What I did at school today: 2/10/14

Back when I taught 3rd grade, I have to admit that the 5th grade writing test was not on my radar.  Then, a couple of teachers did a training on a tool called NCS Mentor, and it helped us understand how the writing test was scored.  I realized that 3rd grade was not too early to begin training students how to score their own papers using the rubric and standards being used by the state of VA.  As fate would have it, I ended up teaching 5th grade the last year before I left the classroom.  Preparing my students for the test that year forced me to delve even deeper into what makes a "winning" paper, at least as far as the SOL gods are concerned.

My first year as a technology facilitator, I developed a series of lessons to help my teachers prepare their students for the writing test.  These lessons have evolved, as has the test itself.  NCS Mentor was transformed into an online tool and renamed Perspective.  This year Perspective was updated to reflect the changes in the way the test is scored.

As I mentioned in my previous post, the teachers at my new schools didn't even know about these lessons, and it wasn't until last week that I brought it to their attention.  Today, I taught the first of those lessons to a couple of classes at MVES.  I was pleased at how it was received by both the teachers and the students.

Another task that has occupied my time today is updating the iPads.  After all the work I had done with these #^&*$ devices last fall, I didn't think I'd ever forget the procedure, but sure enough, I had to go through my notes again.  I'm presenting a few new apps at our next ETF meeting, and I wanted to add them to the student iPads before then.  It's a slow process, but like a bad dream, it's all coming back to me.