Lights, Kami, Action!

No One SAW this Coming, but we SEE NISD Keeping Learning Alive!

We can all agree that the current situation is not ideal. Educators are unable to expect what they normally would from students. While teachers can’t recreate their normal classroom environment, our Northwest ISD educators are amazing! They have been able to keep learning and literacy alive, connect with their students, capture their voice, provide personalized feedback, and involve families as an integral part of their child’s growth. For K-2 teachers, Seesaw has been the platform for making these goals a reality. Mrs. Fitch, Mrs. Perry, Mrs. Davis, Mrs. Embry, and Mrs. Moore from Granger Elementary have not only used Seesaw with fidelity all year, they’ve gone up and beyond to meet the needs of their students as they learn and grow from home. 

Continual Learning: 

Each Sunday, teachers send required and optional assignments home for students to complete. Perhaps one of the best features within Seesaw is the ability to capture student voice by allowing students to explain their thinking. With provided structure through Seesaw activities, teachers can encourage students to take their learning deeper with questions and question stems. One of Mrs. Davis’ favorite activities during remote learning is the Animal Adaptations science activity. Listen to the student’s understanding of adaptation, their language of the discipline used, and their ability to apply this learning to a real life situation. 

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Continual Literacy: 

One of NISD’s goals for this year is literacy. Seesaw has allowed teachers to encourage students to keep reading and share their reading while they’re at home. One of Mrs. Perry’s favorite activities sent home to her Kinder class encouraged her readers to simply capture a picture of themselves reading. Mrs. Perry shares, “This activity not only encourages reading, but gives me a chance to see and listen to them read.”  

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ELA coach Rebecca Maddox points out, “Seesaw is benefiting students, parents and teachers during this remote learning time with it's ease of use. Seesaw has allowed our youngest readers and writers the ability to respond and capture their thinking in a variety of ways. They use pictures and voice recordings to capture their thinking for others to view. It is great to see that students can document their reading and writing lives in this format to capture how they continue to grow and learn!”

Students from across NISD are reading and sharing their reading. The first week of extended break, Mrs. Moore sent an optional Seesaw activity to her class asking them to share about a book they read and one they are hoping to finish. These activities have since led to a deeper knowledge of books as the latest activity prompted readers to not only read, but to stop and jot information about the characters in their book. Get a glimpse into’s Reese’s reading HERE or by clicking the images below.

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Stop and Jot (Week of April 12)

Engaging students in their learning is one of Mrs. Embry’s favorite aspects of Seesaw. She states, “Seesaw provides me the opportunity to create engaging lessons that allow students to respond in a way they are comfortable with. They can create a picture with drawing tools, type, or create a video.” Mrs. Embry, Mrs. Davis, and the Granger second grade team have personalized reading assignments by linking in an Adobe Spark video encouraging students to find fun places to read as they work on their reading stamina. It's fun for students to connect with their teachers by seeing them teach and encourage in the videos they send home.

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Mrs. Embry’s Spark Video

Mrs. Davis’ Spark Video 

Connecting with Students (SEL): 

It’s tough not seeing student’s faces each day. It’s important that students know how to identify their feelings, but also that they have a platform to share and be heard. NISD has prioritized social and emotional learning this year, which has helped equip our students beyond their content knowledge. Granger students are especially familiar with “Seesaw Feeling Checks.” These activities have become especially important as teachers get a pulse for how their students are doing, even when they can’t see them each day. Click on the image below to see an example of Mrs. Perry and Mrs. Moore’s feelings check. 

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Mrs. Fitch points out, “My favorite part of using Seesaw is being able to connect with my students! I love being able to post videos directly to their journals and I love getting videos from them even more. It is nice to be able to post work for one student, or the entire class with one click.” Mrs. Fitch continually provides her students with personalized video feedback. Check out how Mrs. Fitch used Seesaw to wish one special student a Happy Birthday and make her feel special even from afar.

The heart of our NISD teachers is what makes students excited to learn!

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Providing Personalized Feedback: 

Another benefit of Seesaw is that it protects the privacy of our students and allows teachers to differentiate and provide personalized feedback for students without displaying that feedback to the entire class. Mrs. Perry is very intentional about giving writing feedback on student work. Click on the image below to see samples from the last few weeks. 

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Seesaw allows feedback to be written, voiced in an audio comment, or even a personalized video.

