference):

February 26, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Visualizing Success

I’ve written a fair amount about how I sometimes have my students visualize success (see My Best Posts On Helping Students “Visualize Success”).

A study just came out reinforcing its effectiveness. The research focused on developing healthy eating habits, but it seems to me that it’s easily applicable to the classroom.

Here’s an excerpt:

Those who made a concrete plan, wrote it down and also visualized how they were going to carry out the action (i.e. when, where and how they would buy, prepare and eat fruit) increased their fruit consumption twice as much as those who simply set out to eat more fruit without visualizing and planning how they were going to do it.

These kinds of visualization techniques are borrowed from sports psychology. “Athletes do lots of work mentally rehearsing their performances before competing and it’s often very successful. So we thought having people mentally rehearse how they were going to buy and eat their fruit should make it more likely that they would actually do it. And this is exactly what happened,” says Bärbel Knäuper. This research points to a simple yet effective means of changing eating habits.

February 21, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
0 comments

Updates On Wisconsin

Here are the newest additions to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin:

Battlefield Wisconsin: Visualizing the protest comes from Salon.

Wisconsin Teachers Show Us How to Resist the Shock Doctrine is from Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.

Alice Mercer posts What’s up Wisconsin?, which gives her perspective and tells about a support vigil that will be happening here in Sacramento on Tuesday.

Why America’s Teachers Are Enraged by Diane Ravitch on CNN.

This is amazing: Video: Rep. Peter Barca explodes with anger after Assembly Republicans begin voting before Democrats enter the chamber (thanks to Liam Goldrick for the tip). Here’s what happened next:

Assembly Speaker Jeff Fitzgerald, R-Horicon, responded by saying that he started early because “Honestly, I thought you guys weren’t showing up.”
Fitzgerald acknowledged that Barca was correct in his reading of the rules, and members allowed the bill to return to its amendable stage. Fitzgerald then moved to adjourn the Assembly until 10 a.m. Tuesday, prompting a standing ovation from Democrats, who promised to continue working on amendments to the bill.

Protests in Wisconsin – We are Winning

February 17, 2011
by Larry Ferlazzo
10 Comments

The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin

The attacks on teachers and other public sector workers in Wisconsin by Governor Scott Walker and his allies could be a dangerous sign of things to come throughout the United States. Fortunately, the courageous and well-organized opposition could be an even more powerful indicator for the future.

I have a particular interest in what happens in Wisconsin — beyond its national implications. I lived in Milwaukee from age ten to fifteen, and know first-hand, and fondly remember, the hard work of educators in that state.

I hope readers will provide additional suggestions for this list — I’m sure there are plenty of good articles I don’t know about.

Here are my choices for The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin:

First off, an important post from the Shanker Blog answering this question: Are Public Employee Unions To Blame For States’ Budget Crises? (the answer is “No”)

Angry Demonstrations in Wisconsin as Cuts Loom is from The New York Times.

Marching On The Capitol is a NY Times slideshow.

Democrats Missing, Wisconsin Vote on Cuts Is Delayed is another NY Times piece.

Wisconsin Crowds Swell to 30,000; Key GOP Legislators Waver is from The Nation.

Wis. union vote on hold after Democrats leave state is from MSNBC, and has links to lots of articles and multimedia.

The Wall Street Journal seems to have a surprisingly good article and slideshow.

Wisconsin teacher Mrs. 4444 suggests this MSNBC clip.

Gov. Walker’s Pretext is an editorial from The NY Times.

Wisconsin in near-chaos over anti-union bill is from The Los Angeles Times.

State Democrats absent for vote as Wisconsin budget protests swell is from CNN.

Unions aren’t to blame for Wisconsin’s budget is a column in the Washington Post.

Obama joins Wisconsin’s budget battle, opposing Republican anti-union bill is an article in The Washington Post.

States, GOP go after teachers unions in budget crisis is from CNN.

The Wisconsin Situation from The Guardian.

Wisconsin Bill in Limbo as G.O.P. Seeks Quorum is from The NY Times.

Union battle echoes beyond Wisconsin: ‘We’re fighting for our very existence’ is from The Christian Science Monitor.

Fiscal Crisis Strikes At Labor’s Core: Public Workers is from NPR.

The real Republican strategy by Robert Reich

Why FDR would support the Wisconsin protests is from Salon.

