Tag Archives: Curriculum

F-R-E-E Educational Webinars for Teachers and Parents

Given our economy, professional development has been slim for many educators. There is a plethora of free webinars online. Have fun learning!

Life is busy and for those of us who do not have time to attend a class for learning or pleasure, webinars can be just the tool needed to achieve our goal. Given technology, webinars can be the next best thing for teachers too.

PBS Teachers Live Should be in Every Teacher’s Toolbox

PBS Teachers Live offers a wealth of webinars in many areas across the disciplines. For example, if a teacher were interested in educating students about Earth Day in April (hopefully), then PBS Teachers Live would be
a valuable tool. Teachers sign up for free and log on to various webinars, full of ideas, lesson plans and across the curriculum connections, to name a few.

Webinars, an Awesome Resource for Educators

After doing some research, here are a few webinar sites across the Internet that is recommended by those within the world of education:

Education Week (one of my personal favorites) offers many enlightening webinars. Check out “E-educators’ Evolving Skills”…talk about relevant!

American Statistical Association offers various webinars…currently hosting a K-12 “Meeting within a Meeting” for Science and Math Teachers

Exploring Middle School MiddleWeb is a blog powered by Typepad. They are a promoter of 21st Century Learning and offer live and archived webinars. Check out the latest webinar: The National Middle School Association is teaming up with the NSF-funded Middle School Portal to offer “Free math and Science Webinars”…the goal was to not only make the training affordable but user friendly; teachers could watch from home.

Webinars and Educational Professional Development

The life of a teacher is very demanding and organization is necessary. This is also true for those entrusted to lead and provide professional development for their educational staff. Given this amazing age of technology, regardless of budget, there is no reason that professional development is not occurring within schools.

All of the webinars posted here in this article, can be utilized to strengthen and enrich any school faculty. Time can be manipulated and educators can watch at their own pace or educators can be assembled and view webinar as a whole and collaborate in groups afterwards. This type of professional development is only going to increase not decrease as we progress further into the world of technology. There are many curriculum developers/professional development trainers, who utilize programs like these mentioned to create meaningful professional development for educators around the world.

Given our economy, we are going to need to be more creative with our training. Training cannot stop due to funding. Teachers still need to be prepared to teach the 21-Century student, we just need to be creative. MSN as created a fabulous tool for any organization looking to create “living” documents. For educators, this tool can be multi-faceted and utilized with students or within a building for aligning curriculum. This is just two of unlimited possibilities with OneNote. Check out the free OneNote Webinar below for further details.

OneNote and Education:
This MSDN blog was created to have a dialog about OneNote and education, including sharing ideas, resources, and building community with teachers, students and faculty.

Parents are the first teachers. All of these webinars mentioned are open to anyone interested in learning and changing the life of a child. This will be one of many articles written on the topic of professional development within the world of education. There is a plethora of free programs out there for all of us to learn and use, to meet the needs of our children,
our future.

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

 

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Teachers are Planters of Seeds…What Kind of Seeds are you Planting?

As I sit and review my notes for Unlock the Teacher‘s first professional development session for the 2011/2012 school year, I reflect and wonder, what
words can I provide that might inspire and instill hope for all the amazing teachable moments that will happen in the life of the teachers with whom I will be speaking to tomorrow. Teaching is SO much more than a job, I honestly believe it is a calling; an urge that a person feels to make a difference, and is played out in the classroom.

We often think about all the teachable moments that happen throughout the school year for our students, our future. However, I also think of the amazing teachable moments that occur for the individual teacher. I hope that at this time of year, the teacher is reflecting and writing a curriculum map for the school year that will be used as a master plan.

The teacher, who starts the school year, is often different from the one who finishes it. Hopefully, this is the case, as a true reflective practitioner will evolve throughout the year as his/her students will…keeping in mind no two students are alike, no school year should ever mirror another for a teacher.

In regards to a teacher’s master curriculum plan, this is just a tool that is utilized to create lessons full of discovery for each quarter, with one scaffolding on the next to ensure that students are maximizing their potential. However, this is just a plan, as all good teachers know, true
“teachable moments” sometimes just happen and must be capitalized on in the moment.

I have chosen the theme of “Teachers are Planters of Seeds” for tomorrow.  I have had the pleasure of working with this staff on curriculum alignment and I am honored to be asked back into their building on their first day back to school before their eager students arrive next week.

I think as teachers, we have the awesome power to create new worlds in our students’ minds. We can take them to places they might not ever get an opportunity to experience, tell them and show them how to achieve the impossible dream OR we can crush the human spirit with one angry glance or snide comment.

Think about what kind of world we hope to have in the future and remember that it all begins with how we treat our children today, what opportunities we provide, what words of encouragement or defeat did we choose to utilize at the moment of chaos in the classroom. When we train our eyes to see the good and choose to use words to share the good, amazing things can happen!

 

Children Learn What They Live

By Dorothy Law Nolte

 

If children live with criticism,
They learn to condemn.

If children live with hostility,
They learn to fight.

If children live with ridicule,
They learn to be shy.

If children live with shame,
They learn to feel guilty.

