Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

everythingESL is a new blog by Judie Haynes, who has written several books on teaching English Language Learners. I’ve used some of her materials in my classes. I’m adding her blog to The Best ESL/EFL Blogs list.

Judie also has a new book out, Teaching English Language Learners Across the Content Areas. By clicking on the link you can preview two sample chapters from it.

Sean Banville, the man behind a zillion sites used by ESL teachers around the world everyday, has compiled a very big list of ESL blogs — and it’s growing.

If the ones I have listed in The Best ESL/EFL Blogs aren’t enough for you, definitely go and check out his webpage. And, if you have an ESL blog and it’s not there, let him know.

In previous “The Best…” lists, I’ve shared many of the places where I find the resources I share in this blog.

Today, I thought I’d share a short list of the “tech” blogs that I’ve found to be the best for sharing new web tools that are coming online. They obviously don’t look at them through the lens of an educator, but I find it pretty easy to figure out if and how these new tools can be applicable to schools.

You might want to consider subscribing to them yourself if you are not reading them already. They are sources of great information. Of course, they post a lot, and most of what they write about is not particularly useful for teachers.   It’s very easy, though, to quickly glance at the posts to identify the ones that are.

Here are my picks for The Best “Tech” Blogs For Learning About New Web Applications:

TechCrunch

Mashable

Read Write Web

Webware

Go To Web 2.0 Net

Killer Start-Ups

Make Use Of

Alt Search Engines

Feel free to offer additional suggestions.

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

The next edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival will be hosted by Shelly Terrell at Teacher Reboot Camp: Challenging Ourselves to Engage Our Students. Any blog posts, including examples of student work, that are related to teaching or learning English are welcome. You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. The deadline is January 30th.

Alice Mercer hosted the Fourteenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival. Alice did a great job! ESL/EFL bloggers from around the world contributed thoughtful posts about issues related to teaching and learning English, and it’s not to be missed.

Karenne Sylvester at Kalinago English: Teaching Speaking Using Technology will host the following Carnival April 1st. Please leave a comment if you’re interested in hosting a future edition.

You can see all the previous fourteen editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

Will Somebody Tell Secretary Duncan’s Staff That There Are “Regular” Public Schools Engaging Parents, Too? is the title of a piece I just posted over at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.

It’s a quasi-rant questioning why a staffperson from the Department of Education only highlighted parent involvement efforts from schools that could either pick-and-choose student enrollment and/or completely hire new staff for their school.

Quite a few new people have subscribed to this blog in recent days, and I though I’d re-introduce my second blog, Engaging Parents In School, to them.

It’s designed to support my recent book, Building Parent Engagement In Schools.

You might want to start by checking-out My Best Posts & Articles About Building Parent Engagement In Schools — 2009, which also contains information on the book.

My latest post there is titled The “Parent Trigger” Comes To California….Unfortunately.

“Be open-minded and don’t believe everything you see” was one student’s response to my reflection question “What would you tell your parents tonight if they asked you what you had learned in our Theory of Knowledge class?”

That was a typical response. It’s such a great class! And I’ve been able to modify some of the lessons for use in my Intermediate English class, too.

Our Theory of Knowledge class blog is chock-full of resources for students and teachers, in case you’re interested. For those who don’t know, it’s part of the International Baccalaureate curriculum.

David Kapuler, writer of the popular ed tech blog Technology Tidbits, just published a very positive review of my book, Building Parent Engagement In Schools.

Glad you liked it, David!

Thanks to Edgartech, I learned that I had posted incorrect links in my previous post. I’ve corrected them, and here they are again:

You can find a list of the most popular blog posts from each month (the ones that are most clicked-on) at Most Popular Blog Posts.

You can find my monthly choices for the most useful posts for educations at Websites of the Month.

Each month I highlight a few posts that I think have been particularly useful. You can go to Websites Of The Month to see my choices from previous months.  I also use these posts to create the free email monthly newsletter I send out to people who don’t want to receive daily blog posts.

This list is different from The Most Popular Blog Posts, which lists the ones readers have most “clicked-on.”

Public School Insights, one of my favorite blogs, just published “Carrots and Sticks are So Last Century”: A Conversation with Author Dan Pink.

