​Halstead's First Grade Advanced Academics Group performed their own original reader’s theater version of "Catwings", for parents and first grade classes.  After shared readings of all four Catwings adventures, the group identified literary elements, distinguished important events from each book, and determined both character traits and feelings in order to create this production.  Crystal, one of the first graders, said, "At first I was really nervous, but when I got to perform for my mom, I knew I did a great job."
 
Our amazing performers were Crystal Maduh, Palou Ngaba, Madisyn Almond, Josiah Smalls-Marquez, Analena King-Sykes, Madison McGann, and Carwyn Ndegwa. Palou said, "This was a great experience.  I loved when we laughed together because we knew we finally did it!"

​Ms. Walder’s 7th grade Language Arts students came face-to-face with the Holocaust with only one degree of separation. Ms. Walder’s mother, the daughter of a Holocaust survivor, spoke to the class, sharing artifacts and personal stories of her mother’s experience in Kristallnacht and Nazi Germany. While Ms. Walder’s grandmother and her grandmother’s brother were fortunate to be sent out of the country, the rest of the family perished in a concentration camp. Walder team-planned a PBL with Jen Dingle of Classflow and Dawn Bray of Discovery Ed. Students applied the Higher-Order-Thinking process by generating layered questions about the famous photograph “The Warsaw Ghetto Boy” and creating a Wonder Wall about the causes and consequences of the Holocaust. Using Classflow, students were able to immediately view, assess, and respond to each other’s insights. The driving question for the PBL soon emerged: “What responsibility do leaders have through action and word to promote the well-being of all citizens?” Students accessed curated materials for research on Board Builder, and further built their understanding of the events in a lesson with Library Media Specialist, Tiki Love, by reading the EBook, Jars of Hope, and engaging in a student-led Socratic Seminar. Students will conduct research on a leader and then present their findings on a digital platform of their choice during an open-house in April.

​Black History Month came alive at Windsor Mill Middle School this year in Ms. Helm’s 6th grade class. Students began the unit with deep thinking about the characteristics of leaders. Helm modeled the overall project with Malcolm X. Students read articles and books about Malcolm X focusing on what they knew, what they thought they knew, and what they learned. They analyzed and synthesized their learning through discussions. Students then selected figures from Black History to research and identified qualities the person had or developed to become a leader. Dawn Bray, the WMMS Discovery Ed Coach, made Board Builders on the historical figures for the class. Students asked themselves if they had similar qualities and if they could do what the leaders accomplished. Research and reflections were housed in flip books and led to a culminating paragraph on their leader recorded in Vocaroo. Ms. Helm created an interactive timeline in the classroom with QR Codes to access the student paragraphs. The unit was closed with a Socratic Seminar on how the class could bring the qualities of their leaders into their community. 

​Mr. Jeremy Shaner is a health teacher at Ridgely Middle School who, like all teachers, is transforming his teaching to incorporate more learner-centered strategies. Because his content area is so important in terms of guiding students to make sound decisions that benefit their health, student engagement is crucial. Some of the impressionable topics in the seventh grade health curriculum include mental health, such as self-esteem, stress, and decision making; tobacco abuse, alcohol abuse, first aid and safety, and nutrition. Mr. Shaner recently taught a differentiated lesson to his seventh-grade class on the dangers of smoking, and he met with success.

The STAT initiative, , Students and Teachers Accessing Tomorrow, in BCPS allows for professional development around the formative assessment process. Because of frequent informal assessments of skills, Mr. Shaner has learned the range of abilities that exist within his classes.  

As a result, he has done some research to find three different readings on the topic of tobacco use, each written on a different Lexile level.  Once the readings were identified, he went into our portal, BCPS One, and assigned the appropriate level digital readings to individual students based on their reading abilities. He was able to do this using lesson tiles. As students read on their devices, they were aware that there were different articles, but they didn't know that they received them based on their individual reading levels. Mr. Shaner expressed to his class that there are multiple articles to gather “an array of information” on the topic.

Once each student had a chance to read his/her assigned article, he/she posted information on another digital application, Padlet.com. As the class reviewed this digital “bulletin board” full of responses, all students benefited from the information in all three articles.  Mr. Shaner admitted that "this additional planning on the front end pays off because, ultimately, more students are learning from the materials, customized to their abilities. The device provides a nice pathway for this added access to appropriate resources."

Carter is a sixth grader at Ridgely Middle School in Timonium. Carter enjoys the fruits of the STAT initiative in BCPS; Voice Thread is just one benefit of STAT. Recently in Carter’s Spanish class, Mrs. Lutwyche, his teacher, assigned an engaging task. Students were asked to create a radio advertisement for a children’s camp. This curricular assessment measured students’ ability to plan, practice, and produce a spoken presentation in Spanish.

