Newsletter September 9, 2014

WV TIS Cohort 2014-15

Newsletter Date 9/5/2104 Volume 3, Issue 2

TIS & That Inside this issue:

Skills USA

1

Learnzillion

2

Web Resources

3

Web Resources (Continued) and Dates to Know

4

Special points of interest:  Skills USA and CTE students.  Students learn leadership skills.  Students compete for the gold.  Employment oppurtunities.  WV DOE introduces Office 365.

Skills USA Welcome back to a new and exciting year. For the CTE student Skills USA is the way for them to show off their skills and compete against other students from all over the state. Skills USA is a United States career and technical student organization. Skills at the school level is run by the students. Students can run for office to be president, vice, secretary, treasurer, and parliamentarian. Elected officers will then have meetings to discuss upcoming events, fundraisers, and any other pertinent information. Students, mainly

seniors, compete at the local level against each other to see who will represent the school at the state level. Because of the way courses are structured and taught, seniors are usually chosen to represent the school because of their skill level.

Once a student is chosen he or she will refine and practice the skill they are chosen to compete in. If they are the gold medal winner at the state level they can go to the national level and compete. If they win at the national level they can go on to the international level. If they win there they are consid-

ered the best in the world at what they do. If they attain this status, employment opportunities are unlimited. Skills http://www.skillsusa.org/

Student winners at the National Competition

West Virginia DOE teams up with Microsoft The West Virginia Department of Education will start the year with all employees using Office 365 email. Students will also be given an account, so imagine the network of communication we can create. In addition everyone will receive 5 installs of latest version of Microsoft Office. This move will give all students the oppor-

tunity to work with industry standard software. This is one small step for a human, one giant leap for humankind Neil Armstrong with a little word change. Hopefully the transition will be a smooth one for everyone. There is a lot of helpful information on the WVDE website http:// wvde.state.wv.us/office365.

You can also see your school or county TSS or TIS contact for any additional help.

Good Luck!

In The News It is no longer safe to share flash drives It has become possible for any talented computer engineer to tamper with a device’s firmware to duplicate files from a computer. A stranger’s USB stick could trick your computer into thinking it’s a keyboard, type in certain commands and quickly take control of your device. It could also pose as a network card, rerouting your Internet traffic so that everything you do may be seen. This opens you up for identity theft or fraud.

Page 2

TIS & That

Volume 3, Issue 2

Learn Zillion— Differentiation and Blended Learning Have you ever thought about turning your classroom into a blended learning environment?

Many teachers have and simply don’t have the time or possibly the know-how to create online lessons.

With Learn Zillion, students can work at their own pace.

“It's hard to teach a lesson.

It's harder to teach it well. And it's particularly hard to teach it in a way that resonates and sticks with students. Teachers not only have to understand their content, they have to know the best way to teach it.”- Learn Zillion

In walks Learn Zillion. Learn Zillion is a teacher created and cultivated website that provides free video lessons. The lessons cover math and language arts from grades 2nd

through 12th.

Have you ever been reading a Next Gen standard and wondered how that would look being taught? Learn Zillion provides resources that are based on the National Common Core Standards. This site provides not only students with useful tutorials, but also teachers with examples of lessons for the Common Core Standards.

Learn Zillion is a great tool to differentiate instruction as well as helping teachers blend technology into the classroom seamlessly.

Learn Zillion is ultimately made with the sheer purpose of providing resources to teachers to become better facilitators. In the next sections we will examine some of the benefits of Learn Zillion in the 21st Century classroom.

Differentiation Differentiation is something that every teacher is striving to accomplish with ALL of their students. Being only one person with twenty-five or more students to individually meet the needs of can feel overwhelming, Learn Zillion gives students and teachers a unique freedom.

It allows students to work on lessons that address their academic weak areas, while allowing the teacher to still focus on individual students either oneon-one or in small guided groups.

Teachers can assign lessons and quizzes and track their students’ progress. Students

can move ahead to more complex lessons if they show mastery or they can work on some remedial lessons as an intervention..

With Learn Zillion, a teacher can focus directly on the student or students she has directly in front of her and know that every student is getting what they need.

Blended Learning We know that technology can engage students in ways that have not been seen before. As educators we want to provide our students with meaningful instruction that help them to grow. How can we use technology and that level of engagement to provide meaningful instruction?

