Tools Expand your curriculum with our timesaving educational resources that use technology to improve instruction across all content areas and grade levels. Find current resources that align with standards, promote higher-order thinking, and support the development of writing skills. Monitor student research and writing, evaluate student performance, and create bilingual online lessons, classroom calendars, and quizzes in less time than traditional methods. QuizStar Construct online quizzes that can include multimedia. RubiStar Create customized rubrics in English and Spanish. Arcademic Skill Builders Educational Games for students to polish math and language skills. PersuadeStar Provides tools for students to write persuasive essays. Classroom Architect Design a floor plan for your classroom. Equity Locate resources and tools to help you meet the needs of a diverse classroom. TrackStar View thousands of online lessons or quickly create your own. Think Tank Helps student set up topics for reports.
Arthur Play games! PreviousNext Print it out! Watch Videos! Dealing with your child's health can be challenging and sometimes scary. The continuum's ends My Australian friend Dr. Arthur Winzenried at Charles Stuart University in Wagga Wagga (voted 12 years running coolest name for a town in the entire world) and I have been commiserating about the diverse levels of expertise we encounter among those we teach. Arthur recently wrote: At CSU I teach Distance Ed and with all the technology issues decided on a bold approach by setting the group of Masters students (200 odd) the task of collaborating (in teams of 4) on a joint PowerPoint using only a wiki ... as their communication tool. The results are now in and the work is quite exceptional, but in their personal reflections, it showed that a significant number had never produced a PowerPoint before, let alone communicated via virtual chat, wiki etc. The group are essentially all working teacher-librarians in various parts of the world. My fussing was about teaching Web 2.0 tools to educators. Are our technologies bringing educators closer together?
AT Coalition | CforAT | CforAT Unlike existing resources, which are mostly geared for AT professionals, this resource is user friendly, even for people who don't know anything about AT at all. It is for people who are looking for AT themselves, as well as for Counselors, Human Resource Managers, ADA Coordinators, Librarians, Special Education Professionals - anyone who needs to get information about assistive technology. It's an information resource that gives users info on AT compatibility with broadband, and is responsive to user input and social content management. You can see the AT Coalition online resource by visiting the AT Coalition Website. Additionally, we are offering webinars on a variety of topics, including the importance of broadband to people with disabilities, and various AT-related topics.
10 Fun Tools To Easily Make Your Own Infographics People love to learn by examining visual representations of data. That’s been proven time and time again by the popularity of both infographics and Pinterest. So what if you could make your own infographics ? What would you make it of? It’s actually easier than you think… even if you have zero design skills whatsoever. Below are my two favorite infographic-making web 2.0 tools that I highly recommend. Click the name of each tool to learn more! Visual.ly One of the more popular ways to discover infographics, Visual.ly actually just launched a design overhaul of their website. Dipity Want to get a beautifully simply visualization of data over time? Easel.ly I absolutely love Easel.ly. Venngage Venngage (likely named for Venn diagrams) is a double threat. Infogr.am One of the most simple tools, Infogr.am lets you actually import data right into the site and then translate it all into useful visualizations. Tableau Public Photo Stats This one’s an iPhone app that’s worth trying out. What About Me?
Common Core State Standards Checklists for the Classroom Our common core standards checklists are just what you need to help you keep track of the standards taught in your classroom. Use these to make sure you are addressing all that you need to teach throughout the course of the school year. Keep track of when you have introduced, retaught and assessed each indicator. The most important parts of the common core are the anchor standards that carry through from kindergarten to high school. These have been included with each language arts checklist so that you don’t lose sight of your essential goals for teaching and learning. ***Please keep in mind that this checklist is more to be used as a system of checks and balances in your teaching for the year and not so much a “check off” sheet for these indicators to be checked and thought of as “done”. Reading Writing Language Speaking & Listening Math Reading Writing Language Speaking & Listening Math Reading Writing Language Speaking & Listening Math Reading Writing Language Speaking & Listening Math
The liberty of the networked (1) | open Democracy News Analysis Does technology liberate or enslave? When Prometheus first started the industrial revolution, Zeus thought he had liberated humanity and should be punished for it. The tension between technology as empowering versus technology as sinister control continues. This long essay, to be published in parts, tries to make sense of the libero-genic hope and potential of computer and communications technology in a framework that also makes sense of the dangers. Contents1 Newspapers and railroads are solving the problem of bringing the democracy of England to vote, like that of Athens, simultaneously in one agora. John Stuart Mill, de Tocqueville on Democracy, 1840, p165. Will the technology optimists always be with us? When Mill hopes to bring Athens to England, he is pointing back to the basic dilemma of modernity expressed 30 years earlier by Benjamin Constant (Constant, 1816) in his analysis of the liberty of the ancients and the moderns. Avoid the top, encourage the bottom. Arguments and Forces
Library Of Congress Unveils Massive Common Core Resource Center The Common Core State Standards (CCSS) is here and teachers are trying to figure out how to best integrate it into their tried-and-true lessons. They’re struggling to integrate technology to best augment CCSS. They are in desperate need of classroom materials that they can trust. Like a superhero, the U.S. Common Core Resources You can now do a ‘ Search By Standards ‘ query which lets you do exactly that. Find Library of Congress lesson plans and more that meet Common Core standards, state content standards, and the standards of national organizations. Professional Development Tools There are professional development tools that are sorted by grade level, ease of use, and written in plain English. Classroom Materials Created by teachers for teachers, these ready-to-use materials provide easy ways to incorporate the Library’s unparalleled primary sources into instruction. Lesson Plans – Teacher-created lesson plans using Library of Congress primary sources. Learn More