Educators


Educator Resources

These excellent resources are available for your classroom and for your continued education.


Summer Ag Seminars
Summer Ag Seminars are county-based educator workshops that share useful information about agriculture's universal value and provide a connection to regional agriculture. Sign up for one of the seminars listed below or contact your County Farm Bureau to learn about opportunities in your area. Check the CFAITC Web site for new dates as they are announced.

July 15-16
Sonoma County Ag Boot Camp
Tim Tesconi (707) 544-5575

July 15-17
EAT Foundation Ag Tour and Seminars - Kings County
Kelly Deming, EAT Foundation (559) 707-8823

July 28-30
Kern County Teachers' Ag Seminar
Rebecca Been (661) 444-5375

July 29-31
EAT Foundation Ag Tour and Seminars - Kings County
Kelly Deming, EAT Foundation (559) 707-8823


Digital History

Digital History Website Support Teaching American History in K-12 Schools and Colleges
The Digital History website offers a variety of ways for students and teachers to actually do history. Seventy-two inquiry-based interactive modules called eXplorations provide extensive primary sources on such topics as Mexican, Tejano and Texian perspectives on the battle of the Alamo; Franklin D. Roosevelt's decision to relocate Japanese Americans during World War II; Lyndon B. Johnson's decision to escalate American involvement in the Vietnam War in 1964 and 1965; and children's perspectives on slavery, westward migration and World War II.

The site also allows students and teachers to create multimedia American history exhibitions. These exhibitions can include historical images from the extensive database which currently contains over 600 photographs, art works and digitized letters. Users can incorporate their own text in their exhibitions, and the presentations can be emailed, downloaded or saved on their servers.

Digital History contains resource guides for 44 historical eras and topics with historical overviews, links to the relevant Digital History textbook chapters, bibliographies, classroom handouts, charts, chronologies, film guides, historic newspaper articles and more.

VISIT ONLINE

Mintz, S. (2007). Digital History. Retrieved Nov. 29, 2007 from http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu


Doing What Works Website
Doing What Works (DWW) is an valuable new website sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education dedicated to helping educators identify and use effective teaching practices. Led by the Office of Planning, Evaluation and Policy Development at the U.S. Department of Education, most content is based on the What Works Clearinghouse which evaluates research on practices and interventions. DWW then provides examples of ways educators might apply those research findings.

The site includes:
• videos of leading researchers discussing research base behind high-quality instructional practice
• slideshows illustrating successful strategies for teaching English language learners (ELLs)
• tools to help teachers identify their strengths and weaknesses for improving ELL instruction

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Newsweek Education Program
The Newsweek Education Program provides educators with discounted classroom subscriptions to Newsweek magazine — a real-world text that encourages active learning — along with free weekly lesson plans, curriculum guides and teaching resources to make planning easier.

In addition, the site offers History Connections, a monthly column that links current news events with those from the past and provides inspiring ideas for use in history and other social-studies classrooms. Each month from October through April, the Newsweek Education Program also presents online extension activities for use with Colonial Williamsburg's Electronic Fieldtrips.

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Poetry in the Classroom

Bring Poetry into the Classroom
National Poetry Month is celebrated each April and was established in 1996 by the Academy of American Poets. The concept is to increase the attention paid by individuals and the media to the art of poetry, to living poets, to our poetic heritage and to poetry books and magazines. The academy wants to increase the visibility, presence and accessibility of poetry in our culture. National Poetry Month has grown into the largest literary celebration in the world.

Web resources
Great Poems to Teach
Compiled by the Teachers & Writers Collaborative, this list contains 341 poems submitted by teachers who participated in their workshop.

Glossary of poetic terms
Definitions of terms used in poetry.

Guide to Poetry & Literature Webcasts
A resource for locating webcasts of poets, fiction writers and critics as they read and discuss their own and each other's work. Includes links to Library of Congress sites and others that archive literature-related webcasts, links to streaming video, group poetry readings and literary award ceremonies.

Poetry 180: A poem a day for American High Schools
Billy Collins, former Poet Laureate of the United States selected poems for each day of school with high school students in mind.

Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is the nation's oldest federal cultural institution and the largest library in the world. Learn about the Poet Laureate, view webcasts and link to related sources.

Poetcasts
The official podcasts of the Academy of American Poets.

