the.News Professional Development

Welcome to the.News tutorial. On this site you will find useful information for using the.News in both formal and informal learning environments. Educational support material can always be found in the "For Educators" section of the website. With current events videos and companion lesson plans educators will find this a useful source for adding newsworthy topics to everyday curriculum.

All videos and curricula have been informed by an instructional design. Videos are catalogued by content category or "brand" such as the.Gov (government), the.Globe (global affairs), the.Dollar (economics and financial literacy) and are referenced in many places on the website including under the.Stories on the navigation bar on the.News home page. Videos are enhanced by annotated transcripts and "thought starter" questions that entice students to reach higher levels of Bloom's taxonomy. In addition, you will also find teacher testimonials, TV production tips, links to educational standards, a unique authoring tool for creating multimedia projects, and much more.

During 2009 – 2011 the.News has partnered with the Omaha Public Schools (OPS) in a special pilot project involving middle and high school teachers representing social studies, language arts, science and math, journalism and broadcasting, gifted and talented and AP, as well as special content areas such as "Justice and the Law" and afterschool initiatives. In cooperation with the OPS school district each year a series of professional development in-service days were conducted with these teachers who were selected to be the.News consultants. Through their participation, which included content and technology utilization and assessment with students, mentoring other consultants, presenting the.News at national educational conferences, and designing training activities, this online professional development tool has been created to share ideas and best practices.

Special thanks goes to OPS teachers Hope Hibler and Jane Laughlin for researching and outlining the material for this professional development site; to OPS eLearning Supervisor Mary Schlegelmilch for her management and technology talents and leadership of this partnership; to OPS District supervisors Shelley Erikson and Harris Payne for their curriculum expertise and contributions to the professional development sessions; to OPS Assistant Superintendent Janelle Mullen and Director of Secondary Education Gail Formanack for allowing us to work with their educators and for their encouragement and support. And finally, to the National Education Association for providing partial funding for this the.News online professional development website.