Michigan Online Resources for Educators
Michigan Reads! One Book One State Children's Book Program
The 2014 Michigan Reads! book was Acoustic Rooster and His Barnyard Band written by Kwame Alexander and illustrated by Tim Bowers. We welcomed children, parents, caregivers, librarians and teachers to participate in our 10th program year. In our 2014 book, Acoustic Rooster learns about music, teamwork and sportsmanship. After realizing he can't win the barnyard talent contest as a solo act with such fierce competition, a rooster with a love for jazz looks to help from other animals. A quartet with an unbelievable sound is created, with their ability to work together cleverly captured in this book with rhyming text, references to key American musicians, and vivid illustrations.
Michigan Online Resources for Educators (MORE) provides thousands of quality educational web sites tied to the state's curriculum and professional development needs.
M.O.R.E, or the Michigan Online Resources for Educators, is a component of the Michigan eLibrary. It is a portal that connects teachers, parents, homeschool families and those who are interested in education to tens of thousands of curricular based resources that are aligned to the Michigan Content Expectations (GLCEs and HSCEs) soon to be the Common Core. Currently, the majority of the resources in the portal are from Thinkfinity.org, a project of the Verizon Foundation. Thinkfinity works with reputable content partners such as ArtEdge, Illuminations, National Geographic, and many more. Other resources come from GaleCengage and the now inactive Michigan Teacher Network. The types of content you can expect to find in the M.O.R.E. portal include lesson plans, videos, online interactives, podcasts and much more.
M.O.R.E. has excellent functionality in that you can search by the content expectations, browse by subject or do an advanced search. When educators create a free account, they can also rate and review resources, store favorite resources in “My Resource Locker,” create lesson plans, and collaborate using M.O.R.E.’s collaboration center via edWeb.net. There is also professional development available for Michigan teachers. Anyone using the portal can share content using the “Share” option for each resource.
The M.O.R.E. portal is a joint project of the Office of Education Technology & Data Coordination, Michigan Department of Education and the Library of Michigan. This excellent educational resource is made available at no cost to all Michigan residents and is searchable world-wide.