Tuesday, October 22, 2013

newsela.com

Read closely.
Think critically.
Be worldly.

Newsela is an innovative way for students to build reading comprehension with nonfiction that's always relevant: daily news. It's easy and amazing. Register now or learn more about the impact Newsela can have on your classroom.

Engage your students in reading and current events like never before

Register for free to see what a difference Newsela can make. Your classroom will be up and running in minutes. For more information, contact us at readbabyread@newsela.com.  There is a tab for students, teachers and parents.   

This website would support our MPS District Literacy Action Plan and our UbD Curriculum redesign as we incorporate the Massachusetts & Common Core Literacy Standards!

Let us know what you think!

Thursday, October 10, 2013

Nobel medicine winner says: I owe it all to my bassoon teacher

A great example of the influence Humanities Teachers have on students in their classrooms!  Thank you for sharing the article Mrs. Thornton!

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Resources: Middleborough Public Schools Humanities Padlet Sites

Padlet is a website that provides a blank wall on which you can add anything you'd like with a double click.  Padlet can be used to collaborate and communicate in our Professional Learning Communities, in our classrooms (be sure to review with students our Technology AUP), and in our community.

Below you will see the URLs for a variety of MPS Padlets focused on Humanities Departments, Literacy, and Curriculum Tools.  All Humanities Teachers have the ability to add resources to the wall or you can forward along recommendations to Humanities Director, Liz Haskell or to your Department Leader. 

Please take a look and let us know what you think! 

Middleborough Public Schools Humanties Padlet Sites

MPS Curriculum Tools:  http://padlet.com/wall/MPSCurriculumTools

MPS Literacy Team: http://padlet.com/wall/MPSLiteracyTeam

MPS Fine Arts: http://padlet.com/wall/MPSFineArts

MHS English: http://padlet.com/wall/MHSEnglishDepartment

MHS Foreign Language: http://padlet.com/wall/MHSFLDepartment

MHS Social Studies: http://padlet.com/wall/MHSSocialStudies

NMS ELA:  http://padlet.com/wall/NMSELA

NMS Social Studies: http://padlet.com/wall/NMSSocialStudies

Article: 6 Ways Teachers Can Use Google Hangouts

As MPS switches over to become a Google School this fall, this article may be of interest to teachers.  Please share with us how you use Google Hangout with your students!

6 Ways Teachers Can Use Google Hangouts

http://thejournal.com/articles/2013/09/17/6-ways-teachers-can-use-google-hangouts.aspx?=THE21

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Welcome to the 2013-2014 School Year!

Welcome back, Humanities Teachers!

I hope you had an opportunity to refresh, recharge, and renew over the (very short) summer weeks.  Today was the first day with students, and as hectic as it is, the energy in the schools as I walked through made me smile!

We have a lot of "initiatives" that we are going to be working on throughout this school year.  I remember when I was a classroom teacher, listening to the administrative team talk about the focus of our work for the year and feeling stressed.  Now, the number of initiatives have multiplied, and I am a member of the administrative team stressing everyone out (including myself)!

So in an effort to ease peoples' minds (I created this in an effort to ease my own mind), I have broken down the work that we are doing and the focus of our work for the rest of the year.

Curriculum:
Curriculum Unit Design Stage 1 and portions of Stage 2 based on the Understanding by Design (UbD) model - Early Release Days & Department PLCs
 
Instruction:
Teachers 21 Course: The Effective Teacher: Leading and Learning
 
Assessment:
Stage 2 of UbD Unit design (primary focus 2014-2015)

New Educator Evaluation System:
Focus on Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Data to support a proficiency rating according to the Educator Rubric

Some might think that I have oversimplified the initiatives that we as a district are focused on, but we hope you will see how they are all intertwined and woven together to help us support high student achievement and excellence as evidenced by college and career ready Middleborough graduates.

Best wishes for a great school year! 

Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Our new NMS logo!

We are proud to present the new NMS Logo design by Ms. Tessa Babin, grade eight!    Go tigers!

Friday, May 31, 2013

Congratulations MHS Graduates!

Best wishes and congratulations to our entire Class of 2013!  Your parents, teachers, administrators and community are so proud of you-be proud of yourselves!  Continue to work hard, persevere, and do good.

Thursday, May 16, 2013

MPS Professional Summer Reading Library

Please post on our MPS Professional Summer Reading Library Padlet site some of your picks for this season!  http://padlet.com/wall/MPSHumanitiesLibrary

Simply double click and post.  You can write the author and title or upload a link to the book. 

Feel free to provide feedback if you have read or have started to read any of the books posted and whether you would recommend them.  Maybe we can put together a book study...

NMS-PLC: SMART Goals

Our next NMS-PLC will take place on Tuesday, May 4th.  We will meet in the NMS C105 computer lab 2:30-3:30.  We will be looking at developing SMART Goals for the 2013-2014 school year in alignment with the new educator evaluation tool.  We look forward to seeing you!

