PROMISE OF INNOVATION 2017

Project Description:

Amanda received $524 to implement music curriculum to supplement instruction in all content areas to help meet the diverse needs of her students. Amanda teaches a Moderate/Severe Special Day Class with Kindergarten through third grade students. All of her students require instruction in areas beyond academics including self-help and adaptive skills, fine-motor skills, behavior modification, communication, functioning skills, and vocational skills. In a classroom with such varying needs, music can be a versatile tool. "Tuned into Learning" is music curriculum that Amanda was able to purchase with these funds, which was developed by Board Certified Music Therapists to help meet the needs of students with Autism and other cognitive disabilities. Amanda will be compiling a video of her students singing and following along to the songs and using them in their small work groups to master IEP goals.

Project Updates:

August 22, 2017: For the 2017-18 school year, Amanda moved from Primary to a Intermediate Moderate/Severe classroom and was a little nervous that the Tuned In To Learning program would be too immature for my new kids, but it's actually working out perfectly! Amanda is starting over with them on the first set of songs and worksheets and they are loving it! She uses one song in particular to remind them about making good classroom behavior choices throughout the day and has aligned her classroom rules to match the song.

May 16, 2017: Amanda did an action research project for her Lab Inquiry class on the social skills unit from Tuned In To Learning. She wrote about the program and researched whether there was an increase in social skills in the structured environment and spontaneous social interactions on the playground. Check out her paper here!

Project Description:

The $2,500 that Samantha was awarded allowed her to purchase several iPad Mini devices. These devices will be used to create the film adaptations of the script that students groups will write and create. Through this project, Samantha's students will be given alternative methods to show mastery of the content in the area of English.

Students will first read the Twilight Zone episode "Monsters are Due on Maple Street" and then watch the actual TV episode to have a better understanding of the script. In groups, students will choose two scenes

Project Updates:

May 10, 2017: Samantha's class is currently working on their scripts and filming their movies!

To the right is a picture of students working on their movie, "Monsters Are Due on Maple Street." Check out the script they wrote here!

May 24, 2017: Samantha shared the final version of the filmed version of the above script! Check out the video below.

Project Description:

Elizabeth was awarded $2,500 to purchase 6 Blue-Bot robots, Blue-Bot Card Mats, and 4 sets of robotics mats from the SJCOE Print Shop. for the start of a Waverly Robotics Lab. With the funds, she will also hire trained presenters from the San Joaquin County Office of Education, STEM Department to provide professional development to the school staff and support them in running one of their future science and engineering nights. Students will use robotics to learn sequencing and programming/coding, as well as gain practice with college/career readiness skills such as collaboration, communication, creativity, and critical thinking.

Project Updates:

May 11, 2017: The Kindergarten and First Graders just wrapped up their after school "Success Shop." This is a 1 hour/3 days a week after-school extension program open to all students. They learned so much about programming their Blue Bots. Next year, Waverly will have a "STEM" Room where teachers can bring their students to play, learn, and engage with STEM tools!!

February 8, 2017: Elizabeth, along with six teachers, her administrator, PTC President, and a parent PTC member went to the K-5 ROBOTICS training at the San Joaquin County Office of Education with funding from the Promise of Innovation Award. They learned about how to introduce programming language (coding) as "human robots" to their students, used blue bot robots, programmed (play) with Dash, and built/programmed legos using the WE DO 2.0 kits that have been updated to cover NGSS Standards.

Project Description:

The $2,500 that Phillip received has given him the opportunity to create a materials cultures library at Franklin High that will allow teachers to incorporate material culture-historial artifacts into the classroom. Phillip plans to work with the textbook services coordinator at the High School to create a collection that educators can access and check out historical artifacts for their classroom. Phillip's analysis shows that the inclusion of materials culture applied in lesson planning improves student learning and does align with the educational standards.

Project Updates:

August 9, 2017: All funds have been spent. Phillip has collections of fascist and communist posters from the 20's-60's, New Deal Era Posters, an original employee handbook for new members of the Civilian Conservation Corps, WWI and WWII military uniforms, canteens, and shaving kits, children's books and toys from the WWII era, a massive collection of dresses from the 1920's, 1940's, 1960's, 1970's, 80's, 90's, and 2000's, television/radio/record player sets from the 1930's on, with accompanying records, videos, cassettes, cds, a walkman, an original iPod, and an iPhone, board games dating to the 1920's, fishing rods and camping gear from the 60's and 70's, a collection of vintage video game material from the 80's and 90's, cell phones dating to the late 1980's, as well as cigarette packs from throughout the 20th century.

