Comments4Teachers: Dianne Krauss

Dianne Krauss is an instructional technology specialist for professional development, assistance and support for the faculty in the Wissahickon School District; she posts many useful links on her blog "A Whole New Dianne" to help teachers use technology in their classrooms and in their everyday lives. Her blog posts (always titled, "Look what I found: date") include links to new gadgets and tools for the technology world - tools that enable, tools that supplement, and tools that teach. I've noticed that most of her blogs contain links to Wolfram|Alpha for Educators: this website includes links to lessons, demonstrations, resources, classroom assignments, and products on various subjects and services such as webMathematica and other technology topics. "Our long-term goal is to make all systematic knowledge immediately computable and accessible to everyone."

A wonderful link that she included in one her posts is a website designed to help anyone to create their OWN website. Flavors.me could be useful for teachers to create their own websites for their classrooms to help students and parents keep up with important information: deadlines, school activities, etc.

There are also lots of relevant links for specific study-oriented teachers (i.e. secondary educators): math teachers would really benefit from a website that would allow them to create their own practice worksheets to target exactly what they taught in class; science teachers could use videos from real scientists in the field of study they're teaching to supplement their lessons with real-life examples; teachers could contact other educators via Skype whom they believe could have more answers and insight on a topic to benefit their students. BBC has a website full of podcasts that may appeal to world history or civics teachers of 7-14-year-olds: it's like a news channel for children!

By following Dianne Krauss, I have come across TONS of new tools I can use in my future classroom to make sure that my students are getting the most out of the lessons I teach them; Mrs. Krauss will definitely be a valuable addition to my PLN.