Month after month we have seen the numbers grow and the increases over last year have been in the double digits every month. The month of April 2008 showed a 23% increase in visits. As I noted in last month’s update, we begin to sound like a broken record in reporting these increases and I suspect we all become a bit jaded to what those increases really mean.

In sum, the increases mean that we have reached the one million visit goal several months before we had originally projected. Reaching this goal is thanks to all of the dedicated educators that have come to rely on us for their learning resource needs. Thanks to all of you!

We hope we have served you all well. We think that we have because consistently the number of individual that bookmark or add the Gateway to their Internet Favorites exceeds 55% in any given month. That said, we want everyone who visits the Gateway to add us to their favorites, visit us regularly and contribute their ideas on how we can make the Gateway to 21st Century Skills an even better tool.

Did you know that by becoming a registered member of the Gateway that you can make comments or notes about how to use the learning resources that you find their? Did you know that you can email a learning resource to a colleague directly from the Full page view of the learning resource records? You could even email it to yourself if that would help you to document your collections of resource for your own records or your official portfolio.

Did you know that you can find the text of your state standards by using the ASN (Achievement Standards Network) feature of the Gateway? Some teachers have used the ASN to add their academic standards to the comment field so that they have not only a record of what they used to teach but also the standards that the learning resource addressed in their lesson plans. You can save the page to file or even print the information from the Full Page view of a resource record if you have not gone fully digital yet.

There are so many useful features that I could go on and on but, the bottom line is that it is there for you to serve your needs. There is much to discover and more we can do if you lets us know what would be helpful.

Do you have a great idea for using the Gateway in your daily task that you would like to share? We would like to hear about it. Send your ideas to brucew@jesandco.org . We will be collecting your ideas and will feature them in upcoming updates that are distributed to each of the NEA state affiliates monthly.

What’s New?

NEA has partnered with the GEM Exchange, Gateway to Educational Materials, and JES & Co to support Gateway to 21st Century Skills, a website that combines state-of the art search technologies and a complete database of state academic standards for core subjects. The Gateway is your link to the resources you need to make learning meaningful and fun for your students.

NEA and your state affiliate recognize that great public schools are the result of motivated students, involved parents, and well-prepared, innovative educators. The Gateway is a great opportunity for educators to expand their professional repertoire, exchange ideas, and individualize instruction.

New information about 21st century learning resources is being added every week to the Gateway. Don’t miss out on these great new additions. Here are just a few more recent examples of new items that you can find on the Gateway for you and your students:

Money Matters: Where Does It Go?
Description:
In this project students will utilize math and reasoning skills to develop a personal budget. By weighing their expenses as "wants" vs. "needs," students will develop management skills and learn the importance of getting the most out of the money they earn.

Factors That Influence Life Activities
Description:
The teacher will begin the lesson by asking the question, "What behaviors do you have that affect your lifestyle in a positive way?" Allow students to respond. Then ask, "What behaviors do you have that affect your lifestyle in a negative way?" Allow comments. Then state, " Every behavior, either positive or negative, has a direct effect on our life activities."

A Readers' Theatre for Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain
Description:
This readers' theatre of Verna Aardema's "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain" crosses the curriculum to incorporate language arts, social studies, and science objectives. Students will become familiar with the text of the story and then present the story as a play with parts.

Dice Roll Project
Description:
This project is a fun way for students to observe the integration of a probability lesson with spreadsheet software. Students will record 36 rolls of a pair of dice. After they record their data, students will manually calculate the mean, median, mode and range. Students will then observe how quickly a computer can do those same calculations and many more things with that same data. Students will also compare experimental outcomes to the theoretical outcome.

Separation of a Mixture
Description:
Students will use their knowledge of physical properties to separate a mixture of four ingredients. The students are required to design their own laboratory procedure for separating the mixture. The separation process itself encourages mastery of several laboratory techniques.

Mirror, Mirror, on the Wall
Description:
This lesson covers chiral molecules, which are important in carbohydrate and protein chemistry. Understanding the difference in their structures helps with understanding the different biochemical properties of molecules with similar structures. In this lesson, students will be introduced to chirality through a teacher-led multimedia presentation and demonstrations. In cooperative groups, students will then study the concepts in more depth, building molecular models and producing their own slide shows for the class. Different groups within each class will cover different aspects of chirality, with the whole class completing a presentation of the material in the unit.

Formation of the Solar System: Gravity and the Asteroid Belt
Description:
In this activity, students will learn to recognize patterns and inductively arrive at generalizations about the relative position of the planets in the solar system; the formation of the asteroid belt; and the formation of the solar system itself, and the role of gravity in its formation.

Quickly learn to search the huge collection of free learning resource. (Click this link to view our video! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lYqho-SN-m4) Our brief, seven minute, instructional video is now available on the home page of the Gateway. It’s never been easier to boost your professional skills, add more fun and individualized instruction to your repertoire of competencies. Join our cadre of 21st century educators today.

