Women in Technology Honor Update!

If you will allow me to brag a bit..... Check out the results of the Women In Technology Awards! 

http://www.womenintechnology.org/node/621#overlay-context=node/621

Women in Technology Honor

 Stacy TedescoSELECTED AS A FINALIST FOR 14 ANNUAL WOMEN IN TECHNOLOGY LEADERSHIP AWARDS

 

Awards Program Honors Professional Women in the Washington, D.C. Area for their Extraordinary Leadership, Talent and Mentorship in the Technology Community

Today it was announced that Stacy Tedesco has been selected as a finalist for Women In Technology’s14th Annual Leadership Awards in the Rising Star Category. The awards program honors professional women working in the Greater Washington, D.C. region who have exemplified unique vision, inspirational leadership and mentorship in the technology industry.

 

“This year we received many outstanding competitive submissions, but these finalists are true leaders in the industry,” said Nancy Lamberton, President, WIT. “These women are not only leaders for their innovation, vision and successful business results, but also serve as role models and mentors to the next generation of professionals. We want to congratulate all the finalists for their outstanding work in the technology industry.”

 

Stacy Tedesco teaches ESL and reading intervention for grades pre K-5th at Thomson Elementary in DCPS. As Technology Coordinator, she single handedly provides tech support for the school while heading technology purchasing and professional development. Stacy co-founded Listening for Literacy, a program which has earned critical acclaim and is hailed as innovative in its concept and execution. The program has proven successful at using technology to raise student test scores and student participation will likely triple by next year. Last year, Stacy was named a DCPS Highly Effective Teacher. Stacy also blogs about classroom technology and sells original instructional products online.

 

 

WIT will announce the winners at the Leadership Awards Banquet on April 18, 2013 at Reston Hyatt in Reston, Va.

 

For additional information on the Leadership Awards, please visit: http://www.womenintechnology.org/node/382

 

About Women in Technology

Women in Technology (WIT) is a not-for-profit organization with the mission of advancing women in technology—from the classroom to the boardroom—by providing advocacy, leadership development, networking, mentoring and technology education. With nearly 1000 members in the Washington, D.C.-area, WIT strives to meet its vision of being the premier organization empowering women to be architects of change in the technology industry. For more information, please visit, www.womenintechnology.org or connect with us via: Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter (@WITWomen).

Listening for Literacy Test Scores are in!

Such Growth! As Listening for Literacy meets its first testing benchmark the results are great! All of the students in Listening for Literacy also receive tier three reading intervention. So as a control I compared the growth from the beginning of the year scores (BOY), to the middle of the year scores (MOY) from last year to this year. I compared only students receiving intervention, and this year those receiving L4L. Last year from BOY to MOY, intervention students grew 1.07 levels on the TRC test, our standardized reading test. This year, with the addition of L4L, they grew….drum roll please….2.7 levels! This is huge! Now I cannot solely contribute this to the L4L program, but I will claim that it is a contributing factor. We here at L4L will keep up our work I can not wait to see the growth at the end of the year

Listening for Literacy Update 12.12.12

Listening for Literacy Update

12.12.12

This has been an interesting experiment. There are students who are religiously listening every night, and those who sporadically listen.  As we are assessing some of the material on the MP3 players we are noticing a slight growth in sight words. I also had a student reference one of the stories during class, saying that the word we were working on was in the story. It is nice to see them making connections. I have made a few procedural changes with my older students. I have two folders on the wall, one for reading logs that are completed and one for blank ones. I now have the students switching out their own reading logs. This has saved me a little bit of time. It also has them taking on a little more responsibility. The older students are starting to request novels, for pleasure reading. I struck the deal,  that if they are doing the required work, I will put on the audio version of a novel one chapter at a time, provided that they check out the actual book from the library. So far I have four students reading Harry Potter books, and one Charlie and the Chocolate Factory. I think that over the winter break I will put on the book in the entirety with the hope that they will finish it over the two week break. We have had only one technology failure, in a pair of suddenly non-working headphones. These were replaced with a pair from the dollar store. Getting the MP3 player back to students at the end of the day has almost become routine for me. I now posses a large basket and traipse around the hallways shoving bags into lockers. We are still problem solving about how to charge them over the break. Many students have a way to charge via usb, either  their family owns a computer, a cell phone charger with usb, or a wii. Some students will have our limited chargers go home with them over the break. I hope that this project shows the results that we are excited about!