Inviting Families Into The Learning:

Mrs. Davis comments, "By using Seesaw daily, parents are able to see what content we are working on and what products their child is creating.  Parents have been very thankful for this program as Seesaw is sparking conversations as home, and parents are able to connect our learning at school to real world situations at home."

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Student Growth: 

Lastly, another NISD goal for the year is that students showing yearly growth. Since Seesaw is the house for these student’s learning, teachers are able to see growth over time. Mrs. Davis states, “We have used Seesaw since day one as our students’ academic portfolio, so seeing growth is easy when you compare assignments from the first few weeks of school to their current work.”

Mrs. Fitch adds, “Being able to provide feedback and having the students go back and check their work has allowed me to see growth in their writing. I have assigned the Daily Oral Language activity for three weeks and have seen growth from week to week.” 

NISD is the Place to Be: 

Our NISD teachers are a walking example of this quote by George Couros, “Technology will not replace great teachers, but technology in the hands of great teachers can be transformational.” Our teachers have thrived in a season of uncertainty. While the situation is not ideal, these teachers have not thrown in the towel. They’ve connected in a way that shows their heart for students and their heart for learning. 

*The NISD IT Team is happy to announce that NISD has purchased Seesaw for Schools for the upcoming school years. This purchase is for all NISD schools ages Pre-K to 5th grade. Click HERE to learn more.

Not Just Students, PODCASTERS! Sharing Our Learning One Episode at a Time

What do you hear when you listen to student created podcasts in Mrs. Webster’s class? Excitement, love of reading, love of writing, kindness, empathy, teamwork,  student ownership, laughter, different personalities. Mrs. Webster’s student podcast hosts have EXCEEDED expectations as they make their voice, passions, and learning come to life on a regular basis. Mrs. Webster quotes it best, “These students are meeting the expected standards of learning without even realizing how much thought and work they are putting into it. They just think it’s fun!" She adds, “These pod-casters are writing, coming up with their own plan, reading, summarizing, reflecting and creating.  I feel like they are truly owning their own learning.”

An Ongoing Routine: 

Mrs. Webster's Podcast Wall 

At the beginning of the year, Mrs. Webster had all of her students set up their own Padlet wall as a platform to house podcast episodes. She also had each student include their podcast on a class podcast wall to mimic a Podcast app where listeners can access different podcasts at any given time. Students started the year reviewing podcast expectations and best practices. “When we first started, I would assign a reflection or give students an idea for a book recommendation podcast. Now, students are coming up with their own topics. Mrs. Webster adds, “Along with requesting to review books, some students have even created their own podcasts based on discussing friendships, positive vibes, and funny times.”

Mrs. Webster doesn’t grade podcasts or require a certain number of episodes. This is why seeing that some students have 10-15 episodes is so powerful. Mrs. Webster has also equipped her students to be quality control for the episodes. “As a class, we listen to each other and give feedback on the planning, pausing, summarizing, pacing, etc.” In regards to making time for podcasting, podcast reflections have become a part of Mrs. Webster's afternoon ELA stations. If some students are unable to get to the podcast station, they make time for them to complete the next morning first thing.

Emery, Claire, Nick, and Henry have especially enjoyed their podcasting journey. Emery states, “I love being a podcaster because I get to tell people how I feel, what I’ve been working on, and what I’ve learned.” Henry adds, “I like that I get to work with a partner and choose what my podcast is about.” Claire’s favorite part of podcasting is interviewing other people to see what they’ve read and how they’re doing. Nick loves that they get to work and have fun at the same time.

SEL (Relationship Skills and Social Awareness)

Emery and Claire Working Together to Record an Episode

“Podcasting is a process,” says Emery. “You have to stay focused. If you get too funny, the people listening won’t understand what you’re saying. Claire and I have to work together to make our podcast come to life. We’ve learned that we can’t interrupt each other and need a clear written plan” Emery and Claire talk about resolving conflict when they have had hard times deciding who was going to get to share certain parts of their episode. It’s neat to hear how podcasting has helped Claire become aware of other’s feelings. “Sometimes we just have to pause and talk if we start to argue,” she says. “We’ve learned each other’s strengths.” Emery adds, “for example, Claire is really good at explaining characters and how they act.”

Nick has realized that through his podcasts, he has the opportunity to encourage others. He states, “If someone is sad, we might be able to cheer them up. We try to be really positive. My favorite episode is number eight when I’m talking about my friendship with Henry.” In this episode Nick and Henry talk about their similarities and differences, but how they’ve remained friends regardless of their differences.

