Mark's Monday Morning Memo
January 18, 2016
Students Connecting Through International Service
Ahna Miller, Rice Lake's representative to the SCTIS project has been meeting with the other 5th grade representatives, Tammie Epley, program leader, and Ann Mock, Oak View principal who is part of the project this year. Ahna will be leading our drive for school supplies for the students in Sasabe, Sonora, Mexico the week of March 14-18, 2016. Recently, I joined Ahna, Tammie, the other students, and their principals at a dinner at Don Pablo's in Maple Grove. This was a great way to meet the other participants and enjoy some delicious Mexican food.
PTO Meeting
At the January 11, 2016, PTO meeting, we showcased some of our technology tools and resources for the PTO parents. Lisa Thom showed how kindergarten uses a Smart Board, Jodie Erickson and Kari Hanson demonstrated student online resources in the new computer lab, Jill Berg used Kahoot! to demonstrate a 3rd grade math lesson, and I shared some resources I've used during the Hour of Code lessons. Parents were appreciative of the way teachers and other staff members are using and integrating technology. I want to thank Lisa, Jodie, Kari, and Jill for their planning and presentations...they did an amazing job!
Hour of Code Lessons
I enjoyed being invited into classrooms to share The Hour of Code Lessons. I read the story, "Going Places", introduced the website code.org, let students program the Bee Bot robot, and gave a demonstration of Sphero. I'm thinking about the next steps in sharing with students and teachers more coding resources and activities. Thank you to Lisa Lanners for these photos and to other teachers who shared pictures with me.