Showing posts with label SeeSaw. Show all posts
Showing posts with label SeeSaw. Show all posts

Monday, June 12, 2017

Learning with Legos



Many of the teachers I serve at Concrete Primary and Powdersville Elementary have started to use Legos for learning in the classroom. For the 2017-18 school year, each of our district K3-1st grade teachers will receive a Duplo StoryTales Kit from Lego Education, and our 2nd-5th grade teachers will receive the LearnToLearn Core Set for the classroom. In order to help our teachers get started, our team planned for hands-on professional development during our annual summer in-service last week.

Primary Lego StoryTales Session

For our early kinders, we had a couple of hours with teachers and assistants, so we planned eight stations with two fun "brain breaks." To allow for teachers to share their creations with one another and participate in a true student experience, we created a Seesaw classroom which was also shared among teachers in our other primary sessions throughout the day. Click HERE to view our Seesaw Blog full of teacher creations!


Our session with first grade was only one hour, so we reduced the number of tasks and changed the content to be more aligned with first grade standards. Though the time was shortened, teachers were still provided with plenty of time to play, create, and post to our Seesaw classroom.



Teachers were very excited to have a chance to play with the kits they'll be receiving in August, and feedback from the session was great. To capture teacher feedback, we created the Padlet Wall below!

Made with Padlet

Elementary Lego LearnToLearn Session

Our district Reading Coaches facilitated some cooperative planning sessions for teachers in grades 3-5, and it was exciting to be able to provide them with a one hour "play break." During these sessions, we provided each teacher with a small bag of Legos and sample tasks for each content area from the Lego Education curriculum. Then, the teachers were given time to collaborate and create using the Legos and Seesaw. Click HERE to see the Elementary Lego Seesaw Blog for teacher creations!


Tweets from the Session










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Wednesday, April 19, 2017

April is National Poetry Month

When I plan for Digital Playground sessions, it is helpful to reach out to the iTeachers at my schools to find out what the teachers might be interested in learning and to get some information about the content they will be teaching in the days or weeks ahead. Making the stations relevant and timed to fit instructional goals has been very beneficial for the teachers at my schools. During these sessions, I often hear them comment, "I can use this with my kids this week!" For this month, the iTeachers requested ideas to use with students as they celebrate National Poetry Month.



I planned to use the stations shared above with the entire faculty during an after school session, but our meeting was cancelled due to severe weather. Instead, I set up shop in the Reading Coach's office for teachers to visit during their planning period. As always, my goal was to create a fun and engaging atmosphere for the teachers to experience a student perspective!

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Tuesday, January 24, 2017

Assessment in Guided Math

For many teachers the word "assessment" is synonymous with "testing," but Lanney Sammons writes, "Assessment is more than testing - it is evaluating students' progress, their understandings and misconceptions, their ability to solve problems and think critically, and their ability to apply their knowledge to new situations." In the guided math classroom, formative assessment drives instruction daily and helps teachers to know how to meet the diverse needs of students.

During our training this month, I asked teachers to post responses to the question in the AnswerGarden shown below. One of the teachers commented that the change to using a Guided Math approach has made ongoing assessment more essential and easier than ever! Students are no longer passive consumers of knowledge, but they are engaged learners receiving ongoing and regular feedback about their work and progress.

Tools for Assessment

One of the most important and powerful tools that we are using for formative assessment at Powdersville Elementary is Seesaw. This app allows teachers to share resources and links with students, and it allows students to create and to post station work with images, screenshots, and audio. This work can be reviewed by the teacher and shared with parents. Because our school recently began to a Seesaw for Schools Pilot, I took some time during this session to discuss some of the great features that teachers can now access, including Skills View. I'm excited to see how teachers can use this feature to document student learning and progress!



January's session ended with a quick look at some of the technology tools that teachers are using for formative assessment in the Guided Math classroom (see Slide 8). I encouraged teachers to look at the homework mode in Quizizz for an interactive station task that provides students with immediate feedback. (One group of teachers even found a Quizizz that they could use the following day!) Several of the teachers are also excited to begin using Classkick for exit tickets.

I am so excited about the work that my teachers are doing, and it makes me feel good to know that our students are benefiting from the collaboration and professional growth of their teachers. Being able to provide resources and serve as a support for this dedicated group of teachers makes me proud and excited to be a small part of something amazing!
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Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Task Cards for Guided Math and Guided Reading Stations

Please click on the links to create your own editable version of the task cards. These can be adapted to meet your needs, laminated, and reused for stations. 

CPS Fact Fluency (K-2) 



Task Completed! (All Grades)
Vocabulary Task Card

The goal in creating these was to make them generic enough to be laminated and reused for a variety of specific standards-related skills. I will continue to add cards to this post, so please come visit again for new ideas!
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