May 11, 2015

At our recent Reading Workshop training taught by Amy Henderson, an OC Taylor 3^rd grade teacher, she shared an app called CONFER.  This app allows you to set up your class, share it with colleagues, and make anecdotal notes. 

One of the features that impressed me was the ability to group students. Delivering support to Tier 2 & 3 students is very crucial to the their growth and this is a viable way to track by documenting the success and weaknesses to drive your instruction and to use at parent conferences/ASC/RTI meetings. 

The app is $24.99 and when you see the features it has, I think you will LOVE it. 

May 4, 2015

I am excited to report that the Education Foundation has blessed our school with a $5,000 grant.  The grant was written to purchase Fountas and Pinnell Level Literacy Intervention materials to use for instruction with our Tier 3 students.  With this addition we will be able to support reading levels DRA 1-40. The program provides:

• Combination of reading, writing, and phonics/word study.
• Emphasis on teaching for comprehending strategies.
• Explicit attention to genre and to the features of nonfiction and fiction texts.
• Special attention to disciplinary reading, literature inquiry, and writing about reading.
• Specific work on sounds, letters, and words in activities designed to help students notice the details of written language and learn how words "work."
• Close reading to deepen and expand comprehension.
• Explicit teaching of effective and efficient strategies for expanding vocabulary.
• Explicit teaching for fluent and phrased reading.
• Use of writing about reading for the purpose of communicating and learning how to express ideas for a particular purpose and audience using a variety of writing strategies.

One of the key components that I LOVED is the way to monitor student progress with running records and comprehension rubrics built in.  The lessons are very teacher friendly.  Please stop and let me show you what I am working on :)  

Click here to see an overview of Level Literacy Intervention

April 27, 2015

On Saturday, April 25th, we had the privilege of hosting a CODE.ORG class thanks to Cindy Walling and the Aspire TEAM.  There were about 26 educators in attendance with 10 being from Cannon and one of our Instructional Coaches Janie Stach. It was exciting to meet and hear the excitement of one of our GMS STEM teachers-Lilly Monson.

We learned how to teach computer science skills such as critical thinking, logic, persistence and creativity in problem-solving aligned to all subjects areas. Each course is a combination of "unplugged" activities (not on the computer) and online activities as well. Like most things, learning the layout/logic of the lessons and resources is the biggest hurdle to master but the lessons are engaging and higher level that build on each other. 

Patrick was immediately envisioning ways to use this resource in our specials classes and we will be putting a place a school wide student account system with picture passwords.  If you have the opportunity to take this in the future, I think it would a great tool to possess.  Trisha has been to this class previously and is our own in-house expert so please seek her expertise.

www.code.org

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