A highlight of my week was working with Ms. Greene at Brighton using Edugame.  After getting some training on use of Edugame a few weeks ago, Ms. Greene decided to use the student response system this week.  Since she had never used the system with students before, Ms. Greene asked me to co-teach.  We had fun, and I lost the bet.  (I bet Ms. Greene that her kids would get out of control as students often do the first time they use student response systems).  

I am scheduled to co-teach with Edugame over at Victory next week.  I hope everything goes as well there. It will if Ms. McMenamin and Mrs. Davis are as prepared as Ms. Greene was.  I was pleasantly surprised when Ms. Greene checked in with me the day before our class was scheduled so that we could make sure the equipment was all working.  It was a good thing too.  The data projector wouldn’t work, so Mrs. Thomas (media specialist) provided a replacement.  

Student response systems can be a great way to collect data on your students and find out if they understand information that you have presented. Setting up for the use of Edugame or any student response system can be a little tedious.  You have to create a student database or grade book if you want to capture the student data.  Ms. Greene was glad she took the time to do it right.  The data we collected while the kids were playing will help her to know what topics need to be reviewed to prepare the students for assessment.  Edugame is strictly a science initiative with the games and questions provided by the office of science. Up until this point, we have only had student response kits for 4th and 5th grade science teachers.  

The really good news is that Brighton now has 2 sets of Promethean Activotes. These sets will be piloted by Mrs. Petry and Ms. Gibson as part of their MCPS classroom upgrade.  The IT department will determine if other MCPS teachers will be able to use the Activotes when the pilot phase has been completed.  Hopefully by the spring, all MCPS teachers will have access to student response systems.   You can find more information about Promethean Activotes here: http://www.logicalchoicetech.com/classroom_solutions/menu/view/12.html

Promethean Activotes    I love these little eggs!!