January 8, 2014 // Volume 4 Issue 5
Happy New Year! Welcome back!
In this issue:
How to Unlock Your Students in Renaissance Place
User-friendly Apps help Educators navigate Common Core
Edutopia's Resource Roundup on Digital Citizenship
Science of Happiness: An Experiment in Gratitude (Video)
Professional Development Newsletter Archive
How to Unlock Your Students in Renaissance Place
Follow this link for step-by-step instructions on cleaning locked students in your class. Link to PDFEdutopia's Resource Roundup on Digital Citizenship
Check out Edutopia's collection of articles, videos, and other resources on internet safety, cyberbullying, digital responsibility, and media and digital literacy. Roundup Link
User-friendly Apps help Educators navigate Common Core
by Lisa Gonzales & Devin Vodicka (California ASCD)
While websites and blogs have much to say about resources for the new Common Core State Standards, the world of quality "apps" to help administrators with implementation have been few and far between. As we explored this topic and what we've been using with our colleagues, our analysis hinged on those apps on the market and available in iTunes that are user friendly, accurate, and field-tested by trusted colleagues.
Common Core Standards, by MasteryConnect, is a pretty solid "free" CCSS app if you want to pull up he standards any time, anywhere. Recent updates now include all subjects, including language arts, traditional and integrated mathematics, historysocial science, and science and technical subjects. Click on a subject then a grade level, and then select a standard to drill into the actual standard language. In the history and science areas, select a grade level and you can drill down into the reading connections with corresponding college-and career-ready anchor standards.
eStandards was created by the Sacramento County Office of Education. This app has the English language arts and math standards, as well as the English Language Development standards. But it goes a step further by linking the literacy standards with the ELD standards. Drill down into the grade-level standards and in the reading, writing, speaking/listening and language standards, and you'll find ELD standards off to the side. Simply click on the colorful ELD logo and you are taken to the corresponding ELD standard. This app also has helpful resources, such as Smarter Balanced Assessment fact sheets, letters for parents in multiple languages, implementation support documents, and a website for further reference (professional learning, classroom support and home support). What an innovative idea to put standards in the hands of educators, and for a fee of 99 cents actually raise funds for the COE.
Common Core Look-fors: Math, technology, English language arts (CCL4s) Designed by Richard de los Santos, Common Core Lookfors ($2.99) is a unique app that provides standards in math, English language arts and technology. The interface allows for the collection and storage of data that can be shared in non-evaluative assessments and serve as a resource to monitor and assess the extent to which students are engaged in the standards. The interactive graphs enable users to merge observation data to compare and contrast the coverage of standards. When you click on standards in a subject and then in a grade level, each standard is explained with examples of behaviors one might observe with students. The CCL4s app also allows you to easily copy the text and paste it in other documents, particularly if you are using other observation documents and want well-described evidence of student learning. Select "observations" and you can add information from classroom visits and access videos tutorials on how to use the app.
Next Generation Science Standards -
Also by MasteryConnect, this "free" app takes a close look at the new Next Generation Science Standards (NGSS). You can scan standards by topics, domains, conceptual progressions and keywords. MasteryConnect teamed up with the National Science Teachers Association to create this effective and easy-to-use interface. The robust resource area includes an overview of the NGSS, a detailed explanation of how the new standards are structured, and frameworks. The appendices include conceptual shifts from old to new national standards, responses to public drafts, and a section on how implementation of the NGSS prepare students for college and career. Looking for connections to math? Connections to literacy? Model middle and high school course mapping? Those are included too, as well as many more valuable resources to ensure clearer understanding of science.
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