Making Connections

Not only have these students learned to collaborate together and think about their partner and audience, they’ve also learned to apply character traits and feelings to their own lives. After recording an episode about Jory Jones’ Book, "The Bad Seed," Claire points out, “This book teaches you how people have their own personalities,” she adds “If you don’t like how someone acts, the lesson is to be kind and make sure people feel welcome.” On this episode, Emery asks, “ Is there anything in this book that relates to you?” Claire responds by talking about her ornery brother and how she should be kind even when it's hard

• Emery Interviews Claire About "The Bad Seed" by Jory Jon

"Knowing that we're going to record a podcast over the books we've read, makes reading even more purposeful." Claire adds, "Podcasting makes me more excited about what I’m reading. It makes me think about how the characters are feeling and how characters change, so I can talk about it on the podcast." Emery points out, "We go back to our books to remember how characters were feeling. Their actions show how they’re feeling."

In addition to recording episodes about books they've read, students have written their own stories and fairy tales! They’ve enjoyed interviewing each other as authors. Emery recorded an episode over a story that Claire wrote, titled, “Lucky Puppy.” On the episode Claire states, “This book really has a connection to me and my life when I was little.”

• Henry Interviews Nick About Nick's Fairy Tale "Humpty Lucky" 

Mrs. Webster states, "I love all of the episodes, but some of my favorites are when the students make connections with the books they have read and discuss how a book may have impacted them deeply. There seems to be something magical that happens within the physical act of talking it out for them on a podcast. When students are recording in a smaller group, they tend to express deeper thoughts than maybe they would have written down or shared in a whole group setting. At times, they can get really deep and other times they can get really silly, but overall, they feel completely safe in sharing their unique personalities and creative ways throughout the podcast, and this I absolutely LOVE with all my heart!"

Next Steps: 

Sharing Our Podcasts at Expo 2020

These students got to share about their podcasting journey last Thursday at Expo 2020. It was a powerful presentation as these students shared an ongoing routine that means so much to them.

Henry would like his next episode to be about a current favorite book of his, "Flames of The Tiger" by John Wilson. I'm sure there are many more podcast episodes to come from Webster's 3rd grade class. They are also interested in sharing their episodes outside the walls of their classroom, possibly with one of their favorite authors.

Explore Claire's Podcast and the Writing Template Students Used to Prepare: 

Google Doc Planning Resource

Comprehending WILD Literature

Back to school in the FALL at Justin Elementary is all about policies, procedures, routines, and setting expectations with students.  One of the goals for 5th-grade teachers Ms. Haley Donaldson and Mrs. Becky Carlson is for students to take risks and try new things to enhance their reading comprehension. With that goal, both teachers are committed to incorporating relevant technology into her lessons to help students reach their goals across multiple literary elements.  After finishing the read-aloud Hatchet by Gary Paulsen, students were given the choice to produce a technology-infused product that represented: Theme, Character, Comparing, Setting, and Plot.

Emma N. from Mrs. Donaldson’s class really enjoyed making the WILD Wordcloud project.  She stated, “ I liked doing this project digitally because I got to be creative to choose my own words, design my own colors, and I chose a plane as the background. I found my idea to make the flipbook on Youtube.”

Students were challenged to capture the essence of the novel and give the reader a good idea of what the book was about.  In this novel, thirteen-year-old Brian is flying on a bush plane when the pilot suddenly has a heart attack and dies. Brian manages to keep the plane level until it crashes into a lake in the Canadian wilderness. Brian survives the crash, but that was just the beginning. Characters in many novels go on adventures and through their journeys teach the reader much about life and themselves. Below are more projects that follow Brian’s WILD  journey into the wilderness. Students used their Chromebooks and were given the choice of four types of tools to elaborate on their literary elements: Google Draw, Canva, Adobe Spark, and Wordcloud.  

In this video, Seth L. from Mrs. Carlson's class wanted to publish a video about what the WILD Canadian setting looked like to him after reading the book. Click here to view

Cameron L. said, “My favorite part was typing my paper in Google Docs since I have bad handwriting. I am really proud when I get my papers typed up, they look professional.”

Emory H. from Ms. Donaldson’s class chose to show the reader about the WILD setting of the book by using Google Draw.

