What Have We Been Up To?

Over the past month students in grades 2,3 and 4 have been participating in lessons revolving around Internet Safety. Students may have come home talking about a character named Clicky. Clicky is our Internet friend that is teaching us how to be safe online. Students are identifying their trusted adults, learning about the dangers that are lurking on the Internet and who to turn to or what to do when things make them feel sad, uncomfortable or confused. To learn more about our Internet Safety lessons, please visit www.netsmartz.org.

SRI and SMI Testing - Grades 2, 3 and 4

During the past two weeks, students in grades 2, 3 and 4 have been participating in the SRI (Scholastic Reading Inventory) test and the SMI (Scholastic Math Inventory) test. These tests are used by our teaching staff to monitor a child's progress in both math and reading throughout the course of the school year. Students participate in these tests 3 times a year and they are done on the computer to help student also prepare for future computerized tests. If  you would like to learn more about the tests themselves, please click on the links below. If you have specific questions about the test results, please contact your child's teacher directly.

Lexile Overview Video
Quantile Map
Quantile Overview Video
Barnes and Noble -Find Books by Lexile Reading Level

Programming for Kids!

Learning how to program and code a computer is a great skill to learn. Here is a free app for kids to get a head start on learning about programming!
http://www.techlearning.com/Default.aspx?tabid=67&entryid=6360

 

 

What a great start to our school year!

During our first few weeks of school students in the technology lab participated in various interactive activities that revolved around the technology lab rules. In addition they learned  how we can ensure that students enjoy a fun, safe learning environment which is not only technology rich but is a kind, caring learning environment for all! Students in grade two, learned about the lab rules and routines. Third graders worked in groups and focused on one lab rule to create a poster to share with the class and fourth grade got right to work using Microsoft word to design an app icon revolving around a technology lab rule of their choice. The students did a fantastic job and came up with many creative designs!

Welcome Back!

Here we are in our third week into school! We are having a great time in Technology! I do hope that you will take a moment to blog about your thoughts about technology class. As a student, you can let me know what you like or dislike. You can also share any interesting technology news as well. Parents, please also feel free to comment about your child's technology class. I look forward to being an educational partner. Two-way communication is the best way to ensure success for your child and I enjoy hearing from parents on my blog or via email. You can email me at kjordan@mursd.org

 

Thank you and I wish you all a successful year!

It's June!

We are on the home stretch! Don't forget to bring in a thumb drive to save all your files from this school year! 

Do You Love To Write?

Do you love to write? Do you love to tell stories or create your own books? If so, this website is for you! Boomwriter will turn you into a real author!! It's FREE so check it out!http://boomwriter.com/

MapTales

MapTales

Are you going on a trip? A family vacation perhpas? If so, then you'll love this site! Take along your ipad and keep track of all the places you go. In addition, write about your trip. What exciting places did you explore? What did you see? Where did you go? MapTales allows you to map your route and journal as you go!

Biteslide!

WOW! This is a really cool site and would be great for students to use for their projects in class! It's free and similar to PowerPoint but simple, creative and fun for kids!
http://www.biteslide.com/

SRI and SMI Testing - What's it all about?

During the next two weeks in technology students will be engaging in the SRI and SMI testing.
These tests are taken on the computer in the computer lab. Each test is about 40 minutes long although most students finish the tests prior to that.

SCHOLASTIC READING INVENTORY™ (SRI)

•      A research-based, computer-adaptive reading assessment program for students for Grades 2, 3 and 4.

•     Measures reading comprehension on the Lexile Framework® for Reading.

•      It’s a fast and reliable low-stakes assessment to inform instruction and make accurate placement recommendations.    

•      Aligned to state tests.

•      SRI helps educators forecast student achievement to those important goals.

 

 

What is A Lexile Score?

A Lexile measure is a valuable piece of information about either an individual's reading ability or the difficulty of a text, like a book or magazine article. The Lexile measure is shown as a number with an "L" after it — 880L is 880 Lexile.

A student gets his or her Lexile reader measure from a reading test or program. For example, if a student receives an 880L on her end-of-grade reading test, she is an 880 Lexile reader. Higher Lexile measures represent a higher level of reading ability. A Lexile reader measure can range from below 200L for beginning readers to above 1700L for advanced readers. Readers who score at or below 0L receive a BR for Beginning Reader.

For more information check out this video!

 

SCHOLASTIC MATH INVENTORY™ (SMI)

• A research-based, computer-adaptive math assessment program for students in Grades 2 – 9+ that measures math understanding on The Quantile Framework® for Mathematics.
• The most powerful feature of SMI is its ability to administer fast and reliable low-stakes assessment to inform instruction and make accurate placement recommendations.
• Aligned to the Common Core State Standards, SMI helps educators forecast student achievement to those important goals.

 

·    SMI was developed in partnership with MetaMetrics, the creators of The Quantile Framework® for Mathematics – a proven measure of math achievement and math concept difficulty.

 

·    The Quantile Measure

 

·     The Quantile Framework for Mathematics uses the Quantile measure to evaluate both math achievement and the level of math skills and concepts. By placing both student and instruction on the same scale, the Quantile Framework allows educators to evaluate curriculum needs based on each student’s level of performance.

The Quantile Map