May 2008 News

The school year is winding down and summer is almost here!

Summer is a great time to take advantage of the convenient professional development opportunities available at Professional Learning Board. Learning and growing with us has never been easier, especially with rising gas prices and the heightened awareness of the need to preserve our natural resources – our courses let you work right from your home and require no paper!

We’re excited to announce the addition of more new courses to our collection and have more great tools to help you facilitate learning in your classroom.

Teacher Web Resources

Amazing Free Science Education Resource

If you teach science or simply love to gaze at the stars, you need to check out the free Worldwide Telescope from Microsoft Research: http://www.worldwidetelescope.org/

Microsoft Research has developed an absolutely breathtaking virtual telescope that combines images and information from the Hubble Telescope, planetariums, universities and research institutions and telescopes from around the globe. Big wow factor.

Teachers can build lessons with the Worldwide Telescope and students can make their own online movies/presentations using the software. Imagine a web browser of the universe at your desktop!

The only drawback we found is that it takes some hefty computing power to run the software. For example, while the minimum RAM is 1 GB, they recommend 2 GB. It runs on both Windows and Macs.

Be careful, this site and software is so cool that you might find yourself going to some far off galaxy for hours.

More Web Resources

Want to create easy forms or surveys to use for student data or just as a fun way to collect information? Try out JotForm, or Survey Monkey! These tools can be used for many purposes and can eliminate the piles of paper and hours of time spent on traditional paper forms and surveys.

For a fun brainteaser, try playing Picto, an online memory game. This game seems easy at first, but just try it and see how hard it can be making it to 100!

Head over to the Smithsonian Magazine for wonderful and extensive resources on all things history, nature, and art – you’ll find excellent pictures, videos and information for all content areas.

Last but not least, check out NumberNut for a great variety of math activities for all ages!

New resources are added weekly to the FREE Teacher Toolbar!
Download it here: http://professionallearningboard.ourtoolbar.com

Thank you for your continued support of Professional Learning Board – we look forward to hearing from you!