Brady T. from Mrs. Carlson’s class showed voice and choice by producing a WILD monthly newscast in WeVideo about the book. To show his creative side he even interviewed his teacher as if she had the main character Brian in her class.  To watch the video - click here

Haley B. from Ms. Donaldson’s class used Canva to entice readers to come to visit WILD Hatchet by creating a magazine about the book. Click here to view the project.

These projects are showcased on the board outside the classroom in the hallway for all visitors to see. Also, they will be submitted to our district's learning showcase event EXPO in February.  More information can be found at http://expo.nisdtx.org  In closing, students demonstrated content-specific skills. This project utilized technology in a way that enabled students to demonstrate how they have empowered learners and creative communicators, crucial skills for being future-ready. (ISTE Student Standards)

You've DOT to Read This Book!

We love reading at Hughes Elementary! With a campus and district focus on literacy, 5th grade ELA teachers decided to create a platform for students to recap, rate, and review books they were reading. This idea came up during “Dot Day” when students were learning that they can leave a mark and inspire others in the process. Teachers wanted students to be able to recommend books to their classmates and inspire them to pass their love of specific books on to others in the class. 

Writing about books and recommending them to others was a skill that these students got to learn throughout the process. Mrs. Covarelli points out, “Some students didn’t understand the difference between writing a book blurb and a review.  We got the chance to model how to write a book blurb to hook the reader versus writing a review. We’re continually teaching students how to give specific text details to support a review rather than just writing 'it was fun, funny, or enjoyable.’”  Mrs. Covarelli adds, “ I love seeing which books my students have felt impacted by in their independent reading time. I enjoyed seeing my students give a book 4/5 stars rather than 5, but still highly recommend it.” 
Mrs. Bass adds, “Students were excited to create a review of the book they had read and share it with a wider audience than their class. It allowed them to express their opinion and encourage others to read.”

Teyla, McKenna, and Addie were three students that were particularly excited about writing reviews and reading reviews from others. “The One and Only Ivan is a book that I feel should get more attention than it does,” said Teyla. “This book made me feel lots of emotions such as sadness, loss, excitement, surprise, and joy. The cover doesn’t show what the book is really about." She noted, "It may look like a picture book for first or second grade, but it’s actually great for fourth or fifth graders. Writing a blurb and review helped me share these details with others.” 

McKenna read “Because of Mr. Terupt.” She admits, “It took me a while to get into the book, but then it got very intense. I loved the author’s craft. I also noticed that the main character switches between having a growth and fixed mindset.” It was neat hearing how McKenna was able to relate her learning from school to the characters in her book and how she developed empathy for each character their situation. 

When asked about reading reviews from classmates, Addie claimed, “Lots of people in our class want to read a book called ‘Pax.’ I was drawn to the review by Veronica. Her blurb described how the book was about the fox and a boy who get separated and their journey of getting back together. She said it was really emotional. When I read her rating, I could tell she was being very honest. I want to read the book even more after reading her review.”

Teyla and McKenna gave their books a five star rating while Addie gave her book a 4. She claimed, “I gave my book a 4 because, you can get confused at times. Multiple languages are used in the book along with multiple scenes. It is very descriptive and makes me feel like I’m part of the story.” Students learned how to separate their opinion from fact. “I learned to be honest about my experience in the review. To think deeper about how to get other readers to read my book. You don’t want to leave spoilers, but it helps to have a big question or a hook to get them excited,” says Addie. McKenna adds, “In our writing right now, we’re learning about going deeper with our words. I tried to leave a cliff hanger, so that others would read my book.”

All in all, this project truly did get students talking about books! Mrs. Brewton claims, “When students were looking for books the other day in our classroom library, I heard them pointing out books that they had seen on the Padlet. They were checking out their friend’s recommendations! It was exciting to see my students engaged in their book selection rather than having them come to me because they couldn’t find anything they liked.” Addie also mentioned, “I think our class talks more about books when we’re doing book reviews. The talk has died down a bit, so I think it’s time to write another review. My friend Abby told me that she read my review and liked it. I was happy that she took the time to tell me that she wants to read my book, 'Resistance' because of my review.” 

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It will be fun to see who students get to share their book recaps and reviews with. Mrs. Alvis, the Hughes librarian has plans to showcase specific student reviews by their corresponding books in the library. This will allow students to read reviews from other students when they are choosing what they want to read.