Middleborough Public Schools Celebration of the Arts 2013

You are cordially invited to attend MPS Celebration of the Arts 2013 presented by the Middleborough Public Schools Visual Arts Program.  Student Art Shows will be presented at all of our schools throughout the spring.

MECC (gymnasium)
Thursday, June 6th 6:30-7:30 PM
Friday, June 7th 9:00-12:00 PM
 
MKG (lobby)
Thursday, May 23rd 4:00-8:00 PM with the Spring Concert
 
HBB (lobby)
Thursday, May 23rd 4:00-8:00 PM with the Spring Concert
 
NMS (gymnasium)
Friday, April 26th 4:30-7:00 PM
Saturday, April 27th 12:00-3:00 PM
Prior to the opening of NMS "Music Man"
 
MHS (lobby)
Wednesday, May 15th 6:00-7:00 PM with the Spring Concert

Special thanks to the Visual Arts Teachers and students for all of their hard work and creativity!

MPS Literacy Team Padlet Website

The Middleborough Public Schools Literacy Team began our work in April with the support of Mary Ellen Caesar, Literacy Specialist at the MA DESE.  We have members from all the schools in the district.  Our monthly progress will be posted on Padlet: http://padlet.com/wall/MPSLiteracyTeam  Please take a look!  We are excited to rollout our MPS Literacy plan in the fall of 2013!

Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Tracing Latino Roots via Sound from NPR

Tracing Latino Roots via Sound


The above link will take you to a story that aired on National Public Radio (NPR) on March 18, 2013.  I thought it might be of interest to the Humanities subject area teachers.

"Sonic Trace is a multimedia project that follows Latinos living in Los Angeles travelling back to their families' native lands. Led by radio producer Anyansi Diaz-Cortes, it examines the link between what some Latinos consider home – before and after they or their families came to the U.S.
Diaz-Cortes told NPR host Michel Martin, that she was always interested in international reporting – even on a local level. "To cover any American city in the year 2013 or in this decade you really have to go beyond U.S. borders."
There's another aspect to Sonic Trace, too. It's called La Burbuja, or, the bubble. It's a portable recording studio where they invite people in to talk about their reflections on home – why did they leave, stay, or return from their home country.
Sonic Trace was produced by KCRW and Localore, a national initiative by AIR, the Association of Independents in Radio and Zeega. Sonic Trace is one of several interactive public media stories that NPR's Tell Me More will be highlighting in the coming months."

Let me know what you think or how you used it in your classroom!

Monday, March 11, 2013

NMS March PLCs


Thank you to all who came to our 1st NMS-PLC on Monday!  We look forward to continuing this work for the rest of the school year.  We are interested in some of the things you would like to learn about and work on during this time so please comment below or send me an e-mail at ehaskell@middleboro.k12.ma.us 

Our next NMS-PLC will take place on Tuesday, March 26th.  We can plan to meet in the C105 Computer Lab so that we have internet access.  We look forward to seeing you!

Friday Memo Recommended Links



“Friday Memo”: recommended links :)

Verizon Thinkfinity website.
http://www.thinkfinity.org

How Teachers Can Support Learning That Students Enjoy
http://smartblogs.com/education/2012/09/17/going-back-roots-great-learning/

Edutopia – Middle School Pages –Edutopia.org is an amazing site of all free material for educators. 
http://www.edutopia.org/groups/middle-school


Middleweb.com – Another great website for Middle School Teachers. 


 

The Best Ways to Use Interactive White Boards.?  http://blogs.edweek.org/teachers/classroom_qa_with_larry_ferlazzo/2012/10/response_the_best_ways_to_use_interactive_white_boards.html

Pinterest:  You can pin just about any image you find interesting on this site, but many
teachers are using it as a place to collect great lesson plans, projects, and inspirational materials
http://pinterest.com/

Three Ring -Use our Android or iOS App to snap a photo of written work, capture video of presentations, or record audio of student discussions.  You can also upload digital files from your computer  chance; http://www.threering.com/

Teaching Channel:  "Teaching Channel is a video showcase on the Internet and TV of inspiring and effective teaching practices in America's schools. 
https://www.teachingchannel.org/

101 Web 2.0 Tools for Teachers: 


 

5 Useful Places To Find Online Lesson Plans: 



"the world's largest interactive whiteboard community," this free site gives teachers
access to thousands of user-generated resources and professional
development modules.





 

Downloadable lesson plans and activities, discussion boards, and 13 "Quick Learn" online training
sessions


.
Resource-sharing site indexes lessons by state standards
http://exchange.smarttech.com/#tab=0


Teacher John Mein shares tips and tricks for using SMART technology on his blog
http://mrsmarttrainer.blogspot.com/.


Moodle Tutorials:  This is a combo link


 

We Are Teachers: lesson plans and ideas, money for your classroom, product reviews or just a
chance to connect with fellow educators,


 

Podcasts:  "50 Educational Podcasts You Should Check Out." 


 

GIFs:  This post has 10 GIFs, which could help in teaching many
different subjects or ideas. 


