Do Now- Watch and Respond 3/17

Watch this video:

Jimmy Goes to School

1) What is the message of this video?

2) How can we prepare students for state tests and help them become intelligent happy people?

3) Think about your unit and your assessment- are you preparing your students to fill in bubbles or are you helping them become better thinkers?

Due March 24- Grade system and parent letter

1) Grading System / Course Management System (CMS)

No matter what school you work in you will need to learn to use some time of course management system. At Todd County or St. Francis you will use Infinite Campus. Since we don't have access to that specific software now, we'll use an online alternative.

For those of you using Weebly or School Rack you may choose to use the grading systems included on those sites. For everyone else I recommend using http://www.engrade.com/

Set up your course online:

• Include each assignment, how many points it is worth, and the due date.
• Create at least 5 student accounts.

2) Write a letter/e-mail to parents/guardians about your upcoming unit.

Things to include:

• Unit Goals
• Description of project/unit and how it will be graded
• Important dates/link to calendar
• Instructions for accessing their student's grade, including code
• Your plan for communicating with them
• Link to your classroom website
• Anything else you think parents want to know!

Post your parent letter on your website AND send your parent letter in an e-mail to me by next Wednesday. Be sure to include the student password for engrade so that I can log in and see your course.

Do Now- March 10- Create a Unit Calendar

Today in class you will work on creating a unit calendar for your unit including daily objectives and important due dates. To put your calendar online you can use Google Calendars.

Part I

Assuming you've never used Google Calendars- where could you go to learn how to set up your own calendar?

Part II

Create a calendar for your unit including the lesson objective for each day, test dates, project due dates school events, and any other important information.

Here is an example from one of my units.

Do Now - March 3

1. Use Google to answer this questions: Which day will the vice president's birthday fall on in 2011?

2. Read this NYTimes article.

3. How good are your internet search skills?

4. How will you teach your students search skills?

(Here's a lesson plan from NYTimes)