Pepper offers the latest in peer-to-peer social learning tools and the opportunity to connect with motivated and passionate educators - just like you - from around the nation. Work at your own pace (at any time of the day or night!) to become a highly effective educator.

Friday, March 13, 2015

Performance-Based Funding Leaps Hurdles

Pay based on performance and results is commonplace in the business world. However, it has always been difficult to achieve in Education. The move toward performance-based funding versus "seat time" is growing rapidly across the nation, and some states are are making this an incentive to become innovative.

Read more about how the International Association for K-12 Online Learning (iNACOL) and education firms Augenblick, Palaich and Associates and Evergreen Education Group have partnered to develop data examined in "Performance-Based Funding & Online Learning: Maximizing Resources for Student Success."  The report includes an ambitious list of ten elements that would need to be in place in order for this type of funding to work.

Friday, September 19, 2014



NEW PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT COURSE Just released!


ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS

Text Based Discussions in High School*
Explore the research-based strategy of facilitating text discussions that support the close reading, speaking, and listening skills called for in the English Language Arts/Literacy Common Core State Standards for grades 9-12.

*We suggest “ELA101H/Literacy Shifts in High School” as a reference for this course. To enroll in the ELA101H course CLICK HERE. You have full access to all courses in Pepper through the course directory.  There is always something new to learn in Pepper!

 New Course for Elementary Mathematics Coming Soon!

Click Here to view all courses in Pepper.  Simply Select “Sign up & Start Course” on any new course you would like to add to your dashboard!

Remember to take the PEP101 User’sGuide to Pepper Course to become familiar with Pepper and to help you be even more successful in your learning journey.

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--Professor Pepper

Tuesday, September 9, 2014

Calling All Science Teachers--Common Core Lesson Plan Round-Up!

When you're thinking through the best ways of engaging your students, communicating and reinforcing concepts, helping them achieve mastery of new ideas and ways of thinking, and just plain getting excited about learning, it can help to have a little inspiration. Seeing what other teachers have done to develop creative, CCSS-aligned lesson plans, or looking through resource libraries to find interesting lesson plans can give your own planning an energy boost.

Here's a round-up of some websites that provide science teachers with CCSS-aligned ideas for the classroom. Look for other subjects/disciplines in future posts!

Check out these FREE SCIENCE LESSONS from AAAS (American Association for the Advancement of Science). You can filter your search by grade and content to find what you want more easily!

Who doesn't love cookies? This series of blog posts by science writer Bethany Brookshire is called COOKIE SCIENCE! She takes educators and students step-by-step through applied science, all in the name of finding cookies that taste better. If you're looking for student-friendly science news, don't miss the website, hosted by Society for Science & the Public.

MIT BLOSSOMS is a wonderful website with a focus on videos for classroom use. You can do a very focused search, including by content standard, and locate science video lessons--each of which is a complete resource, with teacher's guide and supporting materials. CLICK HERE to search by education standards!


Got students who are into sports? Then GO HERE to the Connect A Million Minds website to find science-friendly learning activities and games for kids. These would make great additions to lesson-plans.

Engineering and applied science lessons are free and searchable on TeachEngineering.org! You can browse across multiple categories or search by content standard. There are hands-on activities, lessons, and supporting materials!

For a big-picture look at how real science educators are making CCSS work in their classrooms, check out this Edutopia.org blog post, "Common Core in Action: How Two Science Teachers Are Implementing Common Core." Get tips, ideas, and best practices!

Finally, take a look at the Utah Education Network. They have easy-to-browse, free lesson plans that are aligned to Utah's Core (based on CCSS). CLICK HERE for K-6 science lessons. CLICK HERE for 7-12 science lessons!