PoetryTeachers.com
Learn how to inspire a love of poetry in your students and teach them how to write different types of poems.


NASA Programs on Cable 16
NASA TV provides real-time coverage of agency activities and missions as well as resource video to the news media and educational programming to teachers, students and the public.

M | 8:00 am - 5:00 pm
Tu, Th | 8:00 am - 9:00 am
Tu, Th | 12:00 pm - 5:00 pm
W | 8:00 - 9:00 am|
W | 12:00 - 5:00 pm
F | 8:00 am - 8:00 pm
Sa, Su | 8:00 am - 8:00 pm

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CA School Garden Network

California School Garden Network
The California School Garden Network is a collaborative effort of educational institutions and corporate partners committed to enhancing learning through the use of teaching gardens in schools and other community settings. Gardening with children has the potential to improve academic performance, increase ecological literacy and improve dietary habits of children.

This site is a resource for educators who have or want to start a garden on their school campus and features lesson ideas, research to support garden-based learning, contact information for regional organizations and more.

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Dept. of Education

The U.S. Department of Education has brought together some of the nation's most effective teachers and practitioners to host workshops on how to make a difference in student achievement. Now available as online courses, these workshops help teachers improve student achievement.

The Teacher-to-Teacher workshops empower teachers by showing real-world examples of how scientifically-based research is successfully translated into classroom practice and by providing effective ways of using data to inform instruction. The workshop presenters are exemplary practitioners who share the strategies they have used to close the achievement gap and help all children learn and progress. Workshops are free, provide quick and easy access to instructional materials and can be used by individuals or groups.

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Museum of Tolerance
The lessons and activities included in this site are designed to bridge the educational experience in the Museum of Tolerance with the learning that takes place in the classroom and beyond.

Curriculum Alignment
The Museum Experience promotes several overarching themes and learning objectives which support the California Reading/Language Arts and History-Social Science Frameworks and are aligned to the California Content Standards for English-Language Arts and History-Social Science grades 7-12.

Learning Objectives
Themes and learning objectives include the Power of Words and Images, Dynamics of Discrimination; Pursuit of Democracy and Diversity; and Personal Responsibility.

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ArtsEdge, the National Arts and Education Network, supports the placement of the arts at the center of the curriculum and advocates creative use of technology to enhance the K-12 educational experience.

ArtsEdge empowers educators to teach in, through and about the arts by providing the tools to develop interdisciplinary curricula that fully integrate the arts with other academic subjects. The site offers free, standards-based teaching materials for use in and out of the classroom as well as professional development resources, student materials and guidelines for arts-based instruction and assessment.

A program of the John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts, ArtsEdge is also a partner of Thinkfinity, the Verizon Foundation’s signature digital learning platform designed to improve educational and literacy achievement. Thinkfinity is built upon the foundation’s flagship education program formerly known as Verizon MarcoPolo, and the foundation’s comprehensive online resource for literacy, the Thinkfinity Literacy Network.


Educational Cable TV in Sacramento
The Sacramento Educational Cable Consortium (SECC) provides a variety of programming for educators such as Fairfax Network, Kennedy Center and NASA.

VISIT ONLINE

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PBS TeacherLine
K-12 teachers have a new resource available to help them acquire skills to prepare their students for a successful future.

SECC and partners KVIE and KNPB (Reno public TV) now offer KVIE PBS TeacherLine which provides online professional development through facilitated courses that meet national and local standards, supportive and collaborative learning communities and exemplary Internet-based resources.

In addition to the courses, teachers benefit from ongoing, facilitated discussions with teachers from across the country and a Mathematics Academy of self-paced professional development and other resources and educational content. The facilitated, online courses are aligned with national and local standards and provide quality professional development. The first course begins with a local face-to-face meeting and the rest of the class time is completed online in six weeks (or approximately 30 hours).    

TeacherLine benefits include:
• Convenience of completing coursework online
• Two professional development credits and graduate credit is also available
• Courses in multiple subjects, including math, reading, science, technology integration and more
• Discounted prices  

Links
• View course descriptions

• Register for a course

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IN THE CLASSROOM

50 Years of the Space Age
The Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum commemorates the 50th anniversary of Sputnik and the beginning of the Space Age with several special presentations on the web and in the Museum. Excerpts of the book After Sputnik: 50 Years of the Space Age are online as well as a timeline to explore key objects and events from the past 50 years of the space age.

