On Friday, January 29th, I had the chance to support Beth Estrada, fifth grade teacher at Juana Briones Elementary School, prepare to administer the SBAC Interim Assessment on fractions. Beth, like many teachers throughout the district, was planning on using the interim assessment for her students to get used to the student interface of the Smarter Balance Assessment, gather formative data on her students for further instruction, and as a means for her students to prepare for the testing period later in the Spring. Students who've been enrolled in PAUSD for the past two years are familiar with the student interface, but it's always good to have repeated exposure to ensure students are familiar and comfortable with the testing system. It will definitely interesting to see the results of these interim assessments. One big question is how the results will be reported - in what format and whether there's a breakdown of the results based on each question, math domain, and/or function.
In the midst of the second trimester assessments period and the option for grades 3-5 to take the Smarter Balanced Interim Assessments, I've had the opportunity to support teachers at Fairmeadow Elementary School and Juana Briones Elementary School. It's been a good learning period for everyone in the district as we learn about the various assessment blocks, the test administrator's interface, and the online reporting system.
On Friday, January 29th, I had the chance to support Beth Estrada, fifth grade teacher at Juana Briones Elementary School, prepare to administer the SBAC Interim Assessment on fractions. Beth, like many teachers throughout the district, was planning on using the interim assessment for her students to get used to the student interface of the Smarter Balance Assessment, gather formative data on her students for further instruction, and as a means for her students to prepare for the testing period later in the Spring. Students who've been enrolled in PAUSD for the past two years are familiar with the student interface, but it's always good to have repeated exposure to ensure students are familiar and comfortable with the testing system. It will definitely interesting to see the results of these interim assessments. One big question is how the results will be reported - in what format and whether there's a breakdown of the results based on each question, math domain, and/or function.
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It's been such a pleasure and privilege working with so many teachers throughout Palo Alto Unified School District. The teachers have inspired me, shared challenges that we work on together, and given me the honor of partnering with them on math and STEAM projects. This week, I had the pleasure of working with Mindy Dodsworth, 4th grade teacher at Fairmeadow Elementary School, on introducing Google Docs to her students. We began our time with a discussion about digital citizenship and norms we expect for our online interactions and behaviors. It was great to hear the students generate their ideas for what they consider to be ways to stay safe and productive online. The following are a few ideas from our discussion. -Stay focused on the work. -Stay safe. -Take a break -Stay calm (reload the page). -Be respectful to others (don't hack others' accounts). -Keep private information private (don't share passwords). It was great to hear the students share the point of taking a break. We had a discussion about the importance of that, screen time, the effects on our eyes from staring at a screen for an extended period of time, and ideas for taking a break. As we continued, we talked about the importance of keeping our Google Drive organized. We discussed how similar to any place used for storage, like cubbies in the early elementary years, lockers in middle and high schools, and the bedrooms, keeping their files and folders organized in Google Drive is important for peace of mind and workflow. [Of course there's the search field within Drive, but personalizing a structure of organization is important.] As our lesson continued, I showed the students how to share their "4th grade" folder with their teacher so Mrs. Dodsworth can comment on their Google Doc. We talked about how this helps in the editing and revision process of their work. It was great to immediately demonstrate this as Mrs. Dodsworth and I commented as they wrote about their current study of the California Missions. It was great to support these fourth graders use EdTech while keeping digital citizenship in mind. It was great to support a colleague implement the use of Google Doc into her classroom. Connected to this was a conversation I had with a teacher at another school I support that really filled my bucket. Teri Wilde, 4th grade teacher at Escondido Elementary School, told me the impact of our partnership in her work with her students and EdTech integration. "The best thing was getting you in (my classroom) early because the things you introduced then is helping throughout the year. If you hadn't shared those things I probably wouldn't be doing them." It is such a pleasure of me to partner with so many amazing professionals who inspire me, help me grow, and push me to be a better educator and colleague.
In this digital age, it's important to be mindful of our online posts, pictures, blog posts, and social media interactions and what kind of digital footprint we're leaving.
A fifth grade class at El Carmelo Elementary School in PAUSD had the following footprints taped in the classroom after a series of lessons and discussions of the impact of our digital footprint with their teacher, Jeanne-Marie Atieh. This is definitely an important concept for everyone, and it's great to start learning about our digital footprint at an early age.
