I was in Hershey, PA this past week for a conference about the new Pennsylvania Educational Standards. The state closed down it’s EdHub site and opened a new site, Pennsylvania Department of Education Standards Aligned System. The new site will contain the new standards, most standards are on the site, but a few may not be on until later this week. They were transitioning over to the site last week.

The site gives you the ability to view the new standards, create your own web-site for free, access class materials and assessments, find resources for student interventions, upload materials into an e-portfolio, and view videos on how to use the site. You can create an account on the site, and once you do that access the “Teacher’s Tools” tab in the upper right hand corner of the screen and check out the site.

The site does pulls together many Web 2.0 tools that many people already use. It just keeps everything in one place versus using a variety of different sites. For people using Web 2.0 tools already, you may or may not want to utilize everything, possibly just the standards and assessment tools. The best practice lessons are a a good resource too. For teachers that do not use many or any Web 2.0 tools, this is a great place to start. The site is easy to navigate and you do not have to post anything publicly unless you would like to.

Check out the site, if for no other reason to see the new standards. I will be posting more about the site over the next few weeks, breaking down the resources in small sections. If you would like to learn more about the new system you can also check out the conference materials. They can be accessed on the SAS wiki.