NAEP Grade 4

It appears that the NAEP scores for fourth grade have not changed significantly over the last ten years. West Virginia forth graders were above the national average prior to the year 2000. Since then, students have maintained their scores while the rest of the United States have made some improvement in their scores. This leads me to only one conclusion; West Virginia's fourth graders are falling behind their peers from other states. Fourth graders have fallen sharply as compared to the nation this past two years of assessment. There was only a 3 point discrepancy in the 2007, in the year assessment year 2009 the point difference was a drop of 6 points. It seems that fourth graders are trailing behind their peers from other states and students in WV are falling farther behind each year. ISTE standards covered deal with professional growth and leadership. To see the graph click HERE:

NAEP Grade 8

NAEP scores for the state of West Virginia for grade 8 have made modest increases over that last twenty years. West Virginia has been behind the national average over this entire time period. Over the last few years it is apparent that the gap between the youth of West Virginia and others in the nation is widening. There needs to be some sort of educational reform in the preparation of grade 8 students. Eighth graders of WV are falling farther and farther behind their peers from other states.The difference from the youth of WV to their peers has been about 5 points. In recent years WV youth has more than doubled that gap to 12 points behind the scores of their peers. The ISTE standards covered are those that deal with professional growth and leadership. To see the graph click HERE:

Windows Movie Maker

This Movie Maker project makes it easier to show and view Power Point Projects in a format that will automatically progress without human intervention. Students can save their Power Points in a Movie Maker format so when they present their projects each slide can be timed to fit the individual's presentation and the slide with advance without any intervention from the presenter, saving time and preventing audience distraction. If you wish to view my Movie Maker Project Click HERE:
 This activity covers ISTE standards of facilitating student learning and creativity. This project will give students more options when presenting projects to classmates.

Word Cloud

 
The Word Cloud activity could be used for various courses and activities. Any class from Art to Chemistry to Physics to English could use this format to discuss and talk about important words used in any course. If I were to use this in Trigonometry I would use the words shown to introduce and review topics. Students could also do the same to show their understanding of the words and topics that they would incorporate. This particular activity would cover ISTE standards of facilitating student learning, digital age work and digital age assessment through its display and oral presentation.

Video

I am not sure what I should say about the video. He is right student learning should take on a different form than say memorization. But, if I didn't memorize how to spell all these words you would not be able to read this. I think students need to learn how to think and solve problems. The vast availability of finding facts is so easy now, it is much less important to memorize facts that you will not use everyday. So, why am I still teaching Geometry and Trigonometry to all of the students at the high school when many of them will not every use either of these subjects after leaving my class. Some will like students going into construction or architecture. I should be teaching students how to think and approach problems. They will have to find solutions in small groups to be productive later in life. I use groups everyday so students are able to interact and learn how others solve the same or similar problems.

Tiny

The tiny url an easy way to shorten any url that you use frequently into a url that you will remember. Say you always travel to Outer Banks, NC for summer vacation. The map that you search for and use directions from can be saved as a tiny.cc/obx. Any url that is say over ten characters is often times too long to remember. Tiny allows you to shorten the url to one that you can remember. The tiny url would fall under the ISTE standard of facilitating student learning by giving them a tool to use to enable an easiness saving and finding resources.

Google Form

If you wish to view this form click HERE:
This particular assignment I would use with other teachers at my school to assess classroom interventions before students are referred to Student Assistance Team, prior to being tested for Special Education services. This will be a helpful to me personally as I am the SAT Chairperson at our school. This form can be emailed and filled out by any of the teachers at my school.  This activity would incorporate ISTE standards of digital age assessments and engaging personnel for professional growth.