MELT Registration

MELT Registration

MELT Brochure

Registration Link

Registration for the MELT (MRVED Educators Learning Together) has begun!  Registration will run from today until 3:00 on  Friday, December 20th.  You will want to register early as sessions fill up fast!  With over 96 sessions to choose from throughout the day, there is something for everyone.  Please note that most sessions are 1 hour in length, but there are a couple that will be 2 hours and one that is 4 hours in length.  This is notated on the flyer as well as in the registration.

Lunch: The menu will be a barbecue or hot turkey sandwich on a bun, beans, chips, fruit cup, a bar, milk, and coffee. Should you decide to eat the catered meal, your home district will be collecting your lunch money.  The lunch cost is $5.00.
Special Notes (If your group is listed below, you still need to register for these sessions)

Special Education 

• MVCC Districts: There is an all day session offered by MVCC required of YME and RCW special education teachers to attend.  Attendance is not required of the other MVCC special education districts, but strongly encouraged.
• SW/WC Service Cooperative Districts (Benson, Montevideo, Ortonville): There is a 2 hour session that 4th-12th grade special education teachers are required to attend.

Elementary Music

• Elementary music teachers will be off site at Bert Raney Elementary in Granite Falls with Beth Jahn.  Jessica Leibfried from the Perpich Center will be working with the teachers in the morning.

Art/Band/Choir Teachers

• The Perpich Center will be continuing the work they began with you at your Best Practice Meeting.  Please register for the Arts in Cultural Context session offered in session 1.  In session 3, they will then break the group according to content area and that session is entitled "Implementing Arts and Cultural Context with Artful Teaching Practices."  Session 4, you will be able to network.

MRVED Business

Meeting Updates
English Language Arts Best Practice Meeting
The English Language Arts Best Practice Meeting was held on Tuesday, December 3rd.  A large group of teachers gathered at the MRVED on a cold, wet/snowy day.  The morning started off learning what 21st century skills are and how they relate to the classroom.  After a great discussion on the 21st century skills, the group then broke into smaller groups and tackled creating a K-12 MRVED Academic Vocabulary List.  This was a great activity for teachers to do, and revealed some awesome discussion about teaching vocabulary in the classroom.  Lunch was great as usual.  The afternoon was a little more laid back and the teachers had the opportunity to share their own resources and ideas with each other.  Brandon showed some augmented reality technology at the end and the group parted ways for another year.  Again, overall a great bunch of teachers and an awesome day!


Health Best Practice Meeting
The Health best practice meeting was postponed due to the weather.  Look for a makeup date to be sent out soon.

MRVED Meetings
December 9, 2013  District Assessment Coordinators (DACs)
December 11, 2013  Principals' Council
December 12, 2013 Teachers' Advisory Council (TAC)
December 13, 2013  Title III Teachers
December 18, 2013  Superintendents' Council

Tech Tip of the Week

Emaze
Emaze is an interesting new way to create presentations.  It is a cross between creating a Prezi and a PowerPoint.  Emaze is still in beta testing, and can be buggy at times.  Overall, it is a great alternative for students who are sick of the PowerPoint or Google Presentation and Prezi might be a little too scattered for them.  Emaze gives you the Prezi look, but in an organized way.  Give it a try or have one of your students try it today!  Brandon created his TIES 2013 presentation using Emaze!

Emaze Example

12 Touchstones of Good Teaching

11. Coach students to mastery

What it looks like: "Teachers use frequent checks for understanding to know which concepts or skills students are struggling to master and reteach as needed to help students develop mastery.  They also provide students with opportunities for deliberate practice, focusing on developing the skills and knowledge they are struggling to master."

Why it is important: "Research shows one key to elite performance is having a coach pressing performers to concentrate their practice on areas where they're needed most.  Research has also found a much stronger effect for practice than homework, which suggests that homework assignments should be constructed as opportunities for deliberate practice."

(Goodwin & Hubbell, pg. 198)