Presentation Notes

Presentation Notes INDEX

2 Goals and Objectives 3 Background Information 4 Presentation Outline:

(4) The Front Page

(6) The Teacher Toolkit

(9) The Daily Almanac

(12) Teachable Moments

(17) Gnus for Kidz

(19) The Teacher Times

21 Wrapping Up

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 1 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 GOALS & OBJECTIVES

1. The K-12 Teaching & Learning Center is for TEACHERS FIRST.

2. The K-12 TLC is developed with teachers' needs in mind.

3. Students use the K-12 TLC each and everyday, but they come to the K-12 TLC because teachers have found things that they like, and have chosen to share them with their students, which is great.

4. The K-12 TLC is an online reference resource for teachers first and not intended to be an on-line curriculum for students.

5. The K-12 TLC functions well with students as a comprehensive resource for in-depth research, but not as a quick resource for the retrieval of discrete facts.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 2 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 BACKGROUND INFORMATION

 The K-12 Teaching & Learning is owned and published by Dr. Mark Whitman, West Lafayette, IN 47906. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].

 Mark Whitman began development of the Teaching & Learning Center in 1997 as the lead consultant for the State of Indiana's Access Indiana project, and took personal possession of the TLC when his association with Access Indiana ended in October 2000.

 Since October 2000, Whitman and the K-12 TLC staff have been collecting links to the best public-domain resources on the Internet, personally reviewing all content, aggregating the content, and organizing links to the content into guides for K-12 educators, students and families.

 The Teaching & Learning Center now consists of over 1,000+ guides cross-referenced to all areas of the K-12 curriculum.

 The K-12 Teaching & Learning Center is supported by fees from its subscribers. Fees are intentionally held to a minimum so that cost is not a barrier.

 To help keep the costs of the K-12 Teaching & Learning Center to a minimum, partnerships have been established with education services agencies, state associations and professional organizations around the country. These partners use their established means of communications with their members to assist in the promotion and marketing of the K-12 TLC.

 The K-12 TLC emphasizes basic proven principles of teaching & learning, and creatively uses the power of the Internet to help support quality K-12 education without the addition of gratuitous bells and whistles, gimmicks or enticements.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 3 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 RESOURCES and SERVICES

THE FRONT PAGE:

1. The K-12 TLC front page is located at [www.k12tlc.net].

2. The Teacher Toolkit and Student Research Center are two different starting points customized for the differences in teacher and student needs. However, they both lead to the same resources, and no damage can be done by students who enter the teacher side. The K-12 TLC does not include any "Teacher Only" content.

3. If the you wish to link to the K-12 TLC from your own website, it is probably not best to link to this front page - it just adds one more click before teachers and students can get where they want to go. It is recommended that links for teachers go directly to the Teacher Toolkit (www.k12tlc.net/content/index.htm) and that links for students go directly the Student Research Center (www.k12tlc.net/sindex.htm).

4. If you are interested in knowing more the K-12 TLC staff and our subscribers, click on "About Us" or "Who We Serve".

5. The button for subscription information and samples is provided primarily for people who have "wandered" into the K-12 TLC, and who are seeking more information without the aid of a guide or a formal presentation.

6. Access to the K-12 TLC has been kept as simple as possible. Everyone in the same school or district shares a common User Name that is entered in all caps, and no password is required.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 4 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 7. Click on the Teacher Toolkit button to access the Teacher Toolkit.

OUR USER NAME is DISTRICT1 (all caps), no password is required.

NOTES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 5 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 THE TEACHER TOOLKIT:

1. Please note the logo at the top.

2. The K-12 TLC is a resource for Teachers First (see Goals & Objectives above), and it is a particularly good resource for:

a. New teachers looking for creative ideas and resources as they develop their first lesson plans and units.

b. Veteran teachers interested in new perspectives, or who may find themselves teaching in new areas that are unfamiliar to them.

c. Teachers who like to use student research as an instructional strategy.

d. Teachers who like to use current events in their classroom.

e. Teachers who like to take a student-centered approach and make students more responsible for their learning.

f. Teachers who like to stretch their students and develop their cultural literacy.

g. Teachers who like to emphasize cultural diversity and the multiculturalism of modern society.

