This Week at Village 1.30.15

It was another great week at Village; I am a lucky teacher to be learning alongside such wonderful and committed educators!

This week…

• the computer lab was abuzz with Google Slide creations. Your students are learning the ins and outs of creating a presentation as well as the tools they will be using for their assessments in March and May!
• 4th Grade Special Education teachers attended a half day workshop to learn how to incorporate Google Apps for Education into their lessons. It was a great session for everyone involved! If you feel that you could lend a hand to these teachers, who are “newer” to the Chromebook experiences and the integration of technology in the classroom, please reach out to your colleagues. We all have so much to teach each other!
• I spent two periods with a wonderful 4th grade class as we logged into and learned the basics of Glogster! I was excited to hear that they are working on their optional assignment-an All About Me. This will allow the students the opportunity to learn about the program they are using without worrying about the content. I look forward to working with them again on Monday!
• I explored plickers with a small group of students in 5th grade. This “exit slip” assessment tool is easy to use and I would love to explore the possibilities with a few more classes. For more information, watch this video and email me for plicker cards! If you want to see plickers in action, it may be coming to your Spanish class soon!
• I am looking for a 4th grade teacher interested in doing a Mystery Hangout with students in Minnesota. Not sure what I’m talking about? Annie Rosenberg and I will be having a morning share in February. Please let Annie and me know if you would be interested.

Be On the Look Out (BOLO) for…

• Google classroom training, which will begin in February. I will be working with one 5th grade teacher and two 4th grade classrooms. If you are interested in learning more about Google Classroom, email me and I will be sure to add you to the list.
• a new Hapara platform, it will be launching in March for 5th grade teachers. I will be meeting with you during flex to review the changes. 
• Kaizena. I am looking for teachers (4th or 5th) who may be interested in exploring Kaizena. Kaizena is a Google app/add on that allows you to give different types of feedback on a Google Doc (voice recordings, typed comments and links to more information). If you would like to explore Kaizena with me, let me know.

As always, let me know if you would like to be included in any of these endeavors or if you have any projects you would like me to help you with. 

2014 at Village

Dear Village Friends,

It’s during this time of the year that I like to look back and reflect on all that has transpired over the course of the previous 12 months. It’s also the time of year that I make plans for next 365 days. While I did not have a full 12 months with you here a Village, there is so much we have accomplished together. Thank you for learning alongside me and teaching me what I didn’t know (one of my favorite sayings in my position is, “You don’t know what you don’t know.”); I have learned a lot from and with you. Here are some things we accomplished in the four short months (five, if we include the summer...and I do!) we had together in 2014:

summer training hapara gmail calendars forms reading logs databases symbaloo passwords cloud based storage creating notebooks question and answer day edcamp

unconference management sites google maps classroom visits mystery hangouts drafts notebooks big huge labs back channels iPads blogs

Here’s what we can look forward to in 2015:

I look forward to continuing our work together in the New Year, whether it be a visit to your flex, a 1 on 1 planning meeting during prep, a weekly standing appointment, co-teaching, modeling, etc.

Thanks for making me a part of the pack!

Stacey

(CMS/GMS Update for the week of 12/1/14)

Dear teachers,

New Google Updates
You will notice a new tab on our blog for Google App Updates (Alerts)!

We receive these updates periodically (usually every week or so). They contain information and explanations about upgrades to Google apps and other services.  We feel like this information is helpful to you, so we are including these updates here on the blog.

Be sure to subscribe to the blog by email to receive all of these updates.

Kaizena 
Good news!

The Kaizena Add-on is now fully functioning in district.  This add-on allows teachers to leave feedback for students through voice comments in Google Docs.  Some benefits of this add-on include:

• leaving more detailed and personalized feedback for each student
• leaving more feedback in less time

For more details on how you can use this with your own classes, please reach out to one of us.

6th grade TC Workshop
This week, the 6th grade IRLA teachers had an all-day workshop with our TC staff developer, Emily.  At the workshop, we also shared various tools and techniques to support student learning in a 1:1 environment. Those resources are available in the Language Arts folder in the shared Resources folder in Google Drive.

Please be sure to save this folder to your own drive so that you have access to all of the shared resources.

Keep Your Eyes Out for an Upcoming Survey
Next week, you will all be receiving a short (but very important) survey regarding the February in-service day and building level Lunch 'n Learns.  The survey is for ALL faculty.  Please be sure to take this survey so that your needs and interests will be reflected during upcoming professional development.

Have a great weekend!

~Allan and Melissa