School Wide Events:

Brittany Bisese
Spring 2015

Space Day:
March 11th, 2015
th

Annually, Trace Crossings 4 graders come to Samford to learn about comets,

constellations, the moon, major and dwarf planets and all things Space on Space Day! My
junior peers designed team-teaching lessons to teach one of the concepts above for the 78
students that came through our doors. As a member of Leadership Team, I collaborated with
my team members to create the schedule for the day, reserve areas on campus, delegate tasks
and communicate expectations to the Samford juniors, coordinate the decorating assistance
of the Sophomores, gather information to be sent to the teachers and parents, and coordinate
other logistics such as bus schedules and lunch procedures. The day of the event I circulated
around the building to ensure smooth transitions and to meet the needs of Samford students
or Trace teachers. I also co-led the whole group opening ceremony and end-of day review
session with the students. Through Space Day, I developed my planning, organization,
collaboration, communication skills that are all necessary components of effective leadership.

Young Authors Conference:

Reflection:

April 30th, 2015

As a group guide, I only observed how my students responded to this group of

questions. After asking students who had read the book, none of the students had the
opportunity to read it. So we forwent the book discussion questions and focused on the
diversity star questions which focus on the theme of equity in the treatment of others. We
gave each student a card, all of which had a star on it except one. We asked who had the card
without a star on it. A young girl raised her hand and we then said, how does it make you feel
that your card doesnt have a start on it. At first she didnt know how to respond so we
asked her, How does it make you feel to know that your card is different than everyone
elses? Then she realized what we were asking and when she realized she was different she
was upset and responded, not good. We then asked the class, Class even though she
doesnt have a star, do you think we should treat her differently? All of the class responded
no. We asked why and students gave mainly one response: It is not fair.
We then related this activity to Rules by connecting that it is about a girl whos
brother has Autism and he is often treated differently because of it. We asked students, do
you think that we should treat people differently that are different from us? Students had
insightful responses such as, No because that is not how you would want other people to
treat you. And No, because we are all different from one another and should treat people
fairly. We ended the conversation with the final question, What rules can we set for
ourselves to make sure we treat people fairly? The boys and girls responded with remarks
like, thinking before you speak and thinking about how you want to be treated. We then
allowed the students to begin the activity and finally performed a read aloud with the first
chapter of the book to hook students into reading the book.

Overall, this conference allowed students to engage in conversations about diversity

issues, even if they had not read the books. This conference likely inspired students to read
these books and gave them a new understanding of the diversity concept of how to treat
people fairly even when they different from us. This is crucial to teach students while they are
young, so that they will learn early the importance of the fair treatment of othe

Rules Discussion Questions

By: Carissa Davis, Brittany Bisese, Hannah Cole, Abby Conner, Claire Wilgus,
and Taylor Biederman

Amazon Blurb:
Twelve-year-old Catherine just wants a normal life. Which is near impossible
when you have a brother with autism and a family that revolves around his
disability. She's spent years trying to teach David the rules from "a peach is not a
funny-looking apple" to "keep your pants on in public"---in order to head off David's
embarrassing behaviors.
But the summer Catherine meets Jason, a surprising, new sort-of friend, and
Kristi, the next-door friend she's always wished for, it's her own shocking behavior
that turns everything upside down and forces her to ask: What is normal?


Discussion Questions:
1. What are some rules that you have in your life? Which ones are difficult to
follow?
2. How do you treat people who are different than you?
3. Why do you think rules are important or not important?


4. A main character usually has an outer problem and an inner problem that
creates the conflict in the book. What does Catherine want that is outside
herself?





5. If Catherine were to write a rule at the very end of the book, what do you
think it would be?
Star Card Questions:
1.
2.
3.
4.

Whos card does not have a star?

How does that make you feel?
Do you think people will treat you differently because you do not have a star?
Do you all think that you will treat _____________ differently because he/she
does not have a star?
5. What rules can we set for ourselves to make sure that everyone is treated
fair?

Digital Learning Day:

February 24th, 2015

On Digital Learning Day, Samford students design and lead professional development
for the teachers at Trace Crossings Elementary School. Since Trace Crossings is
implementing more Google products in their classrooms, my PLC and I designed a seminar on
how to use three extension tools made by Google; Google Calendar, Chrome Speak, and Read
and Write. We created resources and gave a short lecture about how to use these tools and
implement them practically into the classroom.

