J.D. Williams

The Backstory:
During our Leadership meeting Thursday morning, the grade level representatives used play-doh to collaboratively create a bus. We would like you to vote on one of the busses. Use any criteria you want for the voting.

The Intent:
First, we thought we’d show you these cool busses. Second, I wanted to show you a few technology resources that you could use in your classroom to show off student work, collect information from students or parents, etc. The website used to create these “synths” is Photosynth. To create your own you would need to have a Microsoft account (free) and a digital camera (I used my phone after the busses were completed). The votes are being tracked in a Google Form (did you know you could embed those?).

Bus 1 (Click on this bus for a better view)

Bus 2 (Click on this bus for a better view)

I am just testing out that a Blendspace Lesson will work on our district Chromebooks while signed in as a student!

http://blnds.co/15SOSFD

We have completed the first week with students of the 2013-2014 school year. I am not in the classroom as a teacher this year, so I think I need to change the focus of my blog. This year I am one of two Instructional Coaches at a K-8 public school in south Phoenix.

Tasks Completed this week:

1. Visited every classroom and used the In – and – Out coaching technique.
2. Created user accounts for every teacher and student on Kid’s College.
3. Met with the leadership team about PLC Norms.
4. Checked with teachers daily that were having trouble with the attendance system.
5. Hooked up many laptops to projectors and Interactive Whiteboards.

The In – and – Out coaching technique was great for me to see. Myself and the other Instructional Coach observed teachers in their classrooms for around 10 minutes. Then we met and exchanged notes on what we saw in the classroom. Then we came up with an idea that we thought may help the teacher. One of us then conferenced with the teacher for a few minutes while the other I.C. taught the class. We focused on student engagement this week and our teachers were very receptive to the strategies that we thought may be helpful.  It was a very positive experience and we were able to see great teaching going on in our classrooms!

I started reading “The Homework Myth” this week, so I will end this post with a quote from the book.

Whenever homework crowds out social experience, outdoor recreation, and creative activities, and whenever it usurps time that should be devoted to sleep, it is not meeting the basic needs of children and adolescents. (p. 16)

Here is the AIMS Practice Math test in .pdf format. AIMS-Math-Practice

Here is the video for our lip dub. Practice and find some friends to work through the video with!