I have had such a pleasure partnering with so many professionals through the Palo Alto Unified School District and districts all around the San Francisco Bay Area and beyond. In this first year as a Math & STEAM Coach / TOSA (teacher on special assignment, it's been extra special because I have the opportunity to go into many more teachers' classrooms, partner with them, collaborate on lessons and projects, and learn and grow together. Two educators I've had the incredible pleasure of partnering with are Kristi Van and Valerie Sabbag, both from Fairmeadow Elementary School in the Palo Alto Unified School District.
This week, the first week back from winter break, has been an incredible experience with STEAM and robotics. On Tuesday, January 5th, I had the pleasure of partnering with Kristi Van, a third grade teacher at Fairmeadow Elementary School as her students had a free exploration of Spheros. The students had a wonderful time with the Spheros and they quickly caught onto the user interface of the iPad app to control their Spheros. Blog post about this experience. The fun with the Spheros continued it the afternoon with Valerie Sabbag's fifth grade class. I had the chance to touch base with Valerie during lunch about her plans for her students with the Spheros. She told me they've explored maneuvering the Spheros the day before and she developed a few courses for her students to take their Spheros on. These 4 to 5 courses became the students' "Driver's Ed" class as well. An example of one of the courses was to drive the Sphero down a straight line of blue tape, stop on an "x," and then drive it back to where it started. Another course involved maneuvering the Sphero around the classroom and under stools without hitting the legs of the stools (if you did, you had to start over). One other course was to circle around the three round picnic tables outside the classroom without bumping into the legs.
It was super fun to see the students' excitement after they passed their "driving test" and I asked them for their names to print on their Sphero Driver's License. As I printed the students' licenses on card stock and cut each one out, Valerie Sabbag gave her students the opportunity to design obstacle courses with any material in the classroom. The students definitely showed a lot of creativity as they used math manipulatives, pencil boxes, white boards, stools and benches, and supplies from their science explorations to construct their obstacle courses. Not only was this activity fun, hands-on, and creative, the students exercised a lot of academic skills and lifeskills. Valerie and I were able to hear the students talk about the angle their Sphero had to rotate to make a particular turn. Students calculated the distances of their obstacle courses. Students worked collaboratively, communicated their ideas, and showed flexibility as they revised their obstacle courses after some test runs.
Here are two more videos of some of the creative obstacle courses Valerie Sabbag's fifth grader made. The one on the right is definitely an example of how the students persevered to achieve their goal of dropping their Sphero into the tub of water.
As you can see in that last video, the students landed their Sphero in the tub of water. It was super fun. A fun connection was Valerie's comment, "This is how we use textbooks" which was a reference to Matt Miller's book, Ditch That Textbook. Of course I had to tweet it to Matt right away.
As you can see, it was such an incredible time for those fifth graders. I feel so honored to have the chance to partner with such amazing professionals. I can't believe that I get to have these experiences of being able to support Valerie Sabbag with the Spheros, STEM, and robotics! This week, the first week back from winter break, has indeed been an incredible experience.
Word Cloud of student responses to using the Spheros. Click "Read More" to view one last video of fifth grade students in Valerie Sabbag's class explore making their Sphero jump, dance, ... in the tub of water.
What an amazing way to start 2016! Today, the third graders in Kristi Van's class at Fairmeadow Elementary School in PAUSD had the pleasure of exploring Spheros. It was a fantastic experience where groups of students shared the iPads, explored the user interface of the Sphero app, and had a free exploration time with those fun robots. The third graders were very quick with finding and trying the different controls on the app. The students loved being able to change the speed of their Spheros, adjust the color, make their Sphero into a disco ball, and make their robot jump.
In the spirit of the holidays and to go with another slow chat, @tosachat began The 12 Days of #TOSAchat on December 21, 2015. It was great to have different members of the #TOSAchat community come up with the questions for each of the twelve days. Special thanks goes to: Knikole Taylor, Joanne Ireland, Courtney Gambetta, Jody Green, Ari Flewelling, Roland Aichele, Lindsey Blass, Nichole Carter, Amanda Haughes, Lisa Guardino, Ann Kozma, and Julie Goo. The following are the questions during these twelve days of #TOSAchat.
Throughout the last days of December and the first days of January, educators shared their responses, insights, questions, book recommendations, theme songs, reflections, and goals for the new year. It was extra special to be able to share a few more hashtags during the twelve days, including #connectedtl, #flyhighfri, and #oneword.
I can't even imagine trying to capture the highlights from the 12 Days because it will make this blog post never ending. Fortunately, #TeamTOSAchat (Ben Cogswell, Karly Moura, Kelly Martin, and I) worked on creating Storify stories. Day 1 Day 2 Days 1-6 Days 7-12 |
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