Here’s a video of firefighters — who are exempted from the changes proposed by Gov. Walker — marching into the state capitol playing bagpipes to support the protest by teachers and other public sector employees:

Here’s an excerpt from a CNN piece titled Wisconsin governor defends budget bill as opposition persists. It gives a pretty good sense of what is going on in Wisconsin right now:

Kennedy (head of the Wisconsin affiliate of the American Federation of Teachers) blamed Walker for refusing to meet with union representatives.

“We are willing to come to the table and negotiate,” Kennedy said. “He is the one not willing to come to the table. He wants to strip our rights and then dictate exactly what the terms and conditions of employment are.”

Wisconsin Assistant Senate Majority Leader Glenn Grothman, a Republican, said Walker shouldn’t have to negotiate.

That exchange says it all…

Why should an elected official talk with constituencies who will be adversely affected by his plans?

Incredible.

Chalkboard: Why one teacher is protesting comes from The Cap Times.

Chris Hayes and Naomi Klein Explain Why the Protests in Wisconsin Matter

Here’s an MSNBC video saying that 70,000 people attended Saturday’s protest against Gov. Walker’s plan to end collective bargaining. Other media outlets estimate the total was closer to 100,000.

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

The Essence of Democracy is from The New York Times.

12 Things You Need to Know About the Uprising in Wisconsin comes from AlterNet. (Thanks to Diane Wallis for the tip)

Larry Miller is an editor at Rethinking Schools in Milwaukee, and is writing useful updates on his blog.

Battlefield Wisconsin: Visualizing the protest comes from Salon.

Wisconsin Teachers Show Us How to Resist the Shock Doctrine is from Anthony Cody at Ed Week.

Wisconsin Budget Repair Bill Protest from Matt Wisniewski on Vimeo.

Alice Mercer posts What’s up Wisconsin?, which gives her perspective and tells about a support vigil that will be happening here in Sacramento on Tuesday.

Why America’s Teachers Are Enraged by Diane Ravitch on CNN.

Protests in Wisconsin – We are Winning

As many people know, Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated while supporting workers who were striking in Memphis, Tennessee. He was a strong supporter of organized labor. Here is one of his statements that I think indicate clearly what his position would be on what is happening in Wisconsin today:

“Negroes in the United States read the history of labor and find it mirrors their own experience. We are confronted by powerful forces telling us to rely on the goodwill and understanding of those who profit by exploiting us. They deplore our discontent, they resent our will to organize, so that we may guarantee that humanity will prevail and equality will be exacted. They are shocked that action organizations, sit-ins, civil disobedience and protests are becoming our everyday tools, just as strikes, demonstrations and union organization became yours to insure that bargaining power genuinely existed on both sides of the table.

“We want to rely upon the goodwill of those who oppose us. Indeed, we have brought forward the method of nonviolence to give an example of unilateral goodwill in an effort to evoke it in those who have not yet felt it in their hearts. But we know that if we are not simultaneously organizing our strength we will have no means to move forward. If we do not advance, the crushing burden of centuries of neglect and economic deprivation will destroy our will, our spirits and our hope. In this way, labor’s historic tradition of moving forward to create vital people as consumers and citizens has become our own tradition, and for the same reasons.”

—Speaking to the AFL-CIO on Dec. 11, 1961

Wisconsin Power Play by Paul Krugman at the New York Times may be the best piece that’s been written about what’s happening in Wisconsin.

Protesters in Wisconsin Say They Are Staying Put is from The New York Times.

Back to the future? Return to labor unrest?

The irony of Obama’s ‘help’ for Wisconsin teachers is from Valerie Strauss at the Washington Post.

Teachers Unions, ACT/SAT, and Student Performance: Is Wisconsin Out-Ranking the Non-Union States? is a very important post by Angus Johnston. He examines the research connecting the role of teachers unions to student achievement.

I’m going to print an excerpt here, but you’re making a mistake if you don’t read his entire post:

There’s only been one scholarly effort to tackle this problem that I’m aware of. Back in 2000, three professors writing in the Harvard Educational Review did a statistical analysis of state SAT/ACT scores, controlling for factors like race, median income, and parental education. They found that the presence of teachers unions in a state did have a measurable and significant correlation with increased test scores — that going to school in a union state would, for instance, raise average SATs by about 50 points.

Two other findings leap out from the Harvard Educational Review study. First, they concluded that Southern states’ poor academic performance could be explained almost entirely by that region’s lack of unionization, even when you didn’t take socioeconomic differences into account.