If children live with encouragement,
They learn confidence.

If children live with tolerance,
They learn to be patient.

If children live with praise,
They learn to appreciate.

If children live with acceptance,
They learn to love.

If children live with approval,
They learn to like themselves.

If children live with honesty,
They learn truthfulness.

If children live with security,
They learn to have faith in themselves and others.

If children live with friendliness,
They learn the world is a nice place in which to live!

 

What kind of seeds are you getting ready to plant this school year?

May we all continue to seek knowledge in all things,

Denise

 

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We are so Excited to Hear from Principals Around USA~Here is a Quick Contact List for Unlock the Teacher LLC and as Requested, a Synopsis of our Workshops

We are thrilled with the response to the workshops we have been using this year in some schools and the workshops we just created for the 2011-2012 school year.

A Brief Breakdown of Workshops

Common Core State Standards Workshops

Cornerstone for Successful Implementation –District Leaders,
Principals

Cornerstone for Successful Implementation – Building Leaders

Common Core State Standards “Nuts & Bolts”

Curriculum Alignment Part I

~Collaboration is Key!

Curriculum Alignment Part II

~Presentation and Mini-Group Workshop

Unlock the Teacher
LLC Workshops for Educators and Administrators

“How to Utilize ePublishing in the Classroom” Writing
Workshop for Grades 1-12

“ePublishing as an Educational Revenue Resource” Workshop

Unlock the Teacher
LLC Workshops for Students

Teen ePublishing Workshop

Anti-Bullying “Words Hurt” Workshop Session I (Grades K-3)

Anti-Bullying “You Can Make a Difference” Workshop Session
II (Grades 4-6)

Anti-Bullying “Words, Action, Character” Workshop Session
III Grades 7 & 8

Anti-Bullying “Getting the Big Picture” Workshop Session IV
(Grades 9-12)

“ePublishing and Writing” Workshop for Grades 1-12

 

We are beginning to pencil in training.

Please utilize the following information to contact us for teacher, principal or superintendent recommendations or availability:

Denise Ball

Unlock the Teacher LLC

Chief Executive Officer

Denise@unlocktheteacherllc.com

 

Trisha Vaughn

Unlock the Teacher LLC

Chief Financial Officer

trisha@unlocktheteacherllc.com

Sue Atwell

Unlock the Teacher LLC

Chief Marketing Officer

Sue@unlocktheteacherllc.com

Leave questions or comments on our website: www.unlocktheteacher.com

or teachme@unlocktheteacherllc.com

Our Mission

At Unlock the Teacher LLC, our mission is to make a difference for all by opening doors of education; the doors are many, they are unique and tailored to each individual, each student and each business.

“The only person who is educated is the one who has learned how to learn and change.” — Carl Rogers

May we seek kowledge in all things,

Denise

 

 

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Thank You!

This is a THANK YOU blog for all of you who have so generously responded to this blog, passed on the word and through your generosity, allowing me to share the good in education. 

I am so grateful for the support, the positive comments and the dialogue with local and …not so local school districts about training packages.  The “ePublishing Workshop for Teens” is a hot topic and I will post some mini clips of our next workshop this Friday, to share the enthusiasm that young people are having when they see the wonderful opportunities for their writing.  As an educator, it always gives me goose bumps to see students get excited or find validity in the work they produce in the classroom; it is a win-win for educators, students and families.

Recently, we provided a min-ePub training for 8 students and parents. Everyone in attendance came prepared with laptop and samples of writings: short stories, poetry, cartoons etc.  It was a teachable/learning moment when the parent realized the amazing work their children were capable of producing, and for the teens as they discovered that their authentic work, their ideas, dreams and creativity were not only good, but inspiring for all the adults in the group.  The coup de grace of the training was when all participants realized the opportunities that were available with ePublishing authentic work. They discovered, that they could utilize proceeds to  establish college funds, travel adventures etc. with publishing authentic, creative eBooks.

We give our next ePublishing Workshop this Friday to 100+ teens for a local school district, and I personally cannot wait!

Did you know that the author of that amazing Eragon series was a teen when he published Eragon as an eBook? Of course, Knopf Publishing, a part of Random House, picked it up and signed the whole series within months. An example of a family working together to make a dream come true.

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things…

Denise

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“All Around our Town” to Launch the 1st of March in 2011

My community has many beautiful parks.

All proceeds from the eBook for  “All Around our Town”  will be donated to St. Mary’s School in Royal Oak, Michigan.  This school has a wonderful curriculum plan that incorporates art and reading across the curriculum. 

The art teachers exhibits a passion for her craft and enjoys showcasing the many beautiful art projects created by her students. The 7th and 8th graders are so well read in this building, I enjoy stopping in to ask them what they are reading and why.  I can not wait to see what wonderful ways this building will utilize our gift.

May we continue to seek knowledge in all things-

Denise

 

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Filed under Achievement Gap Blogs, Common Core State Standards "Nuts & Bolts", Grants and Funding Resources, March 2011 Promoting Literacy Campaign, Promoting Literacy, Recommended Books to Read, to Learn, to Inspire