 

Technology and 21st Century Learning: 


 

Seven Qualities to Maximize the Impact of Your Lesson Plans." 
http://eyeoneducation.com/Blog/articleType/ArticleView/articleId/2781/7-Qualities-to-Maximize-the-Impact-of-Your-Lesson-Plans#.UR2QJMS9KSM 

Education Week Teacher Magazine

 This Is My Place: Middle Schoolers Talk About Social and Emotional Learning:


THANK YOU, PRINCIPAL MARTY GEOGHEGAN FOR CREATING SUCH A RICH RESOURCE!
THANK YOU, TERRI FALCONER FOR COMPILING THE LIST OF RESOURCES FOR US!

Thursday, February 28, 2013

Congratulations Middleborough Artists!


The Boston Globe Scholastic Art & Writing Awards is in the 63rd year of the Art Awards in Massachusetts!  This regional program is now part of the national Scholastic Art & Writing Awards which are administered by the Alliance for Young Writers, Inc., based in New York City.
The Alliance for Young Artists and Writers was founded in 1994 as a non-profit organization to expand upon the Awards great legacy of bringing the exceptional artistic and literary talent of teens to a national audience. The judges, highly acclaimed in the arts, look for works that best exemplify originality, technical skill, and the emergence of personal voice or vision.
This year, students from the John T. Nichols Middle School and Middleboro High School, had artwork that met the high standards required for submission to this contest! Congratulations to the following students for receiving Awards of Recognition from Nichols Middle School:  Jason Bean, Meghan Boucher, Katrina Egersheim, Michael D’Errico, Nicholas Hinko, Drake Iarrobino, Jack Leo, Kyle Rose, Jillian Spadaro, Daniel Seifert, Matthew Swanson, Logan Teceno, Parker Ward, and Emily Wolfe.
Congratulations to Abigail Wadsworth from Nichols Middle School who won an Honorable Mention for her drawing: “My Future Prince”, and to Sarah Newton of Middleboro High School who won an honorable mention for her drawing:  “ Orchard’s Gifts”.

Congratulations to our Gold Key winners! :
From Nichols Middle School:
Jonathan McLaughlin for his drawing: “Jonathan, Self Portrait”
Alina Parker from for her drawing: “I’ve Got a Secret!”
From Middleboro High School:  Michaela Mann for her mixed media: “Armor”

Great job, Young Artists of 2013!
Submitted by Jeriann Tucker

Nichols Middle School Professional Learning Community

This past week marked the 100th day of school year, and I hope that each of you take a few
moments to reflect on all that we have accomplished thus far...we have done a lot! In
speaking to faculty, staff, and the administrative team about all that we have done, the
conversation almost always shifts to focus on all that we WANT to do. To help people
carve out some time to explore some of what they WANT to do, we would like to offer an
opportunity for everyone to meet as part of our Nichols Middle School Professional
Learning Community for an hour after school once or twice per month. The purpose of the
NMSPLC time would be to provide support of faculty and staff in areas that they feel they
might like to focus. When necessary, we will work to find people who can support us in
the topics of interest. You are welcome to join any or all of the sessions, no sign-up
necessary.

Our March meetings will be Monday, March 11th and Tuesday, March 26th 2:30-3:30 in the C105 computer lab.  In our first meeting we will be looking at all of the useful resources and links that Marty has provided in his weekly Friday Memos. We would also love for others to share any and all of their own useful web resources with our NMSPLC.  The agenda for the second meeting will be decided at our first meeting based on what you all want to talk about.  Our meetings will be informal, but useful! If you have any questions,would like clarification, or have suggestions for topics to explore please e-mail me, call me 774.766.6480, or stop by my office A304. Everyone is invited and we look forward to seeing you!



Middleborough High School 30/30 Meetings

I am looking forward to meeting with all Middleborough High School teachers in the Humanities Departments during the month of March for 30/30 meetings. We will talk about anything you would like to discuss for 30 minutes and then we can talk about anything I would like to talk about for 30 minutes.

Nichols Middle School 25/25 Meetings

I am looking forward to meeting with all Nichols Middle School teachers in the Humanities Departments during the month of March for 25/25 meetings.  We will talk about anything you would like to discuss for 25 minutes and then we can talk about anything I would like to talk about for 25 minutes. 

Tech Courses Spring 2013

TECHNOLOGY COURSES BEING OFFERED BY MPS!!!

Check out the technology courses being offered this spring:

EDPF 509 Google Earth: A Global Perspective Integrating Core Content Areas
EDPG 515 Integrating Online Tools to Advance Student Achievement (Moodle for Web 2.0 Classroom Teaching)

The courses are a wonderful opportunity to earn 3 Graduate Credits from Endicott for only $640!

For more information, e-mail or talk to Liz Haskell, Melanie Gates, Ellen Driscoll, Anita Rodrigues, Mary Buchanan, or your building principal.

Thursday, January 10, 2013

Happy New Year!  2013 is off to a great start!  We are looking forward to sharing our full-day professional development experience on Friday, January 11th when we welcome....Guess who is coming to Middleborough!  We hope you have enjoyed the anticipation of the big day and our celebrity guest as much as you enjoy the presentation!