A Wonderful Kind of Wishing!

Today all of our students had the opportunity to browse the offerings at our Scholastic Book Fair and create a "wish list" of books they want.  Tomorrow students in kindergarten through second grade will be able to do some shopping, and on Wednesday the third and fourth grades will get a turn.  Parents can also stop in to shop on Tuesday and Wednesday from 9am-10am.

Then, on Thursday, the doors will be open 5:30pm-7:30pm for the Scholastic Book Fair and Ice Cream Social.  Families are welcome to come in for a FREE ice cream sundae and shop the book fair!

The Book Fair is also open online for purchases now thru Oct. 13th: http://bookfairs.scholastic.com/homepage/ashawayelementaryschool

A great, big, ENORMOUS "THANK YOU!!" to the PTO for making our Scholastic Book Fair happen!  The library receives money from this event to buy new books for our students to borrow.  It truly is a win-win!  

"And that one and this one and one of these and one of those and ..."

 

We're on a Plicker Kick!

Before school started the teachers had the opportunity to attend a variety of professional development workshops.  One of my favorites, led by PE teacher Catherine Moffitt, was all about using "Plickers" with our students as a way of checking for understanding.  Many of the teachers at Ashaway School are now using them, and the kids love it!

A sample Plicker card

Each student is given a "Plicker card" that's printed with a blocky black square.  No two squares are exactly alike, and each is numbered and assigned to a student.  When given a multiple choice question, the students give their answers by holding up their cards.  Each side of the block is labeled with a letter, and they hold their cards so that the letter on top indicates their answer.

"Cards up!"

Now for the really cool part!  The teacher records the students' answers by scanning them with a smart phone or iPad!  (There is an app that teachers need to download to their devices, but the app and the Plicker website are completely free to use!)  Using my iPhone's built-in camera, I just sweep across the room and the app automatically records the students' answers.  When each student's answer is recorded, the student's name appears on the screen in green (for a correct answer) or in red (for a wrong answer).  All the information is stored in my online Plickers account for me to refer to as needed.  Everything is password protected, but only the students' first names are used to ensure privacy.

The students' names appear on top of their Plicker card so I know that they've been scanned.  If the name is in a green bubble I know they got the answer right!  (Great job, fourth graders!)

The questions can be displayed on the SmartBoard, and I can reveal a chart of which answers were selected.  This is terrific for quickly identifying any misunderstandings of the topic while keeping each individual student's answer private.

The students are really enjoying this new method of interaction, and the teachers love the immediate feedback.  You can learn more about Plickers by visiting the website https://plickers.com/!