** See Resources Included Below:

Chrome Speak
Video Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DEHzs02TAcE
How to Use Chrome Speak- Step by Step:

Step 1: Open Chrome- Click on web store in lower right corner of the browser

Step 2: Search for Chrome speak in the search box

Step 3: Click on add to Chrome

Step 4: Then open a new tab and Click on Chrome speak to check settings

Step 5: You can test what it will sound like by typing text in the speak box and clicking the
speak button

Step 6: Then, to change the voice, go into the control panel, then go into the ease of access,
then click on speech recognition- look for text to speech in the left column, under voice
selection you can check which voices are available

Step 7: You can choose language by clicking on the drop down box near language (this can be
helpful for use with ELL students)

Step 8: You can change the rate, pitch, and volume by changing the position of the sliders on
the bar

Step 9: To test the chrome speak, open a new tab and highlight a section of text from a
website of your choice

Step 10: Highlight and right click on text (or speak) to choose the selected text you want
read aloud. The computer will speak the sentence highlighted.

Step 11: To turn the feature off, go to settings, then tools and then extensions. Click on
extensions and de-select chrome speak to turn off the chrome speak option.

How Chrome Speak Can Be Used in the Classroom:

Chrome speak can be very helpful to use with ELL students in the classroom.

Students who are auditory learners will benefit from reading along to this app.

Read and Write

What it does:
With Read and Write for Google, students can:
-

Hear text read aloud with dual colored highlighting

Use text and picture dictionaries to have words explained or translated into other languages
-

Turn speech to text

Simplify and summarize text on web pages

Using the Read and Write App with Google Docs Web Tutorial:
http://otswithapps.com/2012/11/23/read-write-app-for-google-docs/
How to use Read and Write- Step by Step
Step 1: Go to the Google Chrome- search for Read and Write in the search box
Step 2: Click add to Chrome
Step 3: Then log into your Google docs account
Step 4: Then you can open an existing document or create a new document and include the text
Step 5: Type or insert the text you want to include in the document
Step 6: Go to the Read and Write tab to view the tools that are available
Cool Features: Tools Included are...
- Play button- when you click on this, the computer will read the text aloud and highlight the words as it readsyou can stop and pause this tool at any time.
- Dictionary- by clicking on this, the user can look up words using a regular dictionary for a definition or a
picture dictionary for a visual representation of the word.
- Translator- the translator tool will select a quick single word translation for a word and will have the word
read back to the reader in a proper accent.
- Vocabulary- the vocabulary tool will create a list of words with text definition and images to identify and
provide support for words that users have trouble with. To use this tool, the user selects and highlights words to
add to the vocabulary list by clicking the vocabulary list builder button. A new browser tab will be open and vocab
list displayed. The list includes the word and a definition, images and an editable note field where users can add
additional information. Lists can be saved, printed, or copied and pasted into a new Google doc.
- Fact finder- select a word and click on fact finder icon- a new browser tab will open and a Google search
will be run on the selected word- you can follow links to explore the topic further.
- Read aloud with dual colored highlighting- selected text will be read aloud and highlighted as the computer
reads the text.

- Word prediction- when typing, word predictions will show up, and options for a word can be selected (this tool
is similar to auto correct when texting with smart phones)
- Highlighters and collect highlights- use built in highlighters to collect information within a Google document.
Select text to highlight and choose Google docs highlighter color. The collect highlight button will extract the
information into a new window. The highlighted text will be in new window and provided a source of which
documents the highlight came from. The user can also sort highlights by color or position within the document.
- Options menu- within the options menu the user can change the selected voice and speed.
How to apply in the Classroom:
-

Students can use this when completing projects or homework

This provides additional resources, definition and spelling tips that will help students as well

Ell students will also benefit from the translator tool available

Google Calendar:
Using Google Calendar: Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6VdJJtwa-hI
What it does:

Offers one compact place to post assignment deadlines and important event dates

Ensures parents & students have access to dates (No more: I forgot my agenda at school!)

Cool Features:

Students can access the calendar without Internet (Wi-Fi)- Students can view the calendar in
a read only format. (This means that they cannot make edits to the calendar, while offline)

To activate Offline Google Calendar: (one time, will automatically activate each time
the student is offline after this)

Watch Tutorial: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PcKxXjRzHW8

Step One: Open Google Calendar.

