We wrapped-up final exams last week and had graduation on Saturday. Now that things have slowed down a bit I’ve been able to spend more time on my own professional development (Translation: I’ve been more actively engaged with my personal learning network (PLN) the past few days.). While my primary goals during the holiday break are to spend lots of time with family and friends and accomplish many of the things on our house to do list I do also have a few professionally-related goals. Thinking that some of you might also intend to spend part of your vacation time honing your skills I am sharing the following valuable teacher resources.
Starter Sheets by Andrew Churches
This is a series of job aids to help teachers and students begin using Web 2.0 tools and to give teachers ideas about how they could be integrated with teaching and learning.
21st Century Technology Skills, 2nd Edition by Liz B. Davis
This book (Paperback available for $9.94 or downlaod PDF for FREE) of technology tutorials specifically for teachers is filled with screenshots that will help you begin using many of the most commonly used Google applications, set up a wiki at Wikispaces, bookmark with Diigo and Delicious, create a VoiceThread, and more.
Teaching and Learning with Web 2.0 by IDT 7078
These modules were jointly developed by the graduate students in my special topics seminar during Summer 2008. The Table of Contents helps you navigate through the topics (Theories, Models and Strategies, Internet Safety, Overview of the term and characteristics of Web 2.0) and tutorials for the many genres of Web 2.0 tools contained in this ebook/wiki (Audio, Blogs, Wikis, Images, Presentation Tools, Video, Productivity and Collaboration Tools, Social Bookmarking, Social Networks, and more). Each module presents an overview of and tutorials for the most commonly used tools by teachers, provides classroom examples and provides resources to help you and your students begin using the tools.
Free Technology Toolkit for UDL in All Classrooms by Karen Janowski
Karen has organized a set of free resources that should be on every classroom computer to promote learning for all students based upon principles of Universal Design for Learning (UDL). These tools are fun and engaging and provide improved access and accommodate for learner differences.
Here are a few Google Docs tutorials for teachers that I recently shared.
