Access to laptops and devices has increased for grades five and six recently. Teachers in the fifth and sixth teams wrote proposals for access to new technology. Last year, 5th grade received a class set of Android tablets to share. This year, 6th grade received a class set of Chromebook laptops. Teachers and students | |
will report back to the ITAC committee on the successes and failures of the devices throughout this testing phase to help the committee make informed decisions about purchasing new devices. In addition to these devices, the middle school computer lab was replaced by a cart with MacBooks. This means that since the end of the 2013-14 school year, fifth and 6th grade have tripled their access to laptops and devices. In the photos you can see 5th grade students using the MacBooks to learn about the kingdoms of life in Science class. You can also see students in 6th grade using the Chromebooks to learn about the American Revolution. Students are engaged and excited to be using these tools in their classrooms.
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Middle school band classes integrate technology to help students become proficient players. Students fill out a practice form at the end of each week to log which days and for how long they practice. The practice log helps them track their habits to learn more about how quickly they are progressing. In addition to regular practice, students can make appointments for private lessons or extra help using the Lesson Calendar. Currently lessons are just during recess, but as the “beginner training camp” classes with 5th grade end and students are more comfortable with their instruments, after school lessons will also be available. The band teacher provides the students their first copy of the music for class, but after that they must access the google drive folder with all of their band music and print their own. This is also a resource for advanced students to use for more challenging or extra music to practice. All of these resources help motivate and engage students to improve their instrumental skills.
8th grade students recently set independent reading goals. Their language arts teacher encouraged them to think of a genre of books that they have never tried or that they want to read more. Next, students reflected on their reading habits during 7th grade to set a goal for this year. They took selfies of themselves with the genre and their goal and posted them to a shared Padlet page, which is embedded below. You can see how much fun students had thinking about books and making their photos great.
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