Edutopia recently posted an article, Teacher Development Research: Keys to Educator Success. The article focuses on effective professional development, and looks at three key areas to determine success:

In this series of online training tutorials, we'll cover a variety of ways to set, control and check that data entered into Microsoft Excel 2013 is valid. From creating error messages to checking data, this series will cover how to get the most out of the data validation functions in Excel.

This online training series will help you save time and effort by teaching you the ins and outs of the most common formulas used in Microsoft Excel 2013.

In this online training series, you will learn to create and share a photo or video project in Adobe Premiere Elements 11. The training starts by covering what's new in Elements 11. We will explore both the Quick and Expert view workspaces as well as how to import media to our project and create a slide show with transitions and effects. Finally, you will learn how to create a DVD of the project and share video via mobile devices or on the web.

Take a look at Colorado elementary tech teacher, Brad Flickinger's blog where he recently shared why his school uses Atomic Learning (reason #46). An excerpt reads:

They’re always fresh, never stale. With education reform being such a hot-button topic in our country, us edtech people are being constantly sucked into the mix of reform ideas. Which is why I need to up-to-date on all the latest tech trends and ideas.

Read more.

Is your school considering a bring-your-own-technology initiative? Check out this overview video of one of our newest training series recently added to our Atomic Mobilize solution. 

Need more help with your mobile initiative? Take a look at Atomic Mobilize here. 

Looking for for professional development inspiration? Check out Tech & Learning's PD Tips for great ideas such as:

Are you following Atomic Learning on Pinterest? If you answered "no", we ask "why not?"

Take a look at what you're missing from our most popular boards:

Atomic Learning’s "Going Mobile" Atomic Catalyst course exposes teachers to a variety of tools and strategies to get the most out of mobile devices in the classroom.

The six-week online course focuses on developing strategies for including portable computing devices in classroom projects and lessons, including the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad™, and other cell phones and mobile computing platforms. Because these devices enable real time communication and feedback, as well as access to textbooks and reference sources, they open the door to educational innovations that take advantage of ubiquitous, "always on" computing and communication.

In this online training series, you’ll discover the powerful new features of Adobe® After Effects® CS6 - taking your skills set from average to advanced.

Learn to convert, extrude and edit vector shapes to unlock an endless array of design possibilities. We'll cover how to use variable mask feathering to seamlessly rotoscope images. Finally, learn to unlock the power of 3D camera tracking and warp stabilization to create professional looking video.

In this online training series, we'll teach you how to get the most out of Firefox. From basic lessons on using tabs and hyperlinks to advanced options including customizing the look and feel of the browser, changing privacy and security settings, even creating your own custom toolbars.

Jane Hart has a great challenge for educators in 2013: learn to use ten new tools to use in your classroom. Once you have learned how to use the new tool, blog about it and share your experience with your peers on Edmodo. Not a member of Edmodo? Check out this blog post.

Atomic Learning can help you reach that goal. Need ideas on what to learn? Check out the Atomic Learning Spotlights. Each of them provide insight on what educators can do with the new technology in addition to providing training on how it may be used.

Check out this quick overview video on how to utilize your earned Certificates of Completion. Remember, you can use these certificates to:

• Track Professional Development Hours
• Build a Skills Portfolio
• Create an Evidence of Learning Repository
• Earn Recognition Among Peers

We found this article on The Hechinger Report quite interesting. As it states, often, schools hire outside contractors to run workshops on teaching strategies, new policies and even how to use technology in the classroom.

Rob Zdrojewski, a teacher at Amherst Middle School, has transformed his students into teachers. They create video mini-lessons, which help train the school’s teachers on how to use computers and other devices and software in the classroom. The Hechinger Report talked with Zdrojewski to find out more about how he’s capitalizing on the knowledge of “digital natives” to transform professional development.

Read more.

Vacaville Christian Schools in Vacaville, CA recently embarked on a district-wide iPad initiative. While most of the educators grasped the transition to the tablets in their instruction, one teacher in particular struggled.

