On Tuesday, December 29th - the Library will close at 4:30 pm.

The SERC Library Staff wishes you ----

Winter Begins!

                               
Oh No ---- Winter begins, we so hope not!  We are rather enjoying this spring/fall weather!  I know, I know --- the law of averages just might win out El Nino or not!  Just remember from this day forward --- we gain daylight!

Here are some interesting Winter sites:

First Day of Winter 2015 - Old Farmer's Almanac
Shortest Day of the Year in the Northern Hemisphere - timeanddate.com
Everything you need to know:  December solstice 2015 - EarthSky
Everything you need to know about the Winter Solstice:  From astronomy to religion, the year's shortest day brings enduring mysteries, by Brian Handwerk, National Geographic, 12-21-15
Ring in the new season:  December Solstice happens next week, by Geoff Gaherty, Starry Night Education, space.com, 12-18-15

Activities:
Education World:  Celebrate Winter! Solstice Activites
Winter - Teacher Resources - TeacherVision
Winter Activities and Printables for Teacher - apples4theteacher.com

A few free webinars

Content Provided by: Amherst Central School District Saves Money and Improves Collaboration With Google for Education In this webinar, you'll hear from Amherst Central School District about how they leveraged Google Apps and Chromebooks to save money, increase productivity and collaboration, and extend learning beyond school hours. Get a peek at Amherst's decision making process, learn about the obstacles and challenges they overcame, and hear about the success they experienced with their implementation of Google Apps for Education and Chromebooks. Participants will: Get an overview of the Google for Education solution which includes Chromebooks, tablets with Google Play for Education, and Google Apps for Education Learn how this solution can be used to improve student learning, collaboration, and engagement Hear first-hand experience from a district using Chromebooks in the classroom to support their curriculum focus Be able to pose their questions to Amherst Central School District and Google Guests: Donna Frymire, district technology integration specialist, Amherst Central School District, Amherst, N.Y. Anthony Panella, assistant superintendent of curriculum and instruction, Amherst Central School District, Amherst, N.Y. This webinar will be moderated by Stephen Fang, regional manager, Google for Education Register Here Students in Charge: Self-Assessment and Learning to Learn Schools are awash in learning goals, data, and information about how students are doing. But often, the students themselves are left in the dark about what they're learning and why, where they stand, and what they've got to do to get to the next step. Increasingly, teachers and schools are trying to help students own their own learning process by giving them time and tools to self-assess. Join us as we define student self-assessment and explore its tie to cognitive science and the growth mindset, explore strategies for helping students self-assess, and lay out challenges and misconceptions about student self-assessment. Underwriting for this webinar has been provided by the Raikes Foundation Guests: Heidi Andrade, associate professor, School of Education, University at Albany, State University of New York Angela Fremont-Appel, art teacher, New York City Public Schools This webinar will be moderated by Jaclyn Zubrzycki, contributing writer, Education Week Register now for this free live webinar. Sponsored by: Districts' Push for "Interoperability": Managing the Sea of Ed-Tech Content K-12 districts have struggled for years to manage the flood of data and content provided by different ed-tech vendors providing curriculum and instructional tools in their districts. Too often, administrators, teachers, and students are stuck trying to navigate a sea of different sign-ons and systems for all the various educational software and systems in use across their schools. But now, a growing number of districts are trying to clear through that muddle by requiring "interoperability" of ed-tech vendors—basically, asking them to ensure that their systems mesh with one another. The goal is to create a level of compatibility that allows K-12 users to access the content they want, without having to wade through different commercial providers' websites or proprietary systems. In this webinar, a pair of guests who are deeply familiar with the work of K-12 distrircts, and with interoperability, describe the benefits and challenges for K-12 officials in implementing the policy. Guests: Kecia Ray, executive director, Center for Digital Education, former executive director of learning technology, Metro Nashville school district Serena Sacks, chief information officer, Fulton County, Ga., school district This webinar will be moderated by Sean Cavanagh, associate editor, Education Week Register Here

Webinar

Helping Students Find a Good College Match Finding a college that's a good fit is challenging for any student, but especially for those who are the first in their families to attend college. In this webinar, we'll hear how one high school counselor helps her first-generation students navigate the college-planning maze. And we'll review national research that can offer guidance about the best ways to help first-generation and low-income students avoid key stumbling blocks on the road to college. Underwriting for this webinar has been provided by the Jack Kent Cooke Foundation Guests: Jessica Howell, executive director of research, College Board Lauren Quigley, director of college counseling, Young Women's Leadership School of Astoria (New York) This webinar will be moderated by Catherine Gewertz, associate editor, Education Week

Register now for this free live webinar.

