CMS Wins "ED"ies Award

On a perfect New Hampshire spring afternoon, Dr. Barbara Gondek, co-chair of the "ED"ies selection committee announced to a crowd of more than 1500 students, teachers, administrators, school board, and community members that, indeed, CMS was selected as the 2007-2008 New Hampshire School of Excellence recipient. As the banner was unfurled from atop the school, representative from corporate sponsor McDonalds, outgoing superintendent Dr. Hanson, and the five CMS teachers who will be retiring this year (Ann Douglas, Chip Nelson, Gary Tilden, Joe O'Donnell, and Bill Taylor) rang the "ED"ies bell officially bestowing the title "Best Middle School in New Hampshire" upon CMS.

What Are the Purposes of Assessment?

Source

1.  Student Learning:  Assessment is a way for educators to measure progress, strengths, and areas of growth.  Many teachers assess their students using a pre-test, mid-term, and post-test to gauge student learning.  This may take place throughout a unit or the entire school year. 

 

2.  Improvement of Teaching:  Teachers use assessment to determine what is effective in their teaching practices; what is working and what needs improvement.  A variety of assessment tools may be used in order to determine what types of instruction are most beneficial in meeting the needs of students. 

 

3.  Communication:  Assessment should serve as a means of communication between educators, students, administrators, and parents.   Parents and students often look at assessment to see WHAT is being learned, HOW progress is being measured, and the TYPE of instruction being received.  Educators and administrators use assessment to evaluate teaching practices and to determine if there are gaps in the curriculum.   

 

4.  Program Evaluation:  Assessment can prove a good measure of one’s program, revealing evidence of the effectiveness of that program, throughout the year, assessment can offer direction to the program and modifications can be made to increase both student and instructional success. 

 

5.  Program Support:  Consistent assessment can be used to validate one’s program.  Data gained is objective and can show evidence of goals and objectives being met by both student and teacher.  With clear data presented, a strong measure of program support may follow. 

 

6.  Motivation:  Assessment shows progress.  When improvement is shown, students feel positive about their learning environment.  Documented assessment can offer proof of growth, thus enhancing students’ motivation to perform to the best of their ability. 

Do We Kill Creativity?

Sir Ken Robinson's February 2006 speech at TED is incredible, thought provoking, and inspiring.  For those that have not seen it, please take 25 minutes out of your day to watch.  It makes you think about how we educate our students.  

Cell Phones in Schools

During his presentation last Tuesday, Ray McNulty told of a high school he visited where the largest category of discipline referrals was cell phone infractions.  (Cellphones were strictly forbidden in this school.)  When he asked the students about their use of phones, in addition to the chatting with and texting friends (which neither he, nor I, can excuse) the students spoke of using their phones as watches, timers, calendars, and to communicate with parents.  The most creative use, however, was one student who used the camera on her phone to take pictures of her homework assignments and class notes that were written on the whiteboard.  Those all seem like logical (and educationally justifiable) uses of relevant technology.  

Will Richardson recently blogged about a conversation he recently had with high school students in a New York City public school.  The most fascinating point to me was how anyone can "google" on their cellphone by texting a question to 46645. 

Do your kids learn differently than you? YES!

Ever wonder how your child can listen to their iPod in one ear, their cell phone in another, while they IM and study for their french test all at once?  They learn and work differently than previous generations.  They are, as Ian Jukes says, master multi-taskers.  Take a look at this blog post to learn more.

Teachers take a pie in the face for Pi Day!

To celebrate Pi day, Mr. Wiggin - the 8th grade math teacher on the VIP team - hosted not only a pie eating contest, but gave students an opportunity to throw a pie in the face of their teachers. Additionally, the winner of the pie eating contest won the grand prize, throwing a pie in the face of Assistant Principal, Mrs. Faulkner.  Congratulations to Mr. Wiggin and the VIP team for a spirited and well-deserved celebration.

Cell Phones and iPods

Recently, the Exeter Newsletter ran an editorial entitled Cell Phones Should be Banned in Class, in which they commented on many of the negative features of cell phones and iPods as they relate to school.  They even noted that parents "complicated" the issue by allowing their children to carry theses devices in school and while I agree that such devices should not be used to distract from or inhibit learning, I do believe there are alternative uses of cell phones and iPods - uses that may have a more positive impact on learning.

Since then, I have done a bit of research about some of those more positive, educative ways that new technologies can be used to enhanced student learning.  I wanted to share some of those with you here.

1.   Will Richardson's blog about "participatory media"

2.  Again, Will Richardson, this time about "Digital Citizenship" and the students' role in the creation of new media.

3.  This article from Newsweek talks about the release of "Kindle", Amazon.com's digital book reader.

4.  Will Richardson makes some interesting comments in his blog about the use of cellphones and texting by students that are both scary, but also make one think a bit about their use.

5.  Ian Jukes writes of a "Cell Phone College Class" opening in Japan.

6.  Karl Fisch, the original creator of Did You Know?/Shift Happens, has examples of how students are using iPods and podcasting in their classes at Arapahoe High School in Littleton, Colorado.

7.  Ian Jukes shares this article entitled, "Study:  iPods Help Students Concentrate".

8.  Students2.0 is a new blog created with students from around the world.  They have some very pointed and interesting views.  It is worth reading.  They are worth listening to.