If you’re not yet using video in the classroom, we’re excited to announce the winners of Curriki’s Video Lesson Plan Challenge and we’ve  made all six video-based lesson plans available free for you to use as-is or adapt, saving you valuable time and adding rich, new interactive video elements!

“ I wanted to infuse media literacy with my unit on African geography and decided to look at current events and mesh that with Public Service Announcements,” said Sara Thompson, a Florida Language Arts and History teacher who won the $5,000 grand prize for What is a PSA, Issues in Africa. “Students not only learn how PSAs are used, but they create something positive that brings awareness to a real-life issue in Africa today.”

Sara is starting to integrate more technology, such as laptops and SmartBoards, into her classroom. “The use of media is important to this generation of students, because they’re surrounded by social media, networking, TVs and computers – everything is fed to them in a visual, shorthand way.”

Sara Thompson

“I definitely recommend Curriki . It’s a great resource and if I’m struggling to find a teaching resource – whether it be a whole unit or something specific like an interactive worksheet, this is a great place to start,” said Thompson.

Several other excellent video lesson plans include these runner-up winners, who each received $500:

• Diana Laufenberg (Pennsylvania) – Election Day 
• Andrea Payan (Wisconsin) – Taking Care of Your Body PSA
• Joe Estephan and Pamela Porter (Canada) – Exploring the Environment through Trees and Wildlife
• Sarah Lorntson (Minnesota) – Political TV Advertisement Project 

Make sure and check out these new resources today! Tell us what you think.

Africa photo courtesy of Oxfam.

Homeschooling is a concept that has been around for much of history across all cultures. Up until 1850, most children in America were educated at home. For many parents then and now, it is a preferred way to educate their children. Their reasons are many ranging from dissatisfaction with the quality of today’s educational system, to living in rural areas too distant to schools (and too expensive)  to having religious conflict with pubic curriculum. No matter what the reason, once a parent undertakes this endeavor the search for quality resources, standards-based curriculum and support networks can be very challenging.

Great news!  As the population of homeschooled children increases (currently estimated to be between 2-3 million children) quality resources and support groups have also.  The first stop for anyone needing high quality, standards based curriculum is Curriki.  With over 44,000 resources and 201,000 members, a parent looking for lesson plans in any subject will find a wealth of free resources covering curriculum collections, activities, games, worksheets, and more. All on-line and all are free.  More importantly, Curriki courseware can be aligned to state standards for the four core subjects and technology for all fifty of the United States plus Washington, D.C.  This is a huge advantage and something home school parents should have as a requirement as they select curriculum.

To provide a community group for home school parents, a Homeschool Special Interest Group has been established on Curriki.  A great collaborative forum for home school parents/teachers to share ideas, discuss home school materials and general home school practices and experiences, share work sheets, and outings. Check it out and get connected!

Other homeschooled resources you may find helpful:

• Homeschool.com – #1 Homeschooling Community offers a wide range of curriculum, printables, advice on home school best practices and more for grades K-12.
• The Home School Mom - TheHomeSchoolMom.com includes information about many topics, including ordering free curriculum from industry and private organizations, online lesson plans and worksheets, online unit studies, and other helps for supplementing or creating a home school curriculum.
• Homeschool Central -  Whether you are just starting out or a veteran homeschooler, this site has resources for you.  From AP classes to home school nutrition advice to special needs curriculum, this site has been serving the home school community since 1996.
• European & Middle East Resources for Homeschooling - homeschooling resources for specific countries in Europe and Egypt.

We are the Snoops, four moms who love to read and enjoy sharing this passion with any captive audience — friends, neighbors, and family.  Secretly, we each fancy ourselves matchmakers of sorts, gaining giddy satisfaction from facilitating a successful pairing between book and reader.

Not surprisingly, this quirky characteristic has spilled over into our role as mothers, and we each strive to instill a passion for reading in our children.  Between us we have nine of them, running the gamut from the truly voracious to the most reluctant of readers.  Over the years, we have helped one another find just the right books to hook our children on reading.  We even embark upon book therapy, suggesting titles to help a child facing a social challenge or in need of a positive role model.  Have a teen girl in need of a confidence boost?  North of Beautiful by Justina Chin Headly is just what the doctor ordered.  Tween boy battling bullies?  The Misfits by James Howe is your best bet.

