Resources
Mary McMullen
December 11, 2006
Kan-Ed Empowered Desktop
The Kan-Ed Empowered Desktop is an excellent tool and resource for school districts, students, and parents. By subscribing to the Empowered Desktop, teachers can access tools to assist them with the growing demands of curriculum and testing, students can utilize the many research and internet tools, and parents will have the ability to find interesting activities to do with their child.
A few features of the desktop include:
* Formative Test Builder; which allows teachers the opportunity to create practice test aligned to the state standards for reading and math.
* Online Reference Tools: including SIRS, ProQuest, Thomson Gale, and WorldBook Kan Ed
* NetTrekker: a search engine for educators and students with 180,000 educationally relevant websites aligned to state standards
* Heritage Quest: the largest genealogical data provider in the United States that provides historical data, including census records
* PET Learning Styles: a web-based instrument that helps teachers identify their students' individual learning styles and personality types.
Sublette Elementary Students have existing accounts for the Kan Ed site. If you need additional assistance please contact Mary McMullen at 675-2286.
Got homework? Free online tutoring for Kansas students is provided by the State Library of Kansas and Kansas public libraries.
The State Library of Kansas and Kansas public libraries have launched HomeworkKansas, an interactive online tutoring service for Kansas children grades four through 12 and college intro students. The service can be accessed at www.homeworkkansas.org or from the Kan Ed website and is available for free to Kansas residents throughout the state.
Tutoring will be available seven days a week, from 4:00 p.m. to 11:00 p.m. and, in Spanish language Sunday through Thursday, from 4:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m. The service is high tech and sophisticated, but very simple to use – students indicate their grade level and the subject they need help in and HomeworkKansas connects them to the best available tutor. Tutors don’t provide answers, they provide help. The actual tutoring takes place in an online classroom, via chat and instant messaging; problems may be illustrated on an electronic whiteboard. A variety of drawing and other tools are available to enhance the tutoring session.
“We are fortunate that the State Legislature approved funding for the program, making Kansas only the second state to currently offer the tutoring service statewide,” Brandau added. “Kansas has some 400,000 students in the grades four through 12,and we believe that many of those students will take advantage of the service”.
The program, is made available via an agreement with Tutor.com. Tutor.com has been in existence since 2001, and is currently offered at over 1,000 public library sites and after-school organizations across the country. Conservative numbers from post-session surveys indicate that during the last school year, some 15,000 students across the country accessed the program per week, and an average of 4,000 per night. Nationwide the service projects over 1 million one-to-one sessions to date for the upcoming year.
Tutors are certified teachers, college professors, professional tutors, grad students. All tutors complete a third-party background and reference check. In addition, tutors complete a rigorous training program and participate in an ongoing in-depth evaluation process.
The State Library of Kansas provides information services to state and local governments and to libraries and their users. The library is located in the Capitol Building in Topeka.
Students may access Homework Help by using their Kansas Library Card logon or by using the link on the Kan-Ed website.
