Anchor Charts!

                                                                               

 

Notes from Katie Khanijoun - September 2012

·        For me… it started with Pinterest… www.pinterest.com

·        What is an Anchor Chart?

o   Students brainstorm, teacher guides and scribes

o   Helps to “anchor” information in a student’s mind
(anchors new and on-going learning)   (holds our thinking in a visual place)

o   A chart you create WITH the students

------Made during the lesson (you can have examples to follow or have some parts prepared ahead of time).  You can “fix it up” after the lesson so it looks better

o   Promotes literacy and encourages independence

o   Visual reminder of strategies

o   Focuses on ONE strategy or concept or procedure

o   Excellent reference tool for students

o   Students helped to created itàmore likely to use it

·        Important:

o   Students should reference them, so should youàkeep them relevant

o   Can be interactiveà, have students use strategy and show it with a sticky note

o   Change them up when they aren’t needed anymore, take pictures of them so you can reference them for next year, also a good way to make them available for the rest of the year to students if you keep a copy of the chart in a binder

·        Also Helpful for:

Tutors, principal, parents and other teachers who walk into your roomàimmediately see what they students are learning

·        Awesome websites and resources:
http://www.cornerstoneliteracy.org/newsletter-archive/anchor-charts

http://www.scholastic.ca/education/litplace_earlyyears/pdfs/tip_archives/teachingguides5.pdf
http://suite101.com/article/use-anchor-charts-for-english-language-learners-a121105
http://jmeacham.com/anchorcharts.htm
http://pinterest.com/hellojenjones/anchor-charts/
http://www.fortheloveofteaching.net/2010/07/have-you-tried-anchor-charts.html

 

 

2012 Election Resources

The Election is just 49 days away...

I thought I'd share a handful of techie Election 2012 resources for you to explore:

The New York Times Learning Network is designed with 6th to 12th graders in mind.  They have recently posted a section with teaching ideas and resources:

... and a section with a number of great free web sites for teaching about the 2012 election:

Scholastic:
The Scholastic website is designed with younger kids in mind, and includes a number of games, videos and other resources:

 

Discovery Ed:
Holy Trinity School has a subscription to Discovery Ed, and among the resources is a weekly 3-minute video update on the election:

Remember, if you have not yet signed up for your personal HTS Discovery Ed account, our account number is: 13FF-53EE

 

BrainPop:

 

BrainPop also has an extensive Election Resources section, with quizzes, games, and lots of short videos from our friends Tim and Moby:

 

 



 

Remember, our login is dtarantino, and our password is seashell.

Do you have other favorite Election resources?  If so, share them below in the comments section:

Passwords and Email and Scantron and such...

Hello all - a few techie notes to begin the second week of school.

Passwords

Thanks for your patience as we have tried to work out network logins for all our Upper School students.  We should be in really good shape as we begin this week, but if you find you are in a lab with a child locked out, please text M, and she will trouble-shoot the problem.

Each US student will have a password page by the end of the week (see below).  We have asked they keep this in their binders as a reference, as they have so very many passwords to remember.  We will also have copies on hand.

A few notes about Email.  

• Each US student has an HTS Email account, and we have told them this is the only account they should be using at school  (the ability to G-chat has been disabled, among other perks.)

• This Gmail account easily links to Google docs or Google drive.  If you are new to this and interested in using it with your students, let one of the Tech Nerds know, and we can help you out.  It is a handy way to manage and edit papers with your kids.

• It should be very easy for you to Email your students, as they are all in the directory.

• We have told the students that they may not Email during class time without teacher permission. 

• We have also told them that if they use the Email inappropriately, they will lose all network privileges at HTS for some amount of time.

Scantron

Scantron testing begins for Upper School students this week, and Lower School students next week, and will likely take most of our technology classes over the next three weeks.  This means that much of the "Tech 101" stuff we generally introduce at the beginning of the year is not happening for a while.   If you need one of us to help introduce some techie element to one of your classes over the next few weeks  (say, saving documents to the correct drive)  just let us know. 

Lower School MiniLab Schedule 2012-13

Hi all,

Below, you will find the new LS MiniLab schedule.  If you would like to sign up for time in the lab beyond your tech classes, Catherine Miller will keep the schedule on the door, and you are welcome to sign up. 

Charlie Hennessy's Beginning of the Year Presentations

If you missed any of Charlie's presentations this morning, or would like to review any of the finer points of his wisdom, the links to the Prezis can be found below:

Changes at HTS:



Strategic Plan:



Discerning Meaningful Action:



News Updates:



Grades, Grading and Testing:



Rules, Reminders and Legal Restrictions



Schedules:



Technology at HTS:

Welcome Back to School!

A Few Notes for HTS Tools 101

Following is the outline Chris Clark will be working from on Tuesday afternoon.  We'll add more how-to notes if needed later in the week.

