Salt Lake City, UT (PRWEB) June 07, 2011
School Improvement Network announces one of the first implementations of its Observation 360 classroom technology deployments in Milan, Tennessee. Observation 360 allows administration professionals to visit classrooms and then seamlessly integrate evaluations with the number-one ranked PD 360 professional development resources.
Since Tennessee was the first state to be awarded Race to the Top funding, said Sam Rhodes, Supervisor of Staff Development in the Milan Special School District, We have set a goal to be First to the Top. In addition to making PD 360 our core technology platform, we are one of the first districts in the nation to use the iPhone/iPad/iPod-based Observation 360 tool set.
Continues Mr. Rhodes, With just 3 schools, 175 teachers and 2200 students, were barely a blip on the national education scene, but we think big. Because each life represents worlds of possibility, each school system wrote a Race to the Top proposal. Nearly 100% of our Race to the Top funding is earmarked for professional development.
Vice president of School Improvement Network, Cory Linton, said, PD 360 is the worlds largest community of verified educators. With the most experts, the broadest range of topics and the most classroom examples, we are excited to bring Observation 360 to the classroom in such a portable way.
Observation 360
Observation 360 is the only observation tool that is tightly integrated with PD 360. The handheld observation tool is designed to allow principals and instructional leaders such as coaches and mentors to perform effective classroom observations and walkthroughsand more importantly to allow those instructional leaders to be able to easily give effective follow-up to teachers via PD 360s rich resources. No longer will teachers have to find resources to address issues arising from an observation, PD 360 will automatically recommend appropriate resources based on the results of the observation.
About School Improvement Network
Founded in 1991 by teachers, the School Improvement Network provides comprehensive, research-based professional development anytime, anywhere. As the home of The Video Journal of Education, PD 360, and the Learning 360 Framework, School Improvement Network resources focus on the most relevant topics, feature the top experts, and show educators how to put theory into practice. School Improvement Network works with thousands of schools and districts in every state and around the world and has visited over 3,000 classrooms to document best practices in action. Learn more at http://www.schoolimprovement.com.
About PD 360 Practical, Scalable, Measurable
PD 360 is the multi-award winning, leading online, on-demand professional learning resource for schools and districts.
With 1,500 videos on 97 topics from 120 experts, PD 360 has the largest online community of educators, with over 700,000 subscribers. The innovative PD 360 videos are unique and class-leading because of the quality of production, and each is research-based with classroom examples of best practices. The videos are also relatively short in nature (about 6-12 minutes) allowing educators access to snack-able content that is easy and accessible to view and implement.
Teachers, administrators, professional learning communities, coaches, mentors, instructional leaders, and paraprofessionals have available at their fingertips hundreds of indexed and searchable video segments that present real, best-practice classroom examples and feature respected education experts, such as Michael Fullan, Rick DuFour, Doug Reeves, Rick Stiggins, and many others. Educators can instantly find the help they need on nearly every topic, including differentiation, assessment, English language learners, leadership, and more. PD 360 can also be used to create a structured learning experience for an individual teacher, a PLC, or even an entire school. PD 360 bridges the gap between training and classroom implementation with job-embedded follow-up, tracking, and reflection tools. PD 360 gives educators access to an online community of teaching professionals that allows interaction and collaboration either within a district or across the United States and the world. PD 360 includes over 1,400 research-based video learning segments and is the most comprehensive web-based library of professional development resources available. See a demonstration at http://www.pd360.com.
School Improvement Network, PD 360, and their respective logos are trademarks of the School Improvement Network. All other trademarks and registered trademarks are the property of their respective owners.
Press Contact:
Duane Sprague
School Improvement Network
801-758-9546
