Differentiation

What:

In hopes of bringing more creativity, variety, and depth to our math classes, Nate and Henry wondered what
other ways are there to provide instruction for our math students so that we can create more time in our classes
to allow for individual instruction and differentiation?  For this adjustment to our teaching methodology, we will try
a using few different tools.   

Materials:

• Moodle
• Edpuzzle
• IXL
• Quizziz
• Quizlet

Time:

While this will hopefully lead to a longer lasting change to instruction, for this project we will be reflecting on
one or two particular lessons from an upcoming unit.

Challenge for teacher:

• Less ownership in directing students through material/concepts
• Need to communicate to students what is trying to be achieved
• Preparing/finding/organizing resources (creating the online course)

Challenge for students:

• More independent
• More ownership of their learning process

Challenge for parents:

• Trust that the teacher is not taking the “lazy way out”

Tips:

• Be okay with small successes and failures

Narrative:

Watch this video to see what we are doing.

iNaturalist Use in Kindergarten - Bridge Group

What: 

Kindergarten students will sort plants found on the ACS campus by using a photograph and asking key questions as inspired by the app iNaturalist.

Materials: 

• iPads
• iNaturalist app
• Camera 
• Photos

Time: Lots of teacher prep time to design an iNaturalist-like experience for Kindergarteners. 3-5 lessons to prepare students for inquiry, photograph plants, sort plants.

Challenges: 
The iNaturalist app is designed for students in upper elementary, middle school and beyond. Kindergarten students need a more limited set of attributes to identify than those used by the full version of iNaturalist.

Narrative:  

Our hope was to connect technology integration with Outdoor Education lessons by using local plants (and animals) to demonstrate that 5-6 year old students can be citizen scientists. The plan is to have students observe and possibly take pictures of plants on the ACS campus. They could then share the photos with the iNaturalist community by identifying the plants by their color and shape. The students can also see what plants and animals have been observed by the surrounding community. (See screenshots from iNaturalist from Ada, Michigan).

In kindergarten classes, our intent is to integrate this into our visits outdoors through the school year, choosing, as a class, a plant to identify and add to the community through the app.

Jackie Frens

Hannah Phillips

Empathy Unit

What:
Technology helps many people to communicate.  Communication boards have been used for many years, now the same concept is available as an APP to help with communication.  This APP is just one way people with disabilities use to help them be a part of the world God created.  The 6th grade team is learning about empathy and they have an opportunity to experience what that might be like to have a disability. Empathy is an essential part of understanding what others may be experiencing.  Yesterday we looked at our own strengths and weaknesses, as God has made us wonderfully and different from each other.  Both 6th grade classes had excellent discussions sparked by a disability awareness survey.  In particular the question asking should students with disabilities be able to go the same school as students without disabilities?  What great deep thinkers these students are!

Materials:

• Fish in a Tree by Lynda Mullaly Hunt
• Communication app: Verbally
• Socks
• Blurred glasses
• Wiggle pens
• Headphones
• Mirrors
• Legos
• Various YouTube Videos
• iMovie
• Skype

Time: 2-3 weeks

Preschool Newsletter

This fall, our goal was to create an online newsletter for preschool parents.  We wanted to create a newsletter where parents could refer back to calendars, notes, and more when needed.  This document also has the main preschool calendar linked at the top for the year.

Take a peek by following the link below.

ACS Preschool Matters

We opted to use the google format so that parents would not have to sign in and remember a password for all this important information.  No sign in has been a big plus for parents as this was feedback that parents wanted.

The announcements at the top of the ACS Preschool Matters change on a weekly basis similar to the Middle School Matters and the ACS Newsletter.

Each class also has a google photo album.  No special sign in is required for these as well.  We quickly learned how to organize the photos so that the most recent ones appear at the top of the album.  We can link our google photos from our phone directly to these albums which makes it super quick to add photos for parents to view.

We worked on making the least clicks possible in the document as well.

Here are some pros.

• Use less paper copies
• All preschool information in one place
• Parents have continual access
• Photo albums can easily be shown to visitors
• Parents receive one email per week with the weekly news

Here are some cons.