Learn Zillion offers lessons that teachers can assign and students can complete on their own time in the order they would like to complete them.

Teachers don’t have to spend a ton of time trying to record lessons. Instead, teachers can create accounts or simply give students a code to a lesson that

will meet the student or class’ needs.

Teachers can also assign students to take notes using a template, give students hard copy of anchor texts, and assign quizzes to keep up with student progress.

Breaking News: Mind Mapping— ThingLink Interactive writing is a fun and engaging way to get students excited about the writing process. Many teachers have utilized Prezi and Pinterest for

mind mapping during the writing process. Now, there is a new option out there.

tive experience for students to be creative and make mind maps for their writing,

Thinglink provides an interac-

https://www.thinglink.com/

TIS & That

Volume 3, Issue 2

Page 3

Resources & Beyond for All Art http://www.theteachingpalette.com/ 

“The Teaching Palette is a blog authored by art educators for art educators. Our goal is to provide a collaborative and resourceful forum where art specialists.”

http://www.incredibleart.org/ 

“The home page of The Incredible Art Department (IAD), the oldest art education website on the internet. See hundreds of art lessons, resources, and art news .”

http://lesson-plans.theteacherscorner.net/ 

“A collection of educational worksheets, lesson plans, activities and resources forteachers and parents.”

Physical Education/Health http://www.pecentral.org/ 

“PE Central is a web site that provides information about developmentatally appropriate physical education practices and programs.”

http://www.teachpe.com/ 

“GCSE PE Teaching resources and Worksheets - and Free resources for PE Teachers and Coaches to download and use in your own lessons.”

http://www.pescholar.com/ 

“A free community website for sharing high quality physical education resources, lesson plans, academic articles, blogs, and more.”

Science www.sciencekids.co.nz/ 

“Science Kids is the home of science & technology for kids around the world Science Kids is the home of science & technology on the Internet for children around the world.” www.nclark.net/



“This site is designed to provide high school and middle school science teachers access to the materials and resources.” www.science-class.net/



“Resources for middle grades science educators.”

Social Studies www.socialstudiesforkids.com/ 

“Social Studies for Kids is a site with articles, subjects, and tons of links for all subjects of social studies.”

www.kids.nationalgeographic.com/ 

“Play games, watch videos, learn about animals, and places, and get fun facts on theNational Geographic Kids website.”

www.teachtci.com 

“Our online lesson plans, student handouts, assessment tools, and enrichment resources give teachers all the tools they need to turn their social studies classroom into an engaging and stimulating experience for each and every student.”

Music https://www.teachervision.com/ 

“Music Resources for Teachers. Bring some music into your classroom with lessons and printables!” http://lesson-plans.theteacherscorner.net/music/



“Music Lesson Plans and Activities. The Teacher's Corner provides music lessons around colors, literature, and more.”

Foreign Language www.uni.edu/becker/



“A site designed for language educators that provides resources on grammar, foreign languages, and different language sites.”

www.languageguide.org/ 

“A collaborative project to develop interactive, sound-integrated language learning resources.”

Math www.aplusmath.com 

“Interactive math resources for teachers, parents, and students featuring free math worksheets, math games, math flashcards, and more.”

http://www.321know.com/ 

“AAA Math features a comprehensive set of thousands of interactive arithmetic lessons.”

http://www.mathgoodies.com/ 

“Math help since 1998. Math Goodies helps kids at all levels with interactive instruction and free resources. Get help online or offline”

Reading/LA http://teachers.net/lessonplans/ 

“Net features thousands of free lesson plans and classroom ideas submitted byteachers just like you.”

http://www.readwritethink.org 

Providing educators and students access to the highest quality practices and resources in reading and language arts instruction.

Tech Dates to Know   

September 25– Infusing Technology “Web Resources”, Morgantown, WV (WVCPD) October 2– Infusing Technology “Web Resources”, Charleston, WV (WVCPD) October 15– Infusing Technology “Web Resources”, Martinsburg, WV (WVCPD)

Amy Hatfield Special Education Teacher Buckhannon-Upshur Middle School Upshur County Donald Paitsel

Alex Springer-Post

Drafting Instructor

Technology Lab Teacher / TIS

Boone Career Center

Orchard View Intermediate

Boone County

Berkeley County