Promethean Board and SMARTBoard User Groups Feedback

Do you have a Promethean Board or SMARTBoard in your classroom or in a teacher's classroom who you collaborate with?  We're looking for some feedback to help improve the monthly user group trainings.

Please take a few minutes to fill out the survey below to help us make next year's user groups even better.

*You will need to login with your SPPS Apps username and password (the same one that you use to log onto your computer - ex. e123456)

Click here to take this short survey.

May Issue Of Personalized Learning Newsletter

Blended learning can be used to extend student learning time!

Want to learn more the blended learning model, how this instructional approach can support learners and different learning modalities, and how blended learning is being used by a Saint Paul teacher to positively impact the learning of his students?

Click the link to access the current and past newsletters on the Center's website at http://thecenter.spps.org/pl_newsletters.html .

Visioning Day

The second annual Visioning Day was held May 22 at Washington Technology Magnet School.

Superintendent Valeria S. Silva kicked off the Visioning Day event with the district's direction of Personalized Learning.  Iowa student blogger Jack Hostager, whose blog Straight from the Desk reveals a student's perspective of education, spoke to the Saint Paul teachers, administrators, and students in attendance about the importance of student-directed learning that demonstrates meeting standards.  Saint Paul students also lent their voices to the table conversations, talking about their vision of our classrooms.

CIPA Meeting Coming Up

The next CIPA Contact meeting will be offered on two dates - May 20 from 4:30 to 6:00 and May 21 from 3:00 to 4:30.  Please choose the time that fits your schedule best and sign up in PDExpress under CIPD: CIPA Contacts.

May Promethean Board User Group

Are you looking for ways to create fun, interactive games on your Promethean Board to help students review key concepts from your content area and maximize every minute of instructional time as we approach the end of the school year?

During the next Promethean Board User Group, we will focus on how to search for, preview, download, and edit files from Promethean Planet so that you can pull the best parts from great flipcharts that match up with your content/subject. We'll also run through the interactive features and tools that are available with the ActivInspire software and resource packs that you and your students could use to quickly build your own games from scratch.

Join us, Monday, May 13 from 4:30 to 6:30 at 345 Plato if you would like to learn more about these topics.  Please sign up in PDExpress under CIPD / MLR(V): Promethean Board User Group.

What Is Personalized Learning?

Have you heard everyone talking about personalized learning and been wondering what exactly that means and how to do it in a classroom of 25 to 35 students?

Image Source

Michael Fullan defines personalized learning in this way:

• Engage all students in their own learning 
• Tailor instruction and learning supports to address the learning needs and dispositions of highly diverse student bodies 
• Adjust the pace 
• Adjust the learning approach 
• Leverage student interests/experiences

"The key to successfully providing more personalized learning on a broad scale is twofold: first, focus on collective capacity building, through approaches such as professional learning communities and, second, strategic use of technology to address many of the challenges. Technology, as a support or accelerator, can ensure more effective collection and use of data to improve instruction. Technology can also facilitate communication, provide much more diversity in content for students, and help schools better meet the varied needs and preferences of students. And technology can be used as a direct pedagogical tool to enable learners to build meaning and knowledge with greater depth than hitherto possible."

http://www.michaelfullan.com/media/13435863160.html

The Blitz Is Coming Next Week

Are you ready to learn more about how to use the Phenomenal Five ++ tools in your classroom to leverage student learning styles and to support personalized learning?

Visit the Phenomenal Five ++ website for Spring Blitz training descriptions, schedules, and locations and register in PDExpress for each training that you will be attending.