MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings
May 8, 2015  Community Ed
May 11, 2015  Principals/TAC combined meeting (11:30 a.m. start time)
May 27, 2015  Superintendents' Council

June 10, 2015  MRVED Board (7:00 p.m.)
June 24, 2015  Superintendents' Council

Communication Tip

Read and Respond to the Entire Email

By Kevin Daum, Inc 500 Entrepreneur and best-selling author

I find people who only read the first line of their email incredibly frustrating. This forces their colleagues to send additional emails just to get issues addressed. Nobody saves any time this way. It just creates angst and extra work. Slow down, read the whole email, and respond to all items. When sending emails, keep them short and to the point or you deserve to be ignored. Use numbered lists and bullet points to make your ideas clear and simple to address. If you have tons to discuss, pick up the phone.

Tech Tip- National Library of Virtual Manipulatives

National Library of Virtual Manipulatives
If you are looking to bring your math manipulatives to the 21st century, check out the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives.  They have virtual manipulatives for every grade level and area of math.  The only downfall to the site is that it needs Java to run, thus does not work on the iPads, however there are a variety of iPad apps that will do exactly what the NLVM does.  Bookmark the site today!

Help Students Score Higher on Their Tests

This was originally posted a couple weeks ago, but thought it was pertinent to bring it back again.

The reality of testing season is upon us.  Whether we like it or not, our students will be tested and tested and tested some more in the upcoming weeks.  Besides pounding more facts in their head, what can teachers and parents do?  Below you will find a great article on what research says about what students need during the testing season.  Hopefully you will find a couple tidbits you can send home in your newsletter or incorporate into your classroom.

Help Your Students Score Higher on Their Upcoming Tests by Eric Jensen

Horizons Report - Challenges

Blending Formal and Informal Learning
The last of the easily solved challenges presented by the Horizon's Report is the ability to blend formal and informal learning.  Formal learning is rooted in 19th and even 18th century schooling. This is where the teacher holds the knowledge and passes on the knowledge to a group of students in a room as the students pass from grade level to grade level.  It is the industrial model, or assembly line model of education.  With the growth of the internet, and the ability to learning almost anything, anywhere, at any time, a newer, self-directed model of learning has developed.  This is called informal learning.  We can see this model in science and history museums.  People are left to roam around and explore and learn about various topics, many times without someone to guide them.

The challenge arises when these two models clash.  How do we still hold true to the industrial model, that society sees as the best fit for education, but yet let students explore and learn on their own?  Sir Ken Robinson talks at length about this paradigm shift in education in his TED talk "Changing Education Paradigms".  If you have never heard this TED talk, I strongly suggest taking 10 minutes out of your day to hear the words of Sir Ken Robinson.  We want kids to be self-directed learners and explore various topics, but the institution of education is still 18th century.  How do we effectively make this shift?  How can we blend the two types of learning in our classroom?  How can we informalize learning in a formal environment?  All good questions to ponder!  Take a look at your own classroom; Are you still rooted in 18th century formalized learning?

MRVED Business

Upcoming Meetings
April 22, 2015  Superintendents' Council

May 8, 2015  Community Ed
May 11, 2015  TAC/Principals combined meeting
May 27, 2015  Superintendents' Council

Communication Briefings
People often use the word "literally" to emphasize a point:  "It is literally a jungle out there," you might say, in an effort show the direness of the situation.  But "literally" is an overused word that adds little to any sentence.  In fact, its use can be confusing when, as in the example above, it is used in combination with a metaphor:  In that case, a better word choice would be "figuratively" - although the sentence will be stronger without either word.

Tech Tip - Analog Twitter Wall

Analog Twitter Wall

In the theme of digital literacy, the idea of an Analog Twitter wall came to mind.  It's not a new idea, but one worth exploring.  Two Guys and some iPads is a blog I follow on a regular basis.  Their blog post on creating an analog Twitter wall and how they did it is spot on.  Being able to model appropriate online behavior in a controlled environment could be very powerful.  The idea allows teachers to have the digital literacy conversation with their students, while still being able to interact with content.

There are many ways the idea of an analog Twitter wall can be used in the classroom.
1. Lunch count and attendance
2. Exit tickets
3. Chapter summary or introduction
4. Character development

The list could go on forever.  All it takes is a little wall space in your classroom and it provides a way to continue learning content as well as 21st century skills.  I would love to hear if you have ever used an analog Twitter wall in your classroom and how it went.