Shake Up Semester Review

It's that time of year when most classrooms move into review mode, and I've seen or heard about some interesting approaches, including a review activity that merges Old Maid with prepositional phrases. If you are looking for a few ways to approach review in a new way, check out these ideas that I stole from my friend Chris.

Quiz-Quiz-Trade (No technology)
Write review questions & answers on notecards. Each student gets one notecard. Students get up, mingle, ask each other the quiz question, then trade their cards. They mix again, ask, trade...Continue until most students have asked and answered most questions. *BONUS: If the students write the review questions, they get double review in some ways AND have to process the information at a deeper level!

Partner Problems (No technology)Split a worksheet into 2 columns. (Typically this ends up being odds vs evens). Each pair of students gets one worksheet and one writing utensil. Fold the worksheet in half so only one set of questions shows. Partner A reads question 1 and explains the answer; Partner B agrees/disagrees and explains why; then, Partner A writes down the answer/work. Partner B takes the paper and pencil, flips the page and does the same with #2. Partners continue doing one problem at a time on their half of the paper, checking with the other student, and then writing down the answer until the entire worksheet is complete.

6 Slide Challenge (Technology)
Assign students different specific topics for review. Have them create a 6 slide Google presentation about their topic, and time each slide to last only 10 seconds. Students will present their slides to the class, but only have 60 seconds to explain the concept. (ex: literary terms, rhetorical devices, grammar concepts, etc.)

Socrative Space Race (Technology)
Lastly...Socrative, which I know many of you already use in some form.  Set up Space Race questions on Socrative.com. Students will login to your “room” that you set up, and compete to get their spaceship to the end of the track first. It’s like the carnival game where you shoot water in the clown’s mouth to move the thing up the pole… except that getting the correct answers is the water that moves your space ship. The first student or team that hits the end wins - or the team that gets the farthest, as you can’t get to the end unless all answers are correct.

Equity and Access Training Opportunity

Last week, I mentioned a number of summer learning opportunities for educators, including the district offered Red Apple classes. One particular Red Apple class that might be of interest to many of you is the Access and Equity training. This particular session will address questions such as: Why do some students experience success at school while others back away from challenge? and Does our educational community unknowingly have beliefs or use behaviors that inadvertently create inequity and deny students access to learning? Conversations will focus on how our district can work towards eliminating gender, racial, and class-based achievement gaps by addressing areas such as access; pedagogy and curriculum; and student, teacher, and community identities. Time will be spent exploring recent research in these areas through group work, individual reflection, and small and large group discussions.

If we truly believe that we as a district are seeking "To educate and prepare each student to succeed in a changing world," these are the ideas we need to explore and the conversations we need to have.

The Access and Equity training will be offered twice this summer: June 20-23 (at New Tech) and August 8-11 (at CTE). Like other Red Apple courses, graduate credits will be offered at a small cost through Augustana and USF.

I urge to you to consider this training as part of your summer learning. Once you've decided to do it, register here. ;-)

Operation Spring Cleaning

As you wrap up the year and start to clean out drawers and cupboards, please keep these two things in mind.

1. For the first time, the Sioux Falls Public Schools Education Foundation is hosting a teacher swap meet next fall on Thursday, August 11th. If you have items you no longer need but another teacher may want, consider reserving a table at the swap meet. You can choose if you want to sell your items (you set your own prices) or trade for other items. See the details in the poster below.



2. If you don't wish to participate in the swap meet but are looking for a place to dump your no-longer-needed-treasures, please consider emailing me! I will help the treasures find new homes. (Because I have 1/2 a cubicle at IPC, I am unfortunately unable to accommodate really large treasures...) On the flip side, if you are looking for an item, you may also email me to see if I have it.

Summer 2016 Graduate Credit Opportunities

Free grad credits are nice...but they aren't always available.

In the meantime...If you are looking for grad credits to move you to the next lane on the salary schedule or to finalize your recertification, here are a few options to consider.

First, a few degree advancement reminders...

If you are looking at completing any graduate credit work this summer or early next fall, remember to submit your Coursework Pre-Approval forms. The district review committee will review forms one last time this school year, and forms are due by noon on Friday, May 27. Access documents and guidelines on inSite.

FREE Graduate Credits

The Dakota Writing Project is hands down some of the BEST PD I've had, and their Summer Institute is coming up quickly. It runs June 13 - July 8, and this year, the first three weeks are on campus at USD and the fourth week is online. The DWP just sent out information that they can pay 100% tuition and fees for the first 12 who register. (The Institute is worth 6 graduate credits!) If you are interested, please email Michelle Rogge Gannon before May 23 at mrogge@usd.edu for the details. (Email her ASAP so that you can be one of the 12!)

Online Graduate Credits

​If you are interested in completing self-paced graduate credits in your PJs and in the comfort of your own home, you might want to check out Learners Edge Professional Development. Learners Edge offers (mostly 3 credit) courses on: Teaching Excellence, Instructional Strategies, Classroom Management, Literacy, Brain-Based, Technology, Leadership, and Design & Assessment. Browse their Summer/Fall 2016 Catalog here. Also, a handful of colleges endorse their courses, and you can request your credit through one of the colleges listed on the Learners Edge website. (Augie is one, so if you already have a few graduate courses through Augie, you can add any Learner's Edge course to your Augie transcript.) Lastly, if you are new to Learners Edge, use promo code FRIEND20 to receive $20 off your first ​3-credit course.

Local Graduate Credits

There are also a number of great opportunities available here in town. 

• ​The District offers Red Apple courses, which offer teachers opportunities to get grad credits for less than the typical university cost. View the Red Apple calendar here. 
• Augie and USF both offer continuing education courses during the summer. View Augie's list here and USF's list here.
• New Tech is also offering the Project Based Learning Academy again. There are two courses offered: Academy I - Introduction to Project Based Learning, and Academy II - Integration of Project Based Learning​. (Click on the links to view descriptions.) Registration closes on May 23.

Happy learning!