November 3, 2017

VOL. 6

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ISSUE 6

TIS AND THAT NOVEMBER 3, 2017

Davis Stuart Students Participate in T.O.O.T.

BY TONYA WOODS

LOOK INSIDE! T.O.O.T - 1-2

The Culinary Arts and Ag Ed students from Davis Stuart School participated in Taste of Our Town in downtown Lewisburg on Saturday, October 14. One stand sold grilled sausages with peppers and onions and the other stand sold various baked goods prepared by the students.

ITOOCH APPS - 2-3 UP, UP, AND AWAY - 4 PROFESSIONAL DEVELOPMENT - 5

CONTRIBUTORS -6

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Taste of Our Town is a festival organized by Carnegie Hall as a fundraiser. During the one day event people come from all over to sample food from several local restaurants and non profit organizations. Visitors purchase tokens and then trade their tokens for food items.

Visitors can try everything from crab cakes to pumpkin fudge. The event raises money for both Carnegie and the vendors who participate.

Davis Stuart students and teachers prepared and served during the event. Even the principal showed up to help!

Need an Educational App?

by Tonya Woods Need an app to challenge a student? Or maybe an app to help fill in the gaps in a student’s learning? Better yet, need an app to help teach and reinforce what your students are learning in class? I have the app for you!

It is called iTooch by edupad Inc. iTooch has an app for grades 1-8 in Math and English/Language Arts.

There are apps for grades 3 – 5 in Science. Finally, there is a Music app for middle school and a Health app for grade 6. The best part is they are all free! There are in app purchases which can be made, but all the basics are free. iTooch apps are created by teachers and can be used with both Android and IOS products. The apps have a simple format that allows students to learn as well as have fun.

There is an option that allows for students to have the text on the page read aloud and the font size can be adjusted also. The app has a built in calculator and a virtual blackboard which allows students to work out the problem or use a calculator.

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The lessons are multimedia with questions containing text, images, sounds, hints and detailed answers and the lessons comply with the U.S. Common Core State Standards.

The apps are divided into themes and then each theme has chapters and each chapter has lessons. Students get practice problems for each lesson and when they feel they are ready, they take the test. The app will let them know if they have mastered the lesson or if they need more practice.

Each lesson is graded and in order to get a green box and fill up the gold coin, students must score at least a B. If the students click on the three lines on the left of the screen and slide to the right, a written explanation of the lesson with definitions and examples is given. Students earn badges and belts as they work their way through the lessons on the apps. I even put up a star board in my class where students can place a star on the chart for each chapter they finish. Students love to compete with their peers to complete a theme first.

The apps will work even without Internet connection so they can be used anywhere and are always up to date. They even have bonus quizzes for special holidays. Each grade level app has 4 to 5 themes. The math apps covers Numbers and Operations, Fractions, Measuring and Estimation, Graphs and Stats, Geometry, Decimals, Probability, Algebraic Structures, and Functions. The ELA apps cover Reading, Writing and Composition, Research and Reasoning, Vocabulary, Communication, and Grammar. The Science apps contains Physical Science, Life Science, and Earth Systems.

The Music app covers Basics, Theory, Cultures and Styles, and History.

Finally the Health app covers Nutrition, Medical Musts, Safety, Growth and Development, and Physical Activity & Sports.

Looking for an app to help boost your students’ learning? iTooch has the app for you. Check them out in Google Play Store and Apple Store and download the appropriate grade and subject for free.

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Up, Up, and Away!

By Bryanna Williams Recently, Academy Programs launched a weather balloon as part of their summer school program. Our math teacher led the effort in her classes.

Many resources were needed to make this project a successful one. There were many steps that had to be taken to ensure the safe return of our balloon along with the data and pictures that would be included.

In order to predict where our balloon would land, we used the following website: http://predict.habhub.org. This allowed us to choose the best day for our launch.We carefully choose a day where it would land somewhere close enough for an easy retrieval.

Along with the use of the Rasberry Pi software and computer, our math teacher was able to use it as the data collector during our weather balloon's trip. For further directions on how to create a Sense Hat with the Rasberry Pi computer, I have provided the link (https://projects.raspberrypi.org/en/projects/sense-hat-data-logger). The Rasberry Pi computers are available through the Robo-T0-Go program.

Throughout the day, our staff and students were able to track our balloon and see its current location. Our weather balloon landed near Parsons, West Virginia. We were lucky enough to have the staff from one of our fellow Office of Diversion and Transition Programs schools, be able to retrieve it for us.

Upon retrieval and receipt of our balloon, we were able to study the data along with seeing all of the great pictures it took throughout its flight.

Overall, it was a great learning experience for our staff and students. We are looking forward to planning our next launch.

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Professional Development in Your Jammies!

by Linda Bedway

The West Virginia Department of Education has been offering WVLearns eLearning online professional development courses to educators and paraprofessionals since 2006. These courses are presented completely online through the Blackboard LMS and last seven weeks. Courses are available three times per year, OctoberNovember, January-February, and MarchApril. There are more than 80 courses offered through WVLearns and they cover a large variety of topics. There are courses that are appropriate for teachers of grade levels preschool through high school, such as Early Childhood Read Aloud Strategies and Practices or Young Adult Literature.

Courses are also available that could be taken by employees who work with any grade level or are counselors or administrators, such as Creating Your Personal Learning Network, Digital Citizenship, or Cyber Safety. Courses may be taken by educators for three hours of non-degree graduate credit.

Teachers who need graduate credit hours to renew their certification or for advanced salary may use these courses for the required hours. Non-degree graduate credit is available from Concord University, West Virginia State University, Marshall University, and West Virginia University for a cost of $95 to $216 for each course.

Courses also may be taken at no cost if graduate credit is not needed. For example, Technology Integration Specialists can take these course towards their initial certification or their renewals without obtaining graduate credit.

The WVLearns courses run for seven weeks. The first week is an orientation session, where you learn how to navigate the course materials and complete some preliminary assignments, such as introducing yourself in the discussion board, creating a profile in the course, and completing an orientation quiz. Sessions One through Six are filled with contentreadings, videos, and other resources.

During each session, you will respond to a discussion prompt and respond to other participants in the course. The courses have weekly assignments that must also be completed. Some of these are independent of each other, while some are smaller parts to a large project that will be completed by the end of the course. Some courses have assignments that include working with a group of students.

The WVDE eLearning website is: http://wvde.state.wv.us/elearning/ Here you will find the schedule and a course catalog so you can read descriptions of each course that is offered.

If you have any questions, please contact Donna Landin, the eLearning Coordinator, at dlandin@k12.wv.us.

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Contributors Linda Bedway Spanish Teacher TIS Candidate eLearning Facilitator Hurricane High School

Bryanna Williams Title I Reading Specialist TIS Candidate Academy Programs

Tonya Woods Math Teacher TIS Candidate Lead Teacher TSP Davis Stuart School 6