Instructional Technology News Quarter 2, 2012-2013

In This Issue:

ExploreLearning Math Reflex Grants P.1 Golden Mouse Award P.2

Who to Call P.3 Professional Development P.4

ExploreLearning Grant Recipients

Our math and science teachers have been using Gizmos, simulations that allow students learn a vari-ety of math and science topics through inquiry-based learning. To concentrate further on Math fluency, Explore-Learning developed a program called ReflexMath, a game based system that helps students of all ability levels to develop instant recall of their basic math facts. To make this great learning opportunity available for students, ExploreLearning offered teacher grants for one free year of Reflex subscription for up to 2 ele-mentary and middle grades teachers per school, and 10 per district. As always, our teachers exceeded the expectations and successfully claimed all 10 grants. Here are the recipients of the ExploreLearning Reflex Grant:

Ashley Davis (CES) Vickie Enfinger (CES)

Linda Robertson (EES) Linda Davis (EES)

Michal Wharin (NES) Kati Lawson (OMS) Laura Prado (SEM)

Michelle Arvin (SES) Theresa Eure (SES) Sylvia Bandi (YMS)

Thank you for your commitment to our students!

From ReflexMath Teachers

Linda Davis, 4th grade:

“My kids LOVE it! They are so excited that they are doing it at home! We are using it in centers at least 3 days per week! My students are mainly level 1 and 2 in Math, and I am sure this will help them with their Math Flu-ency”.

Linda Davis also added that her stu-dents are excited to have assign-ments that are more challenging and even above their grade level because they can earn more points and re-deem them for “cool stuff” in on-line store.

Golden Mouse Award

The recipients of the “Golden Mouse” Award are featured in our Instructional Technology

newsletter, and will be recognized by the Superintendent at upcoming Board meetings.

Nominees for the Golden Mouse award for this grading period are:

In the tightest ever competition, the winner is…

Ashley Davis from Central Elementary School!

Being in Ms. Davis’ 4th grade classroom is anything but bor-ing. She engages her students from the moment they sit down with explicit instructions given on the Promethean Board. A majority of learning is done on iPads. First, students use the iPads for giving instant feedback of their knowledge with a program called Socrative. Time for a new assignment? No problem! Everyone knew how to find the Dropbox where Ms. Davis stores the worksheets for her class. Students took a snapshot of the worksheet and used it on their Penultimate notebook page where they could use their fingers or the touch pens to take notes. No one had to worry about having a sheet of paper or having to sharpen their pencils. When solving a math problem, students were asked to use Educreations app to create a mini lesson. They did so by solving the problem on the iPad and recording the step by step instruc-tions for how it is done. Everyone could work at the same time as they used the head phones and microphones for voice recording. What a great way to practice Math, writing and speaking skills all at the same time!

Ashley Davis is also a participant in the Reflex Math grant and her students have fun learning Math using the program in her class. Congratulations!

Ahsley Davis, (CES) Debra Tilton (EES)

Blanche Levins (NES) Sonya Smith (OMS)

Trisha Jennings (YMS) Dan Thomas (OFC) Fran McKee (OHS)

Thank you for your great work!

Check out this great idea from Mrs.

Davis’ class for storing the iPads on students’ desks for an easy access

during the day.

Who To Call With Technology

Concerns?

Shawna May can help you with: Skyward Business Online testing issues Questions regarding IT techs 911 tech request (by administrators only) Tuuli Robinson can help you with: Skyward Gradebook Performance Matters Textbook Websites Moodle and other online learning portals Training requests, PD360, special technology programs Rashan Jones can help you with: PEER access Server issues Amy Davis can help you with: Gmail passwords Network passwords Tech Request: Any regular computer related issues, Success Maker and Wa-terford, blocked websites If you have general network issues, you may contact Amy Davis, Rashan Jones or Steven Stephenson.

E-mail always works the best.

OCSB IT Gurus Are Here

to Help You!

PD Opportunities

ON DEMAND PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT

Want to sign up for a workshop? E-mail notifications about the upcoming workshops will now in-clude a link to a registration page via Sharepoint. Using a uni-form sign up form will help us to get all the information that we need to prepare the workshops that are grade and subject specific and suit your needs the best. Using the same link, you can access the list of our workshops

including the handouts when applicable. There are several self-paced workshops that you can study at your convenience.

DID YOU KNOW?

You can learn about these great topics on PD360:

Performance Matters Reports, Navigation Found on PD360 under Courses Select a Course Performance Matters Teacher Track 1

Basic iPad Seminar Found on PD360 under PD360 Videos PD360 Core License How to Use Observation 360-NEW! iPad Basics Webinar

INSTRUCTIONAL TECHNOLOGY CONTACT INFORMATION

Tuuli Robinson

Coordinator of Instructional Technology robinsont@okee.k12.fl.us