Submitted by Jessica Weaver
Physical Education Teacher, Joppa View Elementary School

Year 16 as an educator in Baltimore County started a little different than years past.  I spent 15 years working with kindergarten and or first grade students on learning to read, write, and strengthen problem solving skills.  This year I was not walking into my own classroom of 23 or more students but walking into a gymnasium with students ranging from Kindergarten through fifth grade.  Some think this was, but I saw it as a challenge. I knew I could teach kids to read, write and become problem solvers as I had 15 years’ experience in doing this, but teaching kids grades Kindergarten through fifth grade health and fitness goals was a whole different ballgame.  But I was up for the challenge.

Being a lighthouse school has always helped with teaching our kids different ways to find information and to present their findings in many ways.  Our 1:1 device ratio has allowed kids to use a variety of digital content and strengthen their technology skills.  My teaching strategy used to be to model, have students work in partners and then have them “show what they know” on paper. I feel like being a lighthouse school has changed my teaching into a more blended learning experience.  Students don’t always have to use a device and can learn without one, as we already know, but the technology has helped students become more creative problem solvers.  I was able to bring this to life in the classroom for the 4 years we were a lighthouse school in first grade and was ready to continue the challenge in physical education.

​Students ranging from grades 3-5 start the year out doing Fitnessgram.  Fitnessgram is a program that allows teachers, administrators, parents and, most importantly, students to identify, understand, and make positive changes to their health and in turn build the healthy habits needed to carry them well into the future.  Students perform and record a series of tests in the physical education and can see if they fall within the “healthy fitness zone” which is based on their age, weight and height.  The series of tests are runs, push-ups and curl-ups.  Students begin practicing these tests in the second grade and they start recording and looking at their healthy fitness zone in fourth and fifth grade.  When teaching students the proper form for push-ups and curl-ups students have a hard time making corrections as they can’t see what they look like while doing them.  I decided that in physical education we would put these devices to use.  Students recorded themselves doing push-ups and curl ups.  We then recorded students that were showing proper form for each.  Students had an opportunity during one class to watch the videos of proper form on their device as well as record themselves. Using the device was a way to motivate students to do push-ups the correct way since they would be recording themselves.  It also helped them to make their own corrections as they could see where their mistakes were and not by me calling them out to them.  After the students were able to record themselves and watch examples they could record their final and put it into a PowerPoint presentation to give to me.  They were able to tell me about the corrections that they made by comparing their first video with their final video weeks later after practicing.

The students enjoyed working on this project and they were able to do a successful push-up and curl-up after using the device to record and make corrections. Just this one enhancement has made the students in gym see how technology can be used in a different content areas in a meaningful way.  I can’t wait to continue this journey of the lighthouse school in my new position.            

Submitted by Vincent Sandroni
Chorus/General Music Teacher, Cockeysville Middle School 

From October 4th – October 8th, I was fortunate to travel to Cork, Ireland with my barbershop quartet, Pratt Street Power, to perform for the Irish Association of Barbershop Singers’ International Convention. While I was there, I performed at a primary school and observed their music teacher and students. At the convention, my quartet received feedback from international judges of barbershop and were given techniques and concepts to aid our improvement. All of the information gained has already been applied in my classroom! Incorporating body movement while singing and working through the emotional lens rather than the technical lens has helped my students connect to the music more and enjoy telling the message of the song rather than showing that they sang every note correctly. We are learning to trust our basic technique and our consistency as musicians so that we may work on finding the true meaning of a song and how we should perform it so the audience will understand. It was an incredible trip that yielded numerous opportunities for professional development and growth! 
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​During the Professional Development day on October 20th, teachers at Rodgers Forge Elementary got a chance to play—yes, even teachers need playtime, too!  Teachers were given a few hours to interact with a number of low tech and high tech tools that our school has on hand for teacher and student use, including but not limited to, drones, 3Doodler pens, Makedo cardboard kits, Ozobots, Spheros, littleBits, Strawbees, Makey Makeys, and Cubelets.  Teachers spent the morning trying out the tools and looking for ways to give their students challenging and rigorous learning opportunities with the tools.  Rodgers Forge Elementary has the unique experience of being one of three BCPS elementary schools partnering with Workbench, a Baltimore-based technology company that is leading the way through hands-on and project-based learning. Teachers were also introduced to the Workbench Platform on this day, and they were supported in using some of the new tech tools both in person and remotely through web conferencing by Danika and Zach, two amazing Workbench employees.  Keep an eye and ear out for some awesome project-based learning ideas to be shared from our teachers!