Technology Times
October 28, 2014
Event Reminders
Elementary - 8:30 Technology Center
Middle - Morning - at your school. Afternoon - Blended Learning CARE C12013 and C12014
Please Register.
High - Morning - conference style sessions at Mt. Pleasant High School. Please sign up in CARE. Afternoon - at your own school.
November 16th - Middle/High TF meeting
November 17th - Elementary TF meeting
December - The T.F. meeting for December is cancelled.
January 8th - Middle/High TF meeting (breakfast will be served)
January 9th - Elementary TF meeting (breakfast will be served)
SAS Updates from NCDPI
SAS Curriculum Pathways and Mobile Education Apps - SAS Curriculum Pathways and SAS mobile education apps offer free resources to teachers. The learner-centered approach integrates varied instructional strategies and incorporates formative and summative assessments. There are more than 1,250 interactive, web-based curriculum resources including those for English language arts, mathematics, science, social studies and Spanish.
There also are numerous professional development offerings, from tips and tricks, how-to manuals, examples and video tutorials to online and live professional development classes. Districts and schools are encouraged to reach out to SAS to schedule professional development.
At your convenience, teachers are encouraged to investigate the many SAS Curriculum Pathways and mobile offerings. Following are more details about resources that help build skills in the most fundamental areas of reading, writing and math. These resources not only help students learn, they free up valuable classroom time for teachers.
Reading: The SAS Reading Records app (available on the web, iPads, & Chromebook) lets students practice reading skills in or out of the classroom and enables teachers to monitor results from anywhere. A running record of a student’s reading requires teachers to sit individually with students and evaluate performance as students read aloud. With today’s large class sizes, allocating up to 15 minutes for each student is simply too time-consuming, meaning assessments can’t be administered often enough.
With SAS Reading Records, educators can assign, evaluate and analyze reading performance without being one-on-one with a student. And the student interface lets young readers complete assignments, view their results, and monitor their progress from anywhere. The software uses SAS analytics and data visualization software to chart student and classroom performance over time. Educators can pinpoint problem areas and intervene to help students become proficient readers.
SAS Reading Records includes an expansive library loaded with fiction and non-fiction passages, all rated for reading difficulty with a Lexile measure. Each passage comes with illustrations, a comprehension quiz with both multiple-choice and open-ended questions, and a prompt asking students to retell what they’ve just read. Users can also create their own passages and comprehension quizzes. In the teacher interface, teachers see all assignments completed and ready for evaluation. They listen to a student’s recording, mark up the text accordingly, assess the student’s overall fluency, view the automatically graded quiz, and see all relevant statistics in real time.
Writing: SAS Curriculum Pathways Writing Navigator is a suite of tools designed to guide and support students in all four stages of writing: planning, drafting, revising, and publishing. It helps them become better writers, so teachers can spend less time correcting writing mistakes and more time analyzing the clarity, effectiveness and thought process.
Writing Planner helps students determine purpose and audience, generate ideas, organize a plan, gather research information, group and sequence ideas and review their plan. Students transform their plan into a first draft with Writing Drafter. It helps them develop sentences, supporting details, and transitions; create introductory and concluding paragraphs; gather research information; and analyze their writing to improve sentence patterns and transitions.
Writing Reviser is the most popular resource in all of SAS Curriculum Pathways. Students refine their draft and gather research information. It helps them focus on organization, sentence structure, and diction. By learning to ask questions experienced writers ask automatically, they’ll express themselves with greater precision and power.
Students use Writing Publisher to complete research and finish their essay. In addition to proofreading capabilities, students can document sources using an innovative feature that generates internal citations and a Works Cited page.
Math: SAS Curriculum Pathways contains nearly 500 math lessons, tutorials, inquiries and interactive tools, including Data Depot, which includes data sources and focused lessons that will help students become more data literate.
It also offers a complete, free Algebra 1 course that provides teachers and students with all the required content to address state standards. Available online, the course engages students through real-world examples, images, animations, videos and targeted feedback. Teachers can integrate individual components or use the entire course as the foundation for their Algebra 1 curriculum.
Also, the SAS Math Stretch mobile app fosters early math literacy, teaching students in grades K-5 how to think about numbers in new ways associated with success in higher-order math, such as algebra. SAS Math Stretch promotes the concept of numeracy, and the ability to reason and apply simple numerical concepts.
Free Webinar Offered by NCDPI
Effective Digital Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the K-12 Classroom: A PD MOOClet - NCDPI’s Educator Effectiveness Division is offering an additional session of Effective Digital Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the K-12 Classroom: A PD MOOClet beginning Nov. 10.
This course focuses on using digital tools and strategies to support teaching and learning and enriching individuals’ knowledge through developing communities of practice across the state. In this course, we will look at the 4Cs - Creativity, Critical Thinking, Communication and Collaboration; keystones for the 21st century classroom.
To register:
· Log in to the NCEES system using your usual PowerSchool log in or the alternate login https://ncees.homebase.ncpublicschools.gov/alternateLogin.html
· Click on the Professional Development tab
· Search for “Effective Digital Strategies for Teaching and Learning in the K-12 Classroom: A PD MOOClet”
· Click the register button
Directions also are available at http://goo.gl/nYhwWj. Contact Beth Williams at beth.williams@dpi.nc.gov if you have any questions regarding registration.
What six tools does Bill Gates recommend for Teachers ?
Yes, Bill Gates does have his on blog. Read the blog below to see the six program he recommends for teachers. It is also interesting to read the comments from others on his perspective.