I Get By With a Little Help From My Friends

Teachingchannel.org: I was recently exposed to this tool through a small PD meeting with our Literacy Coach.  Our meeting was about an evaluation standard for teachers to consider so they can distinguish between “effective” and “distinguished.”  We used a video from this organization to observe a lesson and try to evaluate based on the standard we were analyzing.  It was the best thing that happened to me.  Once I saw all the great resources they offer, I was smitten and wanted to spread the good news.  

This site has numerous videos for teachers to utilize for their own classroom.  Each video is designed to help illustrate a successful method for teaching a particular subject, skill, strategy, and anything else teachers decide is important for students to learn. There is a Q&A feature to propose to any member to get feedback.  Even registering to be a member felt like this site was designed by a teacher because of the relevant categories it asks you to select for a search filter.  My profile is a place to save videos for later use, follow people who contribute to the site, and a place to make notes. There is also a Teaching Channel Teams feature where the site gets more involved in the school for professional development.  It just exudes positivity and optimism. DOUBLE WHAMMY!

You can learn so much from this site.  All you need is time to watch a video to decide if it suits your class, style, and students.  Even if you have doubts, you can tweak what you see and make it your own.  It gets 4’s across the board.

Communication Tool Rubric

	User Friendliness	Safety	Customization for Educators	Cross-Curricular Application	Cognitive Differentiation
EXCEEDS 4	Is more user friendly than traditional means/methods of teaching and/or completing standards, and/or can be used as an alternative method for students who struggle with the traditional methods of instruction/assessments.	Can be closely monitored by teachers/gatekeepers to ensure all participants (students, community members, etc,) abide digital citizenship standards with strict security measures and clearly stated privacy policies.	Can be customized to support collegial professional development AND classroom instruction, assessment, and/or reporting.	Can be used to develop units of study that tie in learning targets from multiple subject areas and connect to the world beyond school in order to increase relevance.	Can be used in all levels and a variety of processes of Marzano’s taxonomy.
MEETS 3	Can be used on a variety of devices and is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teachers/ gatekeepers and allows for opportunities to select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship and with moderate security measures and a reasonable privacy policies.	Can be customized to meet the needs of individual educators according to grade level, subject area, class size, experience with technology, professional development needs, etc.	Can be applied to multiple learning targets across subject areas and/or can be used to help design or support cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of processes and levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
PARTIALLY MEETS 2	Can be used on a variety of devices or is easy to use for students and teachers.	Can be monitored by teacher/ gatekeepers with limited opportunities to be select/edit for instances of non-compliance of digital citizenship standards and minimal security measures.	Can be partially customized, but not enough to fully meet the needs of individual educators.	Can be applied to only one or two learning targets in one or two subject areas and would need modification in order to support the development of cross-curricular units of study.	Can be used for a variety of categories on one level of the taxonomy or a few processes on various levels of Marzano’s taxonomy.
DOES NOT MEET 1	Has several barriers which make it difficult for students and/or teachers to use.	Does not allow for monitoring by teacher/gatekeeper and permits disregard for digital citizenship standards.	Does not allow customization to meet the needs of individual educators,	Does not apply to learning targets in any more than one subject area.	Is limited to only a few categories of one process of Marzano’s taxonomy.
Additional notes