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Richland School District Two is honored with the 2014 ISTE Sylvia Charp Award

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Award Winners Will Be Recognized at ISTE 2014 in Atlanta, June 28-July 1

WASHINGTON, D.C. – May 6, 2014 – Today the International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE^®) announced its 2014 award winners. Each year ISTE recognizes individuals who are transforming learning, teaching and leading in the digital age. The winners will be honored at ISTE 2014, one of the biggest, most comprehensive ed tech events, to be held June 28-July 1 at the Georgia World Conference Center in Atlanta. 

South Carolina’s Richland School District Two is the winner of the 2014 Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology. Presented by ISTE andT.H.E. Journal, in honor of the magazine’s founding editor, this award recognizes a school system for exhibiting effectiveness and innovation in the application of technology. Richland School District Two is honored for bringing innovative practices to its classrooms, through both a 1:1 and BYOD programs that are being implemented with a focus on ensuring that the proper policies and procedures to support learning are in place. Technology integration coordinator Donna Teuber and the Technology Integration team will attend ISTE 2104 to accept the award on the district’s behalf. 

What is the Sylvia Charp Award for District Innovation in Technology?

Presented by T.H.E. Journal and ISTE, this award recognizes a school system larger than one individual school (school district, school board, secretariat of education, education organization) that exhibits effectiveness and innovation in the application of technology.

Honoring Dr. Sylvia Charp, the founding editor of T.H.E. Journal, and her groundbreaking contributions and extended service to the education technology community, this award has two focuses:

• Widespread implementation: The winner will ensure equitable and appropriate technology use for all students in the system, aimed at improving learner outcomes and increasing learning opportunities.
• Innovation: Progress in education, as in all endeavors of our society, depends on new ideas.

Don't miss this summer learning opportunity - SC Midlands Summit COMING SOON!

Richland School District Two's SC Midlands Summit featuring Google for Education is scheduled for June 11-12, 2014! The SC Midlands Summit is a two day conference focused on the use of Google for Education, research tools, Web 2.0 tools, and technology integration in the classroom.  Over 100 unique sessions will be offered! We have a great lineup of featured speakers on hand to share their expertise with us. Steve Dembo, Catlin Tucker, Leslie Fisher, and Tim Childers are all confirmed presenters! Check out our featured speakers page for more information. 

Registration is only $35 for Richland Two employees and $50 for Non-Richland Two employees for TWO days of Professional Development and up to 14 hours of renewal credit.  Registration is open!

Sessions have been posted on the sessions page. There is something for everyone no matter what level or ability. 

If you have any questions, please comment below.

Congratulations to our new DEN Stars!

Congratulations to Emily Herbig, Chuck Holland and Lisa Knoche to the Discovery Education Network family! 

What is a DEN Star?

A global community of education professionals that are passionate about transforming the learning experience with digital media, the Discovery Educator Network (DEN) connects members across town and around the world through social media, virtual conferences and in-person events — fostering valuable networking, idea-sharing and inspiration.

If you are passionate about transforming learning experiences with digital media, sharing resources, collaborating, and networking we invite you to take the next step in the DEN. Become a STAR Discovery Educator. It's easy. Just remember STAR:

S – Share something you've learned  about using Discovery Education resources with your colleagues

T – Teach your colleagues about this idea or strategy

A – Assist your colleagues as they implement this idea or strategy

R – Report what you've done

Would you like to be interested in becoming a DEN Star? Log in to your Discovery Education Account and click on Discovery Education Network on the left navigation.

Blogging and Skyping Through the Middle Ages: Learning Takes on New Meaning Using 1TWO1 Computing

Guest bloggers: Mr. Atkins, Muller Road Middle and Mr. Abernathy, Blythewood Middle

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Students in Mr. Atkins’s third period Honors Language Arts class at Muller Road Middle School (MRMS) and Mr. Abernathy’s Honors Social Studies classes from Blythewood Middle School (BMS) collaborated together as students researched and wrote about the Middle Ages.  Titled Blogging Through the Middle Ages, students in both classes researched topics and concepts about the Middle Ages based on Common Core Standards.  Students from both schools researched and wrote blogs constructing topics, event, and concepts about the Middle Ages. Students from each school read and responded to students’ blogs from the other school.