Our ongoing quest to find fiction that fits inspired us to create StorySnoops.com.  Now we facilitate literature liaisons on a broad scale.  Our Find-a-Book and Browse features are designed to guide parents, teachers, and librarians to fiction that resonates with the specific interests and experiences of readers, while encouraging informed discussions.

Users have the option to search our database of more than 1,000 books by author, title, genre, age, main character gender, awards, and many suggested reading lists that are organized by topic.  These lists include books for reluctant readers, sports enthusiasts, those seeking diverse characters, and many more.

Written from a parent’s perspective, our book reviews do not place judgment or emphasize either “positive” or “negative” content.  Instead, we factually present subject matter and themes, making every effort to include context.

On StorySnoops.com, we like to celebrate events that celebrate reading.  We recently hosted an interview series in celebration of Children’s Book Week, featuring beloved authors including Dave Barry, Clare Vanderpool, Wendy Mass, and more.

In the course of doing what we love, each of us has been fortunate to learn valuable lessons from the wealth of compelling and worthwhile material available for tweens and teens.  After reading more than 1,000 books for our website, we have no doubt that there is fiction out there to fit every type of young reader.  Ultimately, we hope that our service encourages an enriching and life-long relationship with literature.

Join the  StorySnoops group on Curriki today!

Don’t despair.  NEA and Curriki’s global communities have helpful strategies, resources and lessons learned on topics from Management Tips for New Teachers to handling students with disabilities to creating a more beautiful teaching environment.  These are great resources to help you craft your individual style of classroom management.

1. Management Tips for New Teachers – Bringing Order to the Classroom.

2. Set Up Rules and Routines – Give yourself more time to teach.

3.  Management Tips to Start Your Year - Classroom management tips from Education World covering tips for taking attendance, motivating students and rewarding good behavior.

4.  10 Approaches to Better Discipline – Helping Students manage their own Behavior

5. Social Skills Kids Need to Succeed - Why We should Teach Manners & Etiquette in School

6.  Book of Consequences - Creative ways to help students reflect on their behavior and ways to improve.

7.  Square Pegs - Helping kids with Asperger Syndrome to find a place in the classroom.

Let us know about your classroom management strategies, tools and best practices.  Share with the global Curriki community!

Last night, I attended an Edu Tech Meetup in San Francisco’s SoMa district to hear a panel of six pre-kindergarten through post-grade 12 teachers talk about the challenges of using technology in schools. It was attended by a mix of teachers, technologists and entrepreneurs, and held at pariSoma , a spacious co-working loftspace.

We talked about a number of fascinating topics ranging from what motivates students and the use of gaming in the classroom, to differentiating instruction for a broad range of student skill sets to make sure that no one “falls through the cracks.”

SF Edu Tech Meet Up

However, I was intrigued by one story of a teacher who’s leveraging technology to gain real-time classroom feedback to motivate students and customize student learning.

Clickers in the Classroom

Taylor Garland teaches Algebra 1 at LPS (Leadership Public Schools)-Richmond, and uses clickers in his classroom to help him better tailor student learning.  Clickers, if you’re not familiar with them, are like a TV remote device that students use to send their response to a computer system that displays the results in a graph that everyone can see. Students don’t have to worry about showing their ignorance, since their responses show up anonymously.

At the end of each day, Taylor poses a question about what was taught, and students use clickers to answer the question.  It’s fun and engaging for the students and provides “instant gratification” by showing them where they fall among their peers.

Taylor Garland, LPS-Richmond

But students aren’t the only ones who benefit. Based on student responses, Taylor knows immediately if his students understand the concept being taught and whether he needs to go back and teach it again.

Tangible Results

When Taylor first arrived at LPS-Richmond, students averaged 25% advanced and proficient score for Algebra 1. Last year, his Algebra 1 students ranked 68% advanced and proficient, a big jump for LPS-Richmond, and nearly 60% higher than the surrounding school district.

“I would attribute the real-time feedback of the clickers to a lot of the success because it helped students monitor their learning and helped me intervene in a targeted way,” said Taylor Garland. “Of course, having high expectations of your students and good management is the most important baseline, so the clickers are not a magic bullet on their own.  But they really helped me build a culture of success and high expectations.”

