Larry Ferlazzo's Websites of the Day

At times lesson planning can become a tedious chore for teachers, especially if we keep recycling the same materials over and over again. How do we make sure our lessons are dynamic, exciting and memorable for our students? I think it's always good to look for new materials and incorporate different approaches, one of which is benefitting from ICT. 

A particularly good blog that I know of which hosts insightful resources for English language teaching or independent learning is Larry Ferlazzo's. What Larry seems to have done exceptionally well on his blog is to recap a cornucopia of useful websites and online tools (as the blog title implies). These web links range from language learning sites to history, social studies, classroom management to character building. Not only will it appeal to language teachers, but also to subject teachers in general, tutors or even parents.  There are dozens of links to materials (lesson plan ideas, sample activities, presentations, etc.) or online applications and amusing yet relevant videos. Larry posts on a daily basis so you'd know that these materials are up-to-date and revolving around current issues. An example of a post I like is the one on Bloom's Taxonomy, which teachers in Indonesia, where I used to study and work, are obsessed with - certainly useful to 'renovate' our lesson plans.

If you glance over at his blog, although at first view it might seem a little busy, you'd see that he has also set up a website and radio program that we teachers can certainly take notes from. Larry's English Website I guess is specifically for ELT materials and web links, pre-categorized according to the skill (even poetry), level of difficulty and topic. Seeing Larry's compilation, you wouldn't believe how many materials are out there for teachers to use! I just knew from the site that there's a timeline website where you can make virtual timelines - great for writing or reading comprehension (text transformation).

Larry also features in the BAM! Radio Network, and I think you would find his Q&A sessions with fellow professionals (teachers), authors and academics refreshing. Here is one I like on how to work with unsatisfactory textbooks: 

So if you're looking for some inspiration on materials that would appeal to your students, this is a recommended blog. One flaw though, because there is an abundant of choices and not much commentary on procedures are given, we would have to be selective ourselves. For other useful ICT blogs, scroll over to my blog list on the right.