Tech Tip - Cite Lighter

Here's another great, online, close reading, standards-aligned, annotating practice resource. Students can map out essays using outlines, pulling in website resources with MLA format. It also integrates well with Google Docs. Worth an experiment with a class to see if you'd like to use this! https://www.citelighter.com/signup

Citelighter Demo Fall 2014 from Citelighter on Vimeo.

Nuts/Bolts - Weeks of 2/16 & 2/22

Discovery Education / Streaming: Starting next year, the district will discontinue their license with Discovery Education. You can still access it and download the videos / resources that you need. Consider storing the videos in your Google Drive account.

Chromebook Carts / Computer Labs: Carts B-E are available for teachers to book. The devices will be labeled by the end of February. Please lock the cart and hide the key when you are not in your room, or overnight. If you use any lab on campus, please book it and make sure you leave it tidy and organized for the next teacher.

Formals / Informals: Administrators need to complete 2nd informals for permanent employees by 3/13. If you are off cycle, consider arranging a time/date with your evaluator ASAP. Formal evals must be completed by 4/30. Calendar these ASAP! Time will run out quickly.

2/17: Structured PLC - Newsela in Room 30

Shout Out! - Laura Moody

In addition to being ELA Department Head, NJHS Co-Leader, and PBIS Team Member, Laura was just selected to be part of the district's ELA Adoption Committee. Her commitment to Travis Ranch and our district is consistently demonstrated through her diligent efforts inside and outside the classroom every day. Thanks for your consistent hard work and dedication to our students and community! 

Tech Tip: "Formative"

Formative is a platform that lets teachers see the responses of a whole class at one time—even open-response and hand-drawn responses. Teachers create assessments from scratch right in the Formative platform, or upload an existing PDF or Word document and build a quiz from there. Students access the assessments by entering a class code on their own devices.  Then, as students take the assessments, the teacher can look at his or her own device and see what each student is writing simultaneously; each student’s work appears in its own little square and fills up in real time.