3. The purpose of the Teacher Toolkit is to help direct teachers to the K-12 TLC's 1,000+ guides and added- value applications as efficiently and effectively as possible.

4. The Teacher Toolkit is divided into two sections:

a. The dark blue area provides three different ways to get direct access to the 1,000+ guides via (1) an alphabetic index by topic, (2) People, Places and Things, (3) keyword search.

b. The light blue area links to added-value applications that enrich the educational use of the "raw" content in the topic guides.

NOTES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 6 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 5. The K-12 TLC guides and resources can be accessed via the alphabetic index or by clicking on People, Places or Things.

6. The Places Page includes guides for all countries of the world and all 50 states.

7. All K-12 TLC guides, regardless of topic, share a single common format that is devoid of advertising or other distractions.

a. The blue buttons on the left link to famous people born in the state, according to areas of achievement, and the red buttons on the right provide background information about the state.

b. Scrolling down, the grey buttons link directly to the state's website, followed by local time and temperature information, as well as links to bordering states.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 7 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 c. The K-12 TLC links to the best public domain resources on the Internet and provides a format that simplifies access to these resources by topic. Institutional resources are the primary target: e.g. the Library of Congress, the Smithsonian, PBS, universities, etc. - providers that have established credibility and that can be trusted to provide reliable and credible content.

d. The TLC avoids sites that do not have institutional credibility, that are too heavy on advertising, that include gimmick programming such as popups, or that are too slow to load. The TLC avoids "hobbyist" sorts of sites put on line by individuals who do not have an established credibility, because the validity of their content may be suspect.

e. Advertising cannot be completely avoided at sites to which the K-12 TLC may link; however, the TLC does avoid sites where the advertising is particularly intrusive or otherwise objectionable.

f. In general, links to pages within the K-12 TLC will stay within the current window, and links to resources outside the K-12 TLC can be identified because they open a new window. This is done so that once a user has finished browsing an external site, they just need to close the window to return to the K-12 TLC.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 8 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 THE DAILY ALMANAC:

1. The Daily Almanac pages are provided for the traditional school year, from mid-August to the end of May.

2. The Daily Almanac is exactly what it says; however, because it is on the Internet, the Daily Almanac offers access to supporting content that are impossible for print almanacs. The Daily Almanac is also a dynamic resource that is under continuing development as new content and material is found and added.

WARNING: The format of the Daily Almanac is continually reviewed, and occasionally changed. It is possible that the description below may not exactly match the almanac you are using.

3. Each almanac begins at the top with a reference to a celebration, holiday or commemoration that makes the date special somewhere in the world. This information is "clickable" for supporting content.

4. 5-Minute Quests:

o The 5-Minute Quest is one of three tools provided each day for teachers to use with their students if they choose. 5-Minutes Quests are exercises to help teachers develop student research skills using the Internet as a research tool. Although efforts are made to keep the content of the questions relevant, the primary goal of each 5-Minute Quest is to strengthen student research skills using the content and links available on that date's almanac page.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 9 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 o Each 5-minute Quest offers three levels of questions (Beginners, Intermediate and Advanced) roughly corresponding to upper elementary, middle school and high school. Media specialists may want to dedicate 1-2 computers to these activities, and make them available for students to use throughout the day.

Teachers may want to make these activities available on a computer in the classroom, so that students can use them on a rotational basis throughout the day, or teachers may want to encourage students to access the 5-Minute Quest from home each day and develop their skills on their own.

o Teachers are provided the answers to the 5-Minute Quest in each day's edition of the Teacher Times.

5. Happy Birthday:

o Below each 5-Minute Quest is a Happy Birthday banner with pictures of five individuals of note who share this birth date. In general, the five individuals highlighted each day will include at least one female, at least one person of color or minority heritage, at least one person from science or math, and at least one children's author. Each of the five pictures are clickable and will take the user to a K-12 TLC guide for that person.

