http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ A search of MERLOT materials Copyright 1997-2013 MERLOT. All rights reserved. Tue, 21 May 2013 13:41:03 PDT Tue, 21 May 2013 13:41:03 PDT http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/images/merlot.gif http://www.merlot.org:80/merlot/ 44 34 http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=80710 To address the critical teacher shortage in math and science, the Teaching and Learning Interchange grant produced three products: two series of online video case studies of accomplished teaching and a resource guide explaining the techniques, ideas for engaging students, assessing learning progress, creating and maintaining a classroom conducive to learning, along with strategies for working with English Learners and Special needs students. Originally conceived for use with pre-service and intern teachers, the cases and resources have been recommended by field reviewers for use at all stages of the teacher professional continuum.The Pedagogy in Practice: Science video case studies document lessons from general science, biology and chemistry; the Pedagogy in Practice: Math video cases cover 8th grade algebra, high school algebra and geometry. Each case is supported by relevant artifacts that develop real contexts for the learning and includes teaching cues and transcripts of classroom dialog. National Board certified and Exploratorium Master teachers deconstruct their own teaching practices and share how they break subject matter standards into mind-sized learning units, then demonstrate those same learning units in action. Teacher reflections on assessment, along with links to resouces found in the Strategies in Practice Resource Guide, provide support for classroom management, lesson planning and essential strategies that describe how to adapt the instructional pedagogy modeled in the videos. All lessons are aligned simultaneously to the California standards for teaching and science subject matter content. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=91285 The Classroom Assessment Techniques -- CATs (Angelo and Cross, 1993) within the FLAG are succinct, self-contained,self-instructional, web-based modules that introduce a broadly applicable technique for use in college or universitySMET courses. Each CAT has been written by a college or university instructor who currently uses the technique, and has beenreviewed by the FLAG Editorial Board for accuracy and consistency with current professional standards of assessment.In most cases, the technique has an extensive history of research to support claims of reliability and validity. The CATsare linked to a set of discipline-specific "tools" that can be downloaded for immediate use. The new Tool search function at the mirror site is outstanding! Assessment techniques are linked to the relevant research literature as well as to web sites showing exemplary use of each assessment technique. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=90847 Examples of CATs are provided at this site. Classroom assessment is a simple method faculty can use to collect feedback, early and often, on how well their students are learning what they are being taught. The purpose of classroom assessment is to provide faculty and students with information and insights needed to improve teaching effectiveness and learning quality. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=658328 The Teaching Channel's K-12 educational video collection showcases effectve teaching methods and techniques used by teachers in their classroom. Subjects/#videos: English Language Arts (116); Math (91); Science (73); History/Social Sciences (33); and the Arts (13). Topics/#videos: Planning (29). Class Culture (47). Behavior (37), Engagement (53), Differentiation (30), Assessment (18), Collaboration (21), Common Core (106), Digital Literacy (24), New Teachers (52) and Celebrating Teachers (65). http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=350144 PE Central is the premier Web site for health and physical education teachers, parents, and students. The site provides the latest information about contemporary physical education programs for children and youth. Resources on the site include health and physical education lesson ideas, ready-to-print assessments, adapted physical education information, classroom management techniques, a job center, physical education equipment discounts, and information about best practices in physical education and programs designed to motivate children and help them improve their motor skills and understanding of the importance of physical fitness. The Primary Sponsor of PE Central is S&S Worldwide. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=330533 This site answers the following questions: What Are CATs? Why Should I Use CATs? How Should I Use CATs? Where Can I Find More CATs? http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=330531 This site explains what classroom assessment techniques are and also provides a number of advantages for faculty and students. It also includes chart of CAT exercises that indicates "the kind of evaluation for which each is intended, what each is called, how each is conducted, what to do with the information you collect, and an approximation of the relative amount of time each requires." http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=84380 Part of the Teaching and Learning with Technology web site, this resource provides a quick reminder of the need for different types of assessments as learning occurs. Authentic assessment, classroom assessment techniques, and portfolio assessment are briefly defined and examples for each are given. The information on this page is not in-depth but serves its purpose through introducing ideas and providing additional links for users. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=330058 This is a faculty development workshop with an overview on how to teach critical thinking in the classroom (regardless of the discipline) using active learning strategies. It includes general definitions of critical thinking, some sample techniques for teaching an explicit skill or a broader CT strategy. The question of assessment is also addressed as we often try to promote CT in the classroom, but then evaluate our students with traditional tests that do not address the CT skills that we try to emphasize. http://www.merlot.org/merlot/viewMaterial.htm?id=226943  The Digital Divide: Where we are today? The Digital Divide describes the gap between individual and communities with regard access to the technology resources. The article presents some data depends on the census for 2002 in terms of increasing the number of internet users. About 2 million new internet users enrolle every month, and approximately 54% of population has an access to the internet. I would like to comment a little bit on this site which is considered as a very rich website, and contains many detailed articles, in-depth studies, research summary, instructional modules, and link to hundreds of relevant resources. In addition to, this site offers video gallery includes hundreds of short documentary segments which covers a variety of topics. Furthermore, there are many links which are very significant for teachers such as: teacher's preparations, lesson plans, and integrating technology into the classroom. Many valuable ideas very applicable as new activities to be given to students during group work as a preparation for project presentation. Some strong points in this website: first, it contains many valuable resources as I mentioned through my comments. Second, video library presents very unique discussions with expertise in education arena in many important issues such as assessments, group work, integrated technology into classroom, and more. By viewing and watching these videos, we will gain powerful experience from high professional experts. We can adopt some of these ideas and attempting to apply them in our schools. In addition, by reviewing many of ideal lesson plans which are well prepared, it will help novice teachers to know the technique of forming and building successful lesson plan. The main weak point in this website, it is not dealing with language, and concentrates more on education and improving the students' performance which is based on understanding not memorizing.