Looking Forward to a New Year

I had great summer filled with travel, golf and time with my family and now I'm looking forward to a new school year. I've had many first days of school but this year it will really be a first day for me. I've been teaching at a variety of levels for 19 years so I've had a lot of first days but this is my first time in a new building in 13 years. I love photography and video and I'm looking forward to working with kids designing and creating their unique stories.

MSES Year End 2015

Our 6th grade class did a wonderful job preforming for the school and Mrs Clarke created great video for our end of the year celebration. Check out the video below.

The Hawk Eye

Hello there! This is the first edition of The Hawk Eye from Millbury Street Elementary school. This newspaper is written, edited, and put together by the students in Newspaper Club, along with the help of Mr. Walsh and Mr. Oliver. The Newspaper Club is made up of students in fourth, fifth, and sixth grade. We have worked together to tell you about school news, world news, and sports news, along with some original comics and what is going on in the arts. Here is the very special, first edition, of The Hawk Eye. By J.K.

Click below for the latest edition.

 The Hawk Eye.  2/25/2015

Google Apps for Education at MSES

MSES students have their own school Google accounts now! Every child has had the opportunity to learn how to log in to their accounts and create basic document. Over the next several week students will be learning more advanced skils and how to share documents with their teachers and peers. The most difficult part of the process for students is remembering the long account names. Each student has a unique name that starts with their last name, first initial and year of graduation followed by @s.grafton.k12.ma.us. If I were a 6th grader my username would be walsht2021@s.grafton.k12.ma.us.  

Crazy Hat Day

Today was crazy hat day! The kids came to school wearing their best creations. There were some amazing works of art wondering around the building. Have a great night and be safe!

Schoology

My fifth and sixth grade students started using Schoology this year. Schoology is a learning management system that will allow student to have access to class materials 24 hours a day and 7 days a week. The plan for the next several weeks is to integrate Schoology in the classroom settings. Students will learn how to access instructional materials, hand in projects and seek extra help when needed. As the year progresses I'll begin to flip instruction on a regular basis. This means that student will watch a short video for homework that describes a skill that we will be working the next day in class. When student arrive to class they will either go directly to their computers to start working on a project or we will briefly meet to discuss a topic. This will allow more time for discussion about design and higher order skills. The "what to click on" part of the lesson will be housed in Schoology.

There are additional benefits to this style of teaching. Student will be able to move through a project at their own pace, I'll have more time to support individuals that may be struggling and every student will be able to revisit the lesson and review a detail that they may have forgotten.

Embedded within the process are a number of skills that students will need in the future. They'll learn to upload project, collaborate with classmates,  how to manipulate instructional video to locate the information they need, and navigate an online learning space and many more.

The program is going well despite the normal issues of remembering passwords and website addresses that are typical for elementary aged students. As the system evolves I hope to provide a totally student centered environment where kids have more choice and can showcase their creativity.

Welcome Back

Welcome back!!! 

 

I'm looking forward to another great year. Many of you are new to me this year and I would like to learn everyone's name as fast as possible. The best way to do this is to create name tags. The video below will help you create a unique name tag in The Printshop Deluxe. Review the video and give it a try.