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Student ISTE Standard - Creative Communicator: 
Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

• 6D: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Book Snaps: Snapping for Reading

Walking into Mrs. Guy’s classroom is such a delight. She has set a goal to take risks this year and try new things that enhance student learning outcomes. With that goal, she is committed to incorporating relevant technology into her lessons to help students reach her yearly student learning objective, or SLO.

Mrs. Guy wrote, “When developing my SLO I noticed that students demonstrated weakness in the area of critically thinking about reading and that students had difficulty drawing conclusions with logical text evidence. This lead me to create my SLO as follows: When reading, students will draw conclusions, evaluate relationships within texts and provide text evidence to support their conclusions. Shelly brought the idea of book snaps as a way to have students showcase their evidence, so I introduced book snaps in one of my reading skills groups.”

#BookSnaps are a digital representation of the text with annotation. Mrs. Guy’s 3rd graders were given the task of choosing one difference from schools in the past and schools now in their reading skills group. They also used book snaps to showcase their favorite book with evidence on why they choose that book. Mrs. Guy said, “In my opinion, it is more than just a reading response. It is hits our SLO by having the student frame exact book evidence to support their answer in a way that interests them.”

Tyler said, "Books Snaps are fun, you can use them to tell about your favorite book.

Book Snaps is a great a way for students to find text evidence and make connections with their reading. Taking risks and finding relevant ways to get your kids learning and reaching goals is invaluable. By using Book Snaps and other useful technology integration tools, they can reach their learning goals easily and more often!

Supporting the #Wildcatway Reading Initiative

The Wildcat Way is more than just a motto at Wilson Middle School.  Over the summer, teachers put down their beach reads and picked up Disrupting Thinking: Why How We Read Matters by G. Kylene Beers and Robert E Probst in an effort to better understand ways to foster a culture of  reading across campus and provided opportunities for collaboration through ways to disrupt our thinking about reading.  

It was from this book study, teachers Helen Read, 7th grade ELA, and Matt Norris, 7th grade Math, crafted “The Wilson Review.”   The Wilson Review is a process of creating and posting digital video reviews for students and staff. The goal of the showcase board is to get students interested in books as well as to share the books they love so that they can get inspired to read. Students can access the reviews via teacher Moodle pages and Google Classroom courses. The Reviews are also on display outside Ms. Read’s and Mr. Norris’ classrooms on a large bulletin board where students and teachers can use their mobile device to scan the QR codes.  

While the activity of having students submit book reviews might seem somewhat mundane,

these two teachers took it up a notch by allowing students to use FlipGrid as a tool for recording
their review.  In the world of Instagram and SnapChat selfies, what a better way to relate to
students than asking them to record their book review. 

Flipgrid is place where you can verbalize your learning.  Flipgrid was purchased by Microsoft and provides a moderated and easy to use platform to create up to 5 minute videos and showcase the videos for only NISD users to view.  Flipgrid along with the cameras on student’s Chromebooks were a great pair for this project. “With the integration of Flipgrid students get excited about sharing their books using the Book, Head, and Heart Model.  As they are creating they can investigate what others have said about books they might be interested to read.  Find a review you enjoy, students can leave a thumbs up to the creator and check out the book in the library.” This type of interaction motivates students to continue reading so they can make additional post.  WOW,  so far The Review board has 26 hours of engagement time and growing. 

Student Raul shared, “Flipgrid allows you to express what you think about a book, you can
say what you want.”  Students enjoy the freedom and creativity this outlet offers.  The ability to
record something for others to watch later is also an aspect of the tool students appreciate.
Gracie Clair reflects, “My flip grid experience has really put it in a way for me that I can speak
up and prove my thinking, with people watching it after I film it, not while I film it.”

Staff have already seen an increase in student engagement during daily reading and this is
only the beginning!  Ms. Read and Mr. Norris hope to continue utilizing Flipgrid throughout
the year for book reviews.  Even teachers have benefited from the program!  As Ms. Read
reflected on her experience she shared, “Making my own Flipgrid video was an interesting
experience because it put me in the shoes of my students. I was a bit nervous recording myself.
It also solidified what I wanted my students to be able to share about their reading. I’ve learned
about some books I have definitely added to my own TO BE READ list.”  Mr. Norris has also
enjoyed the experience and was pleased to see, “With showcasing of teacher examples and as
more students recorded their reviews, students overcome their hesitations.”

In today’s schools, technology can be seen as an enemy of reading, however these two innovative teachers have uncovered a strong ally in growing passionate readers.  The Wildcat Way Reading Initiative is off to a strong start.