This year, Rodgers Forge Elementary was the recipient of a 21st Century Enrichment Grant by way of a partnership between the BCPS Education Foundation and HotSpots Extended Care program.  The funding from this grant was used to purchase a unique learning platform and many resources, including a set of virtual reality goggles that allows students to go on virtual field trips.  These virtual field trips, powered by 360cities, can be used in a myriad of ways to increase student engagement in learning.
 
While the initiative is very new for us, we showcased the learning platform and virtual reality opportunities to parents and students recently at our school’s STEAM Night to allow interaction through the use of the goggles, our student 1:1 devices, and our large Promethean screens.  Several teachers at our school (who have volunteered to pilot this initiative) have gone through a training and are starting to incorporate components into their classrooms. We plan to open our doors to other BCPS employees in order to showcase our school’s use of this platform in May.

​Submitted by Susan Smith
S.T.A.T. Teacher, Ridgely Middle School

Submitted by Faith Sparzak
First Grade Teacher,  Joppa View Elementary School

What is my teaching background?
 
​Currently, I am in my fifth year of teaching.  I began my teaching career at Dogwood Elementary School, a Baltimore County Public School in Windsor Mill, Maryland.  I taught kindergarten for three years at Dogwood Elementary School.  When I transferred to Joppa View Elementary School last year, I taught kindergarten.  Currently, I am in my first year of teaching first grade.  Although I transferred teaching the same grade, the delivery of instruction was different due to the technology.
 
How often did I use devices at Dogwood Elementary School?
 
While teaching at Dogwood Elementary School, I had three desktop computers in my classroom.  The students had to share the desktop computers during literacy and math rotations. Although BCPS began the device roll out while I was at Dogwood Elementary School, kindergarten classrooms were not recipients of devices.  Fortunately, my students were able to borrow a small group set of devices from a first grade classroom in order to begin to learn how to use the devices.  However, we were only able to borrow the devices a few times.
 
How did the technology usage in my classroom change when I transferred to Joppa View Elementary School?
 
When I transferred to Joppa View Elementary School, I was pleasantly surprised to have a small set of five devices in the classroom.  With the devices, my students were able to practice typing their username and password, as well as learn how to use educational programs such as Dreambox.  When I found out that I would be teaching first grade the following year, I was excited by the idea of having one-to-one devices.  This would enable my students to use the devices to enhance their learning experiences throughout each day.
 
What is it like to have a class set of devices in the classroom?
 
By having a class set of devices that my students are able to use daily, I have the opportunity to integrate technology into my lessons throughout the day.  Therefore, my students have the opportunity to use a variety of engaging and educational digital tools in order to help them develop important skills and concepts in many different subject areas, such as phonics, reading, and math.  For language arts instruction, I have been able to send Wonders activities to the devices, as well as have my students use iReady in order to reinforce fluency, comprehension, phonics, phonemic awareness, and vocabulary.  Also, my students have been able to enhance their research skills through the use of PebbleGo.  For math instruction, my students have been able to use the devices to advance their math skills through the use of Dreambox.  Throughout the rest of the school year, I am looking forward to learning about additional digital resources and tools I can incorporate into my lessons in order to enhance learning and help my students develop the skills they need to be successful learners.

Submitted by Ellen Mangels
Math Department Chair, Cockeysville Middle School

​It is now the end of February and I realize I have not added any new thoughts to this page this year. We have been so entrenched in just doing, that I have not taken time to reflect.

Today I had the opportunity to step back and think about the progress we have made in this transition of teaching and learning. My 8th grade Geometry class was working on a review for a unit test today. Four years ago before we became a Lighthouse School, I would have given the class a set of problems from the end of the chapter in the book one day or we would have played a Jeopardy game as a class. Book work can be boring. A class run Jeopardy game can be a good review for the handful of kids who are vocal and participating. The rest may get some benefit from listening, but they are not truly engaged.

Today as my students reviewed ...

