Take 5! Integration Update - October 28, 2010 (Vol.2/#8)

Issue #8

“Take 5” is a weekly update containing information related to teaching and learning for today and beyond...

Take just 5 minutes (or less) to look over these resources and see what might be helpful for your and/or your students. Better yet, set aside at least 15-30 minutes a week (yes, that's been increased from last year!) to focus on finding resources and ideas that will improve student learning and prepare them for their future!


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Tips and Tools for Teachers 

• That Quiz  – Quick, easy, and good for review... Multiple choice quizzes for math (mostly), but also geography, language, and science review (foundational knowledge). Students log in with a "quiz code" from a quiz you have already set up, they take it, and either show you the results, print a copy, or you log in to see their results.  [Thanks, Maria Pratt-EP, for sharing this site!]

• Vocaroo  – Record a sound and then email to someone or post online (in a web page, blog, or wiki). Do you need to explain something rather than type it? What about singing a song or pronouncing a word or phrase in a foreign language? Perhaps give instructions on what to do when someone goes to your webpage? Any of these uses and whatever else works! (Just be sure to click the "Allow" button to make the recorder work on your computer.)

Ponderings

• ARTICLE: In School Turnarounds, the Human Element is Crucial -- Some key points:
  
  

  At the heart of all reform efforts are the people who bring the strategies to life.
  ...And one of the most powerful tools—one that has taken an inner-city Cincinnati high school from absolute failure, by any measure, to being named a national Blue Ribbon School—is embarrassingly plain and lacking a data column: It’s about relationships.
  
  ...Over the past decade, Taft’s graduation rate has risen from 25 percent to 95 percent. In 2010, the percentage of 10th graders scoring proficient or higher in math is up from 33 percent to 96 percent, and from 68 percent to 96 percent in reading. The school, once in “academic emergency,” the state’s lowest designation, has moved to “effective”—and, just recently, to “excellent,” Ohio’s highest rating. 
  
  ...Smith (Principal) also did something counterintuitive: He kept the staff he inherited. Old teachers, the thinking goes, resist change and prevent transformation. In many turnarounds, much of the staff is let go as a “fresh start” message. Instead, Smith met individually with teachers in their classrooms and spent an hour hearing from each of them about what was working and what wasn’t.
  

  
  

  Real and sustained improvement... depends on building bridges that allow students to grasp the reward of hard work. It must be rooted in relationships throughout the process of change and in a recalibration of expectations that students have for themselves.

  
  

Learning Opportunities

1. In-District Professional Development Opportunities - Calendar
2. NWO STEM Symposium on Nov. 6 (Saturday) at Penta Career Center from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. The event is an opportunity for preK-12 teachers, pre-service teachers, administrators and higher education faculty to share and learn from one another in a common effort to advance science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education for people of all ages. Online registration of $40 closes Oct. 29. The on-site registration fee is $50. Undergraduate students can attend for $20.
3. In the right margin of this blog, enter your email to receive future postings into your email Inbox (Take 5s and more!) -- plan on 1-3 posts per week.

;-) Just for Fun! (and a little learning, perhaps)

• Create Your Own Font(s) - Two tools/websites to get you started: one is free, but limited functionality (but cool!) and the otehr is not free, but potentially worth it! You decide:

• Pilot Handwriting - Basically an advertisement (thus, it's free), but the "coolness factor" is high for this one! Another downfall, the writing has to be done from their website - font is not download-able. (NOTE: editing of your letters is difficult, too)  
•  Fontifier - Create a font to use on your computer for $9 (download)