"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day…" - 5 new articles

The Time Travel App lets you use a “slider” to identify the year, then shows you a globe with markers around the world. Click on the markers, and you’ll see what was happening there at that time, with a summary and link to a Wikipedia page.

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

     

Google has been setting some kind of for creating the largest number of absolutely useless Artificial Intelligence tools, and I’ve blogged about a few of their many failures.

To be fair, they have also  developed two very useful ones – NotebookLM and Google Storybook. (and maybe Google’s New “Learn Your Way” Could Be Very Useful In Making Boring Textbooks More Accessible).

Yesterday, they unveiled a new one called ProducerAI for creating music.

It didn’t seem to me to be very good at actually producing music, especially compared to other similar AI tools.  I asked it to create a song about teaching English to Beginning English Language Learners, and it came up with something completely unrelated to that topic.

However, in addition to music, the tool also lets you create what they call “interactive spaces.”

I asked it if it was familiar with Jazz Chants, sometimes also called Grammar Chants (see The Best Sites (& Videos) For Learning About Jazz Chants).

Here was its answer:

I’m definitely familiar with them—Jazz Chants and grammar chants are a classic way to lock in those language patterns through pure rhythm. It turns a sentence into a groove. Let’s build a Grammar Chant Groove Box. We can create an interface where you can type in a phrase (like “I go, he goes, she goes”) and it maps it to a steady, 4/4 hip-hop or house beat so students can chant along in time. Should we start with a simple beat and a way to highlight the words as they hit the “one”?

I said “yes” and it immediately produced what you see below (I had to ask it a couple of time to clean up the HTML code so I could embed it here). It would use any kind of beat I wanted to teach any kind of grammar. Obviously, teachers can easily create any kind of chant we want, but this may make the process a little easier – less of a need to make copies and no more having to tap the desk with a ruler to create the beat!

I’m adding this info to THE BEST POSTS ABOUT USING ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE WITH ELLS

     

I’ve begun this weekly post where I’ll be sharing resources I’m adding to The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources or other related “Best” lists.

Also, check out “Best” Lists Of The Week: Social Emotional Learning Resources.

Here are this week’s picks:

Now is the Time for Courage is from the Harvard Business Review.

Why Kindness Isn’t a Nice To Have is from The Harvard Business Review.

6 Ways to Practice Everyday Courage is from The Harvard Business Review.

Why listening may be the most powerful medicine is from Science Daily.

I’m adding this video to The Best Resources For Learning About “Flow”:

Flow isn’t just satisfying. It’s productive. pic.twitter.com/jB9G93IhBJ

— Daniel Pink (@DanielPink) August 23, 2025

Social Emotional Learning, Student Attendance, and Chronic Absenteeism in Pre- and Post-Pandemic Periods is a new study.

     

jorono / Pixabay

Russian invaded Ukraine four years ago.

You might be interested in THE BEST TEACHING & LEARNING RESOURCES ABOUT THE RUSSIA/UKRAINE CONFLICT.

     

Ten years ago, in another somewhat futile attempt to reduce the backlog of resources I want to share, I began this occasional “Ed Tech Digest” post where I share three or four links I think are particularly useful and related to…ed tech, including some Web 2.0 apps.

You might also be interested in checking out all my edtech resources.

Here are this week’s choices:

Photo Stitcher les you create photo collages. I’m adding it to The Best Ways To Use Photos In Lessons.

Type in the name of an author you like into The Literature Map, and it will visually show you other similar authors. I’m adding it to The Best Places To Get Blog, Website, , Book, Movie, & Music Recommendations.

Ratatype lets teachers create free virtual classrooms for students to learn typing.  I’m adding it to The Best Sites Where Students Can Learn Typing/Keyboarding.

DocFlip is a “free PDF to Word Converter & Word To PDF.” I’m adding it to Not “The Best,” But “A List” Of Ways To Convert PDF & Word Documents.

Free Coloring Pages does what it says.

abcdkbd offers a lot of preschool learning games.

Wola lets teachers create learning games.