(March 24, 2016) The Worcester County Board of Education discussed the following at its March 15 meeting:
Math strategies help
A professional learning community at Pocomoke Elementary School launched a program last year to help parents with math strategies in the comfort of their own homes.
Teachers were recorded giving rounding, counting and other math strategy lessons and the videos were then uploaded for all parents to view with their children at home after figuring out where they were struggling.
The initiative was created to bridge the Common Core gap between students and parents while helping students incorporate math into real life situations using food, cards or pennies.
Each grade level has at least two uploaded videos and DVDs are available as well.
Pocomoke teachers plan to add reading and other standards to their library of videos. In addition, they want to make multiple videos for the same concept.
Go to http://peswebsite.weebly.com/ to view videos from each grade level.
Freshman digital literacy
Snow Hill High School started a freshman literacy initiative last summer for ninth grade students receiving laptops.
The goal was to make sure students knew how to use the laptops properly for instructional purposes in order to be successful in college and their careers beyond high school.
About 80 freshman met over a period of four days in groups to go over how much they knew about taking care of their laptops, digital citizenship, knowledge of the Internet, Microsoft office programs and professional email use.
Students were ranked based on proficiency. Snow Hill teachers hope to reach 80 percent aptitude on the final digital assessment given in May.
Next year, teachers will focus on having more tools for students, continue to nurture the culture, create a checklist of skills for each year and possibly be able to offer a computer literacy course.
Project 100
The goal of the project is to have 100 percent of Pocomoke High School students pledge their intent to study at the college level, join the military or participate in a work-force development program upon graduation.
“High school is not enough and we have to do more,” said Annette Wallace, principal of Pocomoke High School. “Seventy percent of our kids live in poverty.”
To accomplish this goal, Pocomoke has partnerships with colleges, universities, the military and workforce development programs.
The school has bi-weekly homeroom meetings focused on motivating students, customizing learning experiences and exposing students to college and career opportunities through lessons and field experiences.
Pocomoke High School also use the Naviance information system, creates pathways for students, extended the school day and develops a timeline of activities for each year of high school.
They have set up excursions to the naval academy, Maryland State Police cadet program, cosmetology schools, Duke University, Gettysburg College, trips to Ivy League schools, Atlantic General Hospital and WBOC.
Wor-Wic Community College has an open enrollment in May at Pocomoke High School where students walk out of the meeting with their school schedule and classes for the fall.
Project 100 debuted last year with 88 out of 93 graduates committed to a post-secondary education plan and had a signed intent form placed with their diplomas.
Calendar modification
Board members agreed to modify the school calendar at Tuesday’s meeting making Monday, April 4 a half-day for students instead of a scheduled professional day. The change makes up one school day lost to inclement weather. There are three snow days built into the calendar.
Math strategies help
A professional learning community at Pocomoke Elementary School launched a program last year to help parents with math strategies in the comfort of their own homes.
Teachers were recorded giving rounding, counting and other math strategy lessons and the videos were then uploaded for all parents to view with their children at home after figuring out where they were struggling.
The initiative was created to bridge the Common Core gap between students and parents while helping students incorporate math into real life situations using food, cards or pennies.
Each grade level has at least two uploaded videos and DVDs are available as well.
Pocomoke teachers plan to add reading and other standards to their library of videos. In addition, they want to make multiple videos for the same concept.
Go to http://peswebsite.weebly.com/ to view videos from each grade level.
Freshman digital literacy
Snow Hill High School started a freshman literacy initiative last summer for ninth grade students receiving laptops.
The goal was to make sure students knew how to use the laptops properly for instructional purposes in order to be successful in college and their careers beyond high school.
About 80 freshman met over a period of four days in groups to go over how much they knew about taking care of their laptops, digital citizenship, knowledge of the Internet, Microsoft office programs and professional email use.
Students were ranked based on proficiency. Snow Hill teachers hope to reach 80 percent aptitude on the final digital assessment given in May.
Next year, teachers will focus on having more tools for students, continue to nurture the culture, create a checklist of skills for each year and possibly be able to offer a computer literacy course.
Project 100
The goal of the project is to have 100 percent of Pocomoke High School students pledge their intent to study at the college level, join the military or participate in a work-force development program upon graduation.
“High school is not enough and we have to do more,” said Annette Wallace, principal of Pocomoke High School. “Seventy percent of our kids live in poverty.”
To accomplish this goal, Pocomoke has partnerships with colleges, universities, the military and workforce development programs.
The school has bi-weekly homeroom meetings focused on motivating students, customizing learning experiences and exposing students to college and career opportunities through lessons and field experiences.
Pocomoke High School also use the Naviance information system, creates pathways for students, extended the school day and develops a timeline of activities for each year of high school.
They have set up excursions to the naval academy, Maryland State Police cadet program, cosmetology schools, Duke University, Gettysburg College, trips to Ivy League schools, Atlantic General Hospital and WBOC.
Wor-Wic Community College has an open enrollment in May at Pocomoke High School where students walk out of the meeting with their school schedule and classes for the fall.
Project 100 debuted last year with 88 out of 93 graduates committed to a post-secondary education plan and had a signed intent form placed with their diplomas.
Calendar modification
Board members agreed to modify the school calendar at Tuesday’s meeting making Monday, April 4 a half-day for students instead of a scheduled professional day. The change makes up one school day lost to inclement weather. There are three snow days built into the calendar.