December 15, 2014

Great Things Noticed:

• Exit tickets are a great way to assess student learning at the end of a lesson, and entrance tickets are a great way to assess what students remembered before a lesson starts.  This week we noticed exit tickets being used in a classroom where the students would write a paragraph on a particular question.  The teacher grades one of these a week on a scale of 0-3 using a rubric the students are familiar with.  What a great way to assess student learning.  

• Hour of Code - We were amazed to see how many students really took to coding.  We know it took some time for you to plan how to roll it out to the students, but you did an amazing job.  The classes we entered were energized to learn how to code and anytime the students are this energized we want to try and take advantage of it.  This left us thinking what some next steps could be for the students could be....computer club, computer programming, student tech-helpers.....let us know any ideas you might have about this.

• Language Arts and Social Studies Alignment - Loved seeing ELA and SS classes that are working so closely together.  In one class we saw students taking notes on specific event in history that they would then have to teach to the whole class as a jigsaw activity.  This was happening in Language Arts!  In another class students were practicing pulling out important events from a short video and then organizing them into a paragraph to summarize what they have seen.  This activity took place in a Social Studies class!

• Real World Learning - In two math classes students created budgets for different events.  One was for a birthday party where the students could not exceed $250, and another was for the students to plan a trip to Disney using a ‘reasonable’ budget.  I would love to see how the students pitch the Disney Trip to mom and dad.

• On a daily basis we are blown away by the art-work the students are able to create.  Our halls are beautifully decorated and the students in art class have talents that I was not aware of when I see them in their regular academic classes.

• It was great to see the new bulletin boards that went up this week.  We love to see the work the students have done in your class displayed proudly for others to see.  

• Google Classroom - (again) -  This is a tool that was not available during our Chrome Camp sessions over the summer and several teachers have gone out of their way to teach each other.  Both Fran and I feel lucky to be part of a staff that reaches out and helps one another.
  
  We are continuing with our Week in Pictures

Events This Week:

• 6 Days of Christmas from your administrators...yes 6 we are half Jewish.
• Monday - Dunkin’ Donuts Raffle on Morning Announcements
• Tuesday - Dress Down Day
• Wednesday - Bagels and Coffee before school
• Thursday - Staples Gift Card
• Friday - Holiday Goodies in the Conference Room - Ugly Holiday Sweater Day
• Monday - Monday Christmas Party instead of a Faculty Meeting.  Please bring a ‘Gag’ gift of $10 or less

• Monday Dec. 15th
• Log in to Plato and play so that you know how to navigate the site
• Plato Page
• school acct login: BTSD
• Plato name: lastname.firstname
• password: password
• To test the site like a student you can use this information
• school acct login: BTSD
• Plato name: test.student
• Password: password

  
  

  We have created 12 practice student accounts

  For example: test.student

  test.student2

  test.student3

  ....................

  test.student12 
• Tuesday Dec. 16th
• Walk Through for Plato Testing with students
• Tech Tuesday in the Library to answer any questions about Plato or other Tech 3:45
• Wednesday Dec. 17th
• Plato Testing ELA, adjusted schedule
• 5th grade will test with 1st period
• 6th grade will test with 3rd period teacher
• 7th grade will test with 1st period teacher
• 8th grade will test with 1st period teacher
• Teams do not need to meet today
• Thursday Dec. 18th
• Plato Testing Math, adjusted schedule
• 5th grade will test with 1st period
• 6th grade will test with 3rd period teacher
• 7th grade will test with 1st period teacher
• 8th grade will test with 1st period teacher
• Teams do not need to meet today
• Friday Dec. 19th
• Byram Spotlight 2:30 - Please wait to be called down to the Gym

Nuts and Bolts:

PARCC Resources:  

This is a symbaloo which was created by Natalie Franzi who is the head of curriculum and instruction in another district.  There are MANY helpful resources here to help you and your students become more comfortable with the test.  Symbaloo is a great tool to help organize your links, and might be helpful for use with your students.  

PARCC Resources Part 2:

This is a resource that provides resources for not just Math and ELA, but Science and Social Studies as well.   There are End of Year (EOY) examples of the test that will be taking place in May, as well as Performance Based Assessments (PBA) that will take place in March.

Classrooms:

It is amazing how many Byram Township events are held at our school and there is little to keep the students from moving in and out of rooms.  We want to ensure that all of the items in your room are kept safe and secure and the best way to do this is to have you lock your doors when you leave at the end of the day.  I know many of you do this already but we need to have everyone doing this.  Thanks in advance for your help.

Chromebook Procedures:

• First time a student misuses the chromebook they lose this technology privilege for two days. Please record this on the Google Doc where all the chromebook assignments are kept and contact the parents.
• Second time a student misuses the chromebook they lose this technology privilege for 5 days. Please record this on the Google Doc where all the chromebook assignments are kept and contact the parents.
• Third time a student misuses the chromebook they lose this technology privilege. Please record this on the Google Doc where all the chromebook assignments are kept and contact the parents.  The administration will determine how to move forward at this point.

Tech Tips:

Easel.ly

In today’s world our students will have to read and interpret information that is a combination or graphs, charts, text, and pictures.  This resource allows you to create your own infograph.  You load the information, pick a few visuals and then Boom -- you have created your own infograph for the students to examine.  You can share it digitally on the Chromebook so there is no wasted paper, or print out a poster size version for your whole class to see.

Twister

(Shared by Richard Byrne)

A fun tool from Classtools.net. Twister, like Fakebook and Fake SMS allows you imagine what historical figures would have done if they had access to social media. On Twister you can create fake Tweets as if you were Abraham Lincoln, Mark Twain, or any other person in history.

To create a fake Tweet on Twister just go to the site and enter a name, a Tweet, and date stamp for your Tweet. Twister will pull a public domain image for the profile picture and show you the fake Tweet. Your fake Tweet will be given its own URL. You can also just take a screenshot of it to save it.

Creating fake Tweets through Twister could be a fun way for students to summarize the main points of notable speeches like the Gettysburg Address. You could also have students use Twister to create fake Tweets about important events in history.

 

Block Poster

This website allows you take a picture, infograph, or anchor chart that you have created in class and print it out as several pages that can be put together like a puzzle.  These can then be displayed on a bulletin board or some other place for your students to see in your classroom.