-Stacy

Listening for Literacy, Day 1!

 

Day 1!

 

The students received their MP3 players on Friday so today was the first day they came back to school. All but one were returned. Most, but not all, had filled out the listening log. One student told me that her father had purchased speakers and the whole family was practicing their English by putting the MP3 through the speakers. There was a problem with one of the books, so another was substituted. We took on the responsibility of charging them here at school and the running around in the morning to collect them turned out to be more complicated that I initially thought. The students that I am responsible for are in seven different rooms. So that will be something I will be working on.  The audio is pulled from a variety of internet and in school resources. It has been a learning experience for me to convert and find all of the necessary resources. The first few books were recorded at such a loud volume that they were filled with static. The next too quiet. So like the proverbial Goldilocks, I am still looking for “just right.”

PBS

Save Big Bird, and Nova, and Nature …  

Recently, Big Bird made news in a political debate. These brief comments have even people who don’t usually talk about politics, rallying for, or against, the big yellow Muppet. I thought I would share some of my brief comments on PBS.  The presidential debate aside, PBS is a central institution to our country and means a great deal to me personally. Let us start with the big yellow bird. Sesame Street has been on the air since 1969 and I can remember fondly enjoying many hours on Sesame Street. I still count to 12 singing the pinball song in my head. Occasionally I find myself singing “I’ve got a new way to walk, walk, walk,” when the light changes and my feet step off the curb. I learned that Hola means Hello, when Maria sang this song while twirling around in a ball gown. Even though I have such fond memories of Sesame Street, I wondered, is it still necessary?  Luckily I work with about 200 kids who are at prime Sesame Street age. So I asked them about Sesame Street.  The answers surprised me.  I work with one three-year-old who is experiencing not only school, but English for the first time. She speaks only Spanish and until this day I have never heard her say a single word in English. When shown a picture of Sesame Street, she started to sing, in English! While she may have little to no idea what she was saying, she was building the linguistic structure required to learn a new language. Shows like Sesame Street allow parents to expose their children to English. This was an angle I had not considered. Looking a little closer, I realized that Sesame Street is a pretty diverse, urban, neighborhood. It mirrors the environment that my students live in. It is relatable to students who live in the city. Most children’s shows that I am aware of cater to a suburban demographic, where everyone has a car and no one speaks another language. I can’t think of a modern, relevant issue that Sesame Street has not addressed in a kid friendly way. They have talked about everything from a parent losing a job, to divorce, to homelessness and even Cookie Monster now talks about how cookies are a treat and we need to eat mostly healthy foods.

The argument was made that Sesame Street can support itself through merchandise sales and does not need to be part of a federally subsidized endeavor. But what about all the other shows? Rick Steeves has taken me across Europe showing me things that only winning the lottery could facilitate their squeezing  their way into my reality. Nature has taken me under the sea, and to the top of mountains through stunning photography and video. I adore musicals. PBS has filmed and shown Broadway Musicals that may never be seen again. Les Miserable is amazing, and I can hear the music over and over through a PBS concert. And then there is NOVA.  Quite possibly my favorite show ever, NOVA takes complex science subjects and makes them not only understandable but interesting. I can not think of a science question that I have had, that NOVA can not answer. Things such as, Could we really go to Mars? Why was the Tsumani in Japan so horrible? How did Darwin come up with these ideas? Why is Pluto no longer a planet?  It seems that every time I hear something interesting on the news in a 30 second snippet, NOVA explains it fully. 

