New Venture Connects US Teachers Online

Share My Lesson, an online portal that teachers will be able to access free of charge, has been created to bring teachers together to share and learn from one another at a time when cuts to education budgets have led many districts to slash professional development. Randi Weingarten, leader of one of the country's largest teacher unions, said, "It felt to me almost too good to be true, that some private entity had created a platform for teachers to be able to share." Education Secretary Arne Duncan says, "We must support the incredibly complex work teachers do at every opportunity, including by sharing and promoting best practices through online resources and communities of practice." While some schools help beginning and veteran teachers hone and perfect their craft, many others complain of being left to their own devices to learn the best ways to communicate and teach students. "For a lot of people, I think teaching is a very isolating experience," said Karen Brennan, a research assistant at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. "You don't have as many opportunities as you'd like to connect with the teacher in the classroom next to you, or in the school or district. And that's where I think network technologies have enormous potential."

ABC News/Associated Press, 6/19/2012