April 2010 Class Discussion

After exploring Picasso, share with the class what resource(s) you and your protege tried and how it was implemented in your classrooms.   Be sure to respond to at least 2 other responses made by your classmates.

Comments

[Vonda Benham]

My protege found the "gray area" helpful. She was able to go there for curriculum information. The Unit Resources helped her find the resources, assessments, standards & elements, and the vocabulary she needed. It's all organized in one area for each nine weeks. Another resoruce she found helpful was the ELA Handbook. I printed it off for her as a guide since she had some confusion about the DRA2 Correlation Book Levels and how to administer the DRA2.
One of my favorite "finds" this past month was on the ESOL Blog, "Cool Tools for the ESOL Classroom" by Wayne Craven. It can be found on Picasso by going to ESOL, then ESOL Blog, then Foreign Language & ESOL Technology Integration, then "Cool Tools..." powerpoint. There may be a quicker way :) Some of the great sites include "Wordle", "Voki" (allows students to write, read, speak, and listen to self inspired avatar), and "Text to Speech". I really liked "KickYouTube". It gives you an easy way to downdload YouTube videos and by-pass them from being blocked.
Happy "Picasso" Hunting!
Vonda

[Carmen Bandy]

Vonda-
I agree-the ESOL cool tools are just that. One of my favorites is word sift. It makes what Learning Focus Schools call 'Word Splash' automatically. You enter the words and the computer creates it. Cool!

Carmen

[Carmen Bandy]

Picasso is a place my protégé and I visit often. When I need to know ‘what CCSD says’ I can go to the handbook (Elementary and ELA). Report card information, reading levels and DRA2 information was easily accessible and helpful.
The K-5 'gray area' at the end of each quarter gives a unit outline for reading and writing, and common assessments to measure growth and drive instruction. We used the GHGR adoption correlation to help us navigate all of the new adoption materials. It helped us to use GHGR as a resource because we could find just what we needed based on GPS.
The Math section has extension tasks and that helped her find student performance tasks and Daily Rap for mini-lessons and whole group instruction. Vocabulary cards are located in the rap section as well. My protégé uses the vocabulary cards on her math word wall. The vocabulary cards have pictures and examples and they were helpful when I taught fourth grade math compacting.
Picasso is updated often so it’s good to visit at least once a month and just explore.

[Darcy McFarlane]

My protegee and I agree that Picasso is a terrific resource. My protegee,a special ed math teacher, uses Picasso for pre and post math tests, performance tasks (instructions, graphic organizers, games, activities, and websites that can be used to plan and implement during instruction), essential questions and standards and vocabulary, differentiation and extensions.

I have mostly used Picasso for standards and EQ's and lesson plans and activities--Darcy

[Judith Seldon]

Both my protege' and I use Picasso and feel that it is a most helpful tool when it comes to Reading instruction for our classes. We visit Picasso for our Literacy Units of Instruction. It lists descriptions for Assessment, Performance Tasks, Unit Vocabulary Skills for Specific Genre,and Strategies.

In addition, Picasso assists with the preparation and scaffolding of lesson plans. Everything is laid out! With the click of a mouse, we can visit different methods of instruction, ways to differentiate instruction, and even Essential Questions. We often wonder where we would be without it!

[Judith Seldon]

Our school is involved in a, "Math Compacting" review session at the end of every nine weeks. I agree, Carmen, that Picasso serves as a useful tool, along with the Activboard, with Daily Rap for Math Compacting mini-lessons. It's an interactive and fun site.

[Judith Seldon]

Vonda, it sounds as if you found an excellent site for ESOL students to use from Picasso. I'll be sure to have my students visit the, "Wordle" and "Voki" sites. They probably won't even realize that they're learning vocabulary, because they'll be having so much fun!

[Vonda Benham]

Darcy--good point about Picasso's linking websites for resources. My protegee said she's looked at some of them and found them helpful, some more than others.

[Vonda Benham]

Carmen--the GHGR link is great. With all the information that went along with the new adoption, the guidlines on Picasso have been very helpful to keep all the pieces straight. I really appreciate the power point and instructions that go with "Reading Street". It's a great resource for teachers.

