Elevator Karaoke

The staff at Howe Manning School have been having a lot of fun!  We wanted to spread a little holiday cheer, so we created "Elevator Karaoke" which is inspired by James Corden's "Carpool Karaoke.  We even have a cameo appearance by our Tri-Town superintendent, Scott Morrison.

Watch our video!

Elevator Karaoke from Dierdre Baker on Vimeo.

Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit

What is the Digital Summit?

The Ditch That Textbook Digital Summit is a nine-day, FREE virtual event. It brings together some of the brightest minds in education to discuss technology, pedagogy, inquiry and more.  This is a great way to learn about the tools that Google Apps for Education has to offer.

Dates: December 16-31, with new presentations released every day from December 16-24.

Check out this lineup (and click on a name to go to the speaker page for that presentation): Dec. 16 (Fri) — Mike Soskil, 2015 Global Teacher Prize Top 10 Finalist Dec. 17 (Sat) — Kasey Bell, Google Certified Trainer and Creator of ShakeUpLearning.com Dec. 18 (Sun) — Alice Keeler, Google Certified Innovator, Author of “50 Things You Can Do with Google Classroom” Dec. 19 (Mon) — Dave Burgess, Author of New York Times Bestseller “Teach Like a PIRATE” Dec. 20 (Tue) — The Hyperdocs Girls (Lisa Highfill, Kelly Hilton and Sarah Landis) Dec. 21 (Wed) — John Spencer, Professor of Educational Technology, Co-Author of “Launch” Dec. 22 (Thur) — Skype Master Teachers (Jed Dearybury, Gina Ruffcorn and Dyane Smokorowski) Dec. 23 (Fri) — Paul Solarz, 2015 Global Teacher Prize Top 50 Finalist, Author of “Learn Like a PIRATE” Dec. 24 (Sat) — Noah Geisel, 2013 ACTFL Teacher of the Year, Educational Consultant

Click HERE for link to website. 

BrainPop Certified

I am officially a Certified BrainPop Educator!

The Certified BrainPOP Educator Program is offered to teachers who have demonstrated exemplary commitment to and creativity using BrainPOP resources with students.

To become a Certified BrainPOP Educator, attend a blended training workshop or online course with the BrainPOP Educators team, fulfill supplemental requirements and participate in our online community. Certified BrainPOP Educators are the first to know about new developments at BrainPOP and may receive opportunity to beta test new features, provide advice to developers, and more.

Most CBE workshops are held in a classroom setting at conferences around the country. In these sessions, led by our BrainPOP Educators team, attendees learn about BrainPOP’s latest and greatest features through hands-on exploration and modeling via large-group, small-group, and partner activities.  

Source

Mannequin Challenge in 3rd Grade

The 3rd graders had a whole grade Team Time today to discuss "Mindset".



What is Mindset?

 Mindset explains:

How teaching a simple idea about the brain raises grades and productivity.

What all great CEOs, parents, teachers, and athletes know -

Mindset is a simple idea discovered by world-renowned Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck in decades of research on achievement and success—a simple idea that makes all the difference.

In a fixed mindset, people believe their basic qualities, like their intelligence or talent, are simply fixed traits. They spend their time documenting their intelligence or talent instead of developing them. They also believe that talent alone creates success—without effort. They’re wrong.

In a growth mindset, people believe that their most basic abilities can be developed through dedication and hard work—brains and talent are just the starting point. This view creates a love of learning and a resilience that is essential for great accomplishment. Virtually all great people have had these qualities.

Teaching a growth mindset creates motivation and productivity in the worlds of business, education, and sports. It enhances relationships. When you read Mindset, you’ll see how.

Source

After we shared some ways to "change our thinking," we discussed the importance of working as a team and helping each other succeed.  This lead to a group effort of creating a "Mannequin Challenge."  We were all so successful!  Working together for a common goal really brought us together.

Take a look at our video.

Mannequin Challenge 3rd grade from Dierdre Baker on Vimeo.

Tech integration and Map Skills

What does an African map, cones, geography questions, and technology have in common?  

In Mrs. Bentley's 6th grade Social Studies classes, students participated in a fun map activity thanks to our PTO.  Each year, our PTO provides enrichment for our students in Middleton.  The students are learning World Geography in 6th grade and what better way to discover Africa than bring a humongous map into our school.  

Mrs. Bentley makes learning fun by creating a game to learn the geography of Africa.  Students are divided into four teams and are positioned at each corner of the map.  They are given a laptop to research any question that they need help with.  Mrs. Bentley asks a question, and students take turns running to the location that she is asking about.  They must be the first to put their cone on the location and say the answer.  Most of the time, the students didn't even need to search Google because they knew the answer.  But, what a great asset it was to have it when they needed it. Students learned a great lesson on being prepared when searching in Google.  They learned about key words, such as "Africa +" and "Countries in Africa +" to make searching quicker.

 What a great way to learn Geography and research skills while having fun!

Massachusetts Social Studies Standards

SS.A.1 On a map of the world, locate the continent of Africa, the Atlantic Ocean, the Indian

Ocean,  the Mediterranean Sea,  and the Great Rift Valley.   On a map of Africa, locate the

northern, eastern, western, central, and southern regions of Africa, the Sahara Desert,

the Nile River, Lake Victoria, Mount Kilimanjaro, and the Cape of Good Hope. (G)

SS.A.4 Identify the locations and time periods of the sub-Saharan empires of Ghana, Mali,

and Songhay. (H, G)

  Thanks to our PTO for your support!

Seesaw Portfolios in 2nd Grade

Students in Mrs. Mulligan's class are using the program "Seesaw" to create a digital portfolio of their work.

Students working on math problems

What is Seesaw?

Seesaw is a multimedia journal that empowers students to showcase what they’re learning at school.

Throughout the school year, Seesaw builds an organized, digital portfolio of each student’s learning, accessible by teacher, student and parent.

Seesaw also keeps parents in the loop by giving them a real-time, personalized glimpse into their child’s school day.  (Source)

I had the opportunity to work with Jarek who showed me how he saves his schoolwork into his Seesaw portfolio.  First, he worked on a few math problems and some challenges.  Once he completed his work, he logged into his Seesaw account using an iPad.  He scanned his class' QR Code which opened up his class.  He then clicked on his personal folder and set it up to make a video.  The students use the video feature to record their mathematical thinking.  Once Jarek completed his video explanation, he uploaded it to his folder.

Jarek let me see all of the entries in his Seesaw folder.  He had entries from each class, showing pictures, stories, drawings, and videos.  There was even a photo from a science lab that he and his classmates participated in, where he wrote his predictions on the actual picture.  The really nice thing that I saw was messages from his mom on his work.  Jarek was most proud of that!

Jarek's Seesaw Portfolio

Once Jarek was finished, he was free to help another student with her recording.  Jarek held the iPad to video the student, while she explained her work.  This is "Partner Work" and is done frequently in Mrs. Mulligan's class.