Happy Thanksgiving!

               

Enjoy your Thanksgiving Holiday!  

The SERC Library Staff

Webinars

Free Webinar on Balanced Leadership

What is it that makes some school leaders great and others not so great? Why are some principals able to turn around their schools, when others turn around themselves and walk away from their schools, as evidenced by the exceptionally high turnover rate among school leaders? Based on a scientific analysis of decades of research and years of experience working with principals solving real problems, we've arrived at a simple answer: Balance.

Join Bryan Goodwin, lead author of the new ASCD book, Balanced Leadership forPowerful Learning , for this in-depth webinar where he will share practical strategies that self-professed ordinary people have used to become extraordinary leaders. You will learn about the three key roles that leaders must balance to be effective: visionary strategists, optimistic change agents, and purpose driven team builders. 

Balanced Leadership for Powerful Learning
Thursday, December 3, 2015, 3:00 p.m. ET (US)
Presented by Bryan Goodwin, McREL International

Register Now

From Chalkbeat:       

Student Achievement Series:

The Impact of Positive Behavior Reinforcement on the K-12 Classroom

Wednesday, December 8, 2015

1 PM Central

Hosted by:  Jimmy Myrick, Student Achievement Expert

Reserve your set today!

From Brookes Publishing - TILLS  

You've heard about the new Test of Integrated Language and Literacy Skills. Now learn Howto Get the Most Out of TILLS in a free webinar by the lead tool developer.

On Thursday, December 10th, at 3:00 p.m. EST, Dr. Nicki Nelson will talk about how to use design features unique to TILLS to assess a student's oral and written language.

In the webinar, you'll learn

• how TILLS subtests assess language levels using parallel tasks across communication modalities
• how to interpret patterns of students' strengths and needs, and
• how to use information from the Student Language Scale to know what to prioritize when planning intervention

Learn more, or registertoday!

WEBINAR: Foundational Reading Skills

1. Wed, Dec 2, 2015 12:00 PM - 1:00 PM EST

Show in My Time Zone

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FOUNDATIONAL READING SKILLS: Standards Tell Us What--Research Tells Us How 

We know that all students need the foundational skills to become proficient readers. 

"The Common Core State Standards define what foundational skills students should have by the end of each grade (K-5), but the standards do not tell teachers how they should teach. Teachers are thus free to provide students with whatever tools and knowledge their professional judgment and experience identify as most helpful for meeting the goals set out in the standards." (From Common Core State Standards for English Language Arts & Literacy in History/Social Studies, Science, and Technical Subjects, 2010) 

You can meet the goals by emphasizing skills that impact reading development and predict reading success. You can accelerate student progress by using highly-effective strategies to teach the foundational skills to developing and struggling readers. 

Attend this public webinar to: 

• Learn which foundational skills serve as predictors for reading success. 
• Understand the research about critical content and effective strategies for teaching the foundational skills. 
• Understand the implications of the research for instructional planning and priorities. 
• Recognize the role progress monitoring and ongoing assessment play in differentiating instruction. 
• Understand how to apply best practices to your current curriculum and lesson design to maximize student progress. 
• Receive FREE “Takeaways”—resources that will help you implement your current curriculum more effectively! 

This FREE 60-minute webinar is appropriate for: 
• Classroom teachers 
• Reading specialists 
• Title I teachers 
• Special Ed and RTI teachers 
• Curriculum specialists 
• Educational consultants 
• Tutors 
• Homeschool parents 

Other Details: 
- We will be using GoToWebinar. 
- You can join our session by using a Mac, PC or a mobile device. 

Thanksgiving - Resources, activities, etc

Check out some of these resources for Thanksgiving:

Thanksgiving history - Plimouth Plantation
Thanksgiving - Teacher Resources - Teacher Vision
Thanksgiving - facts. origin, pictures & videos - History.com
Thanksgiving Day in United States - Time and Date
Thanksgiving in North America:  From local harvests to national holiday - Smithsonian Seriously Amazing
Thanksgiving ideas for the classroom - nea.org
The first Thanksgiving:  The Thanksgiving feast - Scholastic
Happy Thanksgiving:  Lesson plans and activities - Education World.com
Thanksgiving lessons and teacher resources - HotChalk's lessonplanspage.com
Thanksgiving -teach-nology.com
Thanksgiving activities and lesson plans - The Teachers Corner

Webinars

Closing Math Learning Gaps with Data & Formative Assessment

When combining digital curriculum that provides formative assessment data with everyday instructional practices, educators are equipped to address math learning gaps in real-time.  Join Kristine Tipton, Innovation Coach at DeKalb County Central United School District, Ind., as she shares how she's been able to use digital curriculum like DreamBox Learning Math to support deeper learning at her schools.

This interactive discussion includes:

• Creating a personalized learning environment to enhance instructional practice 
• Leveraging formative assessment data to close math learning gaps

Guest:

Kristine Tipton, innovation coach, DeKalb County Central United school district, Ind/

This webinar will be moderated by Joe Trahan, curriculum designer, DreamBox Learning.

REGISTER HERE



 Formative Assessment:  Balancing grading and a focus on improvement

Many experts say that tasks used for formative assessment should not be graded.  Formative assessment is about gauging progress toward a learning goal, giving feedback, and working with students to fill in the gaps.  Grading can complicate that process, they argue.

But drawing a line between formative assessment and grading can be tough in the classroom setting.  Teachers may get pressure from parents and the district to give grades on student work.  And some students may be more likely to complete tasks when they're scored.  In this webinar, an education research professor and an English teacher will discuss why many people say formative assessments and grades shouldn't mix, and what teachers can do to get around that.

Guests:

Lorrie Shepard, dean and distinguished professor of research and evaluation methodology, the University of Colorado Boulder

Scott Filkins, English teacher at Central High School in Champaign, Ill., and member of the National Council of Teachers of English Task Force on Assessment

This webinar will be moderated by Liana Heitin, assistant editor, Education Week.

REGISTER HERE

Assessment includes a wide variety of methods that educators use to evaluate, measure, and document the academic readiness, learning progress, and skill acquisition of students. But testing alone does nothing. Join us as we welcome special guest Nancy W. Sindelar, Ph.D,  teacher, consultant, and author of Assessment Powered Teaching and Using Test Data for Student Achievement to learn strategies for teachers and administrators to gather and use student test data to enhance student learning and close achievement gaps. During the webinar, Dr. Sindelar will cover: The meaning and purpose of different assessment types and how they complement one another How high performing schools use formative and summative assessments to make sound instructional decisions Strategies to take back to the classroom, including using data to provide effective feedback and motivate students with the results of their learning Tips on implementing peer tutoring based on assessment results

Veterans Day

For more information on Veterans Day, check out the sites below:  

History of Veterans Day - U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs - Office of Public Affairs

Veterans Day - History.com

Veterans Day - Military.com

Veterans Day - National Constitution Center

Veterans Day - U.S.Army Center of Military History

Veterans Day - Paralyzed Veterans of America

Veterans Day in United States - Time and Date

Veterans Day - America's Library

Veterans Day Lesson Plans and Activities - Education World

Veterans Day Crafts - EnchantedLearning.com

Veterans Day - sharemylesson.com

America Recycles Day on November 15th!

Check out these resources from TeacherVision:

          

Environmental Science Teacher Resources

Environmental Science is the study of the physical, biological, and chemical conditions of the environment, and how those conditions are affected by outside forces, including climate change, global warming, pollution, and other human factors. Teaching resources on environmental science will help your class explore the implications of climate change on Earth. Find out what scientists think about this global crisis with our articles and references. You will find the perfect activity to celebrate America Recycles Day on November 15.

Resources on the site include:

Printables
Recycling Resources
Greenhouse Effect & Ozone Depletion Resources
Engery, Power, & Electricity Resources
Natural Resources Conservation
Earth Day Activities
Human Influence on the Environment
Climate Change & Modeling Resources
Global Warming Resources
Pullution & Environmental Science
Related Teacher Resources