Have you checked out the Teacher Resource Center lately? We update content on the site regularly to provide teachers with a wealth of resources to inform their instruction.

In conversations with teachers last week, I learned that many teachers are using the site to access curriculum documents. Throughout the District, teachers are aligning their daily lessons to our curriculum through effective planning. We see evidence of this each week in our walk throughs.

Deborah Henry, a third grade teacher at Monaco Elementary, recently asked me about the videos on the resource center. She wanted to know if we could post more videos to demonstrate various instructional strategies in the classroom. In short, the answer is yes. At the Teacher Resource Center, we already have many classroom videos showing teachers in action. Today, we are launching new videos featuring one of our expert consultants on English Language Acquisition. In this video series, teachers will view Lynda Franco using a technique called Teaching the Text Backwards with groups of students. There are four videos, and they are specific to kindergarten, first grade, fourth grade and fifth grade. Teachers from other grades will also get ideas from these videos. Additionally, there are supporting documents to give teachers tools for delivering these lessons (click the links at the top of the page).

Our video series on the instructional best practices adopted this year will soon be released. We recognize that our current video selection doesn't feature high school teachers, so our next series will feature teachers from Adams City High School (and other schools) implementing Teach for Success (T4S) strategies. Our goal is to have a complete video library online by the end of this school year. Expect a followup blog entry on Thursday, February 4, with links to two new videos from Adams City High School classrooms.

Do you have ideas for improving the Teacher Resource Center? We want to hear them, and there are several ways to contribute to making this site a valuable resource for you:

• Post a comment on this blog;
• Send me a quick email;
• Click the contact us link at the bottom of the Teacher Resource Center to send an email with suggestions.

We look forward to hearing your feedback.