Apparently cutting out the middle man, the US Department of Education has launched a website offering on-line professional development to teachers. The Teacher-to-Teacher Workshops, an outgrowth of the US ED road show last summer designed to drum up teacher support for NCLB, offer a series of web-based PD options all designed by outstanding teachers. The course offerings look practical (e.g. "Beginning to Write," “Patterns to Symbols: Algebra," "Developing Computational Fluency in Addition and Subtraction," "Looking at Vocabulary"), and are perhaps a none-too-subtle prod by the Department to states and districts to start doing the same.