Michigan to post lesson plans online

Under a new Michigan program, lesson plans from the state's best teachers

will be posted online, providing practical support to help teachers meet

state education guidelines.

The state is recruiting teachers to submit a resume, cover letter and two

lesson plans for evaluation. The state will choose 48 teachers — one for

each subject (math, social studies, science and English) in each of the

grade levels (K-12) — who will attend a two-day orientation and training

session in August.

They will then submit up to 100 lesson plans during the next school

year. For each lesson plan accepted, they will be paid $100. Those lesson

plans will be posted on a Sample Curriculum and Plans for Education World

Wide Web site for the 2001 school year. The site address has not yet been

determined.

The goal is to provide a practical method for meeting state curriculum

standards for inexperienced and substitute teachers, as well as elementary

teachers and others, said Stephanie Van Koevering, special assistant to

the state treasurer, who is working on the program.

"We're looking for really good, outstanding teachers who are able to

get these concepts across and submit their lesson plans so others can learn

from them," she said. "We also need to start leveraging out teachers by

providing them with more information on a daily basis," she said.

Once the site is available, teachers will be able to log on and access

a year-by-year curriculum guide for the four subjects as well as daily lesson

plans, including classroom activities, homework assignments and assessments.

The plans are meant for guidance and are not mandatory.

All plans will use the content standards set by the Michigan Educational

Assessment Program. The program tests students at the end of high school

to determine how well they meet state curriculum standards.