It’s worth reading, and is a nice companion piece to my post this weekend, A Few Reflections On Daniel Pink’s New Book, “Drive.

Sue Waters has just issued a call for people to share their class blogs if they’re not already on the list she’s already compiled of 200 ones.

It’s a great way to share what you’re doing and get new ideas.

In case you’re interested, here are my active class blogs:

Intermediate English Classes

International Baccalaureate Theory of Knowledge (this has a ton of useful resources)

Ninth-Grade English

Here are two dormant blogs that still have helpful information:

United States History Class Blog has my entire United States History curriculum, including a fair amount of original material.

Student Showcase has student projects from many ESL/EFL classes around the world.

The next edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival will be hosted by Shelly Terrell at Teacher Reboot Camp: Challenging Ourselves to Engage Our Students. Any blog posts, including examples of student work, that are related to teaching or learning English are welcome. You can contribute a post by using this easy submission form. The deadline is January 30th.

Alice Mercer hosted the Fourteenth Edition of the ESL/EFL/ELL Carnival. Alice did a great job! ESL/EFL bloggers from around the world contributed thoughtful posts about issues related to teaching and learning English, and it’s not to be missed.

Karenne Sylvester at Kalinago English: Teaching Speaking Using Technology will host the following Carnival April 1st.  Please leave a comment if you’re interested in hosting a future edition.

You can see all the previous fourteen  editions of the ESL/EFL/ELL Blog Carnival here.

As I did in 2007 and in 2008, I invited readers to send-in one-to-three things they learned in 2008. Quite a few of you shared and I have the privilege, in turn, of sharing your lessons here.

I’ll save mine until the end.

Here are the responses to the question “What Did You Learn In 2009?” I also asked people to give a short description of who they were.

Tara Benwell:

I learned that students have their own creative ideas about blogging and that teachers can learn a lot by giving them a space to voice their needs and opinions. I’m a Canadian writer who challenges English learners on EnglishClub.com’s social network, MyEC.

Elaine Talbert:

I am a techy-type teacher and always-on learner from way-back.

In 2009, I have learnt that:

*the pace of change in what constitutes effective teaching practice is seriously challenging most teachers. This has resulted in a dire need for many to update their practice. The notion of being a lifelong learner has never been so relevant for genuine educators. This is a non-negotiable, individual responsibility.
*web2.0 social media tools should be thoroughly assessed before teachers consider there use with students. This assessment would incorporate all the standard website content, functionality, age-suitability and eligibility criteria.
*being youngish does not necessarily mean that effective teaching practice using computing technology will automatically occur. The capacity to select online resources and tools that will achieve identified learning outcomes is the key.

Finally, 2010 will be even more exciting.

teachin’:

I learned that the opportunity to loop with students and teach them for two (or more) years is invaluable, for both the teacher and the kids.

I teach Language Arts at an urban school.

Laurie Fowler:

I learned that taking the Web 2.0 tools I love to the K-12 classroom is harder than I thought. It is hard to convince teachers of the good in social networking and other web 2.0 tools out there. I am an Assistant Professor of Education at the University of West Alabama.

Sheila Beck:

1. Students are more savvy users than most teachers
2. Teachers need professional development focused on Web 2.0 and computer basics
3. Reinventing schools and classrooms now…is a requirement not a discussion for administration.

Business retiree after 35 years with a fortune 200 company who is now loving students and working with technology in schools!!!

Elise Tickner:

Second graders can find appropriate images on the internet, copy them, paste them into a word processing document, write a sentence about the picture and save it in a folder with their name, inside of a folder with their grade, inside of a folder with another name.

I teach Spanish literacy to students that speak Spanish at an elementary school in rural Oregon. When they learn more oral English, we transition them to reading in English.

Susan the book chook:

In 2009, I learned that the internet is a vast and geeky well of wonder, and that much of it can inspire kids to express themselves. I love the way so many web 2.0 tools encourage us to communicate. At the end of the day, it is the conversations and the stories that we will remember, and they have the potential to change our lives.

Susan Stephenson blogs at The Book Chook about her passions – children’s literacy and literature.

