Day 71, Principal Ellen Johnson, Fox Hill Elementary

New Standards in Teaching and Learning:
Massachusetts is one of 43 states who have adopted the Common Core State Standards  (CCSS) to guide and shape curriculum, teaching and learning.  Our new report card was developed using the Common Core State Standards and reflect what we are teaching and children are expected to be learning in each grade.   The CCSS were developed by the Council of Chief State School Officers and the National Governors Association of Best Practices in partnership with a wide variety of educators and parents.  Massachusetts was a leader and a key participant in developing CCSS due to the fact that Massachusetts has some of the most rigorous learning standards in the United States since Educational Reform Act in 1990.  Many of Massachusetts past educational learning standards are integrated into the CCSS, however, there are some key and important changes in the new CCSS.  First, the CCSS has established higher reading expectations and benchmarks by expecting students to be more proficient in reading books with increased text complexity.  Second, CCSS expect and require students to engage more with informational text (50% by Grade 4) and write about information obtained from non-fiction text with increased understanding and proficiency.  Third, CCSS expect and require students to master fewer math concepts but expect students to manipulate numbers mentally to engage in math reasoning by explaining their understanding of numbers and math in writing.  Writing about math and how to solve math problems requires deep understanding of math concepts and their relationship to each other.
Below is an excellent video created in New York City Public Schools that summarizes some of the important components in the CCSS along with how teachers are adjusting and adapting their teaching to meet the demands of the CCSS.  New York is also an adopter of the CCSS.


 

Day 70, Burlington Science Center

Our Feature Exhibit called “The Science of Bears”:
Every other year, the Science Center designs, develops and builds an exhibit that travels to each lobby of the elementary schools in Burlington.  These exhibits are smaller, home-made versions of exhibits you would see at a science museum.  The exhibits have a main theme and covers a variety of science curriculum topics to explore.  Teachers can bring their classes down during the school day and students can visit the exhibit on their way to lunch or while walking through the hallway.

This years current exhibit is called “The Science of Bears.”  We received a private donation of  taxidermy bears several years ago and decided it was a once-in-a-lifetime experience to have these bears travel to the schools.  The exhibit focuses on the natural science of bears and includes such topics as life cycles, characteristics/traits and adaptations.












Here are some students enjoying the exhibit.







Special thanks to Dennis, Diane, Steve, Matt and custodial staff for helping move the exhibit.

Day 69, Dan Callahan, Instructional Technology, Pine Glen Elementary School

Demonstrating nonfiction text features:
I recently had the chance to work with Ms. Marcus‘ 5th grade ELA class on creating some books. But not just any books! We created nonfiction books about nonfiction text features using those very same text features. This was a great chance for students to show what they know about the different kinds of text features.
Students were given a list of text features they had to include in their book, as well as some optional ones to choose from in order to fill out their books. They were tasked with creating their books in Book Creator, and they were supposed to use the features they were learning about in the books as much as they could. Students first went on a scavenger hunt for the text features in a variety of nonfiction books, taking pictures of them using their iPad’s camera. They then imported the pictures into Book Creator, where they also were able to design their pages and lay out their text the way they wanted to. Here’s a couple of examples:

Book Creator is one of Pine Glen’s core apps! It’s in heavy use currently in several 5th grade projects, and will be used for an upcoming project in 2nd grade.
You can download all of the books the here!

Day 68 - Andrew Marcinek, Burlington High School Staff

Google Forms get a refresh:
As part of the Google drive suite of applications, Google Forms got a major update today in both features and aesthetics . One of the first things users will notice is the new design. The design is much cleaner and looks as if it was pasted on a Google doc. All of the previous features have carried over, however; there are some great new features.
Another major update is the ability to share a form and create it collaboratively with a team. Multiple users can collaborate in real time on a form and engage in a side-bar chat window. Before, only one person could edit and create a form, now several users can use this to create a collaborative form.
Users can also select the destination for responses. Before, Google forms would automatically send the responses to a new Google Spreadsheet. While this feature still remains, users can now select one spreadsheet to have multiple forms sent to rather than having a new one created each time. So, technically, teachers can create multiple forms and have the responses sent to one single spreadsheet.
Finally, after collecting responses, users can now download a .csv file (comma separated values) to their computer. This file allows users to take the data collected and import it directly into a program such as MS Excel for more advanced data analysis.
And that’s about it for this refresh. Please see the video below for an overview of the new features available for Google Forms

Day 67 - Principal John Lyons, Pine Glen Elementary

5th Grade Ice Skating Program:

I would like to thank Ms. Govoni for again organizing and running a great Ice Skating Program for the fifth graders. I would also like to thank the Burlington Ice Palace for their continued support of the program and the parent volunteers who helped out too.



This program builds self esteem and confidence in students.  In addition, it introduces many students to a great sport they can do throughout their lives.  Likewise, the program further strengthens our 5th grade community.  It is a lot of fun!

Day 66 - Mrs. Lynch, Pine Glen Elementary

Lowell Boott Mills:

Mill boys waiting for work

Madison our mill girl

Bobbin boy Quinn

Mapping out the city of Lowell along the Merrimack River

Working in the mills

Working in the mills of Lowell

Caleb cleaning the cotton with the help  of the cotton gin

Look I pulled out a cotton seed!

Weaving loom

Invention room

A weaver maintaining the looms.

Cotton is so cool.

What's our job today?

Boarding house row