Assessing student work

OK-- so now you are using technology in your classroom. GREAT!


Now you need a way to evaluate what is being produced. Kathy Schrock and Discovery School have a wealth of resources available for assessment of technology projects-specifically rubrics
There are links to already created rubrics as well as tutorials and sites for creating your own tool.

http://school.discoveryeducation.com/schrockguide/assess.html

A rubric is an authentic assessment tool used to measure students' work It is a scoring guide that seeks to evaluate a student's performance based on the sum of a full range of criteria rather than a single numerical score. Rubrics are clear ways of communicating levels of expectation as well as achievement.

With continued scrutiny on schools and teaching, a rubric provides teachers, students and parent with a "scorecard" of objectives and outcomes. Enjoy!

My new "Favorite Thing"!!

Check this out-Olympus mades a digital voice recorder that is USB interfaced. It has 64 MB of internal flash memory, letting you record up to 27 hours of audio in WMA format(which means it will play in Windows Media Player.) Think about how cool it would be to press the PLAY button with it around your neck (it comes complete with a lanyard), record your lecture and put it on the web as a podcast--all because you can plug it into a USB port!

I plan on purchasing one of these(it's in the mail as I write this!) - so be prepared for info coming your way-I love to share!!

Cool Text web site

Have you ever needed(or wanted) a cool looking font for a document or Powerpoint presentation? Here is one of my favorite web sites-We found this site almost 10 years ago and I figured that eventually one would have to pay for the service-but happily, that has not yet happened.
The site is http://www.cooltext.com. What you will find is 31 different styles available and, the site claims, more that 1200 fonts.
The process is as simple as choosing the style, typing in what you wish to have created and deciding on color, size, etc. The site tells you how may "jobs" are ahead of you-It is very quick.
You need to download( or save it ) if you want to keep it.
Enjoy!

Happy Teen Read Week

In honor of Teen Read Week, let's talk technology and reading.
Do you know that there is a program available to all staff and students that can assist with the reading process?

Access it via the PROGRAMS menu - it is under Premier AT- you will notice " Talking Word Processor, Talking Calculator, Talking Dictionary and Talking Checkbook- it is fairly simple to navigate the programs and have information "read" to you. The program that I like best is the Universal REader. Simple click on the program and you will get a menu bar. Highlight the text that you want read and click "READ". For students who have difficulty reading-this can open a whole new world!!! You can change voices, speed of reading, pause, re-read, etc.

As we DROP EVERYTHING AND READ today, remember that there are students who struggle and technology can be a boom to them--but we have to USE it!!

Podcasting @ PSHS

Did you know that we have the ability to podcast here @ PSHS? Pocasting has been used in bits and pieces over the past year. We have everything from Graduation speeches to Mr. Goggins' homecoming video available.
New this year, our student annoucements will be podcasted weekly-you can view them via the school web site or subscribe to them via an ITunes account.

For teachers who might be interested, we have the ability to "package" lectures and/or powerpoint presentations and make them podcasts. Think of the possibilities with regard to absent students or extra study help--the opportunities are endless!!
The best part is that you don't have to do anything-I will do it all!
For those who are interested--give me a call

You Can Handle Them All

This is one of the most helpful websites that I have come accross in quite some time:
http://www.disciplinehelp.com/

It presents complete step-by-step approaches to assist in changing inappropriate student behavior to appropriate behavior. It helps to take the guesswork out of the treatment of discipline problems by offering specific techniques for dealing with various misbehaviors.
Often, our handling of discipline problems is a reaction to the student's behavior, with little or no thought to whether our reaction is good for the student, other students, or the learning situation in the classroom. The discipline model offers a complete step-by-step guide and many options for handling 117 student behaviors.

Take the time to check it out!