A Media Specialist's Guide to the Internet

Saturday, July 16, 2011

Why Not Join One of These 56 Educational Professional Organizations?

A great way for teachers to connect with one another is through a professional organization. The science teacher can share thoughts and ideas with other science teachers, the music teacher can share with other music teachers. Being a member of a professional organization will also look good on your resume if you are looking for a job. Organizations offer professional development, conferences, luncheons (dinners too) and meetings. What a great way to network with other people who are teaching in the same subject area as you. Here's a comprehensive list of those groups:

American Alliance for Health, Physical Education, Recreation & Dance
American Association of School Librarians
American Association of School Libraries

American Association of Teachers of Italian

American Bandmasters Association

American Chemical Society

American Choral Directors Association

American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages

American Educational Research Association

American Federation of Teachers

American Library Association

American School Counselor Assoc.

Association for Childhood Education International

Association for Educational Communications & Technology

Association for Supervision & Curriculum Development

Association of International Educators

Association of Teacher Educators

Broadcast Education Association

Computer-Using Educators

Consortium for School Networking

Council for Exceptional Children

Education International

Foreign Language Educators of New Jersey

Foundation for Teaching Economics

International Reading Association

International Society for Technology in Education

Music Educational Organizations & Societies

National Art Education Association

National Association for Bilingual Education

National Association for Elementary School Principals

National Association for Education of Young Children

National Association for Gifted Children

National Association for Music Education

National Association for Sport & Physical Education

National Association for Year-Round Education

National Board for Professional Teaching Standards

National Assoc. of Beginning Teachers

National Association of School Nurses

National Association of Secondary School Principals

National Association of Teachers of Singing

National Business Education Association

National Council for the Social Studies

National Council of Teachers of English

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

National Education Association

National Endowment for the Arts

National Middle School Association

National Science Teachers Association

National School Boards Association

National Substitute Teachers Alliance

The NEA Foundation

New Jersey Association of School Librarians

New Jersey Association of Social Workers

New Jersey Education Association

United Federation of Teachers

Young Adult Library Services Association

44 Professional Development Opportunities

Need professional development credits? Seems that today with all the budget cuts, the only way to get a salary increase is to move across guide as well as up a step. Some will give you graduate credit and some are actually FREE! At any rate, this list should give you more than enough resources to accomplish that task.

21st Century Schools- short list of online courses

360 Education Solutions- online professional development; huge listing links to many universities

Canter -development online; graduate credit

Capella University -online coursework

Colorado State University- online graduate courses

Computer/Technology Professional Development Resources

Education Week Teacher PD Sourcebook- four main areas include Practice & Pedagogy, (i.e. differentiated instruction) Content Area, (i.e. computer/technology) Leadership. (administration) and Specific Populations. (i.e. special education) They have 730 companies listed here.

Education Week Teacher PD Directory- extensive listing of professional development opportunities

Educational Impact

Enztein-free online courses

Fine Arts Teacher Professional Development

Foreign Languages Professional Development

Free Online Graduate Courses!!!- sponsored by the Annenberg Project

The Heritage Institute -continuing education for K-12 teachers

K12 Teacher Staff Development- small course listing

Knowledge Delivery Systems- list of 8 colleges offering online courses

Learner.org

Learning Port- over 700 resources from various organizations, including the Department of Education, NEA and Edutopia. Many are free; all list the format, duration, cost, access, certificate, (if available) video, assessment, 508 compliancy and when the course was created.

Library of Congress Professional Development

Loyola Marymount Enhancement Courses- graduate credit; one of the least expensive per credit

National Council of Teachers of English- on-demand webinars

National Council of Teachers of Mathematics

National Science Teachers Association Professional Development

Online Course Providers- over 75 colleges listed here

PBS TeacherLine

Plato Learning

Professional Development Institute

SAS in School

SimpleK12

Social Studies/History Professional Development Resources

Tapped In -collaborative activities, school chat sessions

Teacher-Courses.com

Teacher Education Institute- mainly 3 credit graduate courses

Teacher Online Education- site created by teachers

Teacher's Learning Center- 1, 2, & 3 credit courses; accredited nation-wide

Teachers First -Professional Resources Matrix

Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL)- online education programs

The Teacher Tap -free professional development resources

Touro University Online -online courses

University of Phoenix Online - online courses; graduate credit

University of Wisconsin-Stout- online courses; graduate credit

Virtual Education- choose from a list of courses

WePapers- online study group, including free lecture notes and presentations

Wide World- developed at the Harvard Graduate School of Education

Friday, July 15, 2011

25 Places to Store Your Files for Free

So many choices. I have personally been using GoogleDocs because I have a Gmail account and because creating and sharing documents is so easy. Although the storage is quite small compared to many on this list, it has been more than adequate for me. (I have stored many photos as well as files.) If you are just looking for a lot of storage without the "office" elements, you might want to try Amazon Cloud Drive (holds up to 2,000 photos) or ADrive. (advertisements) File Factory stores a whopping 500GB, but here's what they say about how long a file is stored: "If a file has been downloaded at least once before the end of the first 90 day period, it will remain for another 90 days. If a file is not downloaded at all after 90 days, it will then be automatically removed." Proceed with caution.

100 MEGS Free	100MB
ADrive	50GB
Amazon Cloud Drive	5GB
Box	5GB
FileDen	1GB
File Dropper	5GB
File Factory	500GB
File Savr	10GB
GoogleDocs	1GB
iDrive	5GB
MediaFire	200MB
Megashares	10GB
Megaupload	200GB
Memopal	3.5GB
Mozy	2GB
MyFreeFileHosting	100MB
OpenDrive	5GB
SnapDrive	5GB
Steekr	1GB
Syncplicity	2GB
Tilana	2GB
UploadingIt	10GB
Zerocatch	100MB
Znail	50MB
ZumoDrive	2GB

Free Stuff Page Has Been Posted

I've just added the FREE STUFF page! Currently, there are five categories with around 90 links. Time to stock up on free things for the upcoming school year. This page will constantly be updated with new resources. Enjoy!

Thursday, July 14, 2011

30 Web Sites to Find Freebies For Teachers

Eight weeks left of summer and time to start collecting free stuff for your classroom. Here's a list of freebies for teachers which will be added to a new page for this blog entitled "FREE STUFF". I will have all the resources divided into several categories. Check back by the end of this weekend!

About.com Teacher Freebies

AOkTeacherStuff- extensive list

Absolutely Freebies- software downloads

Crazy Free Stuff for Fabulous Teachers
Cool Freebie Links- extensive listing!

10 Free Things- from NEA

Federal Resources for Educational Excellence- teaching and learning resources from Federal Agencies; animations, primary docs, photos, videos.

Education Materials from the EPA

Freebies for Teachers

Free Business Cards!

Free Educational Posters

Free Educational Software & Guidance Notes

Free Language Software- from CNET

Free Mathematics Software- from CNET

Free Trade Magazines-100's to choose from!!

Free Printable Posters

Freebies Planet- everything listed here (many categories) is FREE!

Free Science Software- from CNET

Free Stuff Champ

Free Stuff for Teachers