Hadley Ferguson:

I learned that amazingly rich conversations can happen in 140 characters and that there are many people eager to learn with me about how to make the learning that happens in each classroom richer for every student. It is not about technology for its own sake, but it is about discovering which tools will enhance the growth of the students. It is also about building into the classroom the collaboration that is so much a part of the 2.0 world.

judie haynes:

I learned to use Facebook about one year ago. Over the last two months I have become active on Twitter, posted all my documents on Delicious, and used Google Wave, Google Docs, Skype for educational purposes. My next goal is to start a blog on my website. (Judie Haynes, creator of everythingESL.net, taught ESL in an elementary school for 28 years and is now providing professional development to school districts around the U.S.)

Eva Büyüksimkeşyan:

I’m an EFL teacher and I’ve been teaching for 20 years. I really love my job very much because it’s not just teaching, it’s also learning new things constantly.

I’ve learned loads of things this year. I’m new to everything but I’ll try to list the most important ones.

1. Web 2.0 tools, now I feel more confident using them and trying to integrate them to my teaching.
2. Twitter which enabled me to meet wonderful educators (Now I have my own PLN, a real privilege) and led me to the links which I’d never reached by searching.
3. Using skype in the class. I’d never thought practising English with real people would be easy and comfortable.

Sarah Korlaki:

One of the things I’ve learnt is the value of collaboration. I’ve only been teaching for 3 years and have always been happy to share my ideas with others, and ask for help when I need it. Unfortunately, many teachers do not like to share their resources, units, lesson plans, etc. Someone at school asked me earlier this year to check out what twitter for educators was all about so that I could share it with our staff, and I have learnt so much in that short 6 months. Collaborating, learning, sharing, reading, and communicating with other people that are in the EXACT same position as me has taught me not only that there are others like me, but also that there is a wealth of information out there as long as you are prepared to look for it.

Another thing I’ve learnt in 2009 is that as a teacher you really need to find the time to separate your work life from your home life, otherwise they can interlink too much. With the popularity of things like smart phones and other technologies, people are using tech much more often. It is much easier now to do more work while you’re not at work, but it’s important to limit that so the work area or the personal area of your life don’t suffer.

I guess something you can write to describe me is that I’m a high school science teacher from Australia who loves reading, sharing, learning and helping others.

Shelly Terrell:

This year I learned how to use social media to build Personal Learning Networks and communities. I am blessed by my PLN everyday who support me, share resources, and inspire me to become a better educator and person.

Shelly Terrell is an English language teacher and technology trainer based in Germany.

Janshs:

Learned a lot about social networking, blogging etc; learned a bit more about motivating teachers (I hope); learned a few more people were friendly; learned a few harder life lessons; on the whole a good learning year.

Patrick Larkin:

It took me longer than some, but I learned the power of the PLN. I do not have to wait for the traditional walls of isolation to come down, I have a whole universe of people on Twitter who are willing to collaborate 24-7. In addition I learned that I need to model clearly and consistently the expectations that I expect staff to have for students. My New Year’s wish is a PLN for every student and staff member!

Patrick Larkin, Principal, Burlington High School (MA)

David Deubelbeiss:

I learned — that I’m not needed ( and am still learning it so it goes into my bones). A few times this year, I was confronted with this fact, my own insignificance in the face of student curiosity and learning needs. I learned to get out of the way….

What I mean is that my own job description is to write myself out of a job. The better I am as a teacher, the less I’m needed. If students really need me – I’m doing a damn poor job!

Somehow this year, this has informed me and challenged me. I think this will be a future reality and reflection of many teachers.

Kim Pennington:

I’m One Very Happy Second Grade Teacher.

I’ve learned to reach outside the walls of my small school to find a community of like-minded educators. I’ve been connecting and learning via Twitter, and sharing resources with students, parents and educators through Delicious. This was the year my feelings of isolation ended!

Robert Pondiscio:

I learned to be skeptical of those who say they “put the interest of children over adults.” If people were serious about that they’d pay a lot more attention to curriculum.

I learned that we should be paying less attention to schools as the unit of improvement in reform and more attention to individual children.

I’ve learned that we need to give low-SES parents the tools to be critical consumers of education. That will probably drive more change than any other innovation or policy prescription.

