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Most public schools are traditionally run by principals and administrators, who defer to policies dictated by the state. But a group of 60 schools across the country is subverting the top-down system, putting teachers in full control of running their schools. It's called the Teacher Powered Schools initiative, led by Education Evolving, and the goal is to seed a movement that will inspire other teachers in schools across the country to realize their potential as leaders. To that end, Education Evolving released a study [PDF]  in partnership with Center for Teaching Quality, which indicates that 91 percent of Americans believe teachers should have greater influence over decisions that affect student learning. What's more, 81 percent of Americans indicate they trust teachers to make "schools run better." In this model of teacher-run schools, teams of teachers "work collaboratively as leaders and partners to make professional decisions over the areas that matter most for their students, including selection of colleagues, evaluation, budget and resources, curriculum and school-level policymaking.""

There are new web 2.0 tools appearing every day. Although some of these tools were not originally meant for use in the classroom, they can be extremely effective learning tools for today's technology geared students and their venturesome teachers. Many of these teachers are searching for the latest products and technologies to help them find easier and efficient ways to create productive learning in their students. More and more teachers are using blogs, podcasts and wikis, as another approach to teaching. We have created a list of 100 tools we think will encourage interactivity and engagement, motivate and empower your students, and create differentiation in their learning process.

There are new web 2.0 tools appearing every day. Although some of these tools were not originally meant for use in the classroom, they can be extremely effective learning tools for today's technology geared students and their venturesome teachers. Many of these teachers are searching for the latest products and technologies to help them find easier and efficient ways to create productive learning in their students. More and more teachers are using blogs, podcasts and wikis, as another approach to teaching. We have created a list of 100 tools we think will encourage interactivity and engagement, motivate and empower your students, and create differentiation in their learning process.

"One of the wonderful video resources I have been recommending for teachers and students is TED Ed video library on YouTube. This library features a wide variety of educational videos curated specifically for education community. These TED Ed videos are explanatory tutorials and animations  that cover a given topic . Many of these animations are created by educators and teachers in partnership with professional animators. TED Ed videos are ideal for flipped classroom learning. Teachers can sift through the videos created by other teachers and share them with students on TED Ed website. TED Ed allows teachers to build a lesson around any of these videos. They can also add questions to the videos that students can answer  and get instant feedback on their answers. For those of you interested in learning about how to create flipped lessons using TED Ed, I would recommend reading this visual guide."

For over a decade, TeAchnology has been providing free and easy to use resources for teachers dedicated to improving the education of today's generation of students. We feature 42,000+ lesson plans, 9,000 free printable worksheets, rubrics, teaching tips, worksheet makers, web quests, math worksheets, and thousands of other great teacher resources. We are the online teacher resource that is designed to help busy Kindergarten through High School teachers.

"TeachersFirst is a rich collection of lessons, units, and web resources designed to save teachers time by delivering just what they need in a practical, user-friendly, and ad-free format. Busy teachers, parents, and students can find resources using our robust search tools. Sign Up (Free)"

The web is a great place for teachers to find tech tools for use inside and outside the classroom. There are now dozens of sites that offer free course authoring tools, tutorial and quiz makers, blogging platforms, gradebooks, and social applications that have been designed with the teacher in mind. Here are 15 free tech tools to explore in your spare time.

This skills assessment evaluates teachers based on ISTE standards for teachers.

Differentiating instruction is a time-tested way of thinking about meeting students' needs as they make progress toward achievement or learning targets.  Differentiation is an elegant mindset that suggests to teachers a framework that permits them to engage students while focusing on learning results, and digital technologies offer many opportunities to differentiate instruction in meaningful ways.  However, differentiating instruction takes a concerted planning effort on our parts as teachers and teacher educators. This is especially so as we develop a mindset that differentiation can be effective. In this post, I propose a three-phase approach to planning differentiated instruction: Where do we start planning for differentiated instruction with technology, What are considerations for who we teach, what we teach, and how we plan? How do I put it all together?

"Only one Pets in the Classroom grant per teacher, per school year is permitted. Teachers who apply for more than one grant in a school year may be disqualified from the program. Pets in the Classroom grants are offered to Pre-Kindergarten through 8th grade classes only in both public and private schools. Home school settings and high schools do not qualify for grants at this time. These grants are intended to support pets or aquariums in the classroom for the purposes of teaching children to bond with and care for their pets responsibly. The welfare of the small animals involved is of paramount importance. These grants must not be used for the purposes of research or experiments of any kind."

"How-to video: Creating a digital classroom project, using Glogster Brief synopsis: With Glogster's education platform, located at edu.glogster.com, teachers can expand their use of the web-based poster creation tool, Glogster. The edu Glogster site gives teachers more power than the standard Glogster application. With the educational Glogster Web 2.0 application, teachers can register their students for their own glogster accounts, all of which are contained in the teacher's Glogster account. Students can complete projects on one unit (see how-to video above) and those projects can be shared in the classroom Glogster site."

"Microsoft offers free tools to help engage students in a variety of subject areas-from art to music to science and beyond. Teachers can use these interactive tools to encourage self-directed learning or to create fun, dynamic group projects. The tools are simple to download from the Web. For the most part, they don't require special training, so you can start using them quickly and help your students do the same. "

5 Science Resources for Science Teachers

Top 100 educational videos on YouTube.

Music Teacher Resources

" Recently, I have been exploring the use of Google Hangouts to record conversations with experienced iPad using teachers in our district. Understanding Google Hangouts Google Hangouts is a multi-user video conference (think FaceTime or Skype, but with multiple faces).  To get a better understanding, view my posts here. There are many ways for teachers to use Google Hangouts: holding virtual meetings, hosting guest speakers, or creating a video podcast."

Welcome to resourcesforhistoryteachers a multimedia/multicultural wikispace for teachers and students, created by teachers and students

"TEACHERS EASY GUIDE TO THE MOST IMPORTANT WEB TOOLS IN EDUCATION"

"View the Common Core State Standards in one convenient FREE app! A great reference for students, parents, and teachers to easily read and understand the core standards. Quickly find standards by subject, grade, and subject category (domain/cluster). This app includes Math standards K-12 and Language Arts standards K-12"