February 10, 2014

Great Things Noticed:

Check out our week in pictures

In a Language Arts class students were independently reading non-fiction text and then had to answer comprehension questions.  They were using their chromebooks to read the passage while highlighting important material.  Students also had a split screen open so they could read the passage and the questions were listed in a Google Form on the other side of the screen.  This is helpful to the students because it will familiarize them with the way the PARCC screen will look.  The teacher then used Flubaroo to assess the students and provide them feedback via Google Classroom.  Instead of this information being sent to the student days or a week later, the students get their information at the start of the next class.

In another Language Arts class the teacher was using picture books to teach about mood and tone.  The students were able to read the books and identify support from the text to prove what the tone of the author is or how the mood of the story changed.  This provides the students with a way to hone these skills and then apply them when they read a novel.

In a Spanish class the teacher provided information for the students on four different activities the students would be engaged in.  During the next few weeks the students learn time management, as well as Spanish.

In many different math classes we continue to see that games in the Envision Series being used.  These games are great when we are able to hear the students discuss and even argue about how a particular problem or game was solved.  

Nuts and Bolts:

PARCC is almost here, and you should have just received an email about login information.  I will be meeting with teams on Thursday and Friday to discuss how you are going to log in to a training site, how the students will log in, and what your responsibilities will be to administer the test.   Next week will be asking each team to conduct an infrastructure to make sure students feel comfortable navigating the PARCC site.  

Think of the training site below as an area to learn. This will help familiarize you with the PARCC site, and you should have gotten an email from Pearson with information on how to log in.

Please watch this video to see how the site will run and how you will navigate the testing site.  At our faculty meeting on Tuesday of next week we will be playing a Kahoot game to see which people know how to navigate the site best.

PARCC Training Site:  http://trng.pearsonaccessnext.com/customer/index.action

Training Video for PARCC to asure test security:  http://screencast.com/t/1Lbtd81ycv

How to find your class and students:  http://screencast.com/t/rqs9rBSC

What is close-viewing? http://tinyurl.com/closeviewing

Upcoming Dates:

February 13 BIS Spotlight 9:00ish - Please wait to be called
Boys TNT Game, after school

February 16 School Closed – President’s Day

February 17 Faculty Meeting - PARCC Training all staff must attend.

February 20 6th Grade CAP Program

February 23 Faculty Meeting - PARCC Training all staff must attend.

February 24, 25, 26 8th Grade CAP Program

Tech Tip:

This is where the math people finally get an app they have been waiting for: (g)Math, an equation editor.