Real-time feedback lets Taylor easily see data on students’ understanding at the start and end of each class and respond accordingly. Plus, he is able to collect formative assessment data much more frequently than most teachers. On the flip side, students know they will be frequently assessed and stay on their toes, while also getting the immediate feedback and support they need to be successful.

I love the passion and new thinking that this group of teachers brings to the classroom and applaud them for making a difference!

Photo courtesy: Ohio State University

By Janet Pinto, Chief Academic Officer, Curriki

I love the Apple iPad’s sleek design, large screen, and vibrant display!

So it’s not surprising that many “early adopter” educators are experimenting with iPads as a part of their class curriculum.  In the article Educators Evaluate Learning Benefits of iPad, several schools are testing out different ways of using iPads in the classroom.  For example, the Virginia Department of Education is starting the second phase of a pilot program that uses Apple’s iPad as the core of a social studies curriculum that blends online and face-to-face learning.

But it’s clear that figuring out the best use of iPads in the classroom involves a lot of trial and error – some described it as “frustrating at first.”  Others felt that it’s too early to consider widespread adoption of iPads since Apple is still fine-tuning the product.

What do you think? Are you using, or do you plan to use, iPads in the classroom?

from Joanne Masters, Curriki Contributor

Whether you are an educator or a parent, getting organized for back to school can be a challenge.  To help you get a jump-start on this process, we have amassed top industry best practices and tips ranging from new teachers strategies, to back-to-school checklists to creative ideas/icebreakers for the first day of school. Check out the top ten and let us know what you find helpful!

1. New Teacher Collection of back to school web links, activities, and practical information for new teachers.

2. From Simplify 101, seven creative Back to School Organizing Tips ranging from establishing a communications hub with a command central binder to a simple yet, effective “don’t forget” door hanger with critical take to school items.

3.  Call your school to find out the required back-to-school paperwork and mandatory immunization shots .  Many kids have been delayed from starting their first day due to improper school papers and/or lack of all the required immunization shots.  This site explains the typical vaccinations types, reasons for the shots and an excellent resource center for parents.

4. Play the “Match Game” with your kids and their clothes.  Enlist your kids to clean out their closets, sort out the old, match up outfits and donate unwanted or outdated clothing to charity.  This activity will help reduce the morning dressing chaos that places stress on the entire family and starts the day off on the wrong foot.

5. Back to School: How can Curriki Help? Find Icebreaking activities, student facing materials, tips on networking with other teachers and more.

6.  From the Teacher’s Corner to Reading Rockets (resources from the national multimedia  project) to A-Z Teacher Stuff, NEA’s Back to School site is a great resource for educators.

7. Back-to-School Checklist from OnLine Organizing is a concise list covering everything from buying school supplies to teaching kids to set boundaries.

8. Need classroom management guidance or best practices for student motivation? At a loss for ideas to do the first day of class?  From creative writing to icebreakers to management tips you’ll ind it all on Curriki’s Back to School. Lessons and activities targeted for grades K-8.

9.  Don’t forget to pay attention to the classroom ambiance and arrangement.  A warm and welcoming classroom environment provides a great back drop for students to learn.

10. Beginning of the Year Teacher Strategies: Getting the Year Started on the Right Foot.  About.com has great advice on Preparing for the First Day of Class.

11. Extra Credit:  USA.gov Back to School has a wealth of resources for parents, students and educators.  A particularly good segment is on Safe and Healthy Students that addresses back to school anxiety, bullying, preventive drug abuse, school nutrition and much more.

When was the last time you let your imagination go wild?  The last time you imagined new possibilities for your life, your work, your family, or country?  If you are like most you may need a booster shot to ignite your imagination.  This is exactly what the Lincoln Center Institute believes needs to be done in our K-12 school curriculum.  They believe (and Curriki too!) schools need to ignite student’s ability to visual new possibilities and new discoveries.   If you share this view don’t miss a great opportunity to attend America’s Imagination Summit, the first national gathering on the place of imagination in education, July 21 and 22, 2011, at Lincoln Center in New York City.