I had several groups playing the Jeopardy Game which was posted as a PowerPoint file on a Lesson Tile in BCPS One. Each group was working at their own pace and since there were only a few students playing each game, everyone was involved in the discussion. The document will still be available to students who may want to go back and review the problems again tonight on their own as further study for the test.

​There were two pairs of students working on practice with writing proofs using a ActiveInspire flipchart that was posted on the class web page in BCPS One. The flipchart allows the students to drag the proof steps to the two column proof and then move to another page to check their answers. These flipcharts were posted at the beginning of the unit and will be available through the end of the year so students can go back a practice again as needed or use the practice to prepare for the final exam.

There was one student working on the book pages and researching Geometry ideas on Google.

​There was one student who had been absent who was working on make-up work using the online textbook.

​Two other students were able to complete a redo for a previous Learning Check in this unit.

​I've been doing this job for several decades now. When I think back to the beginning of my career and the most exciting thing I could use was an overhead projector and we played Jeopardy using paper taped to the chalkboard, I realize how far we have come. Today I had four distinct activities going on in the same room. Activities that the students had selected themselves. Most of the options were possible because of the digital options available to us. I am so grateful for the learning opportunities available to us that were not even possible a few years ago. I know that we are still learning how to use the technology effectively, but today was an awesome day in math class.

Windsor Mill Middle School’s SMaRTZone was a flurry of activity during African-American History Month. Language Arts teacher, Mikal Annis, and Library Media Specialist, Tiki Love, coordinated a lesson to introduce Ruby Bridges, a pioneer in the Civil Rights Movement. Students watched a Flocabulary video which highlighted six-year-old Ruby Bridges’ experiences with integration. During the video, students answered critical thinking and reflective question. A discussion ensued where students personalized Ruby’s experience and asked, what would I have done if I were in that situation? Ms. Love finished the lesson with a book talk to highlight various print resources about famous and lesser well known African Americans such as Muhammed Ali and Fannie Lou Hammer. The GT students extended the lesson with a Vocabulary Jam created by ELA Resource Teacher, Stephanie Fanshaw.
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Finally, Ron Smith, Baltimore author of Hoodoo and The Mesmerist, visited WMMS to talk about his new book, Marvel’s Black Panther the Young Prince which tells the story of T’Challa as a young boy. “It was cool that I got to see him speak before the movie,” remarked student Diamond Valentine.  Mr. Smith kept students on the edge of their seats with his own story of how the book came to be. “My agent called and asked me if I was sitting down.” Mr. Smith promptly sat down and held his breath. His agent continued. “Marvel Comics called, and they want you to write the young adult story of the Black Panther. You have 30 days.” Mr. Smith devoured Black Panther comic books to understand his protagonist’s background and purpose, and one month later he had a draft. D’Angelo Orr noted that “Mr. Smith worked hard writing the book so students can enjoy it.”  Taryn Lewis piped in by saying “hearing his stories inspires other kids to write.” Mr. Smith will return to Windsor Mill in March to work with students. 

“I have a dream that families will stay together and world peace will be achieved and there would be no more wars…I have a dream that homeless people get houses and jobs… I have a dream that people of different colors, religion, races, genders, etc. are looked at as a human because at the end of the day, we're all one race- human.”
 
For Martin Luther King Day, students at Windsor Mill Middle School watched an excerpt of Dr. King’s historical speech delivered from the steps of the Lincoln Memorial and then shared their own wishes on a school-wide Padlet. Reading and Language Arts teacher, Chris Kosmides, was inspired to take the activity one step further. He culled themes from the students’ posts and launched a Slam Poem unit. Students watched videos of Slam poets’ performances, selected one of the identified themes, and put pen to paper to craft their own poems. “It was difficult but it was good, because I always want to let people know I want to help the world, said Sinaya Bowen. Kehinde Adelabu was equally enthusiastic about the project.  “I want to make my parents proud and make the world a better place. The poem helps me to stick to what I want to do.” Students performed their poems on Voicethread for the class to see and provide peer feedback. View the VoiceThread here!