Granite Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter – November 2014
Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District, but you can also access it here.
This month’s highlights Include:
Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District, but you can also access it here.
This month’s highlights Include:
Mrs. Robin Farnsworth is a third grade teacher at Neil Armstrong Academy. This 2014 Excel Award winner is noted for ensuring that her students learn by doing and that they are each active participants in her classroom. Whether they are creating on an iPad, using their hands for exploration, connecting to the world by participating in a Global Read Aloud, blogging, doing a #MysterySkype, or another innovative learning opportunity, Mrs. Farnsworth uses a variety of ways to engage her students in learning. She also emphasizes innovation and world problem solving with her FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team that she coaches before school. FLL students have to build a robot and learn how to program it to perform various tasks for competition.
Outside the classroom, Mrs. Farnsworth is inspiring teachers to collaborate and share. She had the vision to bring Edcamp to Utah on October 11, 2014 at Armstrong Academy. Edcamp is a type of “unconference” designed to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them. With the help of Jared Covili of UCET, Mrs. Farnsworth’s vision was a success. Teachers who attended Edcamp Utah were able to discuss topics of interest, share their own knowledge, and leave with new knowledge and ideas for teaching.
If you are interested in learning more about Edcamp Utah you can go to www.ucet.org/edcamput. Also, watch Neil Armstrong’s principal, Tyler Howe, interview Robin Farnsworth about Edcamp Utah’s success:
Spotlight Author: Kristen Johnson, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
The Beehive Book Award is an annual award sponsored by the Children’s Literature Association of Utah (CLAU), given to one book in each of these five categories: Children’s Fiction, Informational, Picture Book, Poetry, and Young Adult. Committees of teacher, librarian, and parent volunteer readers create annual short lists of 10-12 books in each category. These short lists are announced in March and then school and public libraries work to get students to vote on their favorites for the following school year. The winner in each category is announced the following year in April.
Granite School District Elementary School Libraries work hard to promote the Beehive Book Award program and encourage students to vote for their favorite books. They do this through displays, community engagement, and library promotions.
At Hillsdale Elementary School, Angela Pratt has a display for the 2015 Beehive Book Awards and highlights each category on a different shelf. She uses this display when doing story time and encourage her students to check-out the books nominated. Truman, Woodstock, and Rolling Meadows have also set up displays to draw attention to the books.
At Rosecrest Elementary, Vala’dee Tanner, the media assistant, collaborated with the librarian at the Holladay library to come do a book talk for all students 4th-6th grade. Each grade came to the library and the public librarian spoke to them about the Beehive award nominees and encouraged them to participate in the voting process. Many schools rely on their PTA to help them buy copies of the Beehive nominees and to help track voting. At Driggs Elementary School, the PTA buys copies of each Beehive Book Award nominee and create a plan to read them in the classroom.
Many media assistants have set up ballot boxes to help keep track of votes. Dian Morrison and Kim Liston, the media assistants at Woodstock Elementary, have a glass ballot box set up by their Beehive Book Award display. Students enjoy voting because they like to submit them in the special box, and like to see the votes build up over the school year.
Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor
Mrs. O’Brien teaches 5th Grade at Lincoln Elementary in South Salt Lake. Watch the video above to see how she integrates classroom Chromebooks into her students’ daily English Language Arts rotations to facilitate writing projects, spelling, and vocabulary work.
Check Out Mrs. O’Brien’s Classroom Website!
Spotlight Author: Patrick Flanagan, Granite Director of Educational Technology
Did you know that all students K-12 in Granite School District have access to Microsoft’s Office 365 Education for Students? This includes several valuable tools and services: [Read more…] about Office 365 for Students
Dennis Hummer teaches Chemistry at Cottonwood High School. Mr. Hummer works with his students using the Flipped Classroom method, also known as the “backwards classroom.” The Flipped Classroom involves a blended learning model where students access lectures, demonstrations and other information at home, then come prepared to do labs and homework in groups during class. The students act as student tutors and problem solvers and are able to seek guidance as needed from the instructor. This form of teaching compliments differentiated instruction and project-based learning.
In addition to the spotlight video above, check out all of Mr. Hummer’s Chemistry course videos on his YouTube channel. Here is one of his recent review videos:
You can also follow Mr. Hummer on Twitter: @Hummer_Chem. Here is one of his recent tweets, showing his students in action in the lab:
It's all about focus. #coltsaregreat #Flametests pic.twitter.com/8Y0wn1qm55
— Mr. Hummer (@Hummer_Chem) October 10, 2014
Spotlight Author: Celia Powell, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Pam Jensen has worked as a Library Media Assistant in Granite School District for eight years. She has worked at Oquirrh Hills Elementary, Plymouth Elementary, and has been Library Media Assistant at Elk Run Elementary since it opened in 2011.
Jimmy Zangwow’s Out-of-this-World Moon-Pie Adventure by Tony DiTerlizzi
You have brains in your head. You have feet in your shoes. You can steer yourself any direction you choose. You’re on your own. And you know what you know. And YOU are the one who’ll decide where to go…
-Dr. Seuss
Elk Run Elementary has artwork from different cultures, all over the world, displayed in the hallways. Pam started to think about incorporating that idea into the library and designing a theme for this school year that would challenge students to think about the world outside of their community and to inspire them to investigate those cultures. She picked the theme, “Book a Trip around the World,” as her starting point.
Pam then integrated that theme into her displays, her handouts, and storytimes. When you enter the library, you get a sense of cohesiveness and it is exciting to see all of the creative ways that it has implemented. Here are some examples:
Each teacher received a miniature globe with a tag that read, “You’ve got the whole world in your hands,” a bookmark made from an old map, and a little treat to sneak on a hard day. This connected the teachers to the theme of the library and acted as a great way for Pam to reach out to the teachers.
Pam set up little displays throughout the library, using old globes to create different variations on the theme.
Behind the check-out desk, Pam made a banner out of old maps, and it hangs above a display made from old suitcases.
She also created a large display by the storytime rug that shows a map of the world, flags from different countries, and little illustrations of children from all over the world.
Every month, Pam will pick a new place for Elliot the Elk, the school mascot, to visit. For the month of October, Elliot visited France. Pam set up a display to show where Elliot is visiting, and incorporates the country he is visiting into her story times. While visiting France, the students will learn French words and will listen to a story that takes place in France.
Pam used Pinterest as her main source of inspiration for her displays, a great place for finding ideas of how to recycle items for displays. Instead of getting rid of globes that were no longer accurate, she was able to use them in an inventive way.
Spotlight Author: Nikki Gregerson, Granite District Elementary Media Supervisor
This presentation illustrates the basics of setting up a personal Twitter account for professional use, displays the vocabulary and mechanics of Twitter, explores some of the educational uses for Twitter, and includes a quick start guide for engaging in a twitter educational chat. Presented to Granite elementary school technology specialists on October 10, 2014.
We are using Pinterest to collect and share great resources on social media for educators. Check out our board below and click on the widget to see all of our pins and follow the board.
If you have resources to add, please share them with us on the social media network of your choice or using the comments section below.
These educator-created videos illustrate the tremendous value of Twitter as a tool for professional development, as well as some its possible applications in the classroom.
Why Tweet: A Personal Journey Through the Twitterverse
Educator Skip Via relates his journey to discovering Twitter as a tool for professional learning and his experiences in introducing it to his fellow faculty members and students in higher education.
How To Use Twitter in the Classroom
Dani K. Sloan, one of Granite Ed. Tech’s own school technology specialists, shares ways educators can use Twitter to grow a professional learning network, share and promote positive images and messages from the classroom, and provide students with hands-on practice in digital citizenship.
Re-Imagine Your Professional Development Experience… with Twitter!
Educator Victoria Olson introduces Twitter and describes three stages of utilizing social media for professional development: lurking, participating, and authoring.
Why Share?
In “Obvious to You — Amazing to Others,” author Derek Sivers gives a simple, inspiring reason for all teachers to share their ideas and practices via social media.
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