Larry Ferlazzo's Blog

Larry Ferlazzo is a published educator who has won numerous awards for his blog. His blog is about education - in his title he says it is for teaching ELL, ESL and EFL, but the resources could be used in a variety of classes.

He posts links to a number of diverse websites everyday, which he gives a short summary blurb about what it is and how it could be useful. As well as websites, he posts articles, lesson plans, current events, etc. For example, the day the volcano activated in Iceland, he had links to the news that could be used in a classroom. Since the erruption, he has updated those links and organized them as the volcano continues to be of importance in world news. He has an archive of all his posts. The site also has an English Website section with numerous lesson plan exercises, videos and original productions that start at a beginning ESL level and continue to the advanced. One area also links to other websites that are oganized by themes such as shopping, animals, garden, etc. Topics covered also include other school subjects.

Larry's blog is a fountain of educational knowledge. Some days it's almost too much, but you know his materials are current and updated as he goes. He has a search function on his blog, which is quite general, so you would need to look around to find what you might be looking for. Otherwise he has quite an organized site through active, working links. Just be sure to check out which country you've been linked to, so you are aware of the potential cultural effects, and so your computer can handle the downloading requirements before you get too excited about an activity - do your due diligence. About his original videos in ESL section, they are meant for youth and young adults, but there are other activities that are ageless. The homepage of the blog is quite texty, so the instructor would need to give students embedded links to activities. I might sound negative, but I do think Larry's blog is a valuable CALL resource.

Larry's link is http://larryferlazzo.edublogs.org/