Grant Gazette
Friday, March 17, 2017
Happy St. Patrick's Day!
Blended Learning Conference--in Norfolk!
Catlin Tucker is a Google Certified Teacher, bestselling author, international trainer, and frequent Edtech speaker, who currently teaches in Sonoma County where she was named Teacher of the Year in 2010.
Catlin’s first book Blended Learning in Grades 4-12 is a bestseller and her second book Creatively Teach the Common Core Literacy Standards with Technology was published in June 2015. Her newest book Blended Learning In Action was published in September 2016. Catlin writes the “Techy Teacher” column for ASCD’s Educational Leadership.
Please bring a laptop or other digital device and earbuds. Registration deadline is June 1, 2017. Event Contact: Molly Aschoff
You may also register on the ESU 8 website. When I looked last (March 14) there were already 25 teachers registered!
NNNC Summer Tech Institute
Speaking of summer learning, the Life Long Learning Center is again hosting the NNNC Summer Tech Institute. This year's dates are May 31 and June 1.
In the past, these have been two very good days of learning about technology integration into our classrooms. You can find more information at the link below!
Professional Growth Policy & Reporting
Not sure what to do after you attend some sort of PD? Check out the two links below; the first is the Professional Growth Policy and the second is the form that you use to document the PD that you attended.
http://www.norfolkpublicschools.org/assets/site/district/documents/HR%20Documents/professional-growth-application.pdf
If you do something in a large group (like Mickie Mueller's Tech Tuesday, for example, you DO NOT need to fill out a form. You sign up when you arrive and Mickie takes care of submitting your PD points.
This is different that you earning college credit and moving over on the salary scale. If you do this, please get a certified copy of your transcript and get it to Mary Hoien in hthe Superintendent's Office.
Review your Lockdown Procedure
Tweet of the Week!
APL Tip of the Week--Glow and Grow Comments
Glow Comments are written comments which are designed to specifically highlight items on the student work for which the student needs to be complimented. Everyone needs to feel that at least SOMETHING in their work deserves merit and thus, positive feedback!
A Grow Comment addresses items that the teacher determines need correcting, improving, or fixing in some way. Specificity is critical here! It also needs to feel doable for the student (something that they can really accomplish!)
APL suggests a 1:1 ratio of glow comments to grow comments.
Check out pages 105-106 of "Teaching: The Book" for more information!
Technology Sale
At our Principal's PLC on Tuesday, we did discuss what will happen to the old laptops as the new ones get distributed throughout the district.
You may purchase one of these laptops. If they are in "Grade A Shape", they sell for $100. You will receive one of these older laptops, a bag, a cord, and a mouse. The laptop will be blank and will run the Windows 10 operating system. "Grade B" laptops will go for $75 and "Grade C" will sell for $50. They won't be able to put a grade on them until most of them are in.
If you'd like to purchase a laptop, you are free to email Matthew Arens anytime. However, they will not be available to purchase until closer to the end of the school year as we need to clean all of the old data/school apps/etc. off the computers and then put a clean operating system on them (it will be Windows 10 pro).