Barbara Bujtas:

I’m an EFL teacher from Hungary.

I have learned so many things I couldn’t list now.

Let’s focus on what I have learned from you and some other professionals and edubloggers. Apart from the actual things you guys all tweet and share in your blogs I have learned an important thing about cooperation. Namely that you can’t get very far without cooperation.

This may not sound any new for you, but my case is somewhat special, as I live in a small Central European country, where we used to have a strange kind of political and social system. It was called socialism and it was based on the idea of sharing everything, cooperating, so everyone was supposed to put all they had and produced in a big hat and then the contents of the hat was to be shared equally, or based on the needs of everyone. This is of course just a rough description… So during the period of this system (about 40 years) the basic idea had changed a bit, and we ended up putting everything in the big hat, and some just took out much more than they would have deserved, others couldn’t take out anything. As a consequence, people had learned not to share, not to participate, and in general, cooperation had become something really suspicious. Although the mentioned political and social system died 20 years ago, people’s attitude to cooperation doesn’t seem to have changed. Now you can understand why it is so striking to me to learn what cooperation is. The only flaw is, at this stage of my using web 2.0 (being a ‘beginner user’) I am just someone who is just taking out of the big hat of edublogging, tweeting, etc. Now I want to participate too, I will put things into the ‘big hat’ as soon as I can.

It is you who taught me the simple and well known fact that you cannot achieve your personal goals without sharing and cooperation. Of course I have known it before, but it’s this year that I ‘ve internalized it.

Thank you to everyone who has taken the time to share their insights from this past year. Please feel free to share your own in the comment section of this post.

Here are some things that I might have known in previous years, but have “crystallized” for me over the past several months:

I’m a better teacher if I look at my students through the lens of “assets” instead of “deficits.” I’m a better parent if I look at my children through the lens of “patience” instead of “control.” And I’m a better person if my priorities are “relationships” instead of “tasks.”

I’m sure we’re all looking forward to what we’ll learn in the coming year!

I put out a request to readers to share the best education-related books that they had read over the past year. The books could have been published earlier and the only requirement was that you had read them sometime this year.

I posted a similar piece last year: The Best Education-Related Books Visitors To This Blog Read In 2008

Many readers shared their favorites, and they’re all included in this post. I have to apologize, though, that because there were so many contributions, I haven’t had time to send individual emails thanking each person who took the time to leave a comment — that’s what I usually do. So, please accept my public thanks here!

In a show of false humility , I’ll share my recommendation at the end.

Here are readers’ recommendations:

Kevin Hodgson:

The best book I came across this year is The Digital Writing Workshop by Troy Hicks. It really grounds the idea of moving students into the digital world of writing and composing in familiar terms, and yet, he provides a framework for moving forward (and the rationale for doing so, too). Troy has also set up a Ning site that accompanies his book so that teachers can explore and share and reflect together.

PS — Disclosure: Troy is a friend of mine through the National Writing Project and also a contributor to my own book — Teaching the New Writing. (Editor’s Note: I (Larry) highly recommend Kevin’s book)

Frank Morelia:

The best book that I have read is still to be read. Nowadays, many many books are printed, in audio format, and make available in ePub/PDF/Kindle and other ebook formats. But interestingly, authors of educational books overwhelmingly limit the diversity of their publications vehicles. Why? That is the question. Many educators, like me, live in foreign countries. Yes, I live very close to USA here in Mexico … but it might as well be the South Pole, as their or no current books on education .. only the standard Cambridge, Pearson, Richmond, Macmillan stuff.

So I would like for your post (if you agree) to include an open call to authors and publishers to make their materials more widely available via a variety of published formats. It seems ironic that educational books which should be leading the 21st century are the very books that are running behind other genres in terms of technical accessibility. I have asked 2 different authors recently why they have not required that their publishers also distribute their work in ePub/PDF/e-reader open format … and they do not respond. I assume that there must be a reason (less profit margin, fear of copyright infringement, etc.). Other genres don’t seem to constipated in this respect.

So, the best book that I have read is the one that remains unread. With the Kindle/Nook/Sony e-Readers so popular, it just seems out-of-sync with reality and the times. And since Kindle is a proprietary closed format, it really is not all that practical for those of us that want to read on our Macs and other digital devices (Nooks, etc.).