The culminating activity was a Skype Meeting between the sixth grade classes.  Mrs. Brandon, the Media Specialist from Muller Road and Mrs. Swetnam, the Media Specialist from BMS set up the Skype event.  Students collaborated using Socratic Seminar methods--students from each school were given ten minutes to discuss assigned topics they wrote about and the other school had five minutes to summarize what students from the other school discussed.  

Student examples: Blog 1; Blog 2; Blog 3

During the last five minutes, students reflected on the experience.  All of them responded to the experience.  Comments included the following:  

"It was nice to learn from students rather than teachers."  

"I enjoyed working with students from another school."  

"I enjoyed getting criticism from other students.  It made me a better writer."  

"Learned a lot from reading the other blogs."

Three or four years ago, students would have read about the Middle Ages and completed a project.  One-to-one computing has enabled them to become researchers, writers, reporters, and collaborators with students at other schools.   

Richland 2 Film Festival

Are you interested in participating in the 1st Annual Film Festival? If so, it's not too late! All the information needed for the Film Festival is located on the Film Festival blog.

The deadline for the entry form and parent permission form are due this week. You have until May 16th to submit your completed video using WeVideo! 

What is going on with 1TWO1?

Update on our 1TWO1 initiative.

Technology Spotlight - Elizabeth Catoe, Blythewood Middle School

Mrs. Catoe has been using VoiceThread in her French classes to help give students real feedback on conversations. Students in the class use VoiceThread to record conversations with each other. Students are not given much time to prepare and they are not allowed to make a script.

For their most recent assessment using VoiceThread, students imagined that they were shopping for new clothing from a real French store. All students were given was a copy of an ad for the store.  

VoiceThread allows Mrs. Catoe to keep a record of conversations that the students are having in class. Because of this, she is able to give students meaningful feedback on their conversations. Not only Mrs. Catoe able to listen to the conversation many times, her students are able to listen to their conversations again after receiving feedback.

Mrs. Catoe is the French teacher at Blythewood Middle School.

Richland 2 WE NEED YOUR HELP! Update your DE Streaming (StreamlineSC) Account

Over the next few months we will be making some changes to DE Streaming (StreamlineSC) and we need your help to make sure we are ready for the changes. If you have a Discovery Education Streaming account, we need to ask you to please update your email address to your school email account.

How do you can you check your account?
Go to http://www.discoveryeducation.com
Log in to your account.

Click on the Edit Profile button under your name.

Scroll down to contact information and update your email to your @richland2.org email.

Finally, scroll to the bottom of the page: check the box that all of your information is correct and click submit.

Thank you for your help with this matter. Please share this will 

all of your Richland Two teachers. 

Technology Spotlight - Kailey Shin, Richland Northeast High School

Ms. Shin attended a professional development conducted by Sharon Owens, the Technology and Learning Coach for Richland Northeast High School on using Kahoot! as a means of engaging students and formative assessment. She was excited to try this with her Algebra 1 Part 2 students. The Kahoot! lesson was on transformations in the coordinate plane. It was a pre-assessment to her student's knowledge of the topic as her class is working on HSAP review. 100% of her students participated. The students who answered correctly high-fived other students. It was exciting to see their interaction with others and listen to the comments the students made as they saw which students moved up in the scoreboard.

Kailey Shin was born in Canada and moved to Michigan when she was 5 years old. She received her degree from Michigan State University with a Major in Math, a Minor in Physics, and also completed her teaching certification through their Teacher Ed program. She moved to North Carolina after she graduated. She taught for 4 years in North Carolina and moved to South Carolina this past summer. This is her first year teaching at Richland Northeast High School.