Currituck County Schools Media and Tech

Approximately 20 teachers and administrators attended ClassScape training at JP Knapp this morning.  Another group is scheduled for the afternoon.

Trainers Phyllis Jernigen and Katie Sabino from NCSU conducted the training. 

 ClassScape is an online formative assessment tool that covers reading and math in grades 3-8 and science in grades 5 and 8.  English 1 and Algebra 1 are offered for high school students.  They are adding performance assessments, writing assessments, science across all grade levels and the remaining End of Course subjects.

There are three key questions we will be asking in the district this year.  They are:

1. What do we expect students to know?

2. How do we know if they have learned it?

3. What do we do if they didn’t learn it?

These three questions come from the work of the Dufours and others working in the field of Professional Learning Communities.    ClassScape will help us answer the second question, how do we know if students have learned the material.

It is almost time for the students to return and face the question “What did you do this summer.” I thought I would get a jump on things and answer the question now.

During the first summer session I completed the course “Administration of Technology Programs” with ECU. I have two more classes this fall and I will have completed my requirements for Instructional Technology licensure. I’ll be glad to have that behind me.

I had a few “tech-geeky” high points this summer. In July I attended the NC Network conference in Wilmington as a testing consultant. One of the presenters was Marc Prensky. Marc is an internationally known speaker and author. I have been particularly interested in his work with educational games. His presentation was exciting and informative and I had a chance to meet and talk with him after the session.

My second high point came at a regional Technology Director’s meeting in Ahoskie. One of the presentations was about Skype. Skype is an online IP based communications program. We “skyped in” to a video conference with Cathy Evanoff in Dare County. She is using Skype in the classroom and she told us about some of her experiences. After the video portion of the call Cathy skyped in some of the people she has worked with in educational technology across the United States. One of them was Vicki Davis, author of Cool Cat Teacher Blog, that I have been following for some time. It was exciting to participate in a conversation with her.

Finally, just this past week, I attended the DPI Media and Technology Update in Edenton with Lisa Rose from Moyock Elementary, Charlotte Parker from Knotts Island Elementary, Candy Sample from Griggs Elementary and Becky Leousis from Central Elementary. One of the session was on an education game named Quest Atlantis. This game is being developed by Indiana University and the One Planet Education Network. I was somewhat familiar with OPEN through some of my blog reading. After the presentation I spent a few minutes with George Newman, the founder and manager of OPEN. It was nice to talk with someone who has been out front in using technology to improve educational opportunities for children. It is my hope that some of our schools will take advantage of the opportunity to bring Quest Atlantis to Currituck classrooms.