Jason Schmidt:

Brain Rules by John Medina

The book describes 12 rules about how the human brain functions well. The insights Medina gives are spot-on, and he has great suggestions for improving learning based on biology and human development.

I am a 3-4 grade teacher in Omaha, Nebraska with an affinity for technology and psychology.

MaryAnn:

Crafting Authentic Voice by Tom Romano delighted me. His word choice, examples, and stories leave me wanting more. Who could imagine that a book on writing could be so delicious…

teacherken:

The last book by the late Gerald Bracey, Education Hell, which does as good a job of presenting the real crisis in education as anything I have seen.

John R Sowash

I enjoyed two book this year, both connected by a common thread- educational innovation driven by changes in technology.

The first book is Disrupting Class by Clayton M. Christenson. Disruptive innovation starts as a fringe movement but eventually overtakes the market. Perfect examples include the automobile and digital photography. Christenson argues that Virtual Learning is the disruptive innovation of the day.

The second book is Blue Ocean Strategy by Kim and Mauborgne. This book is written from a business perspective, but easily transfers to education. The “red ocean” is a saturated market where competitors fight against one another. The Blue ocean however belongs to the company that fundimentally changes the marketplace and has uncontested market space. Again, the application is virtual learning. I teach in a private school that is fighting to stay afloat in a challenging economy. We are trying to adopt blue ocean ideas to make our school innovative and unique.

Art Titzel:

Global Achievement Gap by Tony Wagner. Excellent analysis of the state of education in America today with case studies of schools that are educating for our students future and not our past. Must read for any educator/administrator.

Clare O’Neill:

I read Global Achievement Gap as well, and consider it one of my best education books this year.

Joquetta:

The Interactive Whiteboard Revolution – Teaching with IWBs

The IBW ning is awesome!

Joel Zehring:

Oldie but a goodie:

Professional Learning Communities at Work by Richard DuFour and Robert Eakers. Ten years after initial publication, many schools still operate as hierarchical organizations. PLCs at Work casts a new vision for the local school as a community of learners who work collaboratively to ensure learning and achievement for every student.

In progress:

Building Professional Learning Communities at Work by Parry Graham and William Ferriter. Ten years after DuFour and Eaker started the PLC revolution, many administrators and teachers still can’t wrap their minds around the new vision of school as community. Parry and Bill cast the PLC vision in very concrete terms by telling the story of one principal and his staff and their year-long effort to re-form their school into a professional community of learners. Each chapter includes breakdowns of the important concepts and concrete strategies that school leaders can leverage to make the jump from traditional school to PLC.

David Deubelbeiss:

I enjoyed Disrupting Class but found some parts just damn boring to slog through. However the parts with actual examples of what’s in the real world were great.

Here’s a book that needs no introduction. Free to print, distribute. Teaching as a Subversive Activity. What reform it calls for, is still to be accomplished 30+ years later.

Gail P.:

I was inspired by Rafe Esquith’s Teach Like Your Hair’s On Fire. It motivated me over the summer to generate some change in how I do business and made teaching more interactive – even for kindergarten.

Jason Ramsden:

For me, it was a “Our Iceberg is Melting”

Good info here from their website

A simple fable about doing well in an ever-changing world, “Our Iceberg is Melting” is about a penguin colony in Antarctica. A group of beautiful emperor penguins live as they have for many years. Then one curious bird discovers a potentially devastating problem threatening their home and pretty much no one listens to him.

The characters in the story, Fred, Alice, Louis, Buddy, the Professor, and NoNo, are like people we recognize — even ourselves. Their tale is one of resistance to change and heroic action, seemingly intractable obstacles and the most clever tactics for dealing with those obstacles.

ME: Sound anything like education today?

“Our Iceberg Is Melting” is based on the work of John Kotter and Holger Rathgeber that shows how Eight Steps produce needed change in any sort of group. It’s a story that can be enjoyed by anyone while at the same time providing invaluable guidance for a world that just keeps moving faster and faster.

John Fullinwider:

The best book I read was Jonathan Kozol’s The Shame of the Nation. For anyone interested in teaching as a social change profession, Kozol’s work in indispensable.