“She was one of the best math teachers on the planet,” Middle School Principal Maylene Ripley said, “But she said she couldn’t do it and she resigned. ”

Although the Middle School would miss the talented math teacher, Ripley didn’t want to force the transition on her. Over the few months after her resignation, her colleagues kept in touch with her and encouraged her that the training and support they were getting through the school’s Atomic Learning subscription would help her through. She decided to return to the school and used the school’s online training solution to become proficient enough in using the tablet that she now teaches other educators how to use their mobile device effectively in their classrooms.

A recent THE Journal article entitled Stop Buying iPads, Please discusses the popularity of iPads in education, and questions whether these schools and districts buying the iPads have a plan a place for the devices.

Let's create and publicize initiatives in teaching and learning that are supported by professional development, new curricula, authentic assessment, and yes, technology—along with all the other tools we know are part of true and lasting change in education.

Enter Atomic Mobilize, a repository of online professional development resources and planning tools focusing on helping educators realize the full potential mobile devices provide in the classroom.

Atomic Mobilize includes not only PD and planning tools, but also stories, examples and resources from fellow educators that illustrate how mobile devices can transform education and create highly personalized learning experiences for students.

Learn more.

Atomic Learning is proud to announce that all TIES education collaborative members can now get a discount off the enrollment fee off Atomic Catalyst Instructor-led online PD courses.

Atomic Catalyst courses are professional development courses focused on the effective application of technology in the classroom, with every six- week course including a 1-hour weekly instructional webinar led by a highly-qualified facilitator, as well as online resources, collaborative discussions and facilitator feedback to help teachers build and apply new strategies and skills. Courses are being offered on mobile and common core topics:

GOING MOBILE

Emerging Ed Tech continued this week with a series of posts that examine applications of education technology that have produced measurable, positive results. We are proud to share our research study results are featured in yesterday's post:

This week we learn about a study conducted around teacher use of the Atomic Learning professional development solution and it’s impact on student learning.

...This study provides yet another example of how instructional technologies and technology integration in education truly can make a measurable difference in student engagement and student learning."

Students have different levels of technology knowledge, and educators should not assume students' skill levels when integrating technology into their classrooms. Edutopia's blogger, Nicholas Provenzano, a high school English teacher offers 3 tips for providing PD to students in a recent blog post entitled Don't Forget Professional Development for Students.

The first time a student told me they didn’t have an email address and didn’t know how to attach files, it blew my mind. Shouldn’t all students know how to send email? Haven’t students been sending attachments for years? That revelation changed the way that I integrate technology into my classroom. I offer three tips on making student professional development a seamless part of your classroom.

1) Model

2) Explore

3) Delegate

Tech&Learning recently featured an article on how school districts are mixing up the way they deliver professional development.  Atomic Learning Customer Metropolitan Nashville Public Schools is featured in the article, sharing how they use Atomic Learning's training library and Custom Training feature:

For online training, MNPS relies on Atomic Learning. Teachers watch Atomic Learning’s videos to improve their tech skills, such as how to use Microsoft products. But the icing on the cake is Atomic’s custom solution, which lets Ray upload her own videos and track their usage. “When one of our five instructional technologists sees a promising practice in a class, we capture it and add to our video library,” she says. “So far, we’ve got 400 videos—on everything from logging in to the network to starting a PLN—and we’re constantly adding more. Many of the videos have lesson plans attached to them.”

A recent Education Week blog article shares 13 questions related to developing an effective personal learning community (PLC). Learning Forward's Executive Director, Stephanie Hirsh states:

Our definition of effective professional learning captures the foundation of the PLC strategy. I have converted the key components of the definition into questions that I invite you to take to your school leadership team, or to your grade or subject-level learning team, to make sure you have everything in place to get you the best results for this new school year.

Do you agree that all 13 of these questions are critical for any professional learning community? Are some more critical than others? Where will you focus this year? Answering these questions will help guide you to a higher performing PLC whose results you will be celebrating throughout the school year.

See the questions to help you develop your PLC here.