Reading Rockets
Offers a wealth of reading strategies, lessons and activities designed to help young children learn how to read and read better. Online reading resources assist parents, teachers and other educators in working with struggling readers who require additional help in reading fundamentals and comprehension skills development.

Poets.org
A wealth of resources including discussion forums for teachers to share ideas and seek help from colleagues, essays about poetry, extensive Web links; curriculum units and lesson plans, poet biographies and more than 2,000 poems. The site is both an interactive professional development program and a virtual community enabling all teachers to access free poetry resources. Teaching tools include innovative, classroom-tested curricula and discussion forums for strategies and questions about teaching poetry at the primary, secondary and university level.

Education World
Includes a search engine for educational Web sites only so educators can find information without searching the entire Internet; original content including lesson plans, practical information for educators, information on how to integrate technology in the classroom and articles written by education experts. Education World's goal is to make it easy for educators to integrate the Internet into the classroom.

National Education Technology Plan helps states and districts prepare today's students for the opportunities and challenges of tomorrow. From the U.S. Department of Education, this site includes information on the plan, how to participate, action steps and success stories.

Internet2 K20 brings innovators in K-12, community colleges, universities, libraries and museums into appropriate regional, national and international advanced networking efforts. Enhances teaching and learning by facilitating projects that explore the ways in which advanced network applications, services, tools and digital content can extend access to education and educational resources.

Parks Online Resources for Teachers and Students (PORTS) is designed to continue the California State Parks mission and to supplement teaching academic content standards in California's public schools. PORTS uses California's K-12 High-Speed Network (HSN) to deliver study units — designed to create the perfect field trip — to classrooms statewide. Materials necessary for classroom lessons and a videoconference with a park ranger are included.

California K-12 High Speed Network
K12HSN is a state program which provides network connectivity, Internet services, teaching and learning application coordination and videoconferencing coordination and support for California’s K-12 community.

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence (FREE) was created after more than 30 federal agencies formed a working group in 1997 to make hundreds of federally supported teaching and learning resources easier to find. New teaching and learning resources are added each month. Subjects include arts, educational technology, foreign languages, health, language arts, math, physical education, science, social studies and vocational education. There are also student resources in these areas, pdf brochures and more.

Educational Uses of Digital Storytelling provides resources for teachers and students to explore the literal anatomy of the digital story as well as its evolution and emergence.

Cable in the Classroom (CIC) is the cable telecommunications industry's nonprofit education foundation. For more than 15 years, CIC has focused on improving teaching and learning in schools, at home and in the community through the use of new technologies and engaging content.

CLRN (California Learning
Resource Network)
identifies supplemental materials in electronic forms which meet California curriculum frameworks and standards.

The Internet Public Library provides library services to Internet users: finding, evaluating, selecting, organizing, describing and creating information resources.

WestEd is a nonprofit research, development and service agency that works with education and other communities to promote excellence, achieve equity and improve learning for children, youth and adults.

PBS TeacherSource provides more than 3,000 free lesson plans and activities for pre K-12 correlated to national and local standards. Lesson plans tied to quality PBS programming.

Very Special Arts promotes artistic excellence and provides through the arts educational opportunities for children of all abilities. Educates the general public and promotes awareness of the capabilities and accomplishments of people with disabilities.

PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

TICAL (Technology Information Center for Administrative Leadership)
provides professional development for district and site administrators that focuses on digital school leadership and integrating technology into all facets of school administration.

PBS TeacherLine is a national program committed to helping teachers acquire the skills they need to prepare students for a successful future. Provides online professional development through facilitated courses that meet national and local standards, supportive and collaborative learning communities and exemplary Internet-based resources.

CILC (Center for Interactive Learning and Collaboration)
Premier provider of videoconferencing services and program content. Works closely with an organization to determine how videoconferencing can enable participants to reach their goals.

CTAP (California Technology Assistance Program) provides assistance to local school districts and schools to integrate technology into teaching and learning.

ADULT LEARNERS

Adult Learning Activities increases literacy while improving life skills. Online lessons include listening, vocabulary, spelling, comprehension and writing.

English for All (EFA) is a free, multimedia system for older adolescents and adults seeking to learn English as a Second Language (ESL). Includes streaming video, interactive pages and a management tracking system.

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