Monster Book Fair from Scholastic

The whole school is excited about our upcoming annual Scholastic Book Fair. An amazing selection of books is headed our way on Monday, November 30 - Wednesday, December 2 from 7:30 AM - 3:30 PM. At the Book Fair you will find the latest and finest titles for students, as well as books of interest to parents. If you are out of town or cannot make it to the school library, you can still support our school and shop our online fair here. All online orders ship for free to the school. Online there is an expanded selection of books of all ages.

We will once again be collecting dollar bills and loose change for our All for Books campaign.  The Scholastic Possible Fund then matches every donation, up to $1 million in books, received through the program and distributes them to children in need through organizations such as Kids in Distressed Situations, Inc. and Kids in Need Foundation.

The All for Books program: 

• Provides books to children who otherwise could not afford them. 
• Gives kids access to books they want to read through classroom libraries. 
• Cultivates in students a love of reading and a love of helping others.
• Reinforces that literacy is a priority for schools, families, and communities.

Make-A-Button

New to our Makerspace is a button maker. Who can use it? EVERYONE! Are you in a club or sport? Make buttons to support your cause. See Ms. Stack or Ms. Gellerman for details.

Plickers

We have tried Kahoot and Socrative in our classrooms here at Mepham. Now I am about to try something a little different. "Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices." Our BMCHSD Bring Your Own Device Policy is wonderful, but not all our students have their own devices. Plickers eliminates the need for student devices and relies only on the teacher to have a device, in this case I am using my iPhone 6.

Each student in your class gets a Plickers card, similar to this one below (it's free to print at Plickers.com or you can buy a set from Amazon.com). It acts as a QR code. The teacher downloads the Plicker app and logs in to Plickers.com on a computer, which then projects the questions on a screen or SMART Board. The teacher would import the class roster prior to class so that each numbered card corresponds to a student.

Plickers Card (In this class belonging to John Smith, see roster below).
This card can be used by multiple classes, over and over again. 

Class Roster

Students hold up their Plickers (paper clicker) orientating it so that the correct answer is on top. For example, the Plickers orientation above would indicate that the student believed the correct answer to be "B" because the letter "B" is on top. Then the teacher, using her/his smartphone would use the camera feature to scan the classroom picking up on students Plickers (as QR codes).

This is what the students see on the board. 

Once all students have been scanned, you can click on the graph and reveal the correct answer. This game can be played at the teacher's own pace. Allowing you as much time as you need to go over each question. I used it to review a lesson on plagiarism. Students and teachers get formative assessments right away in the form of a bar graph.

The students LOVED it and once I figured out how to use it, I realized that it is super easy! The best part was I didn't have to troubleshoot any technology issues.  The teacher is able to then print reports and see which students correctly/incorrectly answered each question. I really liked using Plickers for review/exit cards and can also see it used for a motivation as well. The ease of use and quick learning curve on this educational tool makes it a winner for sure!

Plagiarism Animated

You've heard me talk about TedEd on this blog before. The punishable perils of plagiarism (below) is one of my favorites. TedEd states that, "Fighting plagiarism is serious business. From brainchild-snatching to wholly quotables, plagiarists have plenty of wily ways to pass others' work off as their own -- and all of them are threats to original thinking." This lesson by Melissa Huseman D'Annunzio, " imagines what would happen if a Department of Plagiarism Investigation were on the case." Click here for more information and discussion questions.