Chris Betcher:

Although they wasn’t directly education related, there were a couple of books I really enjoyed this year:

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Sirky
A Whole New Mind by Daniel Pink
Everything is Miscellaneous by Dave Weinberger

I thought that there was a lot of crossover in the ideas contained within these books, and taken together, reading them all was probably a more transformative experience than readning any single one of them.

Thoroughly enjoyed them though!

I’m currently reading Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell, and so far have found many of his ideas very interesting and causing me to see things from new viewpoints.

Tom Perran:

My favorite book was Research-Based Strategies to Ignite Student Learning by Judy Willis, M.D. In this book, Dr. Willis, a neurologist turned classroom teacher, shares her insights into current brain-research and it’s relevance to the way we teach. She teaches the reader innovative strategies for increasing student engagement to improve their overall success in the classroom. I have found it very enlightening!

One of my other favorites is definitely Activating the Desire to Learn by Bob Sullo. It is a book based on the premise that student behavior is based on the desire to satisfy specific needs and that we, as teachers, can boost student achievement by acknowledging and strengthening that connection. Here’s a link:

Ric Murry:

Why Don’t Students Like School? By Willingham was my favorite “need to think about this more” book. Rafe Esqueth’s Teach Like Your Hair Is On Fire was a good “how to love your students” read.

Donalyn Miller:

The best educational book I read this year was Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide. Gallagher, a high school English teacher in California, bluntly describes how traditional instruction in English classes destroys reading for many kids.
This book validated my beliefs about teaching reading and showed that we have a systemic problem, particularly at the secondary level, where it seems teaching books (the canon of classics) is more important (to some teachers) than fostering lifelong literacy behaviors in students.

Mayor of SpellingCity.com – john

Geoffrey Canada’s “Fist stick knife gun” and then the book about his very ambitious effort to build a complete educational system for the inner city kids (like himself) from early education into college: “Whatever it Takes.”

Three Cups of Tea – As a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer, this amazed me.

Teacher Man by Frank McCourt – I loved it. No prescriptions in this book, just the feel for being a teacher.

Disrupting Class. I know and like the ideas. I think he strung them together nicely. But as a Harvard MBA myself, I don’t like the case-method MBAish writing…..

Mr. Lane:

Went ahead and reread “The World is Flat” by Thomas Friedman right before the school year started. Found that it was a really powerful way to get fired up for the school year and get focused on what I wanted to do with my technology and reading students.

Carl:

Best book of 2009: “Stuck in the Shallow End” by Jane Margolis
About reasons for the lack of diversity in the field of computing. Hits the nail on the head.

Bob Bennett:

Disrupting Class : How Disruptive Innovation Will Change the Way the World Learns by Clayton M. Christensen, Curtis W. Johnson, Michael B. Horn.

This book provides great insight into what the future of education might look like.

Helen Murdoch:

I really enjoyed The Kids From Nowhere: the Story Behind the Arctic Educational Miracle by George Guthridge. It’s interesting, inspirational, and fun. Here’s a link to the site.

Carol H:

Hope and Despair in the American City: Why There Are No Bad Schools in Raleigh by Gerald Grant

I read this for an electronic book group discussion of educators from around the country. I was not prepared to learn so much American History from my “school years” especially of the 60’s and 70″s.

I have recommended it to all my friends.

Lesley Edwards:

Earlier this year I started a shared google spreadsheet and asked teachers, through twitter, to share their recommendations for a ‘book every educator should read’. You may be interested in the results.

@melynntwit:

The Way Schools Work – A Sociological Analysis of Education by deMarrais and LeCompte. I have always been interested in the sociology and economics of “the hidden side” of things (to quote from Freakonomics). The 3rd party observations of our education system are especially interesting.

teachin’:

For me it was Whatever It Takes by Paul Tough – though parts of it were discouraging (especially since I teach secondary), I found most of it inspiring and very informative.

Mark S:

I really enjoyed reading Daniel T. Willingham’s “Why Don’t Students Like School.” I teach in an urban middle school and have found his thoughts intriguing. It has helped me rethink how I should teach.