6. Births, Deaths and Historic Events:

o Further below is the almanac itself. It is divided into four sections: Holidays, Birthdates, Deaths of Note, and Significant Events. The information here is extensive, but what sets this almanac apart from all others are the links and icons down the right hand side.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 10 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 The first icon provided for each person listed generally is the icon of the state or the flag of the country where they were born. Clicking on this icon will take the user to the K-12 TLC guide for that state or country, and, if more information is available about the person, it will be located there. Other icons provided for each person will take the user to additional information that is either specifically relevant to the person or their area of achievement.

o In the historic events section, point out the dark blue entries are annotated entries from the Lewis & Clark journals in commemoration of the 2003-2006 bicentennial celebration of their exploration. Anything in yellow that is underlined is clickable for additional information, as are the icons to the right.

o For the other historic events, the last icon provided for each event, generally is a link to the on-line resource that was used to validate the event and to justify its addition to the almanac. If a teacher or student finds an entry that is of particular interest, they can generally go to the last icon on the right, and click on it to get more detail about the event in greater depth.

o REMINDER: Almanac pages are available for every school day from mid-August through the end of May.

NOTES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 11 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 TEACHABLE MOMENTS:

1. The K-12 TLC provides a companion Teacher's Guide for each day's almanac.

2. At the top of each guide is a "Heads Up" or tip about the use of the K-12 TLC or a coming event that may be of interest.

3. Further down the page is the Teachable Moment. Each Teachable Moment is built around an historic event associated with this date in history, and while a Teachable Moment is not a lesson plan or unit, as you scroll down the page, you see that it provides Sources, Strategies, Questions & Issues, and Activities that offer a framework that teachers can use if they choose to bring this event into their classroom.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 12 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 4. Teachable Moment's encourage teachers to take a student-centered approach, if possible, wherein the teachers have the students use the sources to research the event. The Teachable Moment offers guidelines and suggestions to the teachers on how they can bring their students back to the classroom and turn their research into a meaningful learning experience.

5. When finished with the Teachable Moment, scroll back up above the graphic provided on the page, and, just below the Teachable Moment heading, locate the INDEX button and click on it.

6. Teachable Moments are developed for each day of the school year, so there are about 300 of them, but the index page also provides access to the Teachable Moments by subject area and topic. These are particularly good resources for the new teacher looking for creative ideas.

NOTES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 13 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 TEACHER SERVICES:

1. HOTLISTS:

a. The Hotlists concept is extremely simple, but it is also a very powerful resource that allows each teacher to customize the K-12 TLC services to their specific needs. The K-12 TLC offers e-mail lists (Hotlists) for over 100 different instructional topics, and teachers may subscribe to those lists that interest them at any time. Teachers may also unsubscribe from any list at any time.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 14 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 b. Because the K-12 TLC is constantly under construction, new information is located on a daily basis, and is shared with those teachers who are on those Hotlists to which the information is relevant. The K-12 TLC serves thousands of teachers across the country, but when you join those Hotlists that interest you, this ensures you will only receive information that is specific to your personal/professional needs.

c. Often, teachers do not make use of great resources just because they do not have the time to investigate them - "to switch gears." However, the Hotlists are a great resource that helps to get teachers engaged in the K-12 TLC from the get-go. In addition to providing them quality and timely information, Hotlists also help to guide teachers to other K-12 TLC resources that they otherwise may not find on their own.

2. RESEARCH RESOURCE GUIDES:

a. Research Resource Guides are a unique and creative free service that the K-12 TLC provides for its teachers.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 15 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 b. If a teacher would like for their students to do a research project using the Internet as a research tool, they just need to e-mail the K-12 TLC a description of their project, and an on-line guide will be put together for the teacher to use with their students. It is similar to a teacher asking their library/media specialist to bring together all of their print material to help facilitate student research. A K-12 TLC Research Guide does the same thing, except with Internet resources.

c. Example: The TLC Research Guide for Ms. Coyle's Class:

This is a guide put together for a teacher in Palm Beach, Florida whose students research American immigrants. On the page are icons for each of the topics she wants her students to focus on: Angel Island, Ellis Island, seven different immigrant groups, and the book In the Year of the Board and Jackie Robinson. TLC guides to each of these topics were created for Ms. Coyle, so that when her students do their research, she can bring her students to this guide, and, by

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 16 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 clicking on the icons provided, her students are guided directly to the resources they need to research.

Research Resource Guides help students find the information they need, expediently and effectively; and it dramatically improves the productivity of the students in the limited time that they may have to complete their research.

d. K-12 TLC Research Resource Guides are a free service for K-12 TLC member teachers, plus it helps the K-12 TLC to keep its content robust and focused on topics teachers need most.

