Ed Tech Times
El Monte Union HSD's Education Technology Newsletter
Welcome to Our Second Edition - March 2018
Stories of EMUHSD Education Technology Innovation
Rebecca Herrera’s Students Escape via Google Forms
Escape Room: a physical adventure game in which players solve a series of puzzles and riddles using clues, hints, and strategy to complete the objectives within the given time frame.
Rebecca Herrera, AHS English and AVID, teacher stumbled upon a concept that has been gaining popularity and successfully brought it into her classroom. Before her students took a test on The Tragedy of Julius Caesar, she wanted them to review the play in a way that would not have them passively looking through notes and hurriedly answering questions.
Instead, she organized a review that mimicked the rules of an Escape Room. She provided her students a series of clues. Each clue led to a combination that the students had to input into a Google Form. If entered correctly, the Form “unlocked” one letter. The students had to keep deciphering the clues, which led to the code, which revealed the letters. After the students collected all the letters, they then had to unscramble them to arrive at the ultimate answer for the review.
Ms. Herrera is pleased with how engaged the entire class was in completing this activity. With some creativity, technology, and planning an ordinarily mundane review was transformed into an engaging and successful lesson. For more information about this topic, please contact Rebecca.Herrara@emuhsd.org
English Teachers at EMHS Use NoRedInk to Help Students Improve Their Writing Skills
Students in EMHS English classes are getting excited about grammar. You heard right! Instead of the groans and sighs that usually accompany this necessary exercise in writing mechanics, students are eager to grab a chromebook and delve into the world of prepositions, punctuation, and parts of speech using NoRedInk.
NoRedInk is an online-based grammar and writing tutorial system that allows students to practice grammar and writing skills at their own pace. It is adaptive and customized to the needs of each individual student, so that they are focused on improving in their areas of weakness. The content students practice with is high interest, pop culture-related material that helps engage students in the activities. Reports are available for teachers to monitor students’ progress and learning needs.
As one 11th grade English student puts it, “No Red Ink helps me learn grammar [and] build strong sentences.” And teachers are echoing the praise. Diana Vasquez, English 1P and 3P teacher explains, "I love No Red Ink because it is quick and easy for me to use. I can customize lesson for students' individual needs, and let them work at their own pace. NRI reinforces grammar concepts through practice in creating sentences and identifying and fixing errors. Not only is this type of adaptive practice very effective, it's much more enjoyable for my students than traditional grammar practice.”
NoRedInk has both paid and free versions of their service. You can watch this video tutorial for more information. For more information about this topic, please contact harmony.valuet@emuhsd.org
SEMHS's Ms. Lelchuk Innovates w/ Slides & Classroom
Ms. Lelchuk, English teacher @ SEMHS, has expanded her fresh teaching methods to include technology. She teaches Journalism 1, English 1, and Yearbook. She uses Google Classroom and Google Slides the most in all three classes.
As Ms. Lelchuk mostly teaches Freshman, she says that “technology is a great way to keep students organized.” She also recognizes that such technology can distract students and take their attention away from the task at hand, however, she also believes that it is “really, really important to teach students how to properly use the internet as a learning tool and certain technology for education, instead of purely entertainment.” Using technology in the classroom, has not only helped her students, but also helps keep herself organized to make assignments clear to her classes. Ms. Lelchuk is able to clearly and concisely explain assignments to her students via Google Classroom. This online tool is convenient since all assignments can be turned in the same location and it keeps track of what is due when because Google Classroom timestamps when assignments are turned in. Google Slides allows students to quickly complete assignments and easily access Google Classroom.
Ms. Lelchuk will forever recommend incorporating technology into the classroom because she believes that it will improve the quality of learning and will continuously provide a more efficient way to complete any task. For more information about this topic, please contact Manuel.Rosales@emuhsd.org
MVHS Using New Interactive Lab Simulations Tool
MVHS Science Department chair, Chris Campbell, regularly uses PhET simulations created by the University of Colorado to engage students in tech-based labs. In this lab, students were were using various gas laws to examine, both conceptually and quantitatively, what happens to the temperature, pressure, or volume of a gas when one of these dimensions is changed. These virtual labs allow the students to see at the molecular level exactly what is happening to the atoms themselves and how this affects temperature, pressure, and volume of the gas. The students really look forward to working on PhET labs which increases the overall level of engagement and performance of the students. Chris provides students with multiple opportunities to express their learning and the technology tools bolster the learning experience. For more information about this topic, please contact Chris.Campbell@emuhsd.org.
FLHS Students Can Account on Great Ed Tech Classroom Integration
RHS Leading the Way w/ Engineering Design Tools
Rosemead High School prides itself with preparing our students for life after high school. In our Project Lead the Way Introduction to Engineering Design (IED) class instructor DeeAnne Doseman offers this to her students everyday. In IED students are writing applications for their statistics class. During the first eight to ten weeks students learn the MIT inventor software. Once students have mastered the program they are given real life projects that are similar to what they would use in college or if they had a job as an engineer. The curriculum that our students are given in this class is the same as if they were in a college level course. Ms. Doseman prides herself in providing this class that gives the students an understanding of what to expect if they were to decide to become an engineer. The skills our students learn in this class are transferable to any other engineering program.
Some examples of projects that students are working on include completing a drawing to design a train. As with all of their assignments students start with establishing basic dimensions and then design it using the inventor software, once complete students print out the project (see the example below). The course culminates with students first building their own project based on parameters given by Ms. Doseman and then they are teamed up with a fellow student to design another project for the end of the year.
This class provides our students real life skills with giving them challenges to develop their own projects to demonstrate their understanding of how to design things that might interest them. For more information about this topic, please contact Sandy.Beerman@emuhsd.org
Meet the Teacher Technology Leaders (TTLs) - Our Newsletter Team Contributors
Dr. Chris Lewis
Harmony Valuet
Robert Lenart
Sandy Beerman
sandy.beerman@emuhsd.org
Crystal Mercado
crystal.mercado@emuhsd.org
Manuel Rosales
TTL @ SEMHS & English Teacher
Erick Steelman - Director of Information Services
Email: erick.steelman@emuhsd.org
Website: www.emuhsd.org
Location: 3537 Johnson Avenue, El Monte, CA, United States
Phone: 626-444-9005 9905
Facebook: facebook.com/ElMonteUHSD
Twitter: @ElMonteUHSD