Mascoma Curriculum Newsletter
❄️ December, 2023 ⛄
Grit and Kindness
Why does kindness matter?
When you act kindly toward others, the benefits go both ways. Small, thoughtful acts—like helping, sharing, listening, or teaching—can change both how you are perceived and how you see yourself. When children are encouraged to be kind, their peers want to spend more time around them. Not only does kindness strengthen social relationships, but it also can show that your choices have an impact and that you have valuable skills (like the ability to make friends). In short, being kind to others is also being kind to yourself.
AI in our classrooms and lives
App Vetting
Curriculum Google.Classrom
In an effort to curate curriculum resources, I am in the process of developing a MVRSD Curriculum google.classroom. Check out the class for professional development materials, K-8 math pacing guides, scope and sequence documents, and more. 📚 📏 📖
Course Code: cshmptt
K-8 Illustrative Math (IM)
💻 Accessing Opening Source Curriculum 🗝️🔑🔐
IM has created many videos that give you a K-5 Overview and delve into different aspects of the curriculum. There are a number of features of IM K - 5 that were highlighted as especially helpful:
Math Routines are embedded: act it out, choral count, estimation exploration, how many do you see (subitizing), notice and wonder, number talk, true/false, which one doesn't belong, etc.
Center suggestions - actual new ideas that are clearly connected and engaging
Worksheets can be customized to better align to your instruction
Multiple strategies and ways to solve problems are utilized throughout the program
I recommend that you start the Registration Process to access the open source curriculum so that you can see the curriculum yourself when you're ready and have time. This won't happen all at once and everyone will need to start learning about the resources at their own pace. Here is a video from Jess Jacques on how to navigate IM Teacher Materials and one as an example of how to customize IM presentations & materials.
🧭 Mascoma IM Pacing Guides 🗺️
- 🖍️ Kindergarten
- 📏 First Grade
- 🎲 Second Grade
- ⏲️ Third Grade
- 🧮 Fourth Grade
- ✏️ Fifth Grade
- 📐Sixth Grade
- 📊 Seventh Grade
- 📉 Eighth Grade
Link to summer professional development slides
Working with Jess Jacques, the Merrimack Valley School District Math Coach, we have developed pacing guides based on Mascoma I Can Statements laying out the quarter by quarter plan for teaching the IM curriculum. Each document includes helpful suggestions and links.
Ann Elise Record - Math Professional Development Videos
Math Running Record videos - There is an introduction video and then one for each operation where I interview students and explain how I coded the running record. Teachers can download the recording sheets from the site www.mathrunningrecords.com for free and practice while watching the videos.
Daily Routine Videos - There are separate videos for Kinder through 4th grade. All links to the daily routines shared are on my padlet: https://tinyurl.com/RecordElementaryMath
Teachable Courses - Teachers will go to the link and click in the upper right hand side of the site where it says "All products". They will then see all the courses I currently offer on the Teachable site- Cuisenaire Rods, Problem Solving K2, Fraction Essentials, and Place Value.
Please see the Mascoma Curriculum Google.Classroom for the code.
Social Studies Resources & Professional Development
- NH CIVICS has partnered with NHED to share resources with educators via NHED’s Canvas platform. Using the public NH Civics course on Canvas, educators can stay updated on upcoming professional development, public events, in-class programs for students, the NH Civic Learning Coalition and more.
- Keene State College, Cohen Center for Holocaust and Genocide Studies: We believe that Holocaust and Genocide Education has much to contribute to civics education. Although this is difficult and traumatic material, we teach to ensure consistent engagement with the pressing questions of individual and group responsibility towards the other. By exploring values, attitudes, skills, knowledge, and critical understanding of these complex issues and forces, we enable responsible civic engagement. As we remember, we seek to prevent genocide and crimes of mass atrocity by finding points of leverage, intervention, and empowerment.
- “Moose on the Loose” is a social studies curriculum for the State of New Hampshire. Created by the New Hampshire Historical Society, it explores the Granite State’s history, economics, geography, and civic life, introducing students to the state’s rich cultural heritage. The site was designed for kids in the upper elementary grades (Grades 3-6), but much of the material is adaptable for students in other grades. "Moose on the Loose" provides many ways for kids to connect what they learn about the past to current, statewide issues. It also provides a foundation for lifelong learning about New Hampshire, America, and the democratic traditions that unite us all. So dive in and find out more about the state we all love!
- Civics Fundamentals takes the one hundred questions asked by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services on the naturalization test for U.S. citizenship and explores the “WHY?” to help the student discover their meaning and importance. We have created a two-minute video for each of the one hundred questions that can be turnkey lessons in civics education classes nationwide. Our goal is to move beyond the rote memorization of facts that dominates the current civics curriculum toward “inquiry-based instruction” that engages learners and is becoming more prevalent in education today. This video based product is available – at no cost to any educator or student – via online streaming.
Alma - Student Information System
✏️ Frontline Professional Growth 📚
Check with your building P.D. Representatives for individual questions.
“Be the change you wish to see in the world” ~ Mahatma Gandhi
547 U.S. 4, Enfield, NH, USA 603-632-5563