The day-and-a-half-long conference will be attended by leaders from business, government, education, science, the arts, and other fields. They will commit to giving American students the skills they need for success in the 21st century: imagination, creativity, and innovation. Lincoln Center Institute, the educational arm of Lincoln Center and the event’s host, believes this diverse coalition is capable of influencing schools and bringing about education policy change.  The event’s centerpiece will be the presentation of an action plan for policy makers, educators, and community activists to put imagination at the forefront of our school curricula.

One conference highlight is on Thursday when Imagination luminaries will convene for a special panel discussion.  Imagine the conversation between Charles Segars, CEO, Ovation, Sir Ken Robinson, author and expert in the field of creativity, Deepak Chopra, Founder, The Chopra Foundation, Vice Admiral Michael H. Miller, Superintendent, US Naval Academy and last but not least, Bruce Vaughn, Chief Creative Executive, Walt Disney Imagineering!  The topic for the panel is “How to make the teaching of imagination a key part of American schools”.  It’s a “must”for educators worldwide!

The best news of all is you can watch a live stream of this groundbreaking event, visit http://lcinstitute.org!  Check it out!

Doesn’t it seem as if summer is flying by?  I feel like the school year just ended, yet here we are mid-July!  In between your backyard BBQs or weekend getaways, you should set aside time this summer to continue your lifelong learning.

Recently, we told you about Curriki’s Professional Development  courses.  Here are a few more ideas to inspire creativity and enhance your effectiveness in the classroom.

1. Participate in ASCD’s free Summer Bootcamp Webinar Series.  Mark your calendar for the next webinar: iPads in Schools: Authentic Learning Opportunities with Michael Fisher, July 19, 2011, 3:00 p.m. ET.
2. Four Free Ways for Educators to Stay Sharp this Summer  where you can listen to streaming sessions from this year’s Summer Conference in Boston from experts like Carol Ann Tomlinson and Robyn Jackson, or dive deeper into topics like differentiated instruction, Understanding by Design, or inclusion and special education.
3. Have Some Time This Summer? Here Are 7,000 TEDx Videos You Can Watch – thanks to Larry Ferlazzo for the tip.  I find the TED talks incredibly inspiring and was amazed how technology can link the world in Eric Whitacre’s Virtual Choir (a must-see!). I also re-watched Ken Robinson’s Schools Kill Creativity. 
4. Creating a Professional Image: Eleven Time-Tested, Positive Image-Making Ideas for New Teachers.   Put these ideas into place as you get ready to work with students and parents this fall.
5. Summer Reading List for Teachers  including Joey Pigza Swallowed the Key by Jack Gantos, which portrays  the challenges and frustrations of living with ADHD (educators and librarians consider this a must-read book for teachers, parents, and children), and Trapped by Judy Spurr, written by a retired teacher about her experience working with children with learning disabilities.
6. Join a Curriki Group  and team up with other teachers by subject area to exchange ideas, or join one of the many featured groups like Digital Tools for Homework Help, where teachers and parents can share great digital tools to help with homework.
7. INTEL TEACH ELEMENTS   – compelling eLearning for K-12 educators. This series of free professional development courses  provides deeper exploration of 21st century learning concepts such as Collaboration in the Digital Classroom to Assessment in 21st Century Classrooms.

What are you doing this summer to sharpen your skills? Please share your ideas with us!

Whether you create your own videos or use videos that someone else has created, video instruction is growing in popularity. Here are five resources for finding and creating videos:

1. TeacherTube – an online community for sharing instructional videos (think YouTube for teachers). Both teachers and students can post videos designed for students to view in order to learn a concept or skill.
2.  Using Video as a Teaching and Learning Tool includes tips on making video recordings and where to find videos for use in the classroom.
3. Why Use Video in the Classroom from NTTI – includes advice from master teachers, video resources, and more.
4. About.com – their video education “channel” includes videos such as How to Interpret the Price Elasticity of Demand and 10 Myths about Dinosaur Extinction .
5. An Educator’s Guide to Copyright and Video Materials: How Copyright Law Exceptions and Fair Use Law Protects Students and Teachers

Tell us about your experience.

Don’t forget to enter Curriki’s Video Lesson Plan Challenge by submitting your best student-facing lesson plan utilizing video for a chance to win $5,000! Deadline for submissions is July 31, 2011.