Step Two: Click on the settings button (small cog button) in the right corner

Step Three: Click Offline tab

Step Four: You will be prompted to install the offline calendar from the Chrome Web
Store

Step Five: Click Add to Chrome

Step Six: Go back to Google Calendar: Click on the settings button

Step Seven: See the Offline tab now has a swirling green circle meaning that the
step is loading.

After loading, students will be able to access a read-only view of Google Calendar by
clicking on their Google calendar in their Chrome app launcher.

Google calendar is compatible with: Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, and Firefox

Students can view the calendar for just the day, next 4 days, 1 week, and month

Is available to be synced with a smart phone.

How to apply in the Classroom:

Create a Google calendar with all assignments and important events listed. Color coat by
subject. Events have their own color.

Create two calendars: an events calendar and a homework assignments calendar.

Ask students to set up notifications on their chrome books:

Teachers can have the students set these notifications for when they get back home
to remind them what assignments they have to do, or to look at their calendar!

Recommend that parents have this calendar synced to their phones to ensure their students
are completing assignments.

Create a Google Calendar to schedule Parent Teacher Conferences

Dr. Seuss Week

March 2nd-6th
Annually, Trace Crossings Elementary plans a Dr. Seuss week to allow students to fall
in love with reading and to see some of their favorite characters come to life. For this week,
Leadership team and I coordinated with the schools administrative staff and decided what
Samford could do to help make this week a success. Leadership team and I gathered together
all the information for the week, communicated the schools vision for the event to our
classmates, decided how duties would be delegated, created sign ups for the various activities,
and sent reminders to ensure everything was completed in a prompt and high-quality manner.
Overall, the kids loved the Maker Activities (such as Dr. Seuss themed math games, jewelry
making, Robots & Legos activities, weaving, and PE activities) that the Trace teachers and
Samford students collaborated to create. Also, we decorated the halls and doors of the school
and created power points to be displayed on the TVs and in the lunchrooms. It is experiences
like these, with hands-on activities that help learning come alive for students.

Self Reflection of Involvement in Dr.

Seuss week:

Self Evaluation
Title/theme: Dr. Seuss The More you Read the More you know the More you Know
the More Places youll Go!

Grade Level: Kindergarten.

AQTS Standards
Indicators
Comments
1: Content Knowledge 1.0

Content is accurate and current

Project content and standard are
aligned

This board was created to reflect

the standard, Add drawings and
other visual displays to
descriptions
to
provide
additional detail. The standard
was not displayed on the board,
however it is implied by the
content of the board since the
students had been engaged in
reading Dr. Seuss.

The boards uses bright colors

and oversized items such as a
large hat and fish bowl to draw
attention to the board.

2: Teaching and Learning
2.0

Project is standards based

3:Literacy 3.0

Written work is grammatically and

mechanically correct

The writing on this board is

grammatically correct.

Project is interactive and/or engaging
for ALL learners

The doors are appealing to all

learners and offer the chance to
better visualize Dr. Seuss books
to all students.

How would this board contribute

to the mastery of the specified
standard?
This door contributes to the
mastery of the standard by
inspiring students to add visuals
to their Dr. Seuss stories and to
create their own drawings that
add detail to the story.

Standard chosen is visibly displayed

4: Diversity 4.0

5: Professionalism 5.0

Project is professional in appearance

Project is visually neat and attractive

Poverty Simulation:
February 9th, 2015

A group of Samford students and I led a professional development session for the
teachers at Trace Crossings Elementary School. Since Trace Crossings serves a diverse
population of students, Samford partnered with the teachers of Trace Crossings to lead a
Poverty Simulation with the goal of better understanding the backgrounds of current and
future students who live in poverty. In this simulation, the goal is to create an authentic
environment that represents the daily lives of parents and students living in poverty. The
teachers acted as parents and children for this simulation and the Samford students served as
community figures and officials. After the simulation, the teachers and Samford students

reflected on the eye-opening struggles that many in poverty face. Overall, the event gave each
of us a common experience to deepen our understanding of the backgrounds of many of our
current and future students. Through this experience, I feel my understanding of the hardships
of life in poverty has grown and that because of this, I will be better able to serve students
from a similar background in my classroom.