1:1 Unleashed!

As we approach the end of the first quarter at Caruso Middle School we can confidently say that 1:1 learning has become entrenched in our learning culture for students and staff alike.  We are able to do things across the building that we could never do at the same level before.  There is certainly a learning curve that still exists for students, staff, and parents which is completely normal.  We continually learn how to navigate this new environment while also making sure not to abandon what we know to be best instructional practices that are not technology based.  The ultimate goal is to leverage our 1:1 environment as a fantastic resource to promote higher levels of student growth and achievement while also preparing students for the world that lies ahead of them.

What follows are some examples of how 1:1 learning has changed the landscape of Caruso Middle School.  This is just a quick snapshot of some of the exciting things going on in classes at CMS today:

Students in Mrs. Budrow’s Science class are teaching one another about ecosystems.  This group is learning about about producers from their in-class ‘expert’ who has collaborated with another group to thoroughly research the topic and create the presentation using Google Slides.

Students in Ms. Weiner’s 8th grade language arts classroom are composing suspense critiques using Google Docs.  Students can write and make edits from anywhere and the teacher is able to easily access the documents and provide timely feedback.

 

Students in Ms. Broton’s Science class are creating “Squitters” which are tweets about squids as part of their ecosystems unit to demonstrate their learning.  These documents can then easily be shared with peers and the teachers.

 

 

Students in Mrs. Lehman’s Language Arts class (left) are taking a District Common Assessment (DCA) through the use of School City.  Given the 1:1 environment this assessment can pull from a massive test item bank with questions aligned to the common core.  The program is designed to give teachers (and students) instantaneous feedback following the assessment.  Students in Mrs. Smolenski’s class (right) are using School City for a short quiz in Math class.

 

    

 

Students in Ms. Gold’s social studies class are collaborating in teams on a Google Doc to create an argument for a class debate.  The topic was whether or not parents should push students to participate in extracurricular activities.

 

Students in Mr. Stempien’s and Mr. Swanson’s science classes are measuring the frequency of the instruments they created during their sound and light unit.

    

 

A student in Mrs. Lehman’s language arts class is using photosnack.com to create a slideshow with inspirational quotes to accompany his work using the RAFT writing strategies.

 

In case you wondering we do still allow pencils and paper (but obviously that wasn’t the focus of this blog)!