Larry Ferlazzo’s Websites of the Day…

Maybe most people know that there’s a “Smithsonian Channel,” but I certainly didn’t. And it has lots of great online video clips.

I’m adding it to The Best Sites For News & History Videos That Won’t Get Blocked By Content Filters (At Least, Not By Ours!).

Thanks to US History Teachers Blog for the tip.

Also, I’m happy to say that this school year CNN’s videos aren’t blocked by our filters, so I’m adding that site to the same list.

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.

If you teach English, and if you have a sense of humor, you must go to David Deubelbeiss’ post Funniest videos about teaching / learning English and watch the videos.

You may have seen some of them before, but I suspect that some might be new to you. And even if you’ve seen them all, they’re worth watching again…

Yesterday, I shared a link to a video that encouraged people to change to a more positive behavior by making the alternative “fun.” I commented that the message certainly could be useful for teachers to think about.

Today, I learned from Mashable that the video I shared (turning stairs into musical ones to encourage people to use them instead of the escalator) is actually part of a series of clips sponsored by Volkswagen.

You can see all of them at The Fun Theory.

Will people voluntarily do something they would ordinarily avoid if it’s made to be fun?

Check out this short video, The Pedagogy of Fun.

There is certainly a good lesson for teachers in it.

Thanks to Jason Flom for the tip.

I’m “mad” at David Deubelbeiss.

I’ve been trying to get a little ahead on my posts, and had “finished” my “The Best Internet Sites For English Language Learners — 2009″ when he sent me an email earlier today telling me about a new site called English Central.

Now I have to revise my list because English Central is great!

David has just posted a very thorough post about the site titled English Central – Bringing “voice” and output to learning English. I’d strongly encourage you to read it — I don’t feel any need to “reinvent the wheel.”

A quick description is that it’s a free video site for English Language Learners, lets users listen to parts of the video, then lets them repeat what the characters says and compares it to the original. You get graded on how well you do. It has even more features, but you can read David’s post or check out the site directly. The other great thing about it is that the videos are all appropriate for the classroom, unlike several other ESL video sites that have come online recently.

I’m looking forward to having my students try it out tomorrow.

I included some great “stop-motion” movies in The Best “Fun” Sites You Can Use For Learning, Too — 2009, list and now Nik Peachey has written a great post on how you can have students create their own.

Nik’s post also includes links to some other excellent resources. I’m going to give it a try later this year.

It’s amazing how much great storytelling advice Scott Simon from National Public Radio fits into a three-and-a-half minute video.

I’ve added it to The Best Digital Storytelling Resources.

The Asian Pacific American Legal Center in Los Angeles has released four short videos. The short films follow immigrant community members on their quest to learn English and include interviews with leading academics, adult school administrators, ESL teachers and volunteers. The four videos are:

Classroom 206: Making Time for English

The Outcome is Income: Graduating in English

Finding Their Way with English

Why I Volunteer to Teach English

The Universal Record Database could be a fun activity for students that could also provide language-development opportunities.

It’s a site where you describe in writing and upload a video of any kind of “world record” you want to set — and it can be as silly as you want. For example, I could see a group of students lying on their stomach and setting a record for “The longest time Luther Burbank High School students have been on their stomach and spoken in English about Hmong food.”

Earth-Touch is an organization in South Africa that films some amazing nature-related video, and shares them freely on their website. They’re pretty neat.

Thought it doesn’t quite fit into this list, I’m still adding it to The Best Sites For News & History Videos That Won’t Get Blocked By Content Filters (At Least, Not By Ours!).

Thanks to Nik Peachey for the tip.

Brainpop ESL launches today, and it’s free for now. They have one complete module available — for beginners, with a promise of more to come.

I like Brainpop a lot, and believe that it’s well worth the money for teachers of World History and United States History. Since they added closed-captioning to their animations last year, their movies became especially accessible to English Language Learners. I’ve included them on a number of “The Best…” lists. In fact, I’ve defended Brainpop from attacks in Is Brainpop Bad For Students?