Overview of HTS website - www.htsdc.org

• frequently used links
• calendars
• student directory (has not been updated for 2012-2013 school year yet though)
• faculty page --> password:  stignatius
• schedules, class lists, how-to's, forms, etc. etc. can be found here, but is a little under construction at the moment

Network Drives

• H drive for personal stuff (only you and a few admins have access)
• N drive for NetDocs (all faculty/staff has access)
• shared documents
• report cards
• T drive for SAT files (all faculty/staff has access)
• documents regarding students with special needs
• generally NOT a good idea to share things on the C drive or "My Documents" folder

HTS Email

• webmail version
• sync with Microsoft office (requires an admin to set up for you)
• add to iOS (iPhone/iPad) or Android or home email program (Mail) like a regular Gmail account (willing to help if needed) 
• you may email a group of people:

allschool@htsdc.org

assistants@htsdc.org

classof2012@htsdc.org

classof2013@htsdc.org

classof2014@htsdc.org

classof2015@htsdc.org

early@htsdc.org

gavigan@htsdc.org

lower@htsdc.org

office@htsdc.org

technerds@htsdc.org

tutors@htsdc.org

upper@htsdc.org

Cornerstone - our online database/ online gradebook (used by upper school only)

• entering grades
• household viewable setting --> YES for everybody now, may change to NO for Lower School pending administrative approva
• printing class lists

Wordpress - for teacher webpages

• where students can find your page
• updating current page
• changing color of text
• making a link to a webpage
• uploading & making a link to a file
• weekly task of archiving****
• saving current week to new draft
• renaming the newly created copy
• going back to the current week's page and editing that page (should be page with just your name in the web address)
• linking newly created last week's page to HW archive page

SMART Notebook - 

• not too much detail here because of other workshops
• posting PDFs of SMART Notebook files to website

Google Calendar

• adding a test date, long-term project due date, special event
• can add more special events to "Grade Level Public Events" or "HTS Main" and it will automatically display on the HTS homepage
• excellent way to communicate to students, parents, colleagues, and principal

Use the technology!

• it's transparent (website, Cornerstone, Google calendar) - for your students and their parents
• more questions, confusion, and misunderstandings if you are not transparent
• less questions, confusion, and misunderstandings if you are transparent
• allows students and parents to know how well they are doing (Cornerstone)
• eliminates many (but not all) student errors of doing the wrong page, wrong problems, etc. (website)

• allows students to review material on their own time if needed (SMART Notebook, website)
• keeps a record in case you ever needed to look back (website, Cornerstone)
• communicates much easier than email
• more questions, confusion, and misunderstandings if you are not transparent
• less questions, confusion, and misunderstandings if you are transparent

technology blog maintained by Mary Beth Morell (http://htstechnologyblog.blogspot.com)

subscribe to get weekly updates

technology wiki maintained by Polly Sileo 

happy to install software you may wish to use…please just ask

generally only users with administrator privileges can install new software on computers

Christopher Clark

Charlie Hennessy

Mary Beth Morell

Polly Sileo

Notes for the Strategies for Searching, Researching and Citing Sources

Following are some notes and resources from Monday afternoon's session.

1. The Library is the place to start when guiding students to do research - and most resources can be accessed from home.

The library web page is under Academics on the home page.  Open the HTS Library page.  

The link can be found here.  

Information for students and parents is given as well as links to encyclopedias and databases from home.  Explore, learn and have fun!

We encourage you to take advantage of Britannica Encyclopedias, Grolier Suite of Encyclopedias, SIRS Discoverer® and NoodleBib Citation Maker from home.  The school subscribes so our students can find credible information without ads or popups.  Britannica and Groliers have dictionaries and atlases and give MLA citations.  All need to have cookies enabled.  To use or sign up go to the Holy Trinity Home Page – HTS Local – HTS Library Main Page and choose Library Resources from Home.  Follow the directions .

Britannica and Image Quest by Britannica

Click on the Britannica link. The username is:  holytrinityes and the password is Ktwelve.

Choose a Level to Explore, Search, and Learn:  Pre-K – 2 Learning Zone, Elementary, Middle or High School or all may be searched.

Image Quest: Access more than two million rights-cleared images from over 50 of the best collections in the world.

Grolier Online Encyclopedias

Click the link that takes you to the enrollment page.  Answer the four questions and submit.

Patrons 13 and younger may need to wait for parental notification but patrons 14 and older get a username and password delivered to their e-mail box immediately with further instructions and tips for access.

We subscribe to six:  Encyclopedia Americana, Grolier Multimedia, New Book of Knowledge, New Book of Popular Science, Lands and People, and America the Beautiful.  When Grolier opens you will be in what they call their Passport section.  Grolier Online for Kids, aimed at younger students, can also be accessed from here, but all encyclopedias can be accessed from both.  A dictionary, atlas and Associated Press Daily News Section written for kids are also included.

