Professional Development


How To Start Using Google Add-Ons: Step By Step

To start using Google add-ons, district admins will need to set up add-ons and can then enable access for educators; admins need to have the Google Workspace for Education Plus edition or Teaching & Learning Upgrade assigned to each educator that they want to have access to add-ons, Google wrote on its blog announcing the launch. Here are step-by-step instructions for getting started with Google add-ons.

Discovery Education Unveils Updated User Experience, Adds CBE Microlearning Channel, Doubles Quiz Library

K–12 learning platform Discovery Education this week unveiled a new layout and look for both teachers and students, doubled the size of its ready-to-use quiz library, improved search filters, added an Explore page with personalized content recommendations, and launched new professional microlearning focused on competency-based education with content partner Marzano Academies.

How One District Used Tech to Address Sinking Reading Scores & Overhaul Its Literacy PD

A literacy and intervention director at a California district with a serious literacy issue — only 16% of its 22,000 students in TK–12 were reading at or above grade level districtwide — explains how they used technology to overhaul the district's literacy professional development program and address access and equity problems.

How an Educator’s Persistence Led to a Student Leadership Initiative & the Most Popular Minecraft Edu Game of All Time

When Felisa Ford and her instructional tech colleagues in Atlanta had trouble getting the district's teachers on board with using Minecraft: Education Edition, she created a student ambassador program to empower young Minecraft experts to coach other students and teachers, and it was so successful that Microsoft started a learning path for educators to sponsor their own local student ambassador programs. Then came Good Trouble.

Not Into Video Games? Here's How to Let Students Lead on Teaching with Minecraft: Education Edition

The Minecraft Student Ambassador Sponsor Program helps educators create a Minecraft Student Ambassador Program at their school or district, and helps prepare those young Minecraft experts to coach and assist students and teachers who are new to the game, so more classrooms can benefit from the game’s 700-plus “worlds” or lesson-based games.

Four Simple Steps to Adding SEL to Any Classroom

A social-emotional learning specialist explains how any educator can begin teaching social-emotional learning in their classroom in four simple steps: planning to pause, practicing, tracking it, and finally, by talking about it.

Annual Camp Promethean Free Virtual Learning Event for Educators is Thursday

Ed tech provider Promethean will host its annual Camp Promethean virtual professional learning event on Thursday, July 14 from 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. EDT, and participation is free for educators, the company said in a news release.

Verizon to Add 50 More Learning Labs and 50 More Innovative Learning Schools

Verizon is celebrating 10 years of its digital inclusion-focused education initiative by announcing that the telecommunications company will launch Verizon Innovative Learning Labs in 50 more Title I schools this fall and is adding 50 new Title I schools to its Innovative Learning Schools program, bringing the program’s total reach to 561 schools nationwide, the company said.

ED and ISTE Launch Initiative to Improve Tech Proficiency of New Teachers to Increase Digital Equity

The International Society for Technology in Education and the U.S. Department of Education have launched an initiative to help educator preparation programs update their curriculum and methods to ensure new teachers enter the workforce with the digital learning skills needed to lead equitable learning in modern tech-enabled classrooms, the organizations announced today.

Riverside Insights Acquires Aperture Education

Riverside Insights, a provider of ability assessments and standardized tests for K–12 schools, has acquired SEL assessment firm Aperture Education, Riverside announced today.

Whitepapers