Social Studies Day

Today we have social studies teachers in for training and discussions about state standards and other teaching ideas.

Harris Payne, the NDE social studies consultant brought excellent resources such as the Standards Instructional Tool (SIT); which links lessons to the standards at all levels.

More information can be found on the following sites

Social Studies NE Wiki
ESU 6 Social Studies Wiki
K-5 Standards Instructional Tool
Middle School Standards Instructional Tool
High School Standards Instructional Tool

Media Network

Lynne hosted a meeting for our media specialists that included great discussion and participation.

Much of the discussion centered around the e-book project; which is a consortium between member schools. The team considered new additions to the collection and processes to improve the e-book project.

The agenda was built by the participants, which really focused on their needs.

Lynne's efforts to make this a success are evident from the collaborative discussions a strong attendance.

More information can be found on the Media Wiki

New Academic Game - Battleship

Academic games are a great way to engage students.  While on some classroom visits, I had the chance to see a new one in a science class by Joel Fritz at Waverly High School - Battleship.

Here's how it works:

• The students play in pairs at their table
• Each positions their ship on a grid - see example below
• They take turns asking questions from flash cards posted on Quizlet - he had 47 ready to go
• If they answer a question correctly they get to guess a battle ship position
• They alternated until one person wins

Here's what I like about this - the focus is on the questions, the actual game doesn't eat up the whole time.  It also allows all kids to play at the same time; too often games can leave kids out as they wait their turn.

Here's a picture of a game in progress:

Principals' Network

We had our Principals in for the final meeting on February 18; with a continued focus on instructional leadership.  April Kelley from our staff did a great job sharing how to have those difficult conversations with teachers.  She provided some specifics about how to deal with "Excuses and Blanket Statements".

I gained a lot of knowledge about how some of our principals are working with their staff to implement an instructional language and to encourage them to try new things in their classes.

Laura Kroll, the Exeter-Milligan elementary principal shared how she uses Google Communities to post challenges for her staff.  For example, one challenge was to share a routine they use at the beginning of class as a bellringer.   This provided staff a way to share in a fun "Challenge" format.

More information about the meeting can be found on our wiki at http://esu6principals.wikispaces.com/