Letclips

This is the first installment in Barrington 220's Dealing with Digital Distraction series. The series will highlight how Barrington 220 teachers and students continue to learn and use strategies to manage digital distraction. Digital Distraction Strategies Heather Chvojka is a math teacher at Barrington Middle School�Station Campus. Her math lessons focus on on-demand, individualized learning experiences that offer student choice. Like many middle school classes, this class includes students who sometimes veer off task and feel attraction to apps, games, and notifications that could easily cause distractions and affect engagement during the entire class period. How does Heather deal with potential digital distractions? She highlights three key strategies for managing digital distraction: Set device expectations in advance Engage students by engaging with students Create a learning environment of freedom and mutual trust Classroom Highlights During the final full week of school du...

We have several instructional technology service announcements to prepare for 2017�18! PK�12 Teachers & Students For our online technology tool training needs, we will be subscribing to Lynda.com this year (in place of Atomic Learning). Lynda.com provides users with video clips to help learn different technology tools, such as Schoology, iPad, Evernote, Keynote, and many more. You can access Lynda.com : Navigate to http://www.lynda.com   Teachers and students login using barrington220.org or bsd220.org email address and password PK�8 Teachers & Students Our subscription to Defined STEM  ended on Friday, June 30, 2017, since the elementary Science Steering Committee has completed their work using these resources. Due to a very low usage rate, we are discontinuing access to Gizmos , virtual science simulations, at BHS. We are shifting from  RAZ Kids to Epic! for students in Grades PK�2 and myON for students in Grades K�5. We will continue to have access to RAZ ...

Seesaw for Schools is new for 2017�18. If you use and love the free version of Seesaw, you will find this new option very exciting. While the look and function of Seesaw will be the same, the new subscription offers more features including: school-wide analytics and management, unified portfolios that follow students from class to class and grade level to grade level, a Seesaw for Schools dashboard which offers actionable data at a glance, and formative assessment tools. All current Seesaw users will be connected to our paid subscription automatically. New users will be added in the next few weeks. Seesaw for Schools is scoped for all staff and students in Grades K�5. Click here to view the Seesaw for Schools Brochure. Click here for more detailed information about Seesaw for Schools.  Access Seesaw for Schools Navigate to https://app.seesaw.me (access teacher dashboard and classes). Existing Teacher accounts will be added to our subscription by domain (@barrington220.org). New a...

Schoology AMP is an Assessment Management Platform that is tied directly to Schoology. The tool encourages you to expand your usage of Schoology as a Learning Management System to include easy access to meaningful and aligned assessment data. Assessments can be created or added from an exterior source, and content can be aligned to standards or rubrics with a direct link to curriculum.  AMP offers easily accessible actionable data right at your fingertips. Schoology AMP will be available for all users 9-12 district-wide. Schoology AMP includes these added functions: Collaborate and author assessments or import third-party item banks. Use new, technology-enhanced item types. Align assessments to standards and curriculum. Align assessments to rubrics giving teachers the ability to use the results for grading. Use a versioning tool for easy revisions and updates pushed to sections or courses. Improve student outcomes by analyzing individual scores, as well as aggregated data. Access S...

At the start of the 2016�17 school year in Barrington 220, we subscribed to the following math software subscriptions throughout the district: FASTT Math, Xtra Math, Math in Focus, IXL, Compass, Quick Math, Dreambox, Splash Math, Reflex Math, and TenMarks. That's too many. We have amazing teachers and given the explosion of technology access and subsequent growth of digital math resources, we found many effective ways to engage students with more math practice. As our district continues to focus on the best tools for learning, we have acknowledged the need to more closely vet the use of digital math resources to align to Barrington 220 math standards. Our elementary Math Steering Committee formed a subcommittee including Bridgette Hurst (Grade 5 teacher at Grove), Lisa Christianson (teacher at Arnett Lines), Jeff Simon (Grade 1 teacher at Arnett Lines), George Vlasis (Kindergarten teacher at Hough), Shawndra Shelton (District Technology Assistant), Loretta Johnson (Instructional Di...

This quote from Stacey Riedmiller ( @literacybigkids ) and tweeted by our very own Instructional Digital Age Learning Coach, Katie Muhtaris, explains the steps we took regarding access to digital texts for our elementary students. Barrington 220 students love to read, and they read a staggering number of books. Students in our elementary schools can check out up to 5 books in a given week. Students ready voraciously in their English Language Arts class throughout their PK�12 experience. Thanks to the work of our amazing teacher librarians, students read traditional print books and they also access digital texts through services like OverDrive, Follett Shelf, and more. Current research, best practice, and teachers across grade levels understand the common wisdom that surrounding students with nonfiction and fiction texts supports learning concepts in every content area. Need to understand a concept like symbiosis? A teacher might direct you read a nonfiction textbook explaining the defi...