Tag: track

Goal Book: Personalizing Education

Kelly Tenkely4 Comments on Goal Book: Personalizing Education3228 views

Goalbook Beta Overview from Daniel Yoo on Vimeo.

What it is:  Goal Book is a platform, currently in beta, that helps educators come together to create and track student goals.  The interface is very Facebookesq in feel.  Teachers can create and track student goals from within Goal Book, sharing those goals with any other team member that works with the student.  Each time a goal or progress of a goal gets updated, the entire team that works with a student is updated.  Educators can keep each other updated with progress of goals, celebrate students, and share messages in Goal Book.  In addition to updating educators, parents are now in the center of the conversation.  They can see all progress, communicate with the education team that works with their child, celebrate successes and send private messages from within Goal Book.

How to integrate Goal Book into the classroom:  Goal Book is a fantastic way to keep every part of an education team up to date with IEP goals and progress.  No more keeping track of email threads, assuming someone else is taking care of a particular portion of the goals, or wondering what progress a student has made with another team member.  Goal Book brings all communication to one, easy to manage place.  I like that teams are fluid in Goal Book.  Here, the assumption isn’t made that every student has the same group of educators working on their goals.  The students you have input in are listed in one place and the team members associated with that student show up as well.

Goal Book isn’t just for students with IEP’s, all students benefit from creating and tracking learning goals!  Ask your students to think of a goal they would like to make for themselves for the semester/quarter/trimester in each discipline.  Record the goals and progress with students throughout the semester/quarter/trimester.  Celebrate with students when they have reached their goals and share these with parents.

At Anastasis Academy, we hold parent/teacher/student conferences at the beginning of each block.  We call this conference “Meeting of the Minds”.  This is a time where parent, teacher and student come together to write learning goals for the upcoming block based on the progress that was made the previous block.  Students play a big part in creating their learning goals.  One thing I would like to see from Goal Book is the ability to include students in the goal making/tracking process.  It is important to include students in the planning and tracking of THEIR learning goals.  Kids have to have ownership in their learning!

Tips: The Goal Book blog is worth subscribing to and following if you plan to use Goal Book at your school or in your classroom.  The blog will keep you up-to-date with the latest updates and information about Goal Book.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Goal Book in  your classroom!

Where’s George: Track US currency

Kelly Tenkely2 Comments on Where’s George: Track US currency2454 views

What it is: Where’s George is a neat site that lets your students track the travel of dollar bills through circulation.  Users of the site mark their bills with the website address, and follow the adventure of their money.    On the Where’s George site, students can enter the serial number on the bill, enter their current zip code and learn about where their bill has been.  If your bill doesn’t have a tracking history, you can start tracking it.  Add a short note about the bill including where it was found, what condition it is in, etc.  Students and classes can choose to receive an email when the next person finds and records the bill’s next location.  In addition to tracking bills, you can view a report by zip code, state, bill denomination, or county.

How to integrate Where’s George into your curriculum: Where’s George is a great site to use as part of a money or currency unit.  Let your students track their money and watch the journey of their money unfold.  Students can track their lunch money, donation money, or sports club money.  Track a dollar with your class for an entire school year.  Enter the dollar serial number as a class at the beginning of the school year, record information about it, and write the Where’s George web address on the dollar.  Use a class email address to track the bill throughout the year.  Map where the dollar travels.  Toward the end of the year, have your students write a story about the adventures their dollar has had, including the places it has visited, and the kind of people they imagine that it met on its travels.  This is sure to spark some creative stories!

*** When using the site with students make sure to preview where the bill has been before sharing with students, sometimes those bills visit some interesting places that may need to be screened (i.e. strip club). Always preview first!

Tips: Need a different currency to track? Check out this page to find your country’s currency (Europe, United Kingdom, New Zealand, Russia, Switzerland, India, South Africa, Australia, Sweden, Denmark, Japan, China, Taiwan, and Germany).  There is also a neat site called Book Crossing that tracks books that you have read and released.  Cool!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using  Where’s George  in  your classroom!