 1. Dash is making his way around the Division. The kids are having a BLAST! Our next few lessons in the STEAM lab will center around Dash. I know that when the students are with me, you are in planning or PLCs. I know how much we all need our break from the students so that we can return to them fresh and ready to rock our rolls as educators. However, I am asking that you plan to return to the lab about 5 minutes early in the next few weeks. I don't want you to pick your students up early; no, I want you to see how engaged your students are when using this tool. And please think about asking me to teach a special lesson using Dash. There is a bank of cross curricular lessons we can choose from or we can create something brand new!  2. Years ago I use to be a Master Teacher for the NTTI which was sponsored by a consortium between PBS and the VDOE. The General Assembly's budget cuts forced us to disband the consortium and the NTTI program. However, I still turn to PBS sites for some great online learning experiences. PBS has a wide variety of educational resources but, when it comes to engineering, I have my top 2 favorite sites! First, I love the Building Big resource. It is dedicated to the physics and science around building structures. Design Squad is another great resource. It is filled with experiments and projects to try and fun videos to watch! I really love the interactive Design Process that helps students understand what happens at each point, and provides tips to help them build their engineering skills. 3. This week's STEAM activity is about making slime. The process of following a recipe not only fits in with the discussion of algorithms but also can be integrated into reading, math, and science. You can talk about sequences, fractions, and measurement! Pull in the idea of a hypothesis! Kids love slime and here is a site with recipes that you can tailor for any time of the year.  4. A couple of years ago ACPS started using Thinking Maps all across the Division. Gail Moore created templates for each of the maps. This has been sent out before but with all the new teachers, I felt it was worth sending out again. To get to all the Thinking Maps, click on the circle map to open a Google folder containing all of them. 5. Friday at the Movies - Hey! I have a Breakout Box. I don't have $100 but we could all pitch in together and go to Merredith's. Who's in?
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Melanie LewisHi, my name is Melanie Lewis. I am an Instructional Technology Resource Teacher for Amherst County Public Schools, located in the beautiful state of Virginia. I LOVE my job! I get to work on my hobby, anything that has to do with computers. I get to work with teachers and students, and I am definitely a people person. Plus, I DO NOT have to give grades. Wonderful, huh? Let me know how I can help you better integrate technology into your classroom. Archives
March 2020
ACPS' 1st computers
I know only one thing about the technology that awaits us in the future: We will find ways to tell stories with it. ~Jason Ohler
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