August 26

Upcoming Math Workshops

Hello!

I want to share the Region 4 Math Teacher Workshops being offered through October (no cost to teachers). This format shares some more detailed information.

Intro. To Desmos Workshop Series (K-12)

Desmos is a free math platform that allows teachers to build lessons in interactive ways that can be used in synchronous, asynchronous and face to face environments.

Join other Region 4 math teachers for a series of virtual workshops to learn how to use Desmos in K-12 classrooms. Each workshop will be one hour.

Sign up for any one or all of the workshops HERE.

  • September 29th @ 4pm Introduction to Desmos: 
  • Participants will be introduced to Desmos and learn how to navigate, find and save activities, as well as how to create codes.
  • October 13th @ 4pm Beginner Building Activities with Desmos
  • Participants will learn to build their own Desmos activities and be introduced to the Computational Layer.
  • October 27th @ 4pm Getting the Most from Desmos
  • Participants will explore how to implement Desmos in face to face, synchronous and asynchronous environments.

Making the Most of the Math Learning Center Apps (K-5 and all Title and Special Education)

The  Math Learning Center Apps have been upgraded with a share option and in this virtual workshop we will explore how to create interactive activities in grades K-5 that enhance your students’ mathematical experience.  We will look at how to orchestrate instruction with these apps in synchronous, asynchronous and face to face environments using your curriculum.

This virtual workshop will be one hour and is being offered on two different dates.

Sign up for one of the workshops HERE.

Choose the date that works best for you!

  • September 1st    @4pm
  • September 21st  @ 4pm

Thank you!

Rhonda

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August 24

Istations Re-norming

Istation Renorms the ISIP™ Math

Istation is updating the norming of our ISIP Math assessments to ensure that our math assessments fall in line with the most current national education standards.

Istation continuously strives to provide the highest quality assessments and reporting. It is our professional responsibility to present the most accurate, reliable, and valid assessment of student performance. Customers have asked for a more rigorous assessment, a vertical scale that goes across grades, and reliable domain scores. This renorming meets all three of these objectives.

Students’ ISIP Ability Scores will change. We are constructing a vertical scale for the overall math score that will go across grades. The overall scores will range from 100 to 900. To track progress from the previous school year, educators can compare percentiles, tiers, or levels. The new norms are more rigorous. Istation customers can expect that with the new norms, some students may have a tier or level change. We will provide conversion charts so that customers can see how student scores from the previous norms compare to the new norms. Math domain scores will continue to be for individual grades, and they will also be on a different scale than last year.

National norms for ISIP Math were updated for students in prekindergarten through grade 8 based on a nationally representative sample. These norms show teachers, parents, and students how student scores compare with a nationally representative sample of students in the same grade. Re-norming is done periodically as our customer population increases to ensure that as many demographic variables as possible are represented in the norming sample.

Norming establishes the Instructional Tier Goals used to determine Instructional Tiers and Levels. Consistent with other math assessments, Istation has defined a three-tier normative grouping based on ability scores associated with the 20th and 40th percentiles. Students with an ability score above the 40th percentile for their grade are placed in Tier 1. Students with an ability score at or below the 20th percentile are placed in Tier 3. We have similarly created new goals for the Istation Levels, segmenting students into five quintiles split at the 20th, 40th, 60th, and 80th percentiles.

If you would like to see the rest of the update/article please go to the Istations website and check out the “frequently asked questions”.

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August 19

Bridges Assessment Option For Each Unit

I am sure you have seen this, but on the off chance you haven’t, Bridges has a nice quick screener for each unit in each grade level and then a nice explanation about how to use the info. from the screener. It is in the new section called 2020-2021 resources for each grade level. There are several great resources…Especially the digital workplaces!!!
The screeners satisfy the idea of finding out where the kiddos are related to each unit, and not doing a giant assessment that doesn’t give specific unit related information.
Screen Shot 2020-08-19 at 1.54.30 PM.png
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August 18

Making Documents Adaptable to Google Classroom

While Bridges has made several upgrades with making resources easily able to upload to google classroom, there are some items that are not easily google classroom friendly.  Here are some written steps to turn any worksheet into an easily editable page that you can utilize in google classroom.
1.  Use your snipping tool to copy and save that image to your desktop so that you can find it quickly for future steps.
2.  Open up google slides and delete the text boxes that may already be there.
3.  If you right click on the small image, you can select change background.  Select choose image and browse for the image you saved in step 1.  This “locks” the worksheet in place.
4.  Depending on the worksheet image that you saved, you will probably need to re-adjust the page set up.  To do this, select file, page set up, custom and type in the dimensions (such as 8.5×11).
5.  You can add slides and follow the steps for multi page forms.
6.  You can insert text boxes where needed.  I recommend putting a border on any inserted text boxes to make them more visible.
Video for those who are more visual: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nkal8AuddbE&t=3s
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August 17

Bridges

Tech Tool

 

Rhonda Birnie, our Region 4 math guru brought this wonderful resource to my attention!

Here is a great tech tool app from the Bridges Math learning Center.  There are so many possibilities with this app and could be used in class, hybrid, or online teaching models.  Please check out the video as a tutorial for how to use this FREE math app.

 

https://www.mathlearningcenter.org/resources/apps

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August 14

Self Care-10 Things the Brain Needs

 

10 Things the Brain Needs

by Pete Hall

Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw

As we get started this year, we had a presentation during Summer Institute from Pete Hall.  This is a great reminder of how to be our best as teachers, parents, caregivers, or in all relationships throughout our day. Take care of yourself and the rest will follow.  Here is the link and Pete Halls credentials.

Pete Hall is one of the 99% who believes he uses a little more than 10% of his available brain power. He’s also a former school principal and co-author (with Kristin Souers) of two trauma-related resources: Fostering Resilient Learners: Strategies for creating a trauma-sensitive classroom (ASCD, 2016) and Relationship, Responsibility, and Regulation: Trauma-invested strategies for fostering resilient learners (ASCD, 2018). You can email his brain at PeteHall@EducationHall.com.

 

https://www.fosteringresilientlearners.org/blog/2019/4/8/healthy

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