Some good news in a bad economy: Stimulus aided teachers, laborers

MSNBC.com:

But based on preliminary information obtained by The Associated Press from a handful of states, teachers appear to have benefited most from early spending. That’s because the stimulus sent billions of dollars to help stabilize state budgets, sparing what officials said would have teacher layoffs.

In California, the stimulus was credited with saving or creating 62,000 jobs in public schools and state universities. Utah reported saving about 2,600 teaching jobs. In both states, education jobs represented about two-thirds of the total stimulus job number. Missouri reported more than 8,500 school jobs, Minnesota more than 5,900. In Michigan, where officials said 19,500 jobs have been saved or created, three out of four were in education.

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The Search Is on for Canada’s Most Tech Savvy Educators -- Over $50,000 in Prizes!

From EdNetNews.com:

Mississauga, Ontario: Wednesday, October 7, 2009: The MindShare Learning Report—Canada’s, Leading, Learning & Technology eMagazine and title sponsor Microsoft Canada Co., are set to officially launch the Microsoft - MindShare Learning Report™ 21st Century Digital Classroom Challenge.

In its second year running, this event aims to inspire teachers, along with their students from across Canada to share their successful classroom practices using technology. Teachers from publicly funded schools can qualify to win one of three technology prize packs valued at over $15,000 for their school.

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Atomic Learning and Assistive Technology

Atomic Learning has developed a fantastic resource for those wishing to implement assistive technology in their classrooms. Assistive technology can be tremendously beneficial to all educators, not just those in special ed environments.

We offer an entire library of assistive tech tutorials as a companion to any Atomic Learning subscription, or as a stand-alone resource. It's an inexpensive asset that can really have an impact with individual students.

Atomic Learning will be present at several upcoming assistive technology conferences. Please stop by to discuss your particular needs and get a custom price quote. You may be surprised how affordably you'll be able to add this collection.

We’ll be at Closing the Gap in Bloomington, Minnesota, October 14-17. Find us at booth number 107. We're hosting a hands on computer lab session on Thursday the 15th from 3:30-4:30, called “An A.T. Training Solution for All”.

We’ll also be at ATIA in Chicago, October 29-31, booth 419. We will be presenting a hands-on session Friday the 30th entitled “An A.T. Training Solution for All” from 9:15-10:15, and a two-hour session entitled “Atomic Learning and WYNN Provide Universal Design for Learning” from 1:15-3:15.

Call us today at (866) 259-6890 (U.S.) or +1 320-632-5064 ext 180 (international).

Popular 21st Century Webinar Still Available

Nearly 500 people from the education community joined us for our recent webinar with Brad Flickinger. He did a fantastic job (as always).

Please feel free to view the archived version here.

Atomic Learning at South Carolina EdTech 2009

We look forward to meeting you at the South Carolina EdTech 2009 conference next week!  Please stop by Atomic Learning at booth 416 to learn more about how we can help support you in building 21st century-ready students and teachers.

Atomic Learning is dedicated to providing educational resources that allow teachers, students and learners of all ages to embrace technology. An integral part of your professional development program, Atomic Learning empowers educators with the training and resources needed to create 21st century-ready students.

What’s New?
Our 21st Century Professional Development and Technology Integration Collection offers the training and features that will help you meet your professional development and technology integration goals through:

• Professional development workshops, assessment, and portfolios
• Prescribed training paths for 21st century skills professional development
• Library of 50,000 technology training tutorials on commonly used software apps
• Technology integration projects for the classroom
• Administrative-level reports to assess student and teacher progress

Watch a brief overview of Atomic Learning

See you at booth 416!

A World Teachers' Day Tribute

In honor of World Teachers' Day, I thought I'd relate my recollection of the most memorable teacher of my youth. A few stand out, but this one is my favorite, at least in distant hindsight.

I attended junior high school in Bozeman, Montana in the mid 1980's. During that time, I had the same teacher for English and some sort of mythology class. I have one distinct memory of that my experience teacher, as well as a general recall of the mood of her class. I remember that she was a grandmotherly personality (well, from a twelve-year-old's perspective), but a very boisterous one. She was outgoing and engaging, but without being intimidating. She would have had to be to teach sentence diagramming and punctuation to adolescents, I suppose. She was clearly very intelligent.

She had lovely red hair, which somehow made her even more interesting. She often wore dark green clothing to coordinate with it. I looked forward to her class, which is to say that I didn't dread sitting through it like some others.

One afternoon, in the middle of a lesson on vocabulary, someone apparently mis-emphasized a syllable in a word we were discussing. She cheerfully mentioned that the student had placed the vocal accent on the wrong syllable. However, to make her point, she pronounced the words ak-SENT and sil-AHH-buhl. The effect was almost one of sophistication, as though she were emulating the haughty speech of an aristocrat. That misinterpretation would prove to be my undoing.

In a burst of juvenile intellectual enthusiasm I completely missed the intentional irony, and promptly consulted my school-issued dictionary. Sure enough, "syllable" is pronounced SIL-uh-buhl. I knew it! I had discovered of a foible in this language guru. Pointing it out would surely earn me rapport.

I proudly and somewhat brashly raised my hand. When called upon, I pointed out her mistake, fully expecting appreciative acclaim for my perceptiveness. Naturally, she burst into gleeful guffaws. When her mirth subsided she explained to a very confused boy that she had used that line for years, and never before had anyone actually looked it up.

It took me several moments more to understand the meaning of what had just occurred. It wouldn't be the last time I inserted my foot in my mouth.

That teacher, and I wish I could recall her name, made an impression on me. Her exuberant stories of Greek and Roman gods, and her conspicuous love of reading and writing quietly conveyed their potential significance to our young lives. I don't believe I took it very deeply to heart at the time, but the message stuck in the back of my mind. Decades later I would return to those subjects and countless others with renewed scholarship, thanks to her and others like her.

Good teachers arouse interest, passion, and latent ability in children that others in their small worlds may not. They open eyes and minds, and in doing so open doors of opportunity, satisfaction and happiness. This is their true value. Their dedication does not go unnoticed.

Happy World Teachers' Day.

An eBook From Atomic Learning: Creating 21st Century-Ready Teachers

Atomic Learning has created an ebook as a resource for those wishing to understand 21st century skills and how to integrate them to create both teachers and students that are 21st century-ready.

Get it free here.

If you would like a consultation to talk through your 21st century skills initiatives, please contact us at (866) 259-6890 or atomic@atomiclearning.com.

Content Update Alert: eFolio Minnesota

This collection has been available for some time, and now it's been updated to our new video format.

eFolioMinnesota™, Version 2 . . . a multimedia electronic portfolio designed to help you create a living showcase of your education, career, and personal achievements. All Minnesota residents, including students enrolled in Minnesota schools, educators, and others can use eFolio to reach their career and education goals.

View two free tutorials