New Kent Teacher Google Sites

As we continue to implement Google Apps for Education in New Kent County Public Schools, more teachers are taking advantage of some of these powerful tools for teaching and learning.  One of the most important of these tools us Google Sites, an easy-to-use website authoring tool.  Google Sites can be used to provide information on the web for students and parents, to make class resources easily available on the web, to publish student learning products...the list of ways teachers and students can use Google Sites is long!  Google Sites are flexible and offer a variety of templates and customizable themes.  Remember, Google sites can be made public, can be shared with selected people, or can be kept private, depending on their purpose.

Teacher webpages have become the go-to source for information for many students and parents.  It is important for all of us to have a strong professional presence on the web!  Like it or not, our students, parents, and the public often make judgments about us based on the information we provide (or don't provide) on our webpages.  Think about the professional image of yourself you want to present on the web, as well as the content you want to share.

If you haven't already, begin making improvements to your teacher and class webpages, whether in School Center or on a new Google Site.  If you need help, our ITRT's, Beth Kappus and Nick Cammarano are always happy to lend their expertise.  Likewise, Ross Miller or yours truly are always happy to help, as well.  When you're ready, Ross can also link to your Google site from your school's main web page.  A great website is of no use if no one can find it!

A number of NKCPS teachers have begun to develop teacher pages using Google Sites.  Here are some links and screen shots of some of our teachers' sites:

Melissa Dalton, NKES Title I Reading

Angie Estis, K-3 ACE Resource

Debbie Fox-Valdez, 4-8 ACE Resource

Rechele Gregory, 4-8 ACE Resource

Beth Kappus, Elementary ITRT

Christen Henninger, GWES Special Education

Lindsay Horne, NKMS 6th Grade Social Studies

Rebekah McClung, NKMS 8th Grade Social Studies

Jennifer Jenkins, NKHS English

Judy Sargent, NKHS English

Sue McIninch, NKHS Science

Great job all, and, thanks for being leaders in implementing Google Sites!!!!

English Students Develop 21st Century Skills for Summer Reading and Discussion!

Several of the advanced and AP English classes at New Kent High School will take advantage of Google Groups and WikiSpaces to provide opportunities for students and teachers to discuss summer reading during the, uh, summer!  Students in Mrs. Pushie's advanced 10th grade classes, Mrs. Jenkins' 11th grade AP language classes, and Mrs. Sargent's 12th grade AP literature classes will be joining private online groups to discuss their ideas about the summer readings before their return to school in September. 

Students in Mrs. Sargent's 2011 and 2012 AP Language classes started using the group discussions and found that they helped not only with reading and understanding the works before coming to school but also in beginning to know each other and become more comfortable with topics before the rigorous classes began.  Another advantage to the online discussion is that every student must participate in the discussion.  In some classes, a few students might be very vocal, and shyer students might not feel as comfortable jumping into the discussion.  In the online setting, many students who are hesitant to speak up in class come alive in the online conversation.  Everyone has an equal opportunity and expectation for the work. On the "sneaky teacher side,"  students practice their reading and writing when posting to the online discussion, giving students summer practice in both essential English skills.

The interactive online setting is private for the students and teachers in the class. For the past several summers, Mrs. Jones, Mr. Valdrighi, and Mrs. James, NKHS administrators, have also been invited and have been "silent" observers of the summer discussion to see how involved and dynamic the summer work has become.  After participating in the summer chats, many students talk about their comfort in using online media discussions and finding them helpful in understanding what they were reading, in asking questions of other students as well as the teacher, and in gaining more immediate feedback which allows for stronger and better discussion of the essential ideas in the readings. Teachers welcome the ability to interact early to prevent misconceptions or misreading and to begin knowing their incoming students prior to the first day of class.  The online classroom discussion becomes a win for all involved!

NKES Odyssey of the Mind Team Places 5th at World Competition!

Over the past weekend, May 22-25, the New Kent Elementary School Division I Pet Project Team participated in the World Finals competition at Michigan State University. The team from NKES performed splendidly and took 5th place in the world competition! What a fantastic result for a very deserving group of creative students, along with their coaches and parents!

 The Odyssey of the Mind World Finals featured more than 800 teams from schools around the world. The NKES team placed 5th out of 55 teams in their division! More information about the OotM World Finals is available here and the link to the team scores page is available here .


Great job by all team members and coaches! Special thanks go to NKCPS Gifted Resource Teacher Mrs. Angie Estis who accompanied the team to Michigan!

NKES Division I Pet Projects Team

NKHS Teacher to Conduct Research with NASA

New Kent High School science teacher Sue McIninch was recently accepted as a teacher-researcher in the NASA Long-Term Engagement in Authentic Research with NASA (LEARN) program. Mrs. McIninch was selected from over 500 applicants from across the United States to participate in this research program. As a NASA LEARN researcher, she will have the opportunity to engage in two weeks of research alongside NASA scientists this summer and will continue her research throughout the 2013-2014 school year. Sue will also be able to integrate her research into her instruction at New Kent High School. The partnership culminates in a presentation of research in June, 2014. More information about the NASA LEARN program is available here.

Congratulations, Mrs. McIninch and best of luck with your research!

GWES Students Use Blabberize to Learn About History

Courtney Brown's first grade students at George Watkins Elementary School have been learning about famous Americans, and Ms. Brown found a wonderful technology resource for her students to use.  Ms. Brown used Blabberize, a web-based video creation tool that allowed her students to create a video with simple animations.  Even better, students were able to create voice-overs for the animations to share what they have learned.  Check out the students video below, or on the web: http://blabberize.com/view/id/962990.

Inquiry Learning in Biology

Monica Schnautz and Shelia Morris, science teachers at NKHS, have incorporated authentic scientific inquiry opportunities for students in their classes.  Ms. Schnautz recently shared the strawberry DNA extraction lab that her students performed, with outstanding results.  Below is an image capture of one of Ms. Schnautz's students' DNA samples.  The student was able to capture the image using a smartphone - a great application of mobile technology.  Better yet, this is a fantastic DNA sample, with the double helix clearly visible in the slide!  Great work!

Mrs. Morris' biology students recently complete a field work exercise on local waterways.  Students learned to make field observations and collected samples for water quality testing.  This was a fantastic opportunity for our students - thanks Mrs. Morris!

NKHS Teacher Published!

Congratulations to NKHS math teacher Dr. Candice Barkley, who was recently published!  Dr. Barkley's essay Connected Principals: In Pursuit of Social Capital via Social Media was published in the volume Principal 2.0:  Technology and Educational Leadership, published by Infoage Publishing.  Information about the book is available here.

Great job, Dr. Barkley!