The museum will be up and running on campus in mid September. Lesson plan implementation will be up and running by the beginning of October, as well as a website with lesson plans and documentation of all artifacts. In addition to visitors having the option to visit the museum during the day, there will be likely one evening a month where the museum will be open to the public.

Phillip also has extensive documentation of student scores and behaviors for six lesson plans from last February, March, and April utilizing primary sources for source evaluation from last year. He plans to comparatively evaluate the efficacy of artifacts as primary sources in the classroom.

April 13, 2017: Phillip has recruited a crew of ten interns who will be working on exhibits, collating materials, and running their website. They have started working on a weebly for the website, with the hope of having it running by May.

Below is a photos of Nazi SS officer war knives!

Project Description:

With the $2,500 that Kristina was awarded, she purchased her level-two Google for Educators certification, as well as purchased several Chromebooks and district licensing fees for her students. Kristina works in a mild/moderate special day class. With the chromebooks and Google Classroom, her students will be engaged through the use of many different google for education applications, and individualized activities, that are aligned to their personal individualized education program (IEP) goals. Individual and collaborative projects will be compiled into a digital portfolio.

Project Updates:

August 9, 2017: Kristina is finishing up her Google training and preparing to use the chromebooks with 9th-12th graders this year! She will be using more google apps with this group, as well as, incorporating web based portfolios.

March 21, 2017: Kristina did her first presentation on digital portfolios at today's staff meeting! She also has a training scheduled in April. Here are a few pictures of the presentation.

Project Description:

Sarah was awarded $700 to implement a flexible seating project. Sarah purchased scoop rockers, cube chairs, bean bags, and pillows to choose from. Before purchasing the flexible seating, Sarah took data on student on-task behavior and after the flexible seating was implemented, she looked at their on-task behavior. Check out the research paper below with her findings!

Project Updates:

Sarah and her students love the flexible seating! In fact, Sarah did a research action study, and found that flexible seating decreased off-task behaviors with her students.

View Sarah's Action Research Paper Here

Project Description:

The $2,500 that Linda was awarded gave her the ability to purchase an online license of EduBlog and WeVideo (collaborative, cloud-based online video editor) for her students to create storyboards, video shorts, and musical scores as part of their language-arts curriculum. Linda's students (9-12th grade English students) will create various projects based on their original writing tasks as part of their curriculum. EduBlog and WeVideo will assist students in developing real-world technology skills while tapping into the creative thinking process.

Project Updates:

March 9, 2017: Below are a few pictures of Linda's Science Fiction Literature students working/collaborating on their original short stories and scripts. Some students are already planning out their digital storyboards and casting classmates to act out scenes from the stories.

Project Description:

Tracey was awarded $1,275 to purchase large games to motivate students interactions during students' recess time to create a more structured environment and eliminate negative behaviors on the playground.

This structured play will allow students the opportunity to learn: math strategies, collaboration, communication skills, and more with a structured play environment.

Project Updates:

March 6, 2017: Below are few pictures of the outdoor playground games! Tracey's students are loving them!

May 18, 2017: Bowling Fun!

Project Description:

William was awarded $2,500 to purchase Sphero robots and their accompanying programming applications for his 9th and 10th grade English Language Arts students. This robots will be used to represent the challenges and triumphs of the main character in the unit's novel.

Students will present their project and write a paper justifying why their specific choice of movements and color changes accurately portray the character. Throughout the project, students will log their progress and cite the sources they are using to help with program their robot. Students will reflect on the process and make arguments regarding the successes they and their classmates had.

Project Updates:

September 27, 2017: Check out the video below from the culminating project at the end of last year!

Merlo is entering our second year of having a weekly "Genius Hour" where students can pursue their passion projects. Many of my students are interested in robotics and are currently using the Spheros to get a better understanding of programming.

April 28, 2017: William implemented his first lesson with spheros. His students LOVED it and were so engaged in the curriculum. The picture on the right is from the lesson.

April 18, 2017: William was able to pick up the Spheros today!