Learning in Progress

These were the Tuesday Teacher Tips I sent out to my teachers today.  A bit of a random collection of fun ideas for sure. Click on underlined text to open links Sumdog—engage students with math games Sumdog has been on my “To Find Out About” list forever, and when our very own Miss Leftin, tried it out and gave rave reviews, I figured I shouldn’t wait until this summer to find out more about it. The site, which is aligned to the Common Core , seems like an engaging way for students to practice math and compete against the computer or live with others.   As their teacher, you can set the levels for them to practice, and the site automatically adjusts to their ability level based on correct/incorrect responses, so that all students have a chance to experience success.   As students answer questions correctly, they earn coins, which can be spent in the game’s store to make improvements to thei...

Click on the underlined text below to go to the links.   If you’re having trouble viewing the links, email me and I’ll send them to you directly Introducing Ebooks I am excited to announce that we now have ebooks available through our Destiny catalog! If you have a browser and a username/password, you can view our books!  screen shot of FollettShelf icon To see our selection go to our JES Destiny account, click on FollettShelf on the left side of the screen, and log in with your usual school username/password.   Once you are logged in, the site is fairly easy to navigate.   When you hover over a book cover, it will change to an “Open” prompt.   If you click on the book, the book will open in another screen and you will be able to begin reading right away.   To help you get started, I’ve made a few screencasts that will walk you through what you need to do. The ...

I sent this information to my staff about flipped classrooms in my weekly Tuesday Teacher Tips email.  I would love to get to collaborate with teachers in my building using this as a basis.  Have you had any success with the flipped classroom concept?  What are the pros/cons that you can think of? Photo from:   http://www.flickr.com/photos/generated/with/4542048705/#photo_4542048705   What is a Flipped Classroom? A “Flipped” classroom is one of the newest trends in the push for student-centered classrooms.   In this approach, teachers video record those “sit and get” lectures, or gather a selection of video clips that would cover the content, ask students to watch the videos for homework, then come to class prepared to ask questions about the content, practice the concept or work on projects.     Essentially, the goal would be to make class time a time o...