• Teachers feel a little less connected with parents as the Preschool Matters is emailed out from myself, the director.
• Parents are not checking backpacks regularly.

Celebrations

• Everything is one place for parents to find online.
• Way less paper is used per week.
• Preschool teachers have been posting with ease and have now found it easier than the old paper way of doing newsletters and such.

Moving forward

• We are in the process of creating a survey to go to parents about the Preschool Matters page.
• We hope to gain information about the parents' view for this page.
• We hope to learn how we can tweak this page for the years to come.
• We hope to gain knowledge on what parents are truly reading each week.

New focus

• We will begin to look at preschool teachers' phones for sharing google classroom photos.
• Thoughts to consider include privacy rights on personal phones, access on phones for teachers, and more.

Middle School Research Resources

What:
I will be working on a Google Site containing several resources for research. My goal is to help make the many processes involved in researching something accessible for students in 5-8th grade regardless of content area. Hopefully this will help standardize at least a few of the research skills required for good work and allow both teachers and students to access consistent procedures and vocabulary.

How:
My first goal for the Google Site is to either curate or create a series of instructional videos for specific moments in the research process. By the end of this project, it could be possible for a student to view the steps of research for an entire assignment!

To begin, though, I will be creating a series of screencast videos regarding bibliographies and in-text citations. I aim to have these videos complete before the beginning of the final trimester, as I will be conducting a research unit with ACS's 7th graders during that time. These initial videos will cover the following topics:

- Choosing a bibliography curator: the pros and cons of Easybib vs. Knightcite
- Correctly creating and formatting a bibliography
- Key Question: "What is an in-text citation, and why do I need them?"
- Formatting and integrating in-text citations.

What:
We are using the website PebbleGo to incorporate technology into our Social Studies units and topics of study. This website is age friendly and allows for students to navigate the different tabs, articles and pictures on their own.

Materials:
Pebble Go and corresponding worksheet/graphic organizer. In the future we would may also incorporate different crafts as well.

Time:
30 minutes max

Challenges:
Some students may not be able to read the information independently and comprehend what it is saying. Navigating the website can be challenging at this age level until students are familiar with it.

Narrative:
During our schedule tech time with Jackie we completed a PebbleGo activity about Thanksgiving. This was the perfect way to introduce the website and how to navigate it with the help of Jackie. Overall, the lesson went well! It gave students the opportunity to learn more about Thanksgiving and it fit perfectly into our unit on the Pilgrims. It also was a great way to expose students to the website and how to copy down information from the iPad on to a worksheet.

Denise and I are planning on using PebbleGo to go along with our current unit on Christmas Around the World. On December 21 we will be combining classes and using PebbleGo to learn more about Christmas traditions around the world. This way we will be able to pair up students with higher reading levels with students who may struggle to read independently. We will also incorporate a craft and have a whole group discussion on what we have learned. We will be sure to take lots of pictures and update you all on how it goes!

Raspberry pi sensors and camera

What:

Students will code and design sensors to be used in the greenhouse / hoop house to track plant growth. The reason I chose this project is to show students how coding can connect with the Internet of Things to provide data and, possibly, control conditions in a space.

Materials: 

• raspberry pi / SD card / monitor / keyboard / mouse
• raspberry pi camera
• temperature sensor
• moisture sensor
• python programming app

Time: NA

Challenges: 

My hope was to pilot this with the FIRST Lego League team members which are a self-selected group of students who meet after school, but we ran out of time preparing for the December 1, 2018 competition. Remaining tasks:

• Set up the raspberry pi's for programming python
• Work out wifi details.
• Identify a group of motivated students who would be a good fit for a pilot program

Narrative:  
The Lego League team met with Daniel VanNoord, ACS grad and local engineer, who presented on possible sensors and how they have the ability to monitor temperature, humidity and light. However, the group's project proposal for the FIRST Lego League competition--to investigate ways to grow plants in space--was not a good fit for setting up sensors in the hoop house since the project required more research and preparations for the presentation which did not leave room for piloting the sensors in the hoophouse.

I may switch my project to a more workable one for this year. However, I plan to leave the possibility open of revisiting this idea in the future.