But wait there is more! PBS hosts a pretty impressive website. The children’s website (www.pbskids.org) is a completely kid friendly site, that is updated regularly and is a safe, educational place for kids to go online. As a teacher this is key, but PBS goes above and beyond for teachers. Some people may not know this but teachers need to renew their licenses every few years. In my district, as in many others, when you apply for your re-certification you must prove that you have been learning, and improving during the time since your last certification. Many teachers take a graduate level course or get certified in a new area.  PBS is here to help. They offer teachers online courses in the latest greatest subjects for only $99! (http://www.pbs.org/teacherline) Plus, they give graduate credit for the courses. Tuition reimbursement in my district is a joke, so if I want to learn anything new it is out of my pocket.  They offer courses from everything from how to teach math using manipulatives, to using iPads in the classroom. If you are a teacher and something new comes out, you better believe PBS is offering a class on it.

So in conclusion, regardless of who you are going to vote for this November, remember that PBS is important.  It is more than just Big Bird. It is a safe place that still cares about education as well as entertainment. I fear that if there was no PBS, shows like “16 and pregnant,” and “Jersey Shore” would be the only sort of options that our families have to watch.

Dropbox and student work

Dropbox use as classroom storage

Last year my school embraced the use of dropbox as a cloud storage for teachers to

store things and have the be accessible to all. As this was my first exposure to dropbox,

I have since played around with it and have found a few new uses pertaining to use in

the classrooms.

The first idea came from library. Our school has a series of netbooks that are for

student use and are usually utilized during library time. However the problem came

when the students wanted to save their work for later use. Dropbox came to the rescue.

I created this solution for a particular fourth grade teacher, who had twenty students

working on research projects. Here is what I did and why:

1. I created a gmail specifically for her class. It is important that the password not be

given to students, you do not want them to functionally use this email.

2. Use the class email to create a free dropbox account. Make the password different

from the password to log into the email.

3. Once in dropbox, create a folder with each student's name.

4. Now when students are working on a project, they can save their work to dropbox

in their own folder, using the "dummy" email, they can retrieve their work from any

computer with the internet. Teachers can log in and look at all students folders. An

additional folder can be created where students save their final draft to be graded.

That way the teacher can download all final drafts for grading, comment on them

and then upload them, with comments, back to the students individual folders. Think

of all the paper that can be saved!

5. Dropbox also has an iPhone and iPad app, so teachers can even read papers on the

train, bus, or coffee shop!

6. Once dropbox is installed on computers, you can put an icon either on the desktop

or on the toolbar. It will also show up as a folder when you go to save a document.

Hope this helps!

www.dropbox.com

For the Love of Labels

This year I have become increasingly obsessed with labels.  To be clear, not labeling student, or people but supplies and baskets and honestly it makes me so excited!   There are several methods and reasons for obsessively printing and adhering labels to everything. 

 

Why I love labels.

- Being able to find supplies easily saves time, for everyone.

- Having clear, often pictorial, labels allows kids to find supplies easily, and better yet allows them to put them away.

- Cleaning up takes less time.

- You can instantly see on a shelf what you have and what you don't,, making planning easy.

 

Now the fun part, how to make lovely labels

I like to use pictures as well as words on everything that kids will come in contact with because I work with all ages and I like to include the little ones.

 

To make labels effective they should look relatively uniform, easy to read and somewhat standardized. I also like to label the shelves where things go, that way students are simply matching the basket (or box, bin, whatever) to the picture on the shelf.  I like to take painters tape and outline or divide the shelf so that the bins are haphazardly thrown on the shelf.

 

I am happy to share some of my labels.  I created these using Boardmaker software.  You are welcome to print out the page, and then cut them out.  I use clear packing tape to adhere them to things.  You could laminate and use some other sort of adhesive if you chose to go that route.  Another idea for pictorial labels is to create a table in Word and then use clip art to populate the table. There is also the Avery Label route.  Buying labels is certainly easy and I use them for notebooks, books, and the occasional bin or basket. Avery has free templates for almost every product they make.  Even better, Avery has a free download that puts the templates directly into Microsoft Word.

My labels are free on Teachers pay Teachers. The link is on the homepage. 

Stay Organized,

Stacy