Don't miss out on all my previous posts!

Before blogging on Blogger, I was using Wordpress. I have many older posts on that site that are worth your time. You can check them out here.

SIS (Powerschool)

At the Meridian School District, we'll be using Powerschool. This web system is called a Student Information system or SIS for short. Powerpoint allows teachers, school administration and parents to view student data in real time from any computer with an internet connection. Attendance, scheduling, grading, and reporting are all integrated into the system.

What are the benefits of this system? First off, it will allow parents to become more involved with their child's progress in school. With the system you'll be able to spot any trouble areas your child may have. You'll also be emailed updates that are specific to your child's schooling. Teachers are able to leave comments that you can view. Powerschool is easy to use and it's free to you!

Here is a link to a video overview on the Powerschool website:

View demo 

This video will help give you an idea of how the system works between students and parents:

For even more information check out:

The Powerschool Site

Success Stories

For those of you who may be worried about logging into the system, here is a short video on logging in. This video is for teachers, but it should give you an idea of how easy it is!

Powerschool is really going to change the way you communicate with your children and teachers about school. It's way more efficient than our old ways of communicