7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology

Thanks to one of the other Instructional Coachers for sharing this post.  THIS is what I have to instill into the teachers in my district!  7 Habits of Highly Effective Teachers Who Use Technology

I will now be following this blog - I have already gone and read many of their past posts - fantastic stuff!

Getting closer!

Last night Meagan emailed me with the "finalized" versions of the bivariate data unit we have been working on.  She spent most of the day Sunday finalizing things and adjusting things.  Everything is looking good!  I stopped by her classroom today and basically walked through the guided/flipped lesson to see how it went.  All the links work and tings look good.  I made some suggestions on clarifying directions for students and using common vocabulary.  She is going to look at things tonight. The next thing to do is to add more questions to the Think Link probe (the pre-test).  We may have to write some of our own questions for this.  

I am continually impressed with Meagan's knowledge of her content - she is fantastic!

We are both excited to start the unit Friday!

I also spent a little time helping our Literacy Director figure out how to post reading resources for the whole district on eChalk.  His literacy team is doing good things.....it will be great to get them shared district-wide!

Independent Reading Blog @ Heritage

On Friday I met with 2 middle school teachers to discuss blogging.  They are looking for a way for students to blog about books the read independently.  We discussed various ways to go about this including the eChalk blog, Goodreads and Blogger.  They want students to be able to see this and read about each others' books.  They would like to start using this in their Lit Studies classes but eventually have the whole school participate - which is AWESOME!  I can just imagine teachers and students sharing all about what they are reading!  The possibilites are endless....

I spent some time Friday and today researching how to make this efficient and effective.  I think Blogger will work best because it is easy to use, secure, and all kids already have accounts.   One thing they were looking for is a way to separate posts by class period.  There is no way to have multiple pages in a blog all be "blog" pages.  The only way to separate posts in any way is to create a page that links to a label.  So, I created a page in the blog called "4th Period" and had it point to the url http://practiceblog87654.blogspot.com/search/label/4th, (name of the blog, label).  This is a way to sort posts by certain labels.  You can also separate them by clicking on the little label link on the sidebar.

I did some test posts and spent a little time customizing the look.  Here is the result so far....

I emailed Kerry and Christine and am waiting to hear back on their thoughts :)

Gotta know when to hold 'em....

Today I spent the first 2 morning periods at one of the middle schools  continuing to work with a teacher and his 8th grade students on their climate change challenge based learning project.  Today the students were working to refine their project ideas as well as to work on their Cacoo diagram.  Some groups are doing well, but others really need guidance on what specifically they will DO.  I spoke with one group and it reminded me of my trip to Waste Management in Stickney this summer with a teacher and his summer school students.  This group really wants to help Berwyn recycle more.  The teacher has his work cut out helping each group identify a project and make it happen!

I also attended the principals' meeting.  It is always refreshing to hear all of the good things going on in the district!  I also got some great leadership advice on decision making....based on this song! "Gotta know when to hold 'em, know when to fold 'em, know when to walk away, know when to run."

In the afternoon I met with the teachers regarding blogging.....I need to do some work on this...

Timelines

Just this week, three separate teachers contacted me or the iCoaches about a good timeline creation tool.  Here is the list we came up with for useful sites:

http://timeline-3d.en.softonic.com/mac

http://timeglider.com/

https://cacoo.com/

http://www.dipity.com/

We are looking into purchasing https://www.tomsnyder.com/timelinerxe/

Fitness Tracking and Common Core

Because of a rescheduling, I spent most of today in the office :(  It was good to have the time to do some necessary research though.  I researched different options for PE teachers to have students track their fitness data over time.  Discovered that the best option is http://www.fitnessgram.net/home/. It allows teachers to track student fitness data long term, can be used district-wide, and has reporting tools to share information with families so students can set goals.  The only challenge now is find the money to pay for it!  Spoke to our superintendent about it briefly - next is to contact the district wellness coordinator.

I also spent some time working with Sue to do some research to help one of the middle school teams boost their Common Core implementation.  Common Core is so new to everyone and has been a challenge to figure out just how to transition.....Sue and I still have more to do!

I met with the PE teachers at one of the middle schools this afternoon to find out what their goals for the fitness tracking are.  They are excited about having access to the program - they know this is the direction PE education is going and want to start soon!

Call

I called Meagan today to let her know that I will be available to her from this point on for whatever it is she wants to work on.  I made sure to tell her that she is a great investment of my time and that I will do anything I can to support her.  She was a little surprised but also very pleased.

I am looking forward to what we can do!