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Saturday, 04 February 2017 00:00

Cool Cat Teacher Blog

This is Vicky Davis' excellent blog for K-12 educators, full of ideas and strategies for engaging your students.

Friday, 03 February 2017 00:00

ArtBabble

ArtBabble was conceived, initiated, designed, built, sculpted, programmed, shot, edited, painted and launched by a cross-departmental collection of individuals at the Indianapolis Museum of Art (IMA). It is intended to showcase video art content in high quality format from a variety of sources and perspectives. ArtBabble was created so others will join in spreading the world of art through video. Educator resources are available as well.

Thursday, 02 February 2017 00:00

The Plagiarism Checker

A simple yet effective plagiarism checker. Simply copy/paste your text, or upload a Word document, and The Plagiarism Checker will scan the document and report on possible plagiarism. Click the links to see the infringed document.

Wednesday, 01 February 2017 00:00

NumberNut

This math site contains great information on basic math skills. Interactive quiz-based activities are included to help students test their knowledge of the concepts.

Saturday, 28 January 2017 00:00

iSEEK

Ask a question or search a topic in iSEEK's database of "trusted resources" from universities, government, and established non-commercial providers. Use "targets" to refine your search of editor-reviewed content.
Monday, 30 January 2017 00:00

dig.ccMixter

Dig.ccMixter is a community music site featuring remixes licensed under Creative Commons where you can listen to, sample, mash-up, or interact with music in whatever way you want. This is great material for podcasting. If you're into sampling, remixing and mash-ups grab the sample packs and a cappellas for download and you can upload your version back into ccMixter, for others to enjoy and re-sample.

Sunday, 29 January 2017 00:00

PDFsam

PDFsam is a free tool to split, merge, and extract PDF documents. The fairly straightforward interface gives you considerable flexibility over your PDFs.

Tuesday, 31 January 2017 00:00

360 Cities

360 Cities contains a large collection of panoramas and photospheres from all over the world. Select your city, and view all the possible explorable panoramas on the map. 360 videos are included as well.

Friday, 27 January 2017 07:57

Updated Timeline For Educator Evaluations

Evaluation System 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15 2015-16
USOE PEER Advisory Committee District evaluation plans
approved in May
Districts send updated report on to USOE in May for approval Districts pilot local evaluation systems and provide updates in spring of 2015 USOE begins accountability audits in selected districts
Observation Tools Teaching and Leadership Year 1 observation
measurement tools pilot in
16 districts
Year 2 observation tools pilot in 38 user group districts (teaching and leadership); other districts piloting observation tools based on UETS and UELS

Full implementation of observation tools aligned with UETS and UELS

Pilot electronic platforms selected by districts

Full district implementation of professional performance component

Electronic platforms in place

Student Growth

Student Growth Workgroup
recommendations finalized

SAGE adopted

USOE begins to develop
statewide example SLOs
(SS, Fine Arts, Special
Education, CTE)

USOE conducts pilot study of SLOs in volunteer districts

SAGE Year 1 test data

USOE continues to develop statewide example SLOs (Early Childhood, PE, Health, K-3 Science)

Statewide pilot of SLOs Statewide pilot of SGPs

SAGE Year 2 implementation year

Districts begin SLO development plan using example SLOs and USOE SLO Toolkit

Full district implementation of student growth component: SGPs for tested subjects and grades and SLOs for non-tested subjects and grades
Surveys for Stakeholder Input Year 1 pilot of survey
questions (Utah Education
Policy Center)
(teachers, parents, students)

Year 2 Pilot of survey items (Utah Education Policy Center)

USOE creates rubric for scoring educator response to survey feedback for effectiveness

Districts decide survey(s) to use and then pilot in local schools Full district implementation of stakeholder Input component
Weighting of Evaluation Components   USOE works with consultants to formulate study of determining weights of three components USOE pilots statewide to determine weights of three components using district data Utah State Board evaluates the component weights selected to determine final weighting
Rater-reliability and Calibration   Online resources created and distributed to districts to ensure rater-reliability of teaching and leadership observations USOE rater-reliability certification process with master-coded exemplars in place and professional development provided in districts

USOE reliability certification pilot conducted in districts

Observer certification required

Professional Development Professional development
(PD) for districts piloting observation tools for
teaching and leadership

USOE and districts provide PD for instructional effectiveness using UETS

PD on Leadership and role of administrator in improving teacher performance

USOE and districts continue PD on following:

  • Reliability
  • Instructional effectiveness
  • Leadership effectiveness
  • Observations
  • SLOs
USOE and districts continue PD as needed

**2016-2017 school year includes performance pay for principals as outlined in SB101-2014 | USOE:March 25,2014

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