Supporting LGBTQ Students and LGBTQ History.

My plan for this group will involve the reading of two books:

1) LGBT Youth in America's schools by Jason Cianciotto and Sean Cahill:
This book deals with school policies towards LGBT students, and seeks to send educators and administrators in the way to be supportive and what are the best practices. It also relates the stories of several students and their experiences in schools. I notice they left off the Q here, so if the book feels incomplete there are a few other books that can perhaps supplement my learning with a third book. The goal would be to make my classroom a more welcoming place.

2) Understanding and Teaching US Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Edited by Leila J. Rupp and Susan K. Freeman. This is a collection of essays that are designed to help teachers integrate more LGBT history into their classrooms. I would try to incorporate some of this newfound knowledge into my own curriculum.

In addition, I'd be willing to look into guest speakers for those who might find it helpful to learn more about supporting LGBTQ students. While obviously I would not book anyone, I can at least provide some names to the administration if they feel like this topic merits it.

If anyone thinks that sounds interesting to them, feel free to talk to me about joining this group.

As a second grade team we started a edublog. We have been asked to share this with the ACS faculty and staff. It is a secure website and you need a password to access. We are hoping the enrichments will join our blog so it will be one stop viewing for the parents.
pombodavis@edublog.net Password acs2ndgrade. Happy blogging.

Tynker: California Missions

TED talk presenter Dan Meyer, a math teacher describes a how he taught his students to "love word problems."

Click here to view TED talk

Looking for a better way to give feedback or how about generating and sharing Service Learning Projects? Check out these two applications.

 I just discovered an application that tracks student work and skills and gives student feedback. This is probably most appropriate for middle school students but since all students have Google Accounts, some elementary teachers may find it useful. Feedback can be archived to prevent repeating yourself. You can sign in with your school Google account making it easy for students to access your feedback. You can also attach links to resources to the feedback to help students see examples of what improvements to make. You don't have to keep repeating yourself.

Here is a presentation that explains Kaizena and how it works. 

Link to Prezi

Here is the link to the website:

https://kaizena.com/

Please note there is a CAIS workshop on Kaizena at the upcoming Regional Meeting March 9. It is Session #2-61.

Looking for service learning projects and a way to share those projects with a larger audience? Prezi Causes may be your answer.

Prezi is free, online presentation software. The last couple of presentations I made to you were done in Prezi. It isn't better than what you are used to using but it offers some features not available in Google Presentations and can be accessed anywhere unlike Office Powerpoint. 

One thing that sets Prezi apart from other presentation software is the company has begun a campaign to share global concerns and information about them through their software. One of the features of Prezi is that it allows a creator to share a Prezi presentation with everyone else who uses the software. 

Prezi wanted to highlight the work of nonprofits and charities. The first campaign highlighted in Prezi Causes is "The Ocean Cleanup Concept. " The presentation presents the problem and ideas for addressing the problem.

Here is a link to the first Prezi Cause:

The Ocean Cleanup Concept

In a recent article entitled published in eSchool News yesterday, "3 Things Great Teachers Do with Technology," the writer Tom Daccord states," 

1. They empower students through creativity.

2. They connect learners.

3. They make learning last.

Both of these applications connect learners to others:

Kaizena fosters feedback that is timely, individual, and trackable which may be the piece that has been more difficult in the past. The online platform makes it easier for the teacher  and the student to communicate. 

Prezi Causes allows learners to share ideas and information with others outside their classrooms in a creative and novel way. The process  allows the creator to share a variety of media; they can reinforce their own understanding and share the learning with a self-selecting audience of people interested in the topic or cause. 

May Blog

Faculty Laptops

All Faculty laptops must be turned in before you check out in June. Please create a personal backup for your data prior to turning in your laptop. Laptops will be re-imaged for use elsewhere. Bring me an external hard drive by May 30, if you would like me to show you how to back up your data. After that date, you are on your own as I will be swamped with end of the year tech tasks. 

Email ACS Help Desk  if you have any questions. 

Thanks, Mary Beth and Dave

Do you want to purchase your current laptop?

All Faculty laptops will be replaced this year. If you would like to buy your current laptop, please let me know. If you have a white MacBook unibody, you may have the laptop for free once it has been reset to factory settings. If you have a MacBook Pro, the cost is $500. It will be reset to factory settings. The MBP's still have one year of Apple Care on them.

You will need to back up all your documents, photos and videos on a personal external hard drive. Then I will take your computer and reset it.  This will need to be done before you check out in June. 

If you need help backing up your data, please bring me an external hard drive and I will help you. The external hard drive can also be used for any future backups of data in your personal and school computer. When I set up the hard drive for you, I will create two partitions for you, one for school data and one for personal data. Then you can get into the practice of backing up your own computers at home as a secondary safeguard in case the servers at school crash, or the computers themselves crash.

In summary, to purchase or keep your laptop, you need to do the following:

1. Send me an email at mgay@a-cs.org telling me your want to keep or buy your laptop. 

2. Back up your laptop data on a personal external hard drive.  (Bring me the hard drive, if you want me to help you.)

3. Bring me the laptop and a check for the amount of $500 for the MBP made out to ACS, and I will reset your now personal computer. 

    OR bring me the MacBook Unibody and I will reset your now personal computer. 

4. Remember all faculty laptops, whether you are purchasing them or not, must be turned in before you check out in June. 

Let me know if you have any questions,

Mary Beth

April Blog

• We will be having a lockdown drill involving students on this Friday, April 4^th at 10:05.  See Schedule below.

For this drill our focus will be on locking the doors and hiding the children in an interior barricade. Please have your walkie-talkie with you and/or cell phone. We will only stay hidden for 5 minutes before I will call the all clear. At that point, please evacuate to the outside field for roll. You are not expected to barricade the door but you should cover the windows as much as possible.

A note has been sent to parents about the drill so that they can talk with their children about it.

I have talked to a number of knowledgeable people and thought a lot about how to present this to children, especially our younger ones. The goal is to make this procedure, like what we do for fire or earthquake drills, feel somewhat routine. That way, children will know what is expected in a real situation. We should not make a game of something that is so serious. Instead, we should be very matter-of-fact.

 “Here at school we practice drills to keep everyone safe. For a lockdown drill, we need to hide silently inside to keep safe. Here is how we do that in our class.”

You do not need to go into what the danger is outside or explain. I know that students may ask or want to tell. Just let them know that this is what we do for this drill to keep safe – lock the door, gather in this area, stay as quiet as possible.

Schedule for drill:

·      10:05 – Announcements (phone and walkie-talkies) and blasts on air horn. Admin watches areas rather than taking part. They check to see that doors are locked and if they can see children.

·      10:15 – All clear announced. Classes evacuate to outside field.

·      10:20 – Roll is done followed by dismissal back to class.

 Please feel free to email me questions or come talk to me about your ideas/concerns.

Gary

• To Access the color copier from a computer:

First: run Managed Software Updates

To run Managed Software Updates, go to Finder - Applications - Utilities- click on the Managed Software Update. 

Follow the prompts to download and install. You may choose to install by logging out of not. If you have to restart, you will be prompted to do so. 

Once the install is complete, you will have all the up-to-date printer drivers to make printing work. 


Second: Select RM2_Sharp_MX6240N

Open the document you wish to print, select RM2_Sharp_MX6240N. 

*Once you have selected the printer, click on the Copies and Pages drop down menu. 
Select Job Handling.

Select Authentication.

Click on the button next to user number. Then type in your 5 digit code for copying. 

Click Print. 

*You will have to do each of the bolded steps every time you wish to print to the copier. Otherwise, the print job will not go through.