Make your search for resources from the Gateway or great benefit from your NEA membership easier and faster. Simply visit: http://www.thegateway.org and download the National Education Association Toolbar from the link in the middle of the page. The toolbar is ready for you! It easy and it’s FREE!

Did You Know?

The Gateway to 21st Century Skills receives thousands of visits a month from dedicated educators all over the world. The community is developing into a diverse and interesting group with tremendous talent to share! Come and join us as we pioneer the way to the vision of a 21st century education.

Monday and Tuesday, in that order, were the busiest days for the Gateway in the month of April. In fact, the Gateway is such a valuable and powerful tool that over 56.8% of the visitors added the Gateway to their browser Favorites or Bookmarks! In the last month, over 48.7% of the traffic came from people who have already bookmarked the Gateway to 21st Century Skills.

Ever wonder how people originally find the Gateway? Besides the 49% that have us bookmarked, 11.5% come to the Gateway by using a search engine like Google and Yahoo. An amazing 39.5% come from organizational sites like NEA’s own http://www.nea.org/webresources/lessonplanlinks.html .

If your NEA state affiliate doesn’t list the Gateway to 21st Century Skills as a resource on your state website, they are surely missing the 21st Century boat. Tell them you need resources and a link to the Gateway! It is one of the greatest benefits that NEA has ever made available to its member, in terms of a teaching tool.

Spread the word, invite a friend and help your fellow educators to participate in this special community that NEA has provided for its members.

Are Your Members Using the Gateway?

Welcome Oklahoma! Oklahoma, Connecticut, Wyoming, Wyoming Student Education Association, Hawaii, Maryland, Colorado, Kentucky, Pennsylvania, Washington, North Carolina, New York, New Jersey, Vermont, South Dakota and Tennessee and have all created versions of the Gateway that displays the state affiliate logos.

And now, not only will your affiliate members be greeted with a view of your logo but anyone who declares that they hail from your branded state will also see that affiliate’s logo. This will underscore your local commitment to provide the members of the profession with the tools and resources they need to succeed in driving up student achievement.

We want to hear from you. What would you like to see added to the Gateway? What improvements would you like to see? Send your suggestions, thoughts and observations on how we can make the Gateway to 21st Century Skills a more valuable tool for you, your students and your fellow teachers. Contact Bruce Walker at brucew@jesandco.org.

Gateway to 21st Century Skills Statistics for April 2008

Lots and lots of educators are finding and utilizing the Gateway as in each month since we became sponsored by the NEA, we have experienced double digit increases over the previous year’s figures. The Gateway Community keeps getting bigger and we keep breaking records! April 2008 set another huge new record for traffic to the Gateway with 49,854 visits, a 23% increase over last April. In the month of April 2008, adjusted measures of traffic showed visitors visited 158,632 pages and created 1,554,058 hits.

Who’s Joining the Gateway?

What a tremendously diverse and interesting group of people find their way to the Gateway! The community is growing in size and harnessing the awesome power that comes from a huge set of life skills. To show you what we at the Gateway have noticed we did some research on the diversity of members in the biographies written by new members applying for Gateway membership.

Here are some excerpts from the biographies of recent Gateway applications for membership. Members show their support for the Gateway by joining and it is Free! Membership allows you to make notes and comment about the resources you find on the Gateway. You can share those observations with your peers or make comments that are only for your use. It’s like your own personal Gateway to almost 50,000 quality learning resources.

T.J.V - S.C.
I am currently a 4th grade teacher after having taught 1st and 2nd grade for 15 years and I love the change. Last year I taught ELA and Social Studies, this year I am teaching Math and Science and next year I get to teach just Science. I also coach volleyball at the high school level.

D.C .- FLA.
I have been in the teaching profession for the past thirty years. I have taught at both the elementary and secondary levels. I am presently in the reading/literacy coach position at my school site.

L.V. - AZ.
I'm a qualified lawyer who decided to change career to teaching. I've been teaching ESL for almost two years, and I am currently Student Teaching in Spanish. This summer I will earn my Master's degree in Secondary Teacher Education from the University of Phoenix.

P.K. - WISC.
Grade 7 - 12 math teacher. Graduated with a degree in math and a minor in computer science in 1973. I have taught for 25 math and computers and now I am a technology coordinator for the district for the last 10 years.

H.L. - CA.
Formerly a small environmental monitoring business owner; last 3 years teaching chemistry at three local Community Colleges near Los Angeles, including East LA College, Cypress College, and Mt San Antonio College. Currently (3/08) teaching nights and weekends, but full-time Activities Director for East LA College for a Title V Coop Program entitled Web 2.0, introducing technology into the classroom to enhance student engagement.

A.M. - AZ.
Special Education Coordinator/Teacher; M.Ed. Special Education, BA Journalism. Coordinate special education program at a small charter high school serving at-risk, predominantly Title 1, Hispanic students. Certified also in secondary English. 13 years working in technology: desktop publishing, graphic design, software training and support services.