Atomic Learning’s Atomic Catalyst solution has recently added a new professional development course featuring techniques for using mobile technology in special education entitled “iPod/iPad Use for Students with Special Needs”.

Using the iPod and iPad™ in special education is a growing trend. But how do you get started, what is the potential, and what strengths do students need in order to be successful users of this technology? This course will answer those questions and participants will walk away with an implementation plan for a student or classroom to ensure successful use of this technology.

Atomic Learning has expanded its training collection to include the following new training series. Log in and learn today!

Clicker 6 Training (PC)

In this online training series, you’ll begin by learning the basic features of Clicker™ 6, Crick Software’s literacy tool to support the reading and writing skills of every student. You will then gain the knowledge needed to manage those features by modifying the user preferences.  You will also learn how to create personalized, curriculum-specific activities in seconds. 

Flash CS6 – Intro Training (Mac)

A Resource Link blog post from last September gives a great overview of how social media can help teachers grow their personal learning communities.

Social media allows us to connect not only to those we know, but also to those who we don’t know, but who share our passions, our interests and our profession."

Roberts and Pruitt, in their book Schools as Professional Learning Communities (p3, 2009) quote research that suggests that the major obstacle for schools who wish to develop as learning communities is the provision of resources such as time to collaborate, leadership support, information and ready access to colleagues. Social Media is not the total answer; but in schools where money and time are in short demand (and which school isn’t in this situation?), they can go part of the way in meeting these needs.

In this online training series, you’ll learn basic skills and advanced editing techniques for Premiere Pro CS6, Adobe’s powerful non-linear editing system.

You’ll gain the practical knowledge necessary to create and manage new projects and sequences, import graphic elements and capture video. You'll also learn how to add finesse to your work with a range of new effects, advanced three-way color correction and multi-cam editing.

Is your district struggling with developing a strategic plan to meet the requirements of the Common Core State Standards? Atomic TechCore, a suite of tools for school leaders to build their Common Core implementation roadmaps, is now available.

Atomic TechCore consists of a set of customizable planning and collaborative network tools that assist administrators in identifying the professional development and technology needed for their district to transform teaching to align to Common Core standards, and in communicating the resulting findings and implementation plans to those impacted within the district.

The Atomic TechCore solution includes:
•    Planning tool for school leaders
•    PD and lesson plans for teachers
•    Lesson assignments for students

A recent Web 2.0 Classroom blog post discussed one of the hottest topics at ISTE was flipping the classroom. Aside from that buzz, Steven Anderson shares the concept of flipping staff development in his article.

Anderson suggests using free social sites like Google Docs and Edmodo to start  your staff collaborating online. Atomic Learning has training for both of these (and more!) to train your staff efficiently and provide you more time for collaboration when you're face to face.

As Anderson says, "Try the Faculty Flip" today!

Atomic Learning provides special education teachers and paraprofessionals anytime, anywhere answers to questions about the assistive technology tools and devices students are using. Training tutorials also provide a tool to help keep general education teachers informed on the devices students need to be successful in the general ed setting.

Atomic Learning’s Assistive Technology Professional Development Solution provides over 5,000 online video tutorials on common assistive technology software and hardware. Just-in-time training on accessibility features build into Microsoft® Office, Apple® iPad™, Windows® and Mac operating systems is also included.

This new Atomic Catalyst instructor-led PD course is centered around Atomic TechCore’s Lesson Wizard, where classroom lessons are created that empower students to achieve the rigor of the Common Core State Standards.

Upon completion of the course, learners will:

• Unpack the Common Core State Standards identifying the knowledge and skills called for in the standards they need to teach.
• Identify classroom activities that will help develop an enduring understanding.
• Design 3 lessons that meet specific CCSS.
• Evaluate the process of transforming an existing lesson to meet CCSS and creating an original lesson that meets the standards.

Transforming Classroom Lessons to Teach Common Core Standards

$150.00 | July 16—Aug 27  | Weekly Webinar: Mondays, 6pm-7pm CST