Dr. Delaney Kirk:

Made to Stick by Chip and Dan Heath. Although not really an education book, the book has lots of suggestions that could help teachers make sure their lectures “stick.” And isn’t that what learning is all about?

I’d like to also nominate my own book, Taking Back the Classroom: Tips for the College Professor on Becoming a More Effective Teacher. The book is based on my 28 years of teaching experience (learned the hard way at times) and would be useful for both college and high school teachers.

fully:

Wounded by School: Recapturing the Joy in Learning and Standing Up to the Old School Culture by Kristen Olson.
Offers the how and why students and teachers are wounded and solutions for change and healing for teachers, students, and parents/guardians.

Eric Biederbeck:

Although not his newest book, I absolutely loved “Fair Isn’t Always Equal” by Rick Wormeli. A fantastic look at grading in a differentiated classroom. The book looks at a lot of the concerns that teachers face particularly in middle school and high school with grading and provides some excellent strategies that teachers can actually use.

Lee Fleming:

It questions many traditional parenting practices and provides us with some actual strategies. What is great for parents is usually great for teachers in managing some of the basic principles of encouraging ethical behavior.

Wayne Basinger:

Grown Up Digital by Don Tapscott

Arielle:

Grown Up Digital-

It has sat on my bookshelf for months and finally found the time to pick it up and read it.

Wow! My reading list has just gotten considerably longer.

Now, here are my choices:

I’ve written about Carol Dweck’s work and how I’ve applied it in the classroom. I’d highly recommend her book, Mindset: The New Psychology of Success.

I just received a book in the mail today that I’ve been looking forward to reading — Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us by Daniel Pink. I’m hoping it’s as good as I think it might be…

Last, but not least, I also have to include my own book, Building Parent Engagement in Schools, on my list.

Thanks to everyone who contributed. Feel free to add more suggestions in the comments section.

I’m adding these two resources to The Best Sources Of Advice For Teachers (And Others!) On How To Be Better Bloggers:

My Seven Edublogging Secrets, a post by Richard Byrne

Protecting Your Email on Blogs by Sue Waters. She offers advice about the danger of robots picking up your email address.

The Edublog Awards site now has a listing of all Edublog Awards winners and runner-ups.

Clicking on any of these category links will show you the winner and the two runner-ups in that category (as well as all other nominees):

1. Best individual blog
2. Best individual tweeter
3. Best group blog
4. Best new blog
5. Best class blog
6. Best student blog
7. Best resource sharing blog
8. Most influential blog post
9. Most influential tweet / series of tweets / tweet based discussion
10. Best teacher blog
11. Best librarian / library blog
12. Best educational tech support blog
13. Best elearning / corporate education blog
14. Best educational use of audio
15. Best educational use of video / visual
16. Best educational wiki
17. Best educational use of a social networking service
18. Best educational use of a virtual world
19. Lifetime achievement

There are lots of great sites to check-out!

Winners of the Edublog Awards were announced today. A complete listing of all winners and runner-ups hasn’t been posted yet, but you can see a list of winners at Cathy Nelson’s blog. I’ll write as soon as a complete list is posted.

Though this blog didn’t “win,” it was a runner-up in three categories — Best Individual Blog, Best Resource Sharing Blog, and Lifetime Achievement — not bad at all, I think.

Thanks to everybody who nominated and voted for this blog and me! Congratulations to all the first place winners and nominees. And thanks to Sue Waters and Steve Hargadon for doing a great job hosting the awards ceremony.

California’s “Race To The Top” & Parents is a piece I just posted at my other blog, Engaging Parents In School.

You might find it interesting.

Here’s a short excerpt from an “Edublog Awards 2009″ post:

There’s only days till the Edublog Awards Ceremony….so it’s time to record the details in your Calendar!

This year the event will be held in Elluminate.

You just need to click on the following link up to 30 minute before it commences to join the Award ceremony:

http://tinyurl.com/edublogawards

The event is scheduled for:

• GMT/UTC: 12 am, Friday 18 December
• USA EST: 7 pm, Thursday 17 December
• AEST: 11 am, Friday 18 December

PLEASE click here to visit TimeandDate.com to check your local time!

The post itself has some more information you might want to read.

You can find out more information about voting here.