New Science Resources

Late last week we added a host of new Science resources including a bunch of new High School level videos.

We also included some reviewed and aligned resources from NASA, USGS, and NOAA.

More great resources are in the works including more excerpts from Allyn & Bacon / Merrill the professional development group.

You may have noticed our press release went out today. It announced a number of things including the new calculator tools.

More great stuff is in the works...stay tuned...

Award Winning!

Perspective was awarded a Distinguished Achievement Award from The Association of Educational Publishers (AEP).

The AEP Distinguished Achievement Awards recognize the best educational materials in the industry. Winning an AEP award is especially prestigious due to the rigorous judging process that is used.

We are proud to have the ground-breaking innovation that Perspective represents recognized and awarded by the educational publishing industry. It's great to have our efforts recognized by the industry.

Reading Challenge Ending Soon

When I was composing the last entry, I stumbled upon the Pearson Reading Challenge that Allyn & Bacon/Merrill is hosting.

I wanted to alert you to it as Registration Ends September 30th.

It sounds like a great way to motivate students to read and there is a special incentive:

"...each team leader who registers will receive a complimentary copy of Penguin Group's best-seller Teach Like Your Hair's on Fire: The Methods and Madness Inside Room 56 by Rafe Esquith."

So sign up your team before the 30th.

Professional Development Podcasts & Blog

I was perusing Allyn & Bacon/Merrill’s site yesterday and noted a number of free resources they have available there.

One thing I noted was the excellent blog by maintained by their authors. You can view it here.

Also, there are some great Podcasts that they are offering. Those are located here.

Get The Most out of Perspective

We posted a new document on the educator’s home page. It is called Maximizing your use of Perspective.

The document outlines tips and strategies for getting the most out of your Perspective implementation.

Written by former educators and administrators, Maximizing your use of Perspective is full of practical strategies for the classroom.

You can view the document here.

Here is an example:

Select a resource to use as a class example of a skill you are teaching. Instruct students to work
through resource together

1. Visit http://perspective.pearsonaccess.com/mn
2. Click on Go to Perspective for Educators
3. Click on the Learning Resources Tab at the top of the page
4. Select a subject and grade
5. Select a Strand on the Left hand side of the page
6. Key in a term like “volume” or a benchmark like “V.B.3” in the Search Resources box and click Go
7. Choose a resource to use for a teaching example by either projecting onto a large screen or
printing off for the class

Cool New Tools

We just launched some great new Web-based calculators on the site. We are offering: four function, graphing, and scientific calculators.

Students and families can access them here.
Teachers can access them here.

Please note that many of the MCA-II benchmarks do not allow the use of calculators. A list of those benchmarks is provided here.

Look for more great stuff in the coming weeks.