Carter recorded himself speaking Spanish to promote the children’s camp. This audio narrated the coordinating slides with graphics and text.

The success criteria for the assessment included “camp activities, benefits, age of children served, location, and purpose,” Carter explained. He chose to invent a sports camp. He added, “The camp includes activities such as football, soccer, and volleyball. [It boasts] an increase in cardiovascular endurance for all participants." The location he selected for the camp is his previous elementary school, with facilities to accommodate the activities both inside and outside. The age range of participants for his camp is five to twelve.
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Carter explained that this recording is one section of a four-part unit assessment which took approximately three class periods to complete and is to be done independently. Mrs. Lutwyche is commended for attempting the spoken and written parts using this multi-media application with her students. Mrs. Lutwyche says, “With Voice Thread, students gain independence, privacy, and choice. A student can record and preview numerous times before submitting a saved document as evidence.” Because it is her first attempt with Voice Thread, she admits there is a small learning curve, as exists when experimenting with anything new; however, she adds that benefits are definitely worthwhile."

Submitted by Lisa Schultz
STEAM Night Coordinator and 5th Grade Teacher, Rodgers Forge Elementary

Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts, and Math all come together at Rodgers Forge Elementary every day, but on Tuesday, March 21st these five areas of the curriculum were specially showcased in the school’s third annual STEAM Night.  This well-attended event was an evening of fun and excitement for students, parents, and teachers alike.  Activities included pendulum and catapult painting, coding, origami, and even a cool paper flashlight making activity provided by the Digital Harbor Foundation.  Student volunteers working the event exhibited their musical talents through a coffeehouse setting, answered questions about their STEM Fair projects, displayed their art bots, and shared their SafeRacer vehicles. Special thanks goes to HotSpots and the Education Foundation for funding a $3,000 enrichment grant that allowed us to purchase materials for our school makerspace as well as for the event.  The school was able to purchase LittleBits and 3Doodler Pens for student use.  The STEAM Night committee at Rodgers Forge will reflect on the successes of the night, as they begin planning even more exciting events to include next year!

Submitted by Chibuzor Chukwu
English 10-11, Chesapeake High School

In this reflection, Heather reflects on how the device has changed the way she learns in class and compares her experiences from last school year to this school year.

On February 14th, my Tech Tip Tuesday was all about Office Mix. I was so inspired from the STAT Conference that I had to share this tech tool with my staff. I had overwhelming interest at this Tech Tip Tuesday due to the previous engagement my staff had with Office Mix through my Twitter chat presentation. Office Mix is quite the buzz around the “The Lane”! It has now become a great way for our teachers to flip lessons and/or use it for reteach moments. Teachers also appreciate the accountability piece through checking the analytics. The following are some ways we are using Office Mix at Church Lane Elementary.  
 
"Students listened to me notice and note/think aloud about two pieces of text in order to determine how problem and solution leads to theme. Then, they watched two short video clips (one from Land Before Time and another from Rudy) to analyze how the problems and solutions in each video clip showed the theme of friendship in different ways. They were using the digital sticky notes to monitor the videos so they could perform their written response as their assessment."
​– Mr. Miller, 4th grade

​“I have used Office Mix as a flipped learning tool for my accelerated learners as well as an instruction and reteach tool for all learners. I first used Office Mix by embedding video clips, adding anchor charts, and including guided questions for students to use when they were not meeting with the teacher in small group. After seeing the impact on my students, I decided to use Office Mix a little differently by embedding all students’ “menu of activities” and including organizers, links, and videos differentiated for each groups’ needs. Once they met in small group, they continued working through their menu by completing the activities either listed on or embedded in the power point. The students love the accountability of following the PowerPointt without the teacher’s help, and I love the accountability of the students being able to answer their own questions, especially the “what I am I supposed to do” question because it is all laid out for them.”
​ –Ms. Mueller, 5th grade

 “I used Office Mix with PowerPoint to make a lesson on finding and using text evidence to support the moral in a fable. My class had practiced this skill the previous day. In Office Mix, I recorded my slides or used my document camera to record a video of myself explaining directions while pointing to the text that students would be working with. With the slides that I recorded, I went over our objective, expectations, and the activity. Throughout the various slides, I would tell my students to pause and do something in real life and then come back to the Mix when they had completed the task. By doing the lesson this way, I was able to pull a small group of students who I noticed the day before had a good bit of difficulty with the objective of the lesson. We did the same lesson that I had put into Office Mix, but with me scaffolding everything a bit more. My students who I knew were ready to tackle the task more independently, but still with a little teacher help, were able to navigate through the Office Mix with a partner. The ability to record my voice and the documents my students would need and adding in pauses for students to complete chunks of work, was very successful. I effectively had a whole group lesson going while meeting the needs of each of my unique learners. Office Mix is an exciting tool that I plan to use for many more lessons and many different skills!”
​–Mrs. Wurzbacher, 2nd grade

