SEDL Letter | Diversity in Our Schools: New Opportunities for Teaching and Learning | Affordable Resources in Spanish and English

Putting Technology into the Classroom Guide-Available On-Line

Putting Technology into the Classroom: A Guide for Rural Decisionmakers is a resource for administrators of small, rural school districts who are just getting started on the road to integrating technology in classrooms. In simple, direct language, the guide includes pointers on developing a technology plan, allocating resources, strategies for supporting integration through staff development, and ensuring equitable use of technology. The English version of this product is available at no cost on-line at http://www.sedl.org/pubs/tec24/welcome.html. The guide is also available in Spanish (La implementacion de la tecnología en el salon de clases: una guia para los que toman decisiones en las escuelas rurales) at http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/tec25.html.

Length: 42 pages
Authors: Martha Boethel, K. Victoria Dimock, Lin Hatch, Sharon Adams, and Marilyn Heath
Published: 1998
Price: $12.50 + shipping and handling

New SEDL Video Helps Teachers Build Learner-Centered Classrooms Focused on Technology

What happens when teachers become the students? For the teachers who participated in the professional development highlighted on the video Classrooms Under Construction, sitting in their students’ seats gave them insight into how to make their classrooms more student-centered. The video, produced by SEDL’s Technology Assistance Program (TAP), shows student, teachers, and principals from culturally diverse schools across SEDL’s region in the process of creating learner-centered classrooms supported by technology. Several stages and strategies of this process are depicted on the 24-minute video: "Letting Go," "Making Connections," "Building Teachers’ Knowledge," "Getting Support from Others," "Integrating Technology," "Giving Students Ownership," "Changing Classroom Structures," and "Creating Knowledge Together." Armed with support from principals and a greater understanding of learner-centered instruction, teachers gain the courage, knowledge, and skills to make the transition from traditional teacher-centered approaches to a more dynamic and creative learning environment. Information about this video can also be found on-line at: http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/tec28.html.

Length: 24:20 minutes
Authors: Technology Assistance Program
Published: 2000
Price: $15.00 + shipping and handling

Guide for Connecting School Reform and Diversity Available in Both Spanish and English

"Deliberation is people talking about learning together" say the authors of Public Deliberation: A Tool for Connecting School Reform and Diversity. Given that context, public deliberation can be defined as talking and learning together about issues of common concern—issues that affect more than any one single individual. Its goal is not simply consensus building or decisionmaking, but also a greater understanding of and respect for diverse views. This publication, available in both English and Spanish, discusses various processes of public deliberation in regard to school reform and diversity issues.

The publication also includes descriptions of various dialogue formats and contact information for five national organizations that can help communities in the public deliberation process. More information about this product can be found at: http://www.sedl.org/pubs/catalog/items/lc06.html.

Length: 39 pages
Authors: Suzanne Ashby, Cris Garza, and Maggie Rivas
Published: 1999
Price: $10.00 + shipping and handling

Collaborative Action Team Tools Can Help School Communities

How can disparate members of the school community—businesses, organizations, agencies, and individuals—effectively unite to make a real difference in student performance? SEDL has developed a research-based process to help school communities build collaborations at the local level.

Recently, SEDL produced the Guide to Creating Collaborative Action Teams that individuals, school districts, and other organizations can use to build a partnership between home, school, and community. This boxed package includes two spiral-bound volumes (the guide and its companion toolkit), a loose-leaf set of transparencies and handouts, and a CD-ROM version of each of these items.

Call Artie Stockton at 800-476-6861 for more information on the guide, which is also available in Spanish.

SEDL’s Voices from the Field Offers Strategies for Successful Reform

Many schools undertaking a comprehensive school reform program find implementation of their reform program overwhelming in the beginning. Working with noted education professionals and experts, the Southwest Educational Development Laboratory has created a two-tape audio guide, Voices from the Field: Success in School Reform, to help schools successfully implement their chosen reform program. Both tapes in this series revolve around six key strategies for successful implementation of school reform. Tape one provides brief descriptions of each of the six strategies. Tape two offers ideas and guidance about putting the six strategies of reform to work in your school. On the tapes, we hear from Dr. Shirley Hord, a program manager at SEDL. Other education practitioners who talk about reform issues on the two tapes include: Dennis Sparks, the Executive Director of the National Staff Development Council; Wendell Brown, a middle-school principal in Lubbock, Texas, whose school is implementing the AVID school reform model; Sharron Havens, the Assistant Superintendent for Instruction in Lonoke, Arkansas, where schools are implementing the reform program "Onward to Excellence"; and Dr. Margarita Calderón, a researcher who works with many schools across the country implementing the "Success for All" reform program. Both tapes are designed to be used as interactive tools that can help your school solve problems, approach new challenges, and answer questions as you move toward your own comprehensive school reform.

Length: 40 pages
Authors: SEDL
Published: 2000
Price: $25.00 + shipping and handling

Two booklets coming soon from SEDL in Spanish and English!

Building Support for Better Schools: Seven Steps to Engaging Hard-to-Reach Communities is designed for schools or organizations who want to ensure all members of a community are represented in decisionmaking that affects public education.

Family & Community Involvement: Reaching Out to Diverse Populations will help educators — teachers, principals, and administrators — in their efforts to develop meaningful parent and community involvement in their schools.