A public schoolteacher聮s workload just may have gotten easier, thanks to a new Web site that has been launched by the University of Colorado at Boulder.
CU4K12 at is a comprehensive outreach and in-service program guide for Colorado elementary, middle and high school teachers and students. It provides access to 174 CU-Boulder outreach programs, campus resources, professional development services and Internet resources for research.
"This project demonstrates how new information technologies help make the resources of the university available to support K-12 teachers," said Chancellor Richard L. Byyny.
"Our goal is to make a teacher聮s life simpler," said Wynn Martens, director of community relations. "This Web site has been designed with teachers in mind. It enables teachers to quickly and easily draw from CU resources and apply them to their classrooms or their own professional advancement."
Simplicity and ease of accessing information is the key to the CU4K12 Web site. The cover page asks a teacher to choose from one of nine curriculums such as engineering, foreign language or science, and a grade level such as elementary, middle, high school or professional development. The teacher then clicks to list the results, or can perform a search by keyword.
The resulting list includes the title of each program, its curriculum, language options (English and/or Spanish) and whether resource materials for the classroom are available to the teacher. A click to a particular program provides a description of the outreach activity, along with the name of a person and department to contact and a link to the program聮s own Web site.
The comprehensive Web site includes an alphabetical listing of 113 outreach programs for K-12, many of which will travel from CU-Boulder to local school districts, and 61 Internet resources for curriculum development and student research. It also provides information on various campus services and professional development options for teachers.
"We have always provided support for K-12 teachers but until now, information about these resources has been scattered and was not widely known to teachers," said Martens. "This easy-to-use Web site will allow teachers to enhance their classroom activities with CU resources."
As part of CU-Boulder's partnership with K-12 schools, the university this fall will team up with KCNC-TV to showcase one of the outreach programs on the CU4K12 Web site. Targeted to fourth, fifth and sixth graders throughout the state, the series called "Convection Connection" will air Nov. 6-17.