Project Share, the Texas Education Agency’s online learning community, recently surpassed the one millionth subscriber mark.
Launched in November 2009, Project Share provides student resources, professional development courses, academic networking, and professional learning communities to Texas educators and students.
“We are pleased that each month we continue to see an increase in users,” said Anita Givens, associate commissioner for Standards and Programs, “Districts continue to recognize the potential for combining online resources with classroom instruction, such as the OnTRACK Lessons for high school students.”
The OnTRACK Lessons, which districts may import and manage at the local level, are designed to supplement classroom instruction in English, math, science, and social studies courses and to provide additional online practice for students beyond traditional school hours.
The state’s 20 Education Service Centers (ESCs) worked closely with TEA to introduce the project and provide training to local educators.
On Aug. 15, the Wimberley Independent School District, a small district in the Texas Hill Country, created the one millionth account. With the start of the school year, the number of accounts has continued to rise, reaching 1,106,932 as of Sept. 4.
Wimberley Assistant Superintendent Dee Howard led the Project Share initiative in her district by involving teachers at different campuses in Project Share trainings provided by the Region 13 Education Service Center in Austin. Upon learning about the one millionth milestone, Howard said, “It has been wonderful to be a part of the training and workshops offered over the last year.” Howard added, “I am excited to see that the Project Share endeavor has taken off across the state and look forward to our teachers utilizing it more and more for professional development, cohort discussions across the state, lesson planning, and actual student courses that are coming online.”
Wimberley High School Principal Greg Bonewald said, “Project Share has the ability to tear down walls that hinder the sharing of excellent teaching practices within a school district, and more importantly, from one school district to another. Project Share also gives teachers the tools to expand opportunities for learning outside normal school hours by making resources available to parents and students only a click away.”
Project Share now has more than 60 online professional development courses provided at no cost to all public K-12 educators, over 50 collections in Texas Education on iTunes U, career and technical education (CTE) professional development courses for mathematics or science,and updated versions of all OnTRACK lessons.
The Project Share Gateway (www.projectsharetexas.org) continues to expand and is scheduled to launch more TEKS-aligned resources for English, math, science, and social studies this fall. Visitors to the gateway will also see new gadgets added throughout the fall. The gadgets will lead to new online resources including the Middle School Students in Texas: Algebra Ready (MSTAR) Universal Screener, Texas SUCCESS resources in reading and math, and the Texas Achievement Items Repository (TxAIR).
“It is truly an exciting and innovative time for us, and we look forward to another year of sharing online resources with Texas educators and students,” said Givens. “Project Share offers a whole new world of education opportunities, and we feel that we’re just getting started.”