Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Summit 5th graders Participate in Project #TWIMA

Two 5th grade students at Summit Elementary have been taking part in Project #twima. #TWIMA is an acronym that stands for "The World is my Audience."  

The project was started by Mr. Smith, a teacher in Ohio, who began having his own class create books using iBooks Author or the Book Creator iPad App.  He wanted to show elementary students that writing is for more than just "the teacher" - there is an audience who is interested in what they write outside of the classroom, outside of their town, and even outside of their state.  


That initial project then evolved to students and teachers outside of his own school.  The goal of this current #twima project is to create a poetry anthology collaboratively across the United States. So far over 170 classrooms have joined! Poems have been collected from all 50 states as well as several countries around the world. 


A poem representing Idaho was written by Quincy Brown and Lily Farnsworth.  Their teacher, Maggie Stump first heard about the project on Twitter.  She thought it would be a wonderful opportunity for her class.  Quincy and Lily also worked with their TAG teacher, Miriam Brown to learn several poetry techniques.  They wrote several poems before deciding which to submit to the iBook.  The iBook is free and available for download!


Here is a copy of the poem that will be published:




For more information about Project #TWIMA click  HERE.

To download a copy of the book from iTunes click HERE!

Tuesday, November 25, 2014

All the World's a Stage...or at least Jerome High School!

Jerome High School Drama students, under the direction of Patrick Rexroat, competed in the District Drama Competition last weekend.  The team as a whole took first place, and 22 of the entries qualified for the State Competition that will take place Dec 5 and 6 at Rocky Mountain High School in Meridian.

Here are the individual results:

Solo Audition
Tyree Rowberry (State Alternate)
Amanda Ramos (State Qualifier)
Liz Baker (District Champion)

Pantomime
Mady Giles, Santos Chicas, and Emily Van Straalen (State Qualifier)
Micky Ferreira and Delia Barragan (State Qualifier)
Jasmeen Bon and Junior Rosales (District Champion)

Musical Theatre
Rory Olsen, Shelby Elgan, Logan Groves, and Junior Rosales (State Alternate)
Zach Olsen and Zjoli Goodwin (3rd Place)

Serious Solo
Morgan Vaughn (State Qualifier)
Sara Dilworth (State Qualifier)
Zach Olsen (District Champion)

Humorous Solo
Sam Paytosh (3rd Place)

Serious Ensemble
Tyree Rowberry and Natalie Cortez (2nd Place)
Rebekah Thompson and Dylon Harrison (District Champion)

Humorous Ensemble
Cassidy Ridgway, Megan Bright, and Ariana Suaste (State Alternate)
Liz Baker and Amanda Ramos (State Qualifier)

Original Serious
Maryssa Harper, Sara Dilworth, and Callie Castellanos (State Alternate)
Fritzie Saz (State Qualifier)
Isaiah Greer and Joe Bailey (District Champion)

Original Humorous 
Zjoli Goodwin and Liz Hansen (3rd Place)
Morgan Vaughn (2nd Place)
Cassidy Ridgway, Megan Bright, and Anndrea Horton (District Champion)

Scenic Design 
Zach Olsen and Liz Hansen (2nd Place)
Sam Paytosh and Jasmeen Bon (District Champion)

Make-Up Design
Tyree Rowberry and Amanda Ramos (State Alternate)
Morgan Vaughn and Liz Pape (District Champion)

Properties
Rory Olsen and Zjoli Goodwin (District Champion) 

Tuesday, November 18, 2014

Using Technology to Enhance Student Learning - an example from Summit Elementary

Technology can be a great tool for student learning.  The key is to consider the purpose before you stick a device in the hands of a student - it all begins with the teacher and instruction.

At Summit Elementary, 5th grade teacher, Kim Wallace, has been working in conjunction with Kellie Rushing, a Special Education Teacher, to provide individualized instruction to a student.  Many times our Special Ed students get pulled from the general education classes to get special instruction in Reading and Math.  In turn, this means they sometimes miss out on equitable instruction.  Mrs. Wallace and Mrs. Rushing, with the help of a iPad and GAFE (Google Apps for Education), have worked together to solve this problem for one of their students.

