EMIS Good Things
November, 2015 Edition
Happy "November" Birthday!
Other November Happenings...
November 11: Veterans Day- No School
November 12: Report Cards and Cookie dough sales dueNovember 20: Phinney Baby Shower
November 24: Early Release Day
November 25-27- Thanksgiving Holiday- No School
Teacher of the Month: Sarah King
Our teacher of the month this month is Sarah King. Sarah jumped right in at EMIS this year and has been a huge asset to our 5th grade team as well as helping with after school clubs. If you have a moment, consider scheduling a time to see Sarah's reading block as she is doing great things!!
Professional Development Opportunities
5 Little Pumpkins Competition
Want to win $20 from Amazon or Teachers pay teachers? Just tell us how you used the strategies from our "5 Little Pumpkins" Thinglink in your room! Use the Padlet Link below to reflect on the strategy you used.... telingl how it worked (or didn't work), share a link you used, share a video you took, share a student work sample from using the strategy, or just tell us whether you liked it or not! We will then select 1 EMIS winner and 1 MIS winner by drawing the names of all that submit. The drawing will take place right before Thanksgiving- so you have 1 month to try one out!
Communication and Collaboration
- Students work in teams to prepare their own study material Infographics to share with other class members or other teachers' classes (Try Piktochart)
- Pair classes in common content areas to create and play virtual games against each other using Jeopardy Labs, Quizizz or Socrative.
- Have students create a collaborative study guide using Google Docs to collaborate virtually with another teacher's class.
- Use student-led small groups to review key concepts in station-style rotations. Consider using Today's Meet for a backchannel or use Real Time Board for interactive whiteboards.
- Have students create newsletters to share with parents about what they've learned - practicing their synthesizing skills and using images to support (cited properly of course!). Try Smore. Or even have students create a video to show off their skills!
- Set up a Mystery Skype (Amy Smith and Becky Snyder have almost "perfected" this- so we have some resident experts) or Google Hangout with another classroom in the district or an outside expert in your content area. Let students develop questions to ask related to their studies, or teach a lower level grade about topics they are "experts" in. Click here for more information on Connecting Outside the Classroom.
With our age group, we just need to remember to set the ground rules of collaboration and using these tools before starting. Make sure students know that these tools are to be used in school for educational purposes- not as chat rooms outside of school. Also, remind students that all communication needs to be school appropriate!