Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

The National Parks Service has put together a really exceptional interactive on the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, D.C.

I’m adding it to The Best Resources About President’s Day.

Flowing Data has some maps that very visually show where unemployment has increased over the past few years.

I’m adding them to The Best Sites To Learn About The Recession.

Student Day Protests In Iran is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites For Learning About The Protests In Iran.

Google announced today a new feature in their popular Google News page — you can now create your own customized news sections, and publish them so they’re accessible to anyone (if you want to). For example, I just created one on Hmong news, which is obvious interest to many of my students.

Of course, in a lot of ways you do something like this with an application like Daymix and, unlike with the new Google news feature, you don’t have to sign-in at Daymix to create your custom page.

But I could see Google’s page just being one more way for students to create their own high-interest content to read.

Thanks to Mashable for the tip, which also has more info on it.

Millions of Muslims make the annual pilgrimage, called the Hajj,  to Mecca in Saudi Arabia.  Because the Islamic calendar is a lunar calendar based on the motion of the moon, the time of the Hajj is different time each year in terms of the Gregorian calendar.

This year it begins on November 25th.  You can see future dates here.

I thought it would helpful to create a “The Best…” list about the Hajj.

As usual, I’m only listing sites that are accessible to English Language Learners.

You might also find The Best Websites To Learn About Various Religions & English helpful.

Here are my picks for The Best Sites To Learn And Teach About The Hajj ( not in order of preference):

The UK newspaper The Guardian has an excellent interactive about the Hajj.

Channel 4 in the UK also has a good site on the Hajj, including a “virtual Hajj.”

The Hajj and Eid al-Adha is a series of excellent photos and accessible captions from The Boston Globe’s Big Picture.

The Hajj Goes High-Tech is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

CBBC Newsround has a simple explanation.

The Washington Post has a short article and slideshow.

Breaking News English has an online lesson on the Hajj for English Language Learners.

As always, 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.

Here are some more additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:

Halloween At The White House is a slideshow from The Washington Post.

10 Best Halloween Houses

Not-so scary sights is another slideshow from The Washington Post.

Sacramento has hit the big time! The New York Times today has published a slideshow and article titled A Weekend In Sacramento.

I need to get around to making a “The Best…” list about Sacramento. I already have:

The Best Sites To Learn About San Francisco

The Best Websites To Learn About California

Find My Crowd is a great tool to find demographic information on any neighborhood or city in the United States. It has some unique data that I haven’t found accessible in other similar sites.

I’ve added the link to my website under Student Neighborhood Maps. You’ll find a lot of neat research tools in that section — I have to get around to writing a “The Best…” list about them. My students use them in a research project culminating in a persuasive essay about the best neighborhood. It’s a great project that I’ve written about in my upcoming book “Teaching English Language Learners: Strategies That Work” that will come out next year. I’ll try to summarize the lesson in an upcoming post.

Thanks to Interesting Pile blog for the tip on the site.

London’s Olympic Park progress is an interactive from The Guardian showing progress being made on facilities for the 2012 Olympics.

I’ve added it to The Best Sites To Teach & Learn About The Olympics.

Just a reminder to readers that I’ve been continuing to update The Best Sites To Teach and Learn About Thanksgiving that I published last year.

You might find that list useful.

Homework Hotline has a variety of resources designed to help students with their…homework.

I’m particularly impressed, though, with their video. They have ones for every subject, and they’re fairly accessible to English Language Learners.

Here are new additions to The Best Websites For Learning About Halloween:

Happy Howl-A-Ween is a fun feature from the Animal Planet television channel.

Halloween 2009 is a San Francisco Chronicle webpage with a ton of multimedia features.

You can’t go wrong with these fun Halloween Science experiments.

As the Boston Globe’s Big Picture says:

“October 17th marked the celebration of Diwali among Hindus and other groups around the world. Diwali is also known as the “Festival of Lights” (the name translates as “row of lamps” in Sanskrit). The festival marks the homecoming of Hindu God Rama to Ayodhya after a 14-year exile in the forest following his victory over Ravana, and signifies the victory of good over evil, of light over darkness. Celebrants observe Diwali with fireworks, colorful lanterns, lamps, garlands, sweet treats and worship. Collected here are a handful of photographs of Diwali this year.”

This “The Best…” list joins many others I’ve posted focusing on days and celebrations important to various world religions.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites For Learning About Diwali:

Diwali 2009 is a series of photos from The Big Picture.

India’s Festival of Lights is a slideshow from The Wall Street Journal.

Diwali, The Pan-Indian Festival of Lights is a slideshow from TIME Magazine.

The CBBC Newsround has a short explanation of Diwali, and another description written by a child about what he actually does during its five days.

ESL Holiday Lessons has some nice resources on Diwali.

Judie Haynes has a good page for ELL’s comparing different light festivals that take place around the world, including Diwali.

As always, suggestions are 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.

Here are three sources of good images from California:

* The San Francisco Chronicle has a nice video and many photos about how to spend a perfect day in San Francisco.

* The Online Archive of California has over 120,000 historical images of the state.

* Sacramento History Online is a similar, and smaller, archive of photos from the city where I teach.

You might also be interested in The Best Websites To Learn About California.

I’ve placed the link on my website under California.

Just a reminder to readers that I’ve been continuing to update The Best Websites To Learn About Veterans Day, which I originally published last year.

You might find the resources there helpful.

Here are some additions to The Best Sites For Learning About Yosemite & Other U.S. National Parks:

National Parks: America’s Best Idea is the Ken Burns’ film on PBS. Its website is filled with great resources, including video clips.

You can access an interactive video photo hunt related to the Burns’ film here.

The Arizona Daily Republic has a wealth of accessible online slideshows.

I’m adding the link to the Multimedia Resources From News Outlets section of my website.

The Boston Globe’s Big Picture has a great series of shots celebrating World Animal Day, which took place earlier this month.

They’re worth a look.

Today was the annual “World Food Day” sponsored by the United Nations. This short list is a bit late, but the resources will be useful for any study of hunger issues and will be around for next year, too.

Here are my choices for The Best Sites To Learn About World Food Day:

ESL Holiday Lessons has a good series of activities about the day.

The International Food Policy Research Institute has a good interactive map on worldwide hunger issues. It’s called the 2009 Global Hunger Index.

Here’s another global map of hunger.

The UN has a number of other accessible graphics on hunger issues.

Global hunger worsening, warns UN is from the BBC and includes maps and graphics.

Hunger Casts Dark Cloud Over World Food Day is from the Voice of America and provides audio support for the text.

Here are some simple questions and answers from the UN on hunger issues.

Here’s an interactive map showing hunger across the United States.

If you found this post useful, you might want to consider subscribing to this blog for free.

You might also want to explore nearly 300 other “The Best…” lists I’ve compiled.

The Hmong In Minnesota is an impressive page of multimedia features from Minnesota Public Radio. All the text has audio support, and it includes several slideshows.

It was prepared several years ago, but it still has useful and accessible information for Hmong English Language Learners students wherever they are living.

I’m placing the link on my website under Hmong.