Social Media Helps Keeps Parents Informed

Merriam-Webster defines social media as “forms of electronic communication through which users create online communities to share information, ideas, personal messages, and other content (as videos).” Can the use of social media in our schools improve the home-school connection? We think so and took part in the celebration when the district chose February 5^th, the third annual Digital Learning Day, to kick off the use of Twitter in our schools. This microblogging tool allows administrators and teachers to connect with the community by posting short, 140-character messages called “tweets.” In recent years Twitter has expanded to allow photographs (and even videos) to accompany these tweets which are being used by school communities to share the following:

• Calendar reminders: The school year is full of important dates. Twitter can be used to remind parents and students of athletic and performance schedules, standardized testing dates, end of marking periods, upcoming holidays, and school closings.
• Celebrations: The school year is also full of accomplishments and publicly celebrating the successes of students and teachers can be hard to do in a timely fashion. Twitter allows immediate announcements of great achievements to the entire community.
• Helpful resources: Most parents would be happy to extend learning beyond the school day if they had the knowledge and skills needed to support their children. With Twitter, it’s easy to share links to valuable web-based resources on parenting, teaching, or the content being studied in your classrooms.
• Decisions and details: Schools and the organizations that support them are constantly making decisions with far-reaching implications. Using Twitter to share these decisions spreads information quickly and makes the inner workings of your organization transparent to everyone.
• Emergency updates: Planning communication patterns before natural disasters or human tragedies strike is a responsible practice. Because Twitter updates can be posted from mobile devices, they can become a part of a comprehensive plan for easing community fears and getting messages out to parents and support professionals in emergency situations.

(List courtesy of http://esheninger.blogspot.com/2011/05/communicating-and-connecting-with.html)

FTS Superintendent, Dr. Ross Kasun, now "tweets" regularly about happenings in the district, sharing top educational stories and providing up-to-date information about delayed openings and/or school closings. MWES administrators and teachers have created accounts and are sharing events specific to the Errickson School community.  If you would like to create an account and follow the conversation, enter the following URL in your favorite browser http://www.edutopia.org/pdfs/blogs/mazza-ptchat-guide.pdf  and view a quick and easy guide for parents. This guide also includes an explanation of how to use the hashtag (#) to follow "conversations" specific to topics of interest. Many of these online personal learning networks "meet" weekly online to "discuss" topics in depth and/or participate in question and answer sessions. It is amazing how much you can learn from others online via links shared or references to other experts on the subjects you find interesting!

If you have already signed up for an account with Twitter, be sure to follow Dr. Kasun, @FTS_SuptKasun. Twitter accounts for teachers are optional, but many MWES staff members have chosen to add a Twitter account to the tools they employ for the home-school connection.  Listed below are some MWE Twitter accounts you might want to follow:

Mrs. Areman @CathyAreman

Mrs. Capodanno @KinderCap1

Ms. Coronado @mwestech

Mrs. DiStefano @MrsDiStefano1

Mrs. Gassner @tekteech7

Mrs. Giglio @MWEGiglio

Mrs. Henderson @MWES_VocalMusic

Mrs. Kane @MWESMrsKane

Mrs. Koscuk @kkoscuk

Mrs. Marcantonio @Marc5th

Miss Rohlander @MissRohlander

Mrs. Rollo @MrsRolloMWES

MWE School @MWESchool

Mrs. Pope Tucker @RPopeTucker

Mrs. Tweten @mtkinder

Mrs. Warren @MWE_Speech

Miss Zyskowski   @MissZyskowski

Personal Learning Networks

A Personal Learning Network (PLN) is an extension of the self that enables a learner to harness the knowledge and experiences of many voices through a collaborative connection. Here at school, PLNs often take form based on grade level or content area assignments, professional areas of interest, or simply the location of your room in the building. These are the people we call upon for advice, to help solve a problem, or fill in the gaps when we can’t figure it out on our own. This network of friends enhances our learning and offers the support necessary to grow professionally.

Informational Text

Along with all of the other challenges we face in the classroom each day, we have the constant reminder of our state's adoption of the "Common Core" and the promise of standardized tests which are expected to reflect achievement of these standards each spring. Over the past three years, curriculum has been updated and modified accordingly and efforts have been made to assist in "unpacking" the standards to ensure educators understand specifically what the new standards mean, and what a student must know, understand and be able to do. This year, in the area of ELA, our teacher toolbox expanded to include more resources for informational text, defined by the CCSS as a broad category of nonfiction resources, including: biographies; autobiographies; books about history, social studies, science, and the arts; technical texts (including how-to books and procedural books); and literary nonfiction.

Math Workshop

Connecting language, mathematics and thinking...
Many teachers have adopted the workshop model of instruction for mathematics with great success. Breaking down math instruction..."chunking" the content by presenting important concepts in a mini-lesson, providing guided practice and then gradually releasing students to complete independent work while the teacher/teachers scaffold instruction via tiered groups and then close with a quick check is becoming the norm in many elementary classrooms. The student success teachers have observed using this model in reading and writing has made the choice easy for many. The integration of technology into instruction allows teachers to reinforce math skills digitally or to "flip" the learning to front load new concepts before the actual classroom instruction takes place. The sharing of educational resources online through web sites blogs, wikis, and social media such as Twitter, Pinterest and Facebook has become common place and gives teachers just in time access to the tools they need. If you have implemented this model in your classroom or if you are considering making this change, the following resources may be helpful...

Rev Up Writing!

Increase student engagement using apps and online resources!

Writing, speaking and listening are critical elements of the Common Core State Standards. The ability to write clearly and coherently is highly emphasized. Using digital tools such as the Comic Life and Toontastic apps, and websites such as Make Beliefs Comix and ReadWriteThink’s comic generator will motivate students to write more and adapt what they write for a specific audience. Students may enjoy orally presenting what they have written by acting out these graphic stories for their peers.

For other online writing options, try Inklewriter, which allows students to make and play interactive stories, or Edit Central, where students may enter text they have composed and have it analyzed for its readability immediately.

The Daily Five: Digital

Teachers in kindergarten through grade two will find that their newest digital tool, their iPad, can be put to use immediately to reinforce The Daily Five areas; Read to Others, Read to Self, Listen to Reading, Word Work and Work on Writing. In fact, they may soon come to wonder how they met student needs in each of these areas without it! The iPad or iTouch alone or coupled with the Belkin RockStar or another multiple splitter device  provides an immediate listening center, and delivers apps which reinforce skills in all areas. In fact, a quick search on the Internet returns several sites devoted to just this purpose, using mobile devices and their applications to support instruction in ELA during The Daily Five. When we first looked at this option a few years ago for the iTouch the app selection was limited. Today there are so many apps available that we struggle with which app to recommend, but here we go...

Acronyms Abound!

As we spoke with teachers during our Back-to-School meetings in early September, we got a sense that everyone's head was spinning with the number of new acronyms being tossed into conversations, presentations and videos. It reminded me of the Wordles our students create by inputting text and seeing the artwork, or "word cloud" it creates with their words. The more times a word is entered the more prominence it is given in the Wordle. Each time I heard an acronym mentioned I added it to a Google doc. (Another term that has been thrown around as well!) Then I added the terms a few more times to reflect the importance of these terms in the life of the educators in our building this year. As we continued to meet over and spoke about these terms during ATMs and informal conversations we all agreed that an acronym glossary wouldn't be a bad idea! 

Here is what we've come up with so far...