April 20, 2015

DonorsChoose.org is an online charity that allows teachers to write project request in which anyone, individuals or corporations, can donate money to help meet the needs for public schools. We have had numerous individual teachers as well as some teams participate in writing a Donors Choose.  Kindergarten recently funded a  $1460 project to help create STEMlabs for all Kindergarten classrooms.  I am really proud of their efforts as a TEAM to ensure ALL students the opportunity to have quality STEM instruction in their classrooms. Ask any Kinder teacher about STEMlabs as they are preparing for the future!!!  

Here are some of Kami Anderson's students during STEMlab time:

Within the past two weeks:

Stephanie Donaldson has a project waiting to be funded as well. First grade divided their grade level project into two separate ones and one has been funded.   Ganus/Step also has been funded within this past week. (If I have left anyone out it was not intentional)

If you have written a Donors Choose this year, please go to the google doc and add your link. https://docs.google.com/a/gcisd.net/document/d/1Z8Y8RbNRhaMlOvqpGM1ZfC-WMFQDDKRgehSiBXXU9Rw/edit?usp=sharing

I would love to add up and keep track of what we have received this year by thinking outside of the box to make things happen for our students.  I feel it is important to show our stake holders how committed you are to provide the best for our scholars!! 

April 13, 2015

This week I would like to share a resource from the National Environmental Education Week website. If you have never been to their website please visit it soon and enjoy the GREENING STEM section!

Many of you have discussed wanting to learn more about STEM in general. The webinars, future and archived ones, provide you a great opportunity to learn deeper about many STEM topics. It is important that we arm ourselves with the bigger picture of what students will be learning in higher grade levels so we can teach the foundational concepts accurately and with fidelity. You will find the webinars located under the ENGAGE & EXPLORE <Educators <Webinars.

April 6, 2015

I have created a Summer 2015 PD Opportunities google doc that can be accessed with this link:

SUMMER 2015 Professional Development

This document currently has Humanities, Technology,STEM, and PBL class offerings. Everything listed is a district offered training and is FREE, unless noted otherwise. If there is a sign-up for the class already in Eduphoria, the link is listed. I will keep this list updated as we receive more information. If you need help with Eduphoria, let me know. 

**Please be aware the TECHNOLOGY classes fill up fast so SIGN UP NOW.

March 30, 2015

Engage Your Students in Real World Learning 

As a district we are working towards implementing PBLs in an responsible way so we are teaching our TEKS with fidelity while balancing the appropriate amount of instruction time.  This webinar is a perfect way to gain insight on "how to" come up with an idea. Even if you are NOT wanting to do a PBL-deepen your STEM lens by gaining great ideas of turning current event into curricular connections into your classrooms. The webinar was just presented on March 15th by Suzie Boss, an author and Buck Institute faculty member, discusses how to create real world-relevant ideas for project based learning.  

" She’ll discuss how to design academically rigorous projects that are ripped from the headlines; why relevance doesn’t mean “all about me;” and how to use the 3 A’s to guide students toward meaningful action."

http://goo.gl/terTU9

March 23, 2015

What are you colleagues saying?  Here are 2 comments that were shared with me about Wednesday’s ELA training.  Please ask Catha, Valerie, Alejandra, Jennifer and Deron about it because they all had great things to share. 

Reading workshop was amazing. Wonderful presenter!! She shared components of Readers Workshop with specific things to do. She shared about the classroom library, anchor charts and more. Not to mention, links to awesome resources. This was worth every minute!

One thing I'm looking forward to is the session on planning.  It's one thing to have the desire to do a Reading Workshop with your students and it's an entirely different thing to do it.  While I know I will enjoy Reading Workshop, I really have no idea how to effectively plan one.  Really looking to that session on April 15.

You can still sign up for the remaining classes:

Session 2, April 1, 3:30-5:00 - Readers' Notebooks and Reading Logs

http://eduphoria.gcisd.net/wshop/default.aspx?cid=3196 

Session 3, April 15, 3:30-5:00 - Read Aloud with Accountable Talk AND Planning Mini-lessons for Workshop

http://eduphoria.gcisd.net/wshop/default.aspx?cid=3197

Session 4, May 6, 3:30-5:00 - Writing about Reading and Conferring with Readers

http://eduphoria.gcisd.net/wshop/default.aspx?cid=3198

Session 5, May 20, 3:30-5:00 - Sharing my Reading: Book Talks, Book Partners, Book Clubs

http://eduphoria.gcisd.net/wshop/default.aspx?cid=3199

March 16, 2015

Recently a group of our teachers went on a site visit to another STEM school called Town Center Elementary in Coppell.  They are in their fourth/fifth year of STEM.  At our last STEM leadership meeting after school, teachers shared some of their take-aways from that visit.  One of those was the way they have adopted the STEM design process as their writing process.  Erica came back to her class and began to utilize it.  Jennifer learned about it at our share session and has already put it up on her classroom as well.  Please go by these two classrooms and see it. We can work in PLCs to design one that fits with your grade level.

March 2, 2015

While reading some blogs I follow, I read this article from Teach Children Well called “It’s How You Use Technology that Matters.”  I especially like the section that is called Building Relationships and Streamlining Communication because it affirms our goal at Cannon to provide transparent communication with our parents and community.  It also discusses how we are modeling and teaching young students to learn communication skills.  Other schools are often surprised that many of you have blogs for our younger students. We are not just blogging to blog, but instead students are becoming communicators and collaborators.

Please take time to read the Writing and Reflection section.  This aligns with our goals by having the GCISD Portfolio for each student.  I realize the process of using iPads to upload to our portfolio is still a work in progress, but keep in mind the goal of teaching students the process of reflection that will drive future learning. 

Kudos to each of you for using technology to attain higher purposes that deepen learning for your scholars. 

It's How You Use Technology That Matters  

 https://www.bloglovin.com/blog/post/8306681/4210119673