And second, and to my mind far more interesting, they found that concrete improvements in the educational environment associated with teachers’ unions — lower class sizes, higher state spending on education, bigger teacher salaries — accounted for very little of the union/non-union variation. Teachers’ unions, in other words, don’t just help students by reducing class sizes or increasing educational spending. In their conclusion, they stated that

“other mechanism(s) (ie, better working conditions; greater worker autonomy, security, and dignity; improved administration; better training of teachers; greater levels of faculty professionalism) must be at work here.”

Egyptian union leader sends message of support to Wisconsin workers:

Teachers’ absence could turn into lesson for students comes from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.

From Cairo to Madison: Hope and Solidarity Are Alive

Alice Mercer and I, along with many others, attended a rally at the California State Capitol in Sacramento tonight in support of the Wisconsin unions.
Here are some photos from the rally. The first two, which show me and others, were taken by Alice. You’ll see a picture of her in there, too. The presentation is a little strange — I’m trying out a new tool I haven’t used before (you can find a better slideshow at REAL Teachers):

MSNBC reports:

“A new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll shows the public strongly supports employee bargaining rights. In the survey, 61% oppose a law in their state similar to one being considered in Wisconsin, compared with 33% who favor it.”

Workers’ protests swell in Midwest as budget battles continue comes from CNN.

To my critics: Teachers deserve rights by Diane Ravitch

Wisconsin is about power, not money by Ezra Klein at the Washington Post.

Ezra Klein continues to write some great pieces at the Washington Post, including:

How long can Scott Walker hold out?

What a prank call proves about Wisconsin

The conversation is no longer about Wisconsin’s finances

And he points out that not all Republican governors are inclined to follow Gov. Walker’s lead.

NPR also has some very good pieces, including:

Labor Unions Fight For Their Right To Influence

Here’s an excerpt from that NPR segment, which points out the impact of eliminating collective bargaining:

Mary Bell, head of the Wisconsin Education Association Council, says her members use collective bargaining to speak up on behalf of students. She says WEAC members weigh in on a whole host of education issues, such as “what the parameters are when you need to speak up on behalf of a student [and] what your voice is in setting curriculum.”

State Budget Fights – Wednesday, Feb. 23rd Edition

The Nation: In Wisconsin, It Isn’t About The Money

Governor Walker’s office confirms prank Koch call comes from The Washington Post.

Stephen Colbert did a fantastic piece on Wisconsin:

Here’s another excellent video:

A Wisconsin Moment For Our Education Policy Debate comes from The Shanker Blog.

Public Unions In Wisconsin, Elsewhere Are Scapegoats:Expert comes from NPR.

Unemployed public workers are bad for the economy is another good piece by Ezra Klein.

The state Assembly just passed the bill eliminating collective bargaining. You can read about what happened in this New York Times article, and see what happened in this video after Republicans cut-off debate, even though many Democrats were still waiting to speak:

The most interesting information today, I think, is a few seconds of the following embedded video from tonight’s PBS News Hour. Columnist Mark Shields and New York Times columnist David Brooks have a segment every Friday. There’s nothing exceptional about this one until you get to the 5:45 minute mark. Then, Shields points out that there are nine states that have no collective bargaining, and that those nine states have a “higher indebtedness” than the states who do have collective bargaining. Brooks agrees with him. I wasn’t aware of that statistic, and it certainly raises more questions about the purpose behind the move to eliminate it in Wisconsin and other states — it’s not about money, it’s about power. (There might be a problem with PBS’ embed code — you can also access the video here)

As Madison Impasse Continues, Schools Eye Layoffs is from NPR.

Of Budgets and Bargaining: Putting the Union Protests Into Context is from The New York Times Learning Network.

Anger In Orange is a Wall Street Journal slideshow.

Indiana Informs Wisconsin’s Push is a very interesting article in The New York Times. Not only does it provide a scary picture of what happens without collective bargaining, it also includes a quote from a political supporter of Governor Walker’s bill eliminating it that explains what teacher tenure is so important (which is why I’m also adding this to The Best Articles For Helping To Understand Both Why Teacher Tenure Is Important & The Reasons Behind Seniority-Based Layoffs):

“I’ve talked to many teachers and public works employees in my county,” he said, “and almost every conversation comes around to the impact on their seniority and their concerns that their boss doesn’t like them and they won’t be treated fairly, and frankly I think there’s something to that.”

Scott Walker’s unprincipled rigidity comes from The Washington Post.

