Alabama Learning Exchange (ALEX)
The Alabama Learning Exchange seems to be a site where educators can post and share ideas for lesson plans and find helpful information for all sorts of things in their classroom. The posts are searchable (there is a search engine within the site that directs you to lesson plans that contain certain key words.) The posts are also categorized by subject matter and grade. The site also includes useful web links and podcasts. There is a section where teachers can get tutorials on basic computer software that would be used in the classroom.
ALEX could be a very useful website. However, I was looking at the lesson plans for 11th grade language arts and they were very vague. Just a bunch of questions that could be applied to almost any novel. I think it would be useful as a springboard, but that you would definitely have to come up with a few of your own questions or tweak the questions so that they fit the novel the class was reading.
Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide (ACCESS)
The Alabama Connecting Classroom, Educators and Students Statewide, or ACCESS, is a program that was designed to give all public high school students the same opportunity to take advanced courses and online courses. 174 of Alabama's schools and 9,000 students participate in the program. Large numbers of both students and educators feel that the online school is at the same level or better than traditional courses. The 50+ courses offered include ten different AP classes and several foreign languages. Courses may involve video conferencing, or they may be completely web based.
I talked about something like this being a possibility in the podcast that I did with Chelsea Steele. Our topic was iTunes U and it's usefulness to high school educators. Sort of different than an online school, but not really. It's crazy that Alabama actually has a program like this! I look forward to seeing it grow and prosper. It's a great opportunity for students to take courses, that may or may not be offered at their high school, online with other students from Alabama.
Comments4Kids
This week I commented on Mrs. Yollis' Class Blog. My assignment was their Quadrilateral tutorial.
Caitlyn I agree with you on the ACCESS report you made. I hope that it reaches all the schools in Alabama. But keep up the good work!
ReplyDeleteThis is the first time I have heard of ACCESS. I have had my thoughts of your upper grades eventually being total internet based and this is the beginning I would say.
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