OREGON DEPT. OF EDUCATION WEBSITE TOUR

* How will this assist you in your planning and teaching?

The Oregon Department of Education website is an incredible resource for teachers, but especially for someone like me who is brand new to the profession. It showcases, in a very informative and useful way, the various standards for each specific area and grade. I will use this site extensively in my own student teaching as a way to make sure my lesson plans are matched to the appropriate state standards. I particularly like the way the standards can be downloaded to Excel to make matching my lessons to state standards even easier. I think it is also helpful to be aware of the previous grade's standards, other subject standards, and the expectations for the following years.
I think the lesson plan ideas for the various grades are very helpful, in adddition to the accompanying charts showing the different subject areas and which lesson ideas can be applied across which curricular areas. There were lots of great ideas I could see launching whole units from, especially in the context of my fifth grade student teaching.


* What items might you use or modify?
I found several aspects useful, among them:
I like the sample tests for students and the list of test-taking tips. I think these would be beneficial in helping my students lesson their test anxiety.
I also really like the sections addressing talented and gifted and/or high achieving students. Many times these students fall by the way side as a teacher struggles to reach out to the students who are falling behind. This is simply not fair. In this area for gifted students there are some excellent graphic organizers which lay out the cognitive processes that should be addressed with kids at this advanced level, along with excellent questions. Richard Paul and Linda Elder lay out a wonderful list of universal intellectual standards that they say students should be guided by, which I also found very helpful. In addition, I believe that these graphic organizers can be used for all types of students. They offer an excellent visual representation of various concepts, as well as paths to take in exploring a topic - regardless of a student's level. The Venn diagrams will be great tools, too, to help my students understand the relationships between things in a visual way.

Overall, this ODE is just a great tool for me.