UPDATED: Champion of the Day / Trailblazer of the Month Submissions

In the hopes of streamlining the process when we select students for recognition, we have updated the collection a bit, focused on "spreading the wealth". Cynde Riley will still send an email to teachers outlining the steps for "Trailblazer of the Month", but you won't submit them via email anymore (you'll use a Google Sheet instead). Similarly, once Jalinda sends an email to the 3 teachers for "Champion of the Day", they'll submit their names on the same Google Sheet. Watch this "How To" video: 

Shout Out! - Borgese

Suzanne has been taking on the role of math tutor extraordinaire in her classroom each morning. She's had huge crowds of students 30-40 students each morning, and the results of her tutoring efforts combined with great math instruction led to great success on the first assessment of the year for these students. Great work Suzanne! 

Custom Instructional Vids w/Embedded Quiz

There are a couple new apps for education allowing you trim YouTube, LearnZillion, Khan Academy, and your own videos into your own custom video lesson. You can even embed quizzes to make sure students understood the content. Edpuzzle & Educanon

53 Ways to Check for Understanding

An article from Edutopia led me to this great list of 53 formative assessment strategies. Embedded, was also great advice about how to pre-plan an assessment of student learning through quick observation. (math example)

Tentative Testing Calendar

Joey sent this:

https://docs.google.com/a/pylusd.org/document/d/1HLxY8LTYpxKAqRV4_FpKOPiqv5hO22efoYKKOquqsZY/edit?usp=docslist_api

Shout Outs! - Sandy, Vanessa, Cynde, Paola

Many thanks go to Sandy Schneider and her Life Skills classes for going above and beyond the call of duty to assist with campus cleanup prior to our BTSN. Thanks for helping Travis shine!

Kudos to Vanessa, Cynde, Paola, and all other organizers of Middle School's first "Club Rush". The event was a huge success and it was great to see the kids so energized to get involved! Nicely done!

BYOD - Socrative, Kahoot, or Google Forms

Looking for a quick, easy, and free way to assess students? Look no further: Socrative, Kahoot, and Google Forms all have built-in features that give instant feedback, work on any device, and don't require much setup to get going. Embed pictures, collect scores, and quickly assess students minus the paperwork:

• Kahoot
• Google Forms + Flubaroo
• Socrative

Textual Evidence

Teaching students to pull appropriate evidence from text while explaining how the evidence supports a claim is a central skill to hone in on. This article does a great job of outlining some basic steps to embed while teaching this multifaceted skill to students.   

The Power of Argument!

Read this short article from "MiddleWeb" that gives an overview of the importance of argumentative conversation and writing in our classrooms. The authors of "They Say / I Say" contend that "argument strategies allow students to 'stretch what they believe by putting it up against beliefs that differ, sometimes radically, from their own. In an increasingly diverse global society, this ability to engage with the ideas of others is especially crucial to democratic citizenship.”

TechTip - Onetab

Want to easily share a collection of links with students or colleagues? Use the Google Chrome Extension "One Tab" it will take all your open tabs and collapse them into one useful webpage link.

Here's one I created frequently used "Staff Handbook" items. Bookmark it!

Shout Outs!

We're off and Trailblazing!

The Science Team has "gone green". Google Forms combined with an auto-grading add-on feature called "Flubaroo" has streamlined their lab safety quizzes. Nice work!

The "Breathing Gym" is real! Rebecca is giving our bandos a good workout, expanding their lung capacity so we can hear them from farther away! Gary dove in to BYOD, asking students to use their personal devices with an online polling system called "Kahoot".

Bethany and Dana had students crawling around the room on an archaeological "dig" using Chromebooks and pictures of artifacts.

Supervision Duties 9/8-9/11

Shout Out to PBIS!

The PBIS Team worked extremely hard to organize a full-day event on Thursday! We all heard great feedback from teachers and students and appreciate everyone's flexibility and professionalism! 

Nicely done PBIS! Brian Shay, Marita Buckley, Cynde Riley, Vanessa Amorin, and 

Laura Moody! 

Learning by Universal Design

In this short article, David Rose, developmental neuropsychologist and educator, shares his perspectives on the efficacy of 1) Digital vs. Printed resources, 2) purposeful technology integration, and 3) key elements of "Universal Lesson Design". Definitely worth a read!