This how Mrs Rushing describes the work between she and Mrs. Wallace:

I have found that Google has some great benefits in the classroom.  I share a student with an excellent teacher at Summit who is using Google Apps to change the life of one of her students.  We have a student who has a one-on-one para due to motor difficulties and visual issues.  This student does have an iPad that works well for her. It's easier to use and requires less force to type on than a typical keyword.  Our student is able to use a chunky stylus on her iPad.  This past week her teacher was able to reduce the amount of time that she needs a para to less than half of what it was thanks to Google Apps.  The teacher is putting the majority of the assignments in her Drive and sharing them with this student.  The student is then able to complete the work on her iPad, as she is unable to complete the written work in the traditional way (with paper and pencil).  If there is a worksheet that she needs to do, her teacher can take a picture of it with her iPad and then save it in a workable format so that this student is able to complete it.  The parents of this student have been very helpful also.  She takes her homework home on the iPad and completes any work in her Google Drive.  This student has a new found independence because she does not have to have a para with her at all times to write for her; and, with Google Drive, she does not have to have the para get her materials out and ready for her.  She does not need to have much of her work enlarged because she can easily to this on her own using the iPad.  This student does not come to my classroom, but is a shared student.  The credit belongs to her fifth grade teacher Kimberly Wallace.  I just thought it was a great example of different features that are being used at our school. I have gained the use of a half time para that I did not have before thanks to Google Apps and her teacher.

Mrs. Wallace shared her excitement with connecting to this student as well:  

FYI - here is a sample of a Stepping Stones page that F worked on today in class.  I print the page to a PDF and then share with her in Google Drive.  She opens it in Google Drive and then in an app called Tiny PDF.  This allows her to annotate a pdf document.  She then sends it to me so that I can check it and/or print it.  

I am providing assistance with her at the present time, as she is getting used to the process, but she's gaining confidence and ability every day.  I am able to help her while circulating around the classroom helping the other students as they are working on the same journal page from stepping stones.  She doesn't always finish the whole page, but she is more actively engaged in the math lessons and able to follow along while I am teaching or going over the page with the class.  The other day I told her to slide over to the next page and she informed me that she had already done it and was ready - great progress in my opinion!

We will still need to make the transition from stepping stones to STAR and SBAC - because the format is different and she needs to be able to tell someone exactly how to write down numbers etc. in order to then walk them through all of the steps to solve the problems - but that's on my list so we'll work towards it!

Here is a link to the actual work the student did...The green and purple typed numbers are the student's answers to the Math.  The worksheet comes from a program entitled Stepping Stones by Origo
Student Work in Stepping Stones

This collaborative effort between Mrs. Rushing and Mrs. Wallace shows that when you think of purpose before device - technology truly can enhance student learning!

Wednesday, February 12, 2014

Read with Roxie


Reading in Rhonda Birnie's 4th grade class is going to the dogs - literally!  Students in Mrs. Birnie's class get the opportunity to read to Roxie - a therapy dog with the R.E.A.D. (Reading Education Assistance Dogs) program.  Every Tuesday and Thursday Roxie visits the class, with her friend Kathleen Hite, the Jerome County Fair Manager.  Roxie brings her favorite blanket and treats, and students read stories aloud to her.  She enjoys listening to the stories, and the students have fun while practicing their reading skills.

Roxie is a therapy dog trained through the Intermountain Therapy Animals program based in Salt Lake City, UT.  The mission of the R.E.A.D. program is "to improve the literacy skills of children through the assistance of registered therapy teams as literacy mentors."  The hope is that by working with the trained therapy animals, students will improve reading and communication skills, and learn to love books.



Students in Mrs. Birnie's class take turns each time Roxie comes to visit, so that they all get a chance to read with Roxie.  Ullyses, one student, shared that he enjoys the practice time he gets reading to Roxie because practice will make him a better reader - and he gets to spend time with a "sweet dog."  Fabian shares that he like reading with Roxie because she "really listens."

Mrs. Hite shared that she is in her fourth year working with Mrs. Birnie's class, and enjoys seeing the students grow in their reading skills.

For more information about the R.E.A.D. program, please visit the following website: Intermountain Therapy Animals.

Thanks to Kathleen Hite, and the Jerome County Fair Board, for working with Jerome students!