Nashayla Whitten 2/19/2015 2/19/: V Dr. Hicks, Speaker- Mr. Kelly ‘Mr. Kelly isan instructional coach at Brookdale Elementary School, He has only been in the school system for four years. He graduated from Claflin in 2011. He taught third grade for 2 years and fifth ‘rade for 1 year. He shared with us numerous free ways to incorporate technology in our instruction, He 1B: He also mentioned free services such as: Kahoot, Near Pod, Compass Learning, and Mastery Lean showed us a free software thats open to everyone with a Google account called Google Drive, We get up to 6 GB worth of storage that we can access anywhere using any technological device. Kahoot # game based classroom response system where teachers can ask thought-provoking ‘Questions, students can take control of their own learning, and it's highly engaging for all. The teacher is able to put up any assessment for the students and will turn the assessment into a game assessing accuracy and speed. You are also able to use this as a formal assessment as well. During the game you are able to see which students are marking what and when are they marking it. Ths is also affective to see ifyou have to reteach or review certain parts of the lesson. This i a great technology technique that will alow learning and assessing to be fun. ‘Near Pod isa great program that allows you to present and assess lessons in such an engaging way. You can create your own presentations or you can just download ready to use lessons from the website from other educators, Italso helps diversity the classroom by allowing students to engage in anew way of learning. You are able to monitor classroom acti 'y and easily control your students’ devices. Teacherscan get immediate feedback and track your class’ progress with detailed reports, Near pod has been used for guided instruction, direct instruction and independent instruction, Compass Learning is an Individualized Learning Assessment that the district usually buys for their students. The students usually take @ pretest that is aligned with the Common Core Standards which assesses every part of each standard. The pretest has lessons premade for every question that the students get wrong, After pretest is taken, an individualized learning plan is created for each student. | During the students’ free time, they work on these lessons as they help to enrich their skills, content, | and experience with the things that will be on the state test at the end of the year.Nashayla Whitten 2/19/2015 aN) / / Dr Hicks ( / By Speaker-for Thursday(Could not recall her name) Tas teow She is the principal of Rivelon Elementary School. In the past, she was the assistant principal at Whittaker Elementary School. She was a pleasure to have, She showed us the evaluation process of their teachers and how effective itis. The main question each teacher should try to answer is,” Can you teach so that your students understand the information?” ‘When she evaluates her teachers she uses a classroom observation instrument. This isa tool that evaluates the room environment, teacher, and the students. Each part of this evaluation plays a dominant role in the learning of the student. The first thing that is evaluated is the room environment. A total of 10 points can be given for maintenance, easily accessible materials, displayed work, rich environment, and classroom management. She explained that classroom management is key. Children only do what you allow them to do. The next thing is evaluated is the teacher. There is a total of 80 points that the teacher can get for having acti ies that are aligned to the standards, asking higher order ‘questions, appropriate wait time, connecting previous information, assisting students understanding, differentiating instruction, grouping techniques, mastery of content, high expectations for all, Opportunities for student justification, observes, assist, and challenge students, using Marzano’s category of strategy, using technology, positive rapport, implements accommodations, correlation between lesson plans, follows district pacing, corrects students oral and written grammar, uses correct grammar, and demonstrates knowledge and use of lesson cycle. So as you can see the teacher is responsible for a lot of things. Teaching is not about knowing the content. She emphasized the importance of using Marzano’s categories of strategies as it helps to connect and further students |learning. itis also important to use higher thinking skills of blooms taxonomy. When you use lower level thinking skills then the learning is only short-term. When you use high level thinking skills the learning can be internalized for long term purposes. The evaluation does not stop there, but the students have @ responsibility as well, The students have a maximum of 10 points that they can achieve through demonstrating an understanding of the content, working well ina variety of settings, using correct oral 's when completing the tasks, and exhibiting respect for and written grammar, utilizing multiple strates teachers and others She blamed us how long each stage of the lesson cycle should be out of an hour. She said that direct Instruction for the whole group should be no more than 15 minutes. As you know elementary school students have short attention spans. The guided practice should be about 15 to 20 minutes, This is where you get your students involved, either small groups or you can have to come up to the board. The independent practice should be about 25 minutes. This is where your students can prove to you that they have learned the content. You should not help your students during this time because its only practice, Teachers should not grade independent practice but should use this to determine whether or not he or she needs to go back and reteach. This observation instrument is very effective. It isnot a requirement but is something that helps keep teachers on the right track at all times.