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Great new ideas for professional development and alternate professional development

TeacherDirect is designed to establish a direct line of communication with classroom teachers and educators. The goal of TeacherDirect is to provide a way to share new instructional resources created by VDOE staff as well as make teachers aware of professional development and grant opportunities, and other information of special interest to teachers and their students.

Districts seek ways to implement universal design By ALEXANDER RUSSO Bringing UDL into the Mainstream, continued Bringing UDL into the Mainstream: Districts seek ways to implement universal design Bringing UDL into the Mainstream For the past several years, new teachers joining the Bartholomew (Ind.) Consolidated School Corporation have been encouraged to watch a video introducing the preferred method of teaching in the district. Rather than highlighting a single approach, however, the video is all about encouraging teachers to use varied ways and materials to present new information and to assess learning, be it aurally through talking iPads, visually through doodles on whiteboards, creatively through art projects and games, or by using old-fashioned pen and paper. That's because the preferred method of teaching in Bartholomew County is UDL, or Universal Design for Learning.

YouTube has earned a reputation for featuring brain cell-slaughtering fare such as the truly abysmal Fred and playing host to the some of the most depressingly stupid comments this side of Yahoo! News. But for every participant liberally dishing out misspelled racist, sexist and homophobic talking points, there is at least one whose channel genuinely offers something provocative and educational. For teachers hoping to infuse multimedia into their classrooms, YouTube makes for an excellent starting point. Plenty of universities, nonprofits, organizations, museums and more post videos for the cause of education both in and out of schools. The following list compiles some of the ones most worthy of attention, as they feature plenty of solid content appealing to their respective audiences and actively try to make viewers smarter.

Video explaining core words

Interactive Math and Science Simulations

Kodu is a new visual programming language made specifically for creating games. It is designed to be accessible for children and enjoyable for anyone. The programming environment runs on the Xbox, allowing rapid design iteration using only a game controller for input.

This free app from audible.com lets you: * Download audiobooks directly from your iPhone or iPod Touch * Listen to all your favorite titles wherever you are * Up-to-the minute news, detailed listening stats, badges

a new story available daily!

"A combination of focused activities and creative, open-ended technology projects can help you take a new approach to building literacy with your elementary students. Use these articles, samples, and lessons to find new ideas and approaches that will work for your learners"

EdReach provides a platform for passionate, outspoken educators- aiming to strengthen their voices by highlighting innovation in the field of education, through reporting critical educational news, providing commentary, and offering criticism of the educational issues of the day.

About Noodle Noodle is the first and only life-long education related search company in the world. We were started in 2011 by John Katzman, the founder of The Princeton Review and 2Tor. Our goal is to provide a recommendation engine to help anyone find educational opportunities at all levels, from K-12 to college, grad school, weekend classes, and professional development. Searching for the right educational opportunity can be intimidating and overwhelming. Too often this means that students go to the obvious school instead of the right school. We decided it was about time to solve that problem so we created Noodle. We offer accurate, extensive data on over 150,000 schools and hundreds of thousands of education providers. We help you find it with a personalized recommendation tool. Just answer a few questions and we'll match you with the school, tutor, or educational opportunity that suits your interests, budget, location and general preferences. You can also check out our Noodlings blog for advice and opinions from experts in their respective fields. It's full of explanations, how-to articles, top-10 lists and news related to all things education, from parenting to admissions to careers. We want to give you the knowledge you need to act on your educational interests with confidence. We know Noodle will revolutionize the educational search process by offering great information, data, and advice to everyone at no cost. But Noodle is a work in progress and always will be. We're always adding, updating and refining Noodle's data and search tools; and we need your help to keep getting better. Please let us know what you think about our data, recommendations, or the site in general so we can keep learning too. Follow us on Twitter, Facebook or Tumblr to give us feedback or just keep in touch!

"Overwhelmed by technology in special education? Listen to Talking with Tech for news, tips, and interviews about the latest and greatest in assistive technology, augmentative and alternative communication, and educational technology generally from Lucas Steuber, Rachel Madel, and Chris Bugaj. "

Blog sponsored by the manufacturers of Inspiration software.

Inspiration software blog for educators and parents to exchange ideas, research, news, trends and lessons

specializes in finding unique and creative & effective ways to use technology in the classroom. Tammy offers some fabulous free resources and ideas here at her NEW website

Descriptions of SmartArt graphics in MS Word/PowerPoint

The Internet has drastically changed the way that children interact with the world. They have access to in-depth knowledge, tools to express their creativity, and people from all over the world. Yet along with offering a fascinating, new way to connect with the world, the Internet also offers new risks 

"Excel 2010 is a spreadsheet application in the Microsoft 2010 Office Suite. Excel allows you to store, manipulate, and analyze data in organized workbooks for home and business tasks. New innovations in Excel 2010 include the enhanced data viewing features of Sparklines and Slicers."

Teen: for grades9-12

Brought to life by the National Center for Family Literacy, Wonderopolis provides a question, something to wonder about each day, along with information about how to find information about that wonder. Videos, text, vocabulary, and related activities allow students to expand their inquisitive minds!

Welcome to Wonderopolis®, a place where natural curiosity and imagination lead to exploration and discovery in learners of all ages. Wonders of the Day® will help you find learning moments in everyday life. Each day, an intriguing question is posed and explored in a variety of ways. Wonders of the day approach both informs and encourages new questions, sparking new paths of wonder and discovery in family and classroom settings…. And it is FREE!