Kaplan Challenges Teachers with Best Practices Competition

Teachers' best practices for integrating digital and blended instruction into the classroom are being sought in the Kaplan's First Year Teacher e-Book Contest.

Winning ideas will be shared in print with publication of the next edition of "First Year Teacher," an e-Book published by Kaplan, and winning teachers will also receive gift cards.

Submissions will be judged primarily on creativity of the ideas submitted by teachers. The best entries, as determined by Kaplan's panel of judges made up of curriculum experts, will be grouped together in a chapter of the next edition of the e-Book, which is scheduled to be released during Teacher Appreciation Week, which runs May 7 to 11, 2012.

The current edition is available for free download on Amazon.com through the end of February in conjunction with the Digital Learning Day campaign.

Entries should focus on the use of digital media in a teacher's instruction and on the use of blended instruction methods that cross a variety of learning environment formats. Examples might include alternating between traditional classroom instruction and the use of classroom apps, social media, cloud-based sharing, and other new learning and instruction techniques to obtain maximum value from a variety of learning styles.

Submissions should be from educators and should incorporate original materials and ideas.

Entries should be submitted online at the contest Web site. The deadline for contest submissions is at midnight Eastern March 9, 2012.

"We know that today's teachers are entrepreneurs of innovative ideas inside the classroom, particularly as technology becomes a growing part of classroom instruction," said Justin Serrano, president of Kaplan K12 Learning Services. "We'd like to give creative-thinking teachers a platform for sharing their ideas about how they are using digital media, to recognize their efforts, and to help others who are navigating the changes that technology is bringing to the learning process."

More information is available at kaplank12.com/us/resources/ or at the contest Web site.

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