Happy St. Patty's Day 2015!!

Great Things Noticed:

#ByramPride

A few weeks ago we shared with you that we would be sending a survey to see what parent perceptions of our school are.  The results are in and it is comforting to know parents believe we are doing a very good job here at Byram!  It is great to see how much the community values the hard work you put in on a daily basis.  Click here to see how parents feel about our school.

5th grade has started their #GeniusHour projects and they are amazing.  The students were able to pick a topic of their choosing to become an expert on it, and then create something to show their 'Genius'.  Students created presentations on: The Life Cycle of a Nuetron Star, What is the Better Buy...Beats or Sony Headphones, How Did the Royal Family Come to be? and much more.  It was interesting to see students loose track of time as they were researching and writing.  Amazing!

Earth Day is coming up and the students from the Lakes School came over to record a video after school in our Mass Media class.  Our students were in charge of the production end while the Lakes students had staring roles.  It was great to see students from both schools involved in an after school activity to promote a cause like Earth Day.  Love it when we can connect outside the walls of our school.

In a science class students were conducting experiments to determine what type of minerals they had in front of them.  Students performed several tests and then used their textbook as a resource to identify what type of rock they had.  Instead of just reading about different types of minerals students are discovering what types of minerals they have in front of them.  Hands-on learning!!!

So many students during lunch leave the cafeteria and go to your classrooms.  They go their for extra-help, to study for a test, to learn more about a concept they started in class, and for some just to be in a room they feel safe and valued in.  Thank you to all of you who have made your rooms available to help students for so many different reasons.  They don't always say it, but the appreciate it tremendously.

In a language arts class students are beginning to create their own website using Weebly.  Weebly is a FREE website creator for students to use, and since Google Sites is not currently enabled for us this is a great work around.

Again, thank you for all your help when it comes to testing.  The staff did a WONDERFUL job of trying to keep students calm about the test and your flexibility was commendable.  As many of you know there is a nasty bug going around and we had to move some of you to cover a class with very little notice, thank you for your support.

Nuts and Bolts:

Make-up PARCC testing will occur this week and end on March 23rd.  We will be calling down students from their first period class to make up these assessments.

Spot-Light - We are changing the format slightly for those who talk about the learning taking place at their grade level.  Instead of summarizing what they are learning about we would like to students to show what they have created in a class

Upcoming Events:

March 16-20 PARCC Make-ups

March 18 BOE Meeting

March 20 BIS Spotlight 2:30

March 21 Tricky Tray 5:30 PM

March 23 Faculty Meeting

March 31, April 1, 2 Parent Conferences; Early Dismissal

April 3 – 10 Spring Break:  School Closed

April 13 Begin final SGO Assessments

April 30 Complete final SGO Assessments

Tech Tips:

Cybraryman -- One of the best places to start looking for educational information.  Jerry is a retired teacher who has spent his time curating the best information for educators.  If Jerry doesn't have a page for it...it doesn't exist.  

Search Engine Tips -- Now that the students have been using Chromebooks for a while, one of the complaints I hear some teachers making is that students rush to click on the first thing that pops up without reading the material presented.  If you would like to narrow student searches, you can actually build your own search engine for the students to use, and feed it certain sites approved by you.  

Donors Choose --  A site where you can get funding for some things you would like to include in your class.  I have used it twice and both times my projects were funded, I was given a video camera and a class set of novels, both of which helped my class out tremendously. Other teachers I know have used  this to have guest speakers come in or Skype with a class.  If you have an idea for a project you would like to run, but need some funding this is the place to start.