Explore Learning

www.explorelearning.com  

Gifted and Talented middle school students have access to a useful inquiry based learning site called Explore Learning. Free trials are available also. There are logins for students and teachers and math and science lessons available to enhance the curriculum. The standard based  lessons are interactive and have assessments included with online quizes and answer keys to worksheets available online. There is now a blog spot for teachers who use the program: www.explorelearning.com/algasc .

Flipped Classrooms

                                                              
     Recently Glenview Middle School science teachers viewed a webinar on Flipped Science Classrooms. We are really interested in the positive enhancements that this can offer to our instruction but also see some cons like the lack of Internet access at home. If you are interested in flipping your classroom or if you have tried it before, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested you can view some archived webinars at http://www.flippedlearning.org/webinars or sign up for future ones at http://www.flippedlearning.org/webinars.
Here is a list of upcoming webinars:

February 13 – The Administrators’ Role and Professional Development
March 13 – Physical Education, Home Economics, Special Education, Deaf and Hard of Hearing Classrooms, and Other Subjects
April 10 – Social Studies/History
May 8 – Elementary Grades

Thinkgate

             THINKGATE

When viewing your benchmark test scores, Glenview Middle School teachers have developed a few short tutorial videos using the ShowMe iPad app to help you use the scores effectively in your classroom.






Reports:
Distractor Analysis-
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=wLMz0F6
Standard Analysis- 

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=Chakeau
At Risk-
http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=3BetT5k
Progress Report- 

http://www.showme.com/sh/?h=CcWXYY4

 

BYOT in the Middle School Math Classroom

So far in my experience with BYOT, students have used their own technology in a variety of ways in my classroom. Students can access my notes that are posted on my website, saving them the time it takes to copy notes. I also post tutorial videos on my website of how to solve different types of problems (depending on the unit we are in) that students can access on their devices and use as a tutorial. Students have used their devices to answer math writing prompts and submit their responses to me via email or gaggle. I also did a lesson on solving multi-step equations where a video from Gaggle provided the instruction and practice. Students could watch the video on the SMART Board if they did not have a device or on their own devices to work at their own pace. There are many different apps that I have showed the students, such as Evernote for taking notes. I look forward to learning many more ways to implement this technology in my classroom but have enjoyed the experience so far.

Continuing the Conversation: Using VoiceThread to Simulate the Oral Tradition

The eighth grade at Lakeside used VoiceThread to simulate oral tradition.  It's free and Internet-based, and it's even available as an app for Apple products.

VoiceThread splash page

 Our Technology Facilitator helped our students by VoiceThread and showing them how to sign up for accounts and experiment with the technology.  Afterwards, students worked in their groups to create their VoiceThreads where one story led to another.  Every student also commented on each group's VoiceThread.

Red Riding Hood VoiceThread by our 8th graders

To the left is an example of one of the finished products.

Upcoming:  Find out how we used VoiceThread again in a pre-reading activity that resulted in high-interest reading and deeper thinking into the next novel we read!