Another huge crowd gathers at Capitol for rally is from The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel

Thousands converge on Wisconsin for more protests is from MSNBC.

Protesters out in force nationwide to oppose Wisconsin’s anti-union bill is from The L.A. Times.

Reuters has an article headlined Voices from the massive pro-union rally in Wisconsin.

Here are two videos from MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Police, who are exempt from Gov. Walker’s bill, have also come to the Capitol to support protesters. Here’s a video:

Rethinking Schools has an excellent resource page titled Teaching About Labor Issues and the Wisconsin Worker Fight Back.

Here’s a video from ABC News:

Here’s a video from a Madison TV station:

Police won’t boot protesters from Wisconsin Capitol comes from MSNBC.

Protesters Defy Deadline in Wisconsin is a slideshow from The NY Times.

Poll Shows Support for Embattled Public Sector Workers is also from The New York Times.

Protest continues at Wisconsin Capitol is a series of photos from The Sacramento Bee.

Labor wins the day in Wisconsin is from Salon.

Real leaders don’t bust unions comes from Salon.

With Wisconsin’s Protesters: A Cold Night in Madison is from TIME Magazine.

Wisconsin Senate Okays Arrest of Democrats Hiding in Illinois comes from The Atlantic.

Where the Wisconsin, Ohio and Indiana Union Battles Stand also comes from The Atlantic.

Wisconsin Teachers, Students Face Uncertain Future is from The Nation.

Reports: Wisconsin Republicans Wavering on Union Bill is from The Atlantic.

Wisconsin: The Tea Party’s Waterloo? is from Salon.

Unions Hope States’ Attacks Nurture a Comeback comes from The New York Times.

Both Sides Begin Efforts for Recalls in Wisconsin is also from The New York Times.

How To Make A Misleading Public/Private Earnings Gap Disappear is from The Shanker Blog.

The Budget: Who’s Really to Blame? is a cartoon from The Atlantic.

“Everyone who is party to this travesty is writing their political obituary,” said Wisconsin State Senator State Sen. Chris Larson after Republicans used a fishy and potentially illegal maneuver to pass a bill ending collective bargaining for public sector unions.

In addition to the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article where he made those comments, here are some other updated resources (I’m adding all of these to The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin).

What happened in Wisconsin tonight by Ezra Klein at the Washington Post.

Here’s a video report from MSNBC:

Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy

Anti-Public Employee Bill Passes Senate in Wisconsin; Only the Beginning of the Fight is a good description of potential strategies going forward.

At a Wisconsin Town Hall, the Mood Turns Against Compromise is from The Atlantic.

Wis. GOP strips public workers’ bargaining rights is from The Washington Post.

Top Ten Union Movies is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

“Your actions are disgraceful” is what some of their Democratic legislative colleagues tell Republican Senators who leave after voting to end collective bargaining for public sector employees in Wisconsin. Here’s the video:

In Wisconsin Battle on Unions, State Democrats See a Gift is a New York Times article, along with a slideshow.

The Wisconsin union fight goes nuclear is from Salon.

Nelson Lichtenstein: ‘A governor like Walker is completely correct that it’s in his self-interest to ignore public opinion.’ comes from Ezra Klein’s Washington Post column.

Here is a Wall Street Journal video showing at least 100,000 people protesting in Madison today:

Articles also appeared at MSNBC and The New York Times.

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel had a slideshow.

Wisconsin recalls hit deadline: Where things stand is the headline of a Washington Post headline reporting on the latest news out of the campaign by teachers and other public workers. And things are really looking interesting…

Organizers Say 1 Million Signed Petition to Recall Wisconsin Governor is the headline from today’s New York Times article on the effort.

Sixty-two thousand people rallied at the Wisconsin state capitol in March, 2012 to support the rights of workers and the recall of Governor Walker. You can read about it here, and watch this video:

The Atlantic reports:

A Wisconsin panel has voted to hold a recall election on June 5 for Gov. Scott Walker, after the efforts of his opponents in last year’s fight to end state workers’ collective bargaining rights and limit their benefits.

Wisconsin voters chose Tom Barrett to oppose Governor Scott Walker in the recall vote.

Along with that NY Times article about the election, the Times produced a very useful Timeline: The Wisconsin Labor Fight.

What Governor Walker’s Win Means…

Additional suggestions are welcome.

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Updates On Wisconsin

The Best Resources For Learning About Attacks On Teachers & Other Public Sector Workers In Wisconsin