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"Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day..." - 6 new articles

Update: School District Filters Using Awful YouTube Safety Mode
Two Useful TOK Class Resources: Jigsaw Instructions & Allegory Of The Cave Videos/Evaluation Forms
Five Most Popular Posts Of The Week
“Why I Became A Teacher” Is My Latest British Council Post
This Is Interesting: “8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On”
Quote Of The Day: Poverty & Self-Control
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Update: School District Filters Using Awful YouTube Safety Mode

Last spring I posted Our District Just Activated Awful YouTube Safety Mode – What's Been Your Experience?

I learned quickly that it was a pain in the butt across the country, with few – if any – solutions.

It continues to be a problem for us. Here’s what our District says:

When Google/YouTube began providing content in encrypted format by default, our content filters were unable to inspect results (e.g., videos, images, etc.) for permissibility in the K12 context. To meet our obligation to prevent restricted content delivery, we were forced to rely upon Google/YouTube's internal classification mechanism, which we understand is imprecise.

We also understand that Google and YouTube frequently block valuable instructional content, and are actively working with our vendor to find suitable alternatives to the current approach. Please bear with us as we search for a resolution to this issue.

And, though this “work around” is probably familiar to many, I thought that my colleague Shana Just laid it out very clearly and simply, and thought it would be useful for others to read and maybe share with their colleagues:

1. At home, download a free video conversion software (I use "Basic-YTD Video Downloader" but there are lots of them out there. Instructions may vary slightly depending on which one you use.).

2. Find the YouTube video you want and start it playing.

3. Copy the entire URL from the video and paste it into the downloader.

4. Select where you want to save the video. If you want to bring it to school, you will need to save it to an USB thumb drive or other portable drive.

5. Download the video. It will save it as a .mp4. You can also convert it or save it as a .mov file if you prefer QuickTime format.

6. Once the video is on the USB drive, you can plug it into any computer and play it without restriction.

7. Also might be an idea to create a Videos folder in your department folder on the Share drive.

I’d love to hear about your experiences and recommendations!

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Two Useful TOK Class Resources: Jigsaw Instructions & Allegory Of The Cave Videos/Evaluation Forms

Here are some useful resources I use in my IB Theory of Knowledge classes, and they are also applicable to other classes:

First, many teachers are familiar with the Jigsaw cooperative learning activity. You can learn more about it at The Best Sites For Cooperative Learning Ideas. It’s a regular activity I use in my IB Theory of Knowledge classes (and my ESL courses, too). With my TOK classes, I’ll often print out articles related to the Way Of Knowing or Area of Knowledge topic we’re studying (you can access my Over 2,000 Categorized Resources For IB Theory Of Knowledge Classes here). Then, I distribute these instructions, which pretty much explain how the Jigsaw activity is organized.

Secondly, we spend a few days studying Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. You can see many of those resources at our TOK class blog, along with examples of student videos – they have to create modern versions of it. This year’s students will be showing their own creations on Monday, and I’ll be adding some of them to that class blog post. Students viewing the videos will be using this anonymous evaluation form, which will be completed after each video is viewed, collected, and given to the video’s creators.

Any suggestions on how I can improve both activities is welcome!

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Five Most Popular Posts Of The Week

TV Shows We Used To Watch - 1964-2006 BBC Top of the Pops from Flickr via Wylio

Here’s the latest edition of this every-weekend feature . These are the posts appearing this blog that received the most “hits” in the preceding seven days (though they have originally been published on an earlier date).

You might also be interested in Most Popular Posts In 2015 – So Far and Eighth Anniversary Of This Blog — What Have Been My Most Popular Posts?

Here they are:

1. The Best Resources For Helping Teachers Use Bloom's Taxonomy In The Classroom

2. When You Have A Sub…

3. The Best Sites For Teaching About Latitude & Longitude

4. The Best Sites For Grammar Practice

5. The Best Online Activities For Learning About Time Zones

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“Why I Became A Teacher” Is My Latest British Council Post

Catherine M. Rooney, 6th grade teacher instructs her alert pupils on the way and how of War Ration Book Two from Flickr via Wylio

Why I Became A Teacher is the title of my latest post over at the British Council.

You might, or might not, find it interesting.

You can see all my previous British Council posts here.

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This Is Interesting: “8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On”

8 Strategies Robert Marzano & John Hattie Agree On is an interesting post to read. It’s unclear to me if either of the two men had any role in reviewing the piece before it was published.

Even if they didn’t, based on my own knowledge most of it does seem pretty accurate.

However, I’m not quite sure that the writer provides an entirely accurate assessment of either of the researcher’s perspective on direct instruction or, at least, describes it in the clearest terms. Especially for Marzano – he’s written fairly positively about studies that also show the shortcomings of direct instruction (see Is This The Most Important Research Study Of The Year? Maybe), so the info in this post seems a bit contradictory (though I can’t say with certainty that its incorrect – perhaps it’s just less nuanced?).

So, check out the post, but I’d also recommend going directly to both Hattie and Marzano’s actually writings….

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Quote Of The Day: Poverty & Self-Control

I’ve written a lot about the benefits of teaching Social Emotional Learning (see The Best Social Emotional Learning (SEL) Resources), as well as the pitfalls of a “Let Them Eat Character!” strategy (see The manipulation of Social Emotional Learning and The Best Articles About The Study Showing Social Emotional Learning Isn't Enough).

Thanks to my colleague Katie Hull, I just learned that The New Republic has republished a good article giving an overview of research reinforcing the dangers of viewing SEL as a magic pill. It’s titled Poor People Don’t Have Less Self-Control. Poverty Forces Them to Think Short-Term.

Here’s how it concludes: