Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Webinars


 


Teaching Social Issues in the Common-Core Era
The Common Core State Standards in English/Language Arts, as well as other college-and-career-ready standards, place strong emphases on critical literacy, cross-curricular learning, and cultural understanding. This webinar will explore how some educators are using those levers to create interdisciplinary units that integrate a variety of texts and learning methods to help students delve into social issues, including identity, cultural history, diversity, and civic engagement. The presentations will address issues such as instructional relevancy and student engagement, as well as boosting students' proficiency in close reading, critical thinking, and social-emotional understanding. The guests will also reflect on the challenges involved in developing interdisciplinary literacy units, teaching social topics, and transitioning to new standards.
Guests:
Ruchi Agarwal-Rangnath, adjunct professor, elementary education, San Francisco State University; author, Social Studies, Literacy, and Social Justice in the Common Core Classroom: A Guide for Teachers
Erin Angell, high school English teacher, Palo Alto High School, Calif., and co-creator of the Social Justice Pathway curriculum
Eric Bloom, high school history and economics teacher, Palo Alto High School, Calif., and co-creator of the Social Justice Pathway curriculum
This webinar will be moderated by Anthony Rebora, managing editor, Education Week Teacher
Register now for this free live webinar.

 


Building Better Ed-Tech Strategies for the Pre-K-5 Crowd
Using technology to improve literacy and math skills for younger students takes very different strategies and tools than are typically used for middle and high school students. Our guests will discuss the best approaches for using digital devices, apps, and software for students in preschool through 5th grade, examining issues around how to balance the use of text versus multimedia, what types of online interactivity are most effective, and when technology should be turned off.
Guests:
Suzy Brooks, fourth grade teacher, Mullen-Hall School, Falmouth, Mass.
Todd Nesloney, principal, Navasota Intermediate School, Navasota, Texas
This webinar will be moderated by Michelle R. Davis, senior writer, Education Week/Digital Directions
Register now for this free live webinar.




What's Next in K-12 Assessment?
The assessment field in K-12 education is in a period of transition—sparked by widespread dissatisfaction with conventional testing formats, changes in technology, and developments in the learning sciences. In this webinar, two highly regarded experts in assessment innovation will discuss promising new and developing approaches to testing (both formative and summative) and how schools can begin integrating them into instructional programs. In particular, the presenters will address ways that assessment in schools can become more personalized and better integrated with learning, and used to provide deeper and timely information to educators. They will also make predictions about the future of assessment in schools.
Underwriting for the content of this webinar has been provided by The Joyce Foundation.
Guests:
Randy Bennett, Norman O. Frederiksen Chair in Assessment Innovation, ETS; director, Cognitively-Based Assessment of, for, and as Learning initiative (CBAL)
Daniel T. Hickey, associate professor and program director of learning sciences, Indiana University; co-editor, New Frontiers in Formative Assessment
This webinar will be moderated by Anthony Rebora, managing editor, Education Week Teacher
Register now for this free live webinar.

Friday, October 10, 2014

Free Webinars for next week

From edWeb.net:


EdWeb
Join us on Wednesday, Oct. 15 at 4 p.m. Eastern for Making Connections That Matter with Steven Anderson, content and relationship evangelist for Promethean. Learn more and pre-register. Visit the ReEnergize Today's Connected Classroom community at www.edweb.net/classflow.



EdWeb
Join us on Tuesday, Oct. 21 at 3 p.m. Eastern for Engage, Empower, Energize: Leading Tomorrow's Schools Today with Dr. Robert Dillon, director of technology and innovation, Affton School District. Learn more and pre-register. Visit the Leadership 3.0 community at www.edweb.net/leadership.
  

From Education Week:
 
  
Digital Leader Corps-Fueling An Innovative Change Movement Around Instruction
Designed to scale digital transformation and re-image the culture of teaching and learning, Discovery Education's Digital Leader Corps is a three-year + professional learning partnership for educators and school leaders. This system is employed to fuel an innovative change movement around instruction, which is intentionally designed to drive system transformation, build a culture of continuous improvement, support a shared leadership model, and maximize teachers' impact on student learning.
Join Todd Wirt, assistant superintendent for academics with Wake County Public School System (WCPSS), N.C., and Carol Wetzel, senior director with Discovery Education, as they discuss the challenges WCPSS faced implementing Common Core State Standards across the district and how they determined the best way to scale professional development for its 11,000 teachers as they embarked on this digital and instructional journey.
Guest:
Todd Wirt, assistant superintendent for academics, Wake County public school system, N.C.
This webinar will be moderated by Carol Wetzel, senior director, Discovery Education
Register now for this free live webinar.


Friday, October 3, 2014

Catalog and searching down for maintenance!

The SERC Library Catalog and Federated Search (journal database searching) will not be available on Friday, October 3rd starting at midnight until 2 am Saturday, October 4th  and then again on Saturday, October 4th starting at midnight until 7 am Monday, October 6th.  Auto-Graphics will be conducting hardware maintenance on our computer software program.