[Carmen Bandy]

Darcy, it sounds like you have helped your protégé find lots of useful tools on Picasso. Teachers have such a busy day that any help with the planning, preparation, assessment and activities is a welcome asset.

[Tina]

My protege and I think that Picasso is very useful when it comes to vocabulary in math and science. It is a good reference point for us to look at to make sure we cover all the required vocabulary for each unit. Also, in math and science we both like the integration of technology. With math the math Rap and in science there are wonderful links to United Streaming and other technology resources. It is also useful when making lesson outlines to ensure that all the standards are covered. We also really loved the benchmark tests. These give us a good idea of student levels of proficiency. In science Picasso also gives great experiment ideas.

[Tina]

Vonda,

Thanks for the ESOL tip. I did not know that was on Picasso, what a cool find. Sounds like you and your protege have really made good use for Picasso and passed on some very useful information.

Thanks Again
Tina

[Tina]

Judith,

I lose sight of going to Picasso for reading due to the fact that we have implemented so many other resources. Thanks for reminding me that Picasso also has many wonderful resources. It also ensures that I cover all the standards.

[Dominique Terens]

My protege and I explored the collaborative units, instructional resources, and online resources. My protege was very surprised at the amount of information in Picasso, as she had only used Picasso without logging in as a teacher. She was even excited to see a resource her co-teacher used in class recently had been downloaded from Picasso. She felt the collaborative units were the most helpful in helping her with lesson planning and differentiation. As part of an RTI committee, I found the Instructional Resources the most helpful. I had forgotten about the I2I information which can certainly help our team as we look for strategies to implement for struggling students.

[Dominique Terens]

Tina,
I agree with your comment about the posted benchmarks. My protege also found the posted benchmark tests with keys very helpful. She coteaches in Math 1, so this is a great resource.

[Dominique Terens]

Darcy,
I think using the pre and post math tests would be a helpful resource at the high school level in our co taught math support classes. Thanks for the idea.

[Darcy McFarlane]

Judith--the reading and literacy resources sound awesome! Anything that will aid me in preparation and scaffolding as well as differentiation are much needed tools!--great job, Darcy

[Darcy McFarlane]

Dominique--I didn't even think about there being a place in Picasso to assist with RTI and strategies to use with our special education or struggling student population. Thanks for the excellent suggestion there! Also I welcome the use of collaborative units of study. Nice work--Darcy

[Genois Alexander]

My protege and I stumbled upon the following blogs that we both found helpful for both our ELL's and native English speakers credit given to Wayne Craven. The sites were: Badgemaker, Newspaper Clipping Generator (student interactive) and fenetiks- gives the sound of the spoken language.

[Genois Alexander]

Vonda with all my technology skillz (none), I shared your findings with my mentee (tech guru) and "KickYouTube, was wonderful. Thanks for sharing.

[Genois Alexander]

I agree with you Judith that Picasso lays out lessons for you (some may have to be tweaked a little). My protege and I found it helpful when we did our thematic unit.

[Terri]

My protege and I explored Picasso for both science and reading. I was surprised to learn that her data team does not use Picasso regularly to plan lessons. To me it is a wealth of information! I like to see the suggested pacing guides for all the content areas. Since I tutor students after school it helps me to fine-tune what they should be previewing for vocabulary. I was disappointed that I could not access the resource links for checklists and rubrics. I don't know what I was doing wrong. To me those would be invaluable resources - something that helps to see things county-wide instead of just school-wide. I will attempt to access them again in the future and see if it was an "off" day. Has anyone else been able to access the rubrics and checklists for reading and writing?

[Terri]

Tina - I too liked the benchmarks right there where they could be easily accessed. Since I have not been in the classroom this year, this was the first time that I had seen them just there! A good lesson to learn as well as share!

[Terri]

Genois - What helpful information! I had no idea they were there! Since I will be taking a job change, this is a piece of information I can use next year. Thanks for sharing!

[Marcia Robinson]

My protege and I generally use PICASSO for lesson planning and to get the standards for the 9 weeks marking period.
However, we looked at the ELA & Math handbooks,and sample of the Report card comments because my protege commented earlier that at times he found writing comments difficult. We found the information helpful. I learned how to snapshot items to make an item analysis assessment from the IMI so I taught my protege how to do that. It beats copying then cutting , pasting and copying the completed assessment again.