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Newton Network Newsletter – October 2008 Newton Network News:
Each year we highlight opportunities for you to improve your skills and advance your career through professional development. In the past, we have emphasized national opportunities available through PBS TeacherLine, Annenberg Media Learner.org and continuing education opportunities offered through the state universities and colleges. This month we will explore the opportunities and resources available to you through your Regional Professional Development Program offices.
Once again, please pass your newsletter on to your colleagues, and let them know that they can sign up for their own newsletter as easily as going to our website (www.unr.edu/newton).
In This Issue: Regional/Statewide: Professional Development – Opportunities from your RPDP PBS TeacherLine – Fall courses begin soon, enroll now. Annenberg Learner.org – Changes to course delivery. Newton Website – Three new links.
Professional Development – The four Regional Professional Development Programs (RDPD) offices provide many training and development resources. Each program office, while serving the same purpose, has a uniqueness that is reflected in the design of the websites and different resources provided. We will try to not replicate any announcement provided by the RPDP so please check the calendar of activities provided on each website for information and schedules. We have explored the RPDP websites to discover the best that each offers. This is what we found.
Northeastern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program (NWRPDP) – Located in Elko and serves Eureka, Elko, Humboldt, Lander and White Pine counties. NWRPDP began a three-year Northeastern Nevada Science Project this year that will provide content training and field experience for the science teachers in the region. Resources available through the NWRPDP website include access to their online library containing books, professional journals and videos available for checkout. The Links section has many great starting points for discovering new resources. (http://www.nnrpdp.org)
Southern Nevada Regional Professional Development Program (SNRPDP) – Located in Las Vegas and serves Clark, Nye and Lincoln counties. The SNRPDP website contains a wealth of information and resources, far more than can be effectively summarized in one paragraph. The Science Tips section is particularly interesting and informative. Geared to providing targeted content to prepare students for the High School Science Proficiency Exam, this section contains professionally produced lessons based on state performance benchmarks. When you have a few hours to spare, take the time to explore this site. Many well written science and math lessons, tips on teaching and teaching resources. (http://www.rpdp.net)
Northwest Regional Professional Development Program (NWRPDP) --Located in Reno and serves Pershing, Story and Washoe counties. The Strategic Instruction Series of workshops has produced an excellent collection of teaching resources including many on-line lesson plan sites and lesson design tools. Also, the site provides a link to Rubistar, one of the better and easier to use rubric creation websites. (http://www.washoe.k12.nv.us/hr/rpdp)
Western Nevada Regional Training Program (WNRTP) – Located in Carson City and serves Carson City, Churchill, Douglas, Lyon and Mineral counties. All the RPDP offices publish a newsletter for their region but I found the newsletters from WNRTP to be exceptional. In addition to having the expected announcements of regional activity, the WNRTP newsletter was filled with informative articles on research, current trends in education, and educational standards. Very well edited and really great to read. Also, don’t miss the link to the Visual Math Dictionary. (http://www.wnrtp.net)
PBS TeacherLine – The fall courses being offered through PBS TeacherLine will begin on October 22, 2008. The list of courses is quite extensive. A course catalog can be downloaded at (http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/catalog). More information is available by contacting either KLXV in Las Vegas or KNPB in Reno or by contacting PBS TeacherLine directly (http://www.pbs.org/teacherline)
Annenberg Learner.org – Annenberg Media discontinued broadcast of their workshops and courses via satellite and broadband viewer as of the end of September, 2008. The same workshops and courses are available online although with a new licensing requirement. The professional development workshops and courses are still available for graduate credit. For full information on the courses and workshops being offered and the registration process, go to (http://www.learner.org)
Newton Website – The search for quality resource links continues and we have added more links to our Teaching Resource page (http://www.unr.edu/newton/teachresource.html). New this month are:
We would very much appreciate your feedback on these changes to the website, especially if you know of teaching resources you wish to share with other teachers. Please email your comments or contributions to Robert Newbury at rnewbury@unr.edu.
Want more information about the Newton Network? The Newton Network Newsletter works both ways – we send information to you, but you can send questions to us; if we don’t have the answer right here, we will find it for you.
Check us out at www.unr.edu/newton, contact Robert Newbury at rnewbury@unr.edu, or Michael Leverington at michael@edtech-teched.com.
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