SIRS Discoverer® 

Click on the SIRS link.  The User Name is Titans123 and the Password is 20007.  (Think mascot and HTS Zip code.)

Searching for a specific topic is done in a search box or by clicking on buttons for general information.  Sources returned come from reference materials, periodicals, newspapers, web sites, Comptons Encyclopedia, World Almanac for Kids, American Heritage Dictionary, Roget’s II: New Thesaurus and photographs.  When using the citation information choose MLA format.

NoodleTools

Each of our Upper School students should have an account with NoodleTools, which is helps them organize and properly cite their sources.

NoodleTools has a number of online tutorials to help you understand how to best use this website.  Some of the tutorials were mentioned in a previous blog entry, which can be found here.

Off campus a user who enters NoodleBib remotely will be prompted to log in to the subscription when he/she clicks "Create a Personal ID" on the login screen.  Use the name and password below for access and then create your Personal ID as above or if you already have one choose login.

Username: citations

Password: titans1112

Or if you have Microsoft Office 2007 on the References Tab are options for inserting Citations, Endnotes, Footnotes and creating Bibliographic citations.

Holy Trinity uses MLA style for citations. 

A Few Notes on using Destiny to find books in the HTS Library:

Searching and Researching on the Web - A few go-to resources.

If you would like to brush up on your Internet Searching Skills as you embark on a research project with your somewhat tech-savvy students, some of the best resources come from the website Common Sense Media, and Google Education:

Common Sense Media

I particularly like the resource to help students figure out how to identify high quality sites:

(click here for link to the handout)

Google in Education

One way to practice your own search strategies is with a Google A Day Challenge:

Go ahead and try it!  It's a bit addicting :)

Google has a number of wonderful posters, with simple search tips:

And a few notes on Wikipedia.  I covered this topic in a previous blog entry, which can be found here:

Any other questions?  We are always here to help...

Some Great Web 2.0 Tools for HTS Teachers

Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers on Prezi

Polly and I have been brainstorming, and have come up with a huge list of Web 2.0 tools to introduce in our workshop next week.   I thought it might be helpful to post our resources in advance.  If you have a few minutes to review the resources, and have any questions about how they might best work in your classroom, let us know. A number of "how-to" videos have been embedded in the Prezi, so you always have the resource sat your fingertips :)

If you have a few minutes to explore this Prezi, be sure to select the "full screen" option above the "more" tab.

Enjoy!

Mary Beth and Polly

Integrating Technology ... with Prezi

Hi all, I've spent the day experimenting with a super cool web-based presentation tool called Prezi...  I created a presentation for the Integrating Technology workshops Polly and I have been hosting - some which have already taken place, and others scheduled for a few weeks from now.

If you have a few minutes to explore this Prezi, be sure to select the "full screen" option above the "more" tab.

You'll find a huge number of resources here to spark your imagination.  We hope that you'll be able to take a bit of time to explore a range of techie options for your classroom next year.  I was able to imbed videos for TedEd, the Google World Wonders Project, Google Earth and more... so please take some time to explore those possibilities.

Let me know if you have any questions at all - or have other resources to add... and hope you are enjoying your summer,

mb

From iLearn Technology: Scholastic's Listen and Read

Thanks to a blog posting on iLearn Technology, I discovered this wonderful free set of ebooks from Scholastic.  I have reposted the entry below, with thanks to iLearn Technology - a blog dedicated to integrating technology into the classroom.  I recommend you subscribe by Email - the link to the blog can be found here:

 

What it is: Scholastic is constantly sneaking new great resources for the classroom onto their site. The other day I learned about one that I haven’t seen before from @rmbyrne on his great blog Free Tech for Teachers. Listen and Read has fantastic online reading activities for early learners. There are 54 nonfiction read-along books that include words, images and sound. You can sort books by subject including: Community, American History, Animals, Civics and Government, Environmental Studies, Plants and Flowers, Science and Social Studies. You can also sort books by level (A or B).

How to integrate Listen and Read into your curriculum: Non-fiction can be hard to read in the early years. It often includes unfamiliar words and vocabulary and concepts that students don’t have a lot of prior knowledge of. Scholastic’s Listen and Read is fantastic because it helps students navigate their way through non-fiction with the support of a read-aloud, sounds and images. These interactive books help students better comprehend content because they aren’t focused on the words they are stumbling through. At the end of the book students can click on the unfamiliar new vocabulary to hear the word said again. This follow-up exposure reinforces word recognition, vocabulary and ideas.
Scholastic Listen and Read can be set up on classroom computers as a reading center. Students can read and listen independently with headphones. After reading through the story, students can discuss with a partner (or as a whole class) what they remember about each of the “sound it out” words from the story.

If you don’t have the ability for students to read these non-fiction books independently, use a projector connected computer or interactive whiteboard to read as a whole class.

Tips: Some of the titles are offered in both A and B level. This is great for a little differentiation within the classroom (while gaining the same concepts).