NOTES:

GNUS FOR KIDZ:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 17 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 1. Each day, the K-12 TLC locates five news items for students, and posts the headline and a graphic from each item on the Gnus for Kidz. The articles for each day focus on a different theme, with Mondays being World News; Tuesdays, Health and Science; Wednesdays, Fine Arts and Literature; Thursdays, Space and Astronomy; and Fridays, Sports and Entertainment.

Dragging your mouse over a headline will popup a question or prompt to help guide student interest, and clicking on a headline will take you to the story at the source. Teachers are provided the answers to the student questions/prompts in each day's edition of the Teacher Times.

2. Gnus for Kidz is a great resource for those teachers who like to make use of current events in the classroom - either as a daily activity, or just on that day of the week that features their subject area.

NOTES:

CULTURAL DIVERSITY:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 18 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 1. The K-12 Teaching & Learning Center provides extensive resources to assist teachers who want to emphasize cultural diversity and multiculturalism, and the buttons in the bottom right corner of the Teacher Toolkit provide you access to these resources.

2. The guides to the minority groups are similar to the guides for countries, providing content on the famous and notable members of the group organized by areas of achievement, along with background information relevant to the group.

3. In addition to each of the guides for the minority groups, the K-12 TLC also has special resources that greatly enhance emphasis on Black History Month in February, National Women's History Month in March and Hispanic Heritage Month in the fall.

NOTES:

TEACHER TIMES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 19 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 1. The Teacher Times provides a daily digest of the material that is available to teachers for each day of the school year.

2. At the top of each edition of the Teacher Times is a recognition of the newest subscriber to the K-12 Teaching & Learning Center.

3. Each edition of the Teacher Times provides two quotations. The first one is from For the Love of Teaching, which is a small book of essays that teachers have written about why they teach. The second is from Mortimer Adler, a professor at the University of Chicago who was responsible for development of the Great Book Series.

4. The next item is an entry brought over from the day's edition of the Daily Almanac to illustrate the cultural diversity of the American society.

5. The next section provides headlines to professional news articles brought in each day from five different on-line sources. Each headline is a link to the article at the source.

6. Scrolling down will bring you to another Teacher Toolkit, which focuses on trivia and tidbits that teachers

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 20 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 can use to spice up their classroom, or that administrators may want to use for their daily announcements.

7. Beneath the Toolkit are links to the day's Teachable Moment and the Tips for Teachers for the day.

8. The final section of the Teacher Times is of greatest interest to the teachers, because it provides the answers to the three student activities for the day.

9. A Teacher Times is provided for each day of the school year from mid-August to the end of May. Each edition is posted to the web, and, teachers are notified by e-mail when each day's edition is available, with a link they can click to see that day's edition.

NOTES:

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 21 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 WRAPPING UP

1. This presentation has just scratched the surface of the resources available within the K-12 Teaching & Learning Center. You will find many more tools and resources, once you have an opportunity to explore the K-12 TLC on their own.

2. The purpose of this presentation has been to provide an overview so that you can get a feel for how the K- 12 TLC is organized and for the resources that it makes available. Hopefully, you now also have a better understanding of how the K-12 TLC may be of value to you.

3. Please do not feel "fire-hosed." The K-12 TLC is a bit like a newspaper. No one reads the entire newspaper, but everyone has sections of the newspaper that are of interest to them. Five people may share a newspaper, with each getting something different from it, and the K-12 TLC is just like that. Please make it your goal should be to find one tool or resource that is of interest and use to you, and familiarize yourself with that tool or resource so that you can get the greatest benefit from it.

4. GETTING STARTED:

a. Visit the Hotlist page, find those Hotlists that are of greatest interest, and join them. This will help to get you engaged in the TLC and to expand your use of the resources available to them via the K-12 TLC.

b. Browse the outline of the K-12 TLC resources, explore the tools and resources on your own, and identify at least one tool or resource that you can use.

K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 22 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005 K-12 Teaching & Learning Center: Presentation Notes 23 Since 1997 - Creative Resources for Quality Education Last Edited: November 28, 2005