I’m not teaching any Social Studies classes this year, and I felt I couldn’t make the case for our school to renew its  subscription. In my mind, at least, their movies covering other subjects just didn’t feel like they brought enough added-value to student understanding to be worth the cost (however, I could possibly see science teachers feeling differently).  My students and I liked them, but there just seemed to be enough other free or lower-cost alternatives out there.

I have to say I feel the same way about their new ESL animations.  I’ve got a number of critiques about it,  including the lack of ability for users to record their voices and compare it to how it’s pronounced correctly.   I’ll have my ESL students check them out since they’re free for now, but I believe there are plenty of lower-cost or free alternatives that bring equal — and in many cases, greater — interactive language learning opportunities.

For alternatives, check-out U.S.A Learns, the number one ranked site on both The Best Sites For K-12 Beginning English Language Learners and The Best Sites For K-12 Intermediate English Language Learners list, all the other sites on those lists.  You might also want to read The Best Sites Where Students Can Work Independently & Let Teachers Check On Progress.

As always, though, I’m open to hearing alternative points of view.

The website of the San Francisco Chronicle (and, I assume, other papers as well) has a number of “Zits” comic strips in animated form, including audio.

“Zits” is one of my personal favorites, and its focus on adolescent life is perfect for my students. The fact that the animation provides audio support for the “speech bubbles” really makes it accessible to English Language Learners.

America In The Twentieth Century is a new series of online videos (the site will soon also be offering additional teacher support materials). It looks like an exceptional resource.

I’m adding it to The Best Websites For Teaching & Learning About U.S. History.

Thanks to the excellent US History Teachers Blog for the tip.

Masher is a super-easy free web application that lets you mix-and-match clips, music, photos and more to create online videos. You can read more about it at Richard Byrne’s excellent blog.

I’m adding it to The Best Ways For Students To Create Online Videos (Using Someone Else’s Content).

Which Way Home? is an HBO movie that was on last week, and I don’t know how I missed it. I’ll have to catch a rerun.

It “follows child migrants as they leave their families behind and follow a perilous trail, train-hopping and hiking their way across the U.S.-Mexico border.”

Did anybody see it? Is it any good?

Thanks to Colorin Colorado for the tip.

I posted about Magma earlier this month, and it has just opened to the public today.

Among other things, it shows you a continually updated listing of the most viewed videos on YouTube, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Delicious and a bunch more sites. In addition, you can collect your own lists of the ones you want to save.

It’s worth a look.

Buzz Feed is another place to find what are supposedly the most popular videos on the Web. The selection appears to include some “raunchier” ones than the other sites I have listed in my post on the best places to find the Most Popular Online Videos, but it does seem to have some other useful funny ones that could be used for activities with English Language Learners. I don’t know how they determine their selection — it’s obviously using a different methodology than the others.

I’m adding the link to that “most popular” post.

Recordr is a new site that lets you record either a video or an audio of you speaking, and which you can then embed on your website (you don’t have to register in order to use it). I learned about it from The Make Use Of blog.

It’s still in beta, and it showed. I tried it a number of times, and only worked smoothly for a small number of my attempts. More importantly, you can access other people’s recordings from the site, and when I accidentally clicked on one the video wasn’t inappropriate for the classroom, but the advertising sure was.

Perhaps in the future Recordr might be a good option for ELL’s. But for now, stick with the better tools on the The Best Sites To Practice Speaking English list.

Magma is a new site that isn’t open to the public yet, but is worth signing-up for to get an invitation.

Among other things, it shows you a continually updated listing of the most viewed videos on YouTube, Stumbleupon, Twitter, Delicious and a bunch more sites. In addition, you can collect your own lists of the ones you want to save.

I’m adding the site to the earlier post where I share how to find the most popular online videos.