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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles
Sentences Of The Week geralt / Pixabay
I thought readers might, or might not, find this new regular post useful. Each week, I highlight several sentences, with links to their sources, that I find interesting/concerning/useful. And they may, or may not, be directly connected to education. I may also include my own comments or related links. This regular post will join my other regular ones on teaching ELLs, education policy, Artificial Intelligence, infographics, and Pinterest highlights, not to mention sharing of my regular Education Week posts. Here are this week’s sentences: Yet despite the threats from state officials — and the pleas to students from many school administrators — the protests over immigration enforcement did not stop. Check out The Best Resources Sharing The History Of Teens Organizing For Justice For each year from 1994 to 2023, the US immigrant population generated more in taxes than they received in benefits from all levels of government. See The Best Sites For Learning About Immigration In The United States Simply placing another adult alongside a pupil makes little difference if teachers do not understand how a child processes language, sensory input or classroom environments, he adds. Parents across the country are taking steps to stop their children from using school-issued Chromebooks and iPads, citing concerns about distractions and access to inappropriate content that they fear hampers their kids’ education. Digital literacy requires exposing students to inaccurate content, not shielding them from it. People are “exactly like the pigeons,” says Peter Balsam, a professor of psychology at Columbia University. We show that [teachers in] schools serving more disadvantaged students exhibit substantially higher rates of sickness absence, particularly for stress-related diagnoses. The upshot is that there are more sources of support for intensive tutoring in public schools than one might think. Yes, but this article, as do most others about tutoring, ignore an obvious option – peer tutoring. See Researchers Are Finding That High-Dosage Tutoring Isn’t The Silver Bullet – Maybe Schools (& Researchers) Should Prioritize Peer Tutors, Instead? Despite thoroughly documenting the AI-generated errors in its lesson plans, Alpha School relies on AI to test the quality of its AI-generated lessons, creating a situation where a faulty AI is tasked with fixing its own faulty generations. But if the strong claims that are sometimes made about the harms of social media are true, it is remarkable how difficult it is to find consistent evidence to support them. There will be no “AI” tutor revolution just as there was no MOOC revolution just as there was no personalized learning revolution just as there was no computer-assisted instruction revolution just as there was no teaching machine revolution. What they don’t often tell you is how fun the resistance can be: the marches joyous and laced with adrenalized anger, people cheering the brass band that thumps its way down the block, chanting and pumping fists, belting out a ubiquitous profane call and response about ICE. Schmidt said he has also seen less cheating with AI since using chatbots in his teaching. I found the same thing, though I created a lot of hoops they had to jump through in order to use it. I replace their voices with Jackson’s words, “I am somebody.” Black History Month is sometimes treated as little more than an opportunity for corporate branding and, maybe, school assemblies; but in the face of such erasure, observing it this February feels radical See The Best Sites To Teach About African-American History When we include community and the collective struggle for racial justice in Black history, the work of justice reflects its inclusivity, enabling more people to bring their gifts to the work. See “Idolizing Just One Person Undermines The Struggle” A better—and more achievable—goal would be to extend healthy longevity, adding life to years instead of years to life.
     Around The Web In ESL/EFL/ELL
Eight years ago I began this regular feature where I share a few posts and resources from around the Web related to ESL/EFL or to language in general that have caught my attention. You might also be interested in all my Best lists on teaching ELLs. Also, check out A Collection Of My Best Resources On Teaching English Language Learners. In addition, look for our latest book on teaching ELLs, The ELL Teacher’s Toolbox 2.0. Here are this week’s choices: 
Here’s a recent issue of my favorite language teaching journal, Humanising Language Instruction.
6 Strategies for Successful Co-teaching is from Edutopia. I’m adding it to The Best Resources On Co-Teaching With ELLs – Please Suggest More.  “If You Avoid Conversations About Race and Gender, You’re ‘Abandoning’ Students”If You Avoid Conversations About Race and Gender, You’re ‘Abandoning’ Students is the headline of one of my recent Education Week columns. These talks aren’t just nice to have. They’re humanity’s curriculum. Here are some excerpts:
 This Week’s Free & Useful Artificial Intelligence Tools For The Classroom geralt / Pixabay
At least, for now, I’m going to make this a weekly feature which will highlight additions to THE BEST NEW – & FREE – ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE TOOLS THAT COULD BE USED IN THE CLASSROOM. Here are the latest: Mia Search lets you search for visuals, including videos. I typed in “funny silent video to teach English Language Learners food vocabulary” and received nearly 300 results, some that were useful. Lingo Champion seems to have a lot of decent AI-powered language learning tools, with a generous free account. I’m adding it to The Best Multilingual & Bilingual Sites For Learning English & Other Languages. Music Creator AI does what its name says. Joy Coloring Pages is another AI-powered tool for creating…coloring pages.
  Infographic: “Which College Degrees Have the Best Return on Investment?”
Though the salary one can earn upon graduation shouldn’t be the primary goal of education (says a privilege white person who was raised in a middle-income family), it’s certainly at least one factor. This infographic from Visual Capitalist provides an overview of which degrees can result in earning the most, and the least. To no one’s surprise, education is near the bottom of the list (though, to be fair, our benefits tend to move us further up – at least from what I read).  More Recent Articles |