“It can be difficult to plan and execute effective instruction when you have a classroom with such diverse needs. Officemix has allowed me to meet the needs of all of my learners. I have used Officemix as a flipped learning tool during my math workshops. Officemix has allowed me to deliver content to my accelerated group who I do not get to meet with right away. Through Officemix I have used screen recording to show my accelerated group different tech tools and websites to access during a lesson. Slide recording has also allowed me to record how to solve problems by using the inking tool. It also allowed me to upload videos to further my student’s understanding of a topic or skill. Overall, Officemix has given me a pathway to accelerate or modify instruction for my students through a flipped learning experience."
​ –Ms. Listman, 3rd grade

​"As the STAT teacher, I get the chance to assist teachers in a lot of their lesson/activity creating. It has been a great help taking some of the time and stress off the teacher’s shoulders. I have used Office Mix to record stories and create direction slides for teachers to use with their class. Teachers can easily take these slides and import them into their presentation or place the link onto the lesson tiles. Students also get a kick out of hearing my voice!"
​–Ms. Whorton, STAT teacher

Submitted by Katie Lark
5th Grade Teacher, Rodgers Forge Elementary

Throughout the second unit of Social Studies the 5th graders learned about the events leading up to and during the American Revolution. Throughout the lessons students were engaged and motivated by the opportunity to role play, discuss and write about what they were learning.  In light of the mannequin challenge trend we decided to create a Revolution Mannequin Challenge. Groups of 5th graders designed props, created sceneries, and directed their classmates to pose and represent the event they were assigned.  Each group also wrote a narration to accompany their mannequin challenge scene.  The final product will be a complete retelling of the Revolution.  Here is what students had to say about this project:

• “This is the most awesome things ever because we get to be creative and it’s historical and it’s fun!” -Carter
• “It’s a different way to have a test and it makes learning awesome and fun!” -Charlie and Olivia
• “A fun way to better understand events in history and to actually know what it felt like for it to happen.” -James
• “The Mannequin Challenge was a fun experience because it was an assessment turned into something fun that all of us liked!” -Maddy
• "Doing a mannequin challenge for our assessment in Social Studies was awesome!  Instead of BORING a paper and pencil assignment we get to do something active and fun.  Who heard of a fun assignments before this?  It was awesome!" -Elliot

Submitted by Rachael Berke
Special Educator,  Fort Garrison Elementary School

In my classroom, it is uncommon for me to be teaching one kind of learner.  I work with many different grade levels and students of varying abilities. You see, I am a special education teacher.  There are only two of us in my building.  Each year I have a different set of kids and am learning a different curriculum.  At times when these students are all in a classroom at once, it is difficult to find new ways to keep them engaged in our lessons.  With the devices, I can make a whole group lesson for them to follow on their own active inspire lesson.  They enjoy having the control in their hands.  I also utilize the devices as a way to work with each of my students in a one on one setting. 

Much of my role and time is used to work with the students on their individual goals. To do this I use the device as a center in my classroom. I can either use games (relating to our whole group lesson) or individualize some Wixie or ActivInspire for the students to complete on their own (or in a group) while I rotate working with students individually on a reteach or goal work. 

In the beginning of the year, the students need time to get used to doing certain technological things independently.  At the end of last year I really saw the students’ confidence rise in completing their independent work independently. 

Many of the students I serve have OT and/or weaknesses in their writing ability.  Having the device at their fingertips in the classroom environment has gained them access to so much more. 

​When I think about where my students will be in the future, I think that they will be able to use typing and technology to compensate for some of their other weaknesses.  If and when they can learn to type, this will be an amazing way for them to contribute to our real world.  I do practice with them focusing on staying in their “home base” with their fingers.  They slowly exercise those fingers in order to type certain letters in isolation.  I know the more the feel more comfortable with it, it will get easier for them.  With the typing program and programs such as word Q (word prediction software), it really makes learning accessible to more kinds of learners that we service.  I only hope to learn more with this technology as it is changing every day.  I know how the kids feel when they have to learn something new.  I try and remember that as I learn each day.