Wissahickon Staff Developers

"Spreadsheet data can tell compelling stories when placed into charts and other visualizations. Today we're excited to announce a new editor for charts, redesigned from the ground up as well as a set of new chart types."

We all know that Google offers a great search program, and you might even use other apps like Gmail or Google Calendar, but have you realized what Google has to offer for educators and students? Using Sites, Google Earth, Wave, and more, you can turn your classroom into a place where you can share, collaborate, and publish on the world wide web. Read on to find out how you can put Google to work for your class.

You've completed your lessons for the day, but you still have some time left and a group of eager students with nothing productive to do. What can you do in this time to keep your class under control until the bell rings? Here is a list of 10 things to do when you only have 5 minutes left in class.

&L advisor Kim Cofino, 21st Century Literacy Specialist at the Yokohama International School Bangkok in Japan, shares her priorities for starting the year off right.

Are there alternative presentation approaches beyond PowerPoint, and which are accessible to small colleges?

PIIC, a partnership of the Annenberg Foundation and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE), is a statewide resource for developing and supporting consistent, high-quality instructional coaching in Pennsylvania schools. PIIC builds on the work of the Pennsylvania High School Instructional Coaching Initiative (PAHSCI), which established a model for instructional coaching in 26 high schools in 16 high-needs districts. PIIC takes a different approach: creating the position of "instructional mentor" to support coaching in each of the state's 29 Intermediate Units (IUs) and providing resources and professional development for mentors, coaches, teachers, and administrators.

Testmoz is a test generator that sports 4 question types, automatic grading, a really simple interface and detailed reports. Testmoz is free, and does not require you (or your students) to register.

"Welcome to whichbook.net - a completely new way of choosing what to read"

"The report found that the use of Web 2.0 tools such as blogs, podcasts, wikis, and comics-creating software can heighten students' engagement and enhance their writing and thinking skills in all grade levels and across all subjects."

A great group of kid-friendly resources for doing research.  

A nice group of resources for digital storytelling from Joyce Valenza.

A nice group of websites used for writing and publishing online.. good for all levels. 

A great list of kid-friendly search engines from Joyce Valenza

"Are there specific technology tools that educators should use during the first weeks of school? Yes! In case you're not sure where to start, I asked my Twitter colleagues to tell me what tools they are planning to use, or have used, and why."

created the Bloomin' Peacock to show teachers the Blooms Taxonomy break down and the Bloomin' digital Peacock that shows how the digital tools in the supplement break down.

Learn it in 5 is a powerful library of how-to videos, produced by technology teachers, for the purpose of helping teachers and students create classroom strategies for today's 21st century's digital classroom. These step-by-step how-to videos walk teachers through Web 2.0 technology, demonstrating how to use Web 2.0 applications like blogs, social networks, podcasts, interactive videos, wikis, slidesharing and much more. Read more: http://www.learnitin5.com/#ixzz0xW08i1dV

"lino is a free sticky & canvas service that requires nothing but a Web browser."

As you know, federal law requires that all high schools, colleges and universities that receive federal funds educate students about the Constitution on September 17. The Annenberg Foundation Trust at Sunnylands has created the Sunnylands Constitution Project, a collection of classroom-ready digital resources, to help schools celebrate Constitution Day.

"This paper provides a set of recommendations for developing classroom performance assessments and scoring rubrics similar to the sets of recommendations for multiple choice tests provided in this journal by Frary (1995) and Kehoe (1995a, 1995b). The recommendations are divided into five categories: 1) Writing Goals and Objectives, 2) Developing Performance Assessments, 3) Developing Scoring Rubrics, 4) Administering Performance Assessments and 5) Scoring, Interpreting and Using Results. A broad literary base currently exists for each of these categories. This article draws from this base to provide a set of recommendations that guide the classroom teacher through the four phases of the classroom assessment process - planning, gathering, interpreting and using (Moskal, 2000a). Each section concludes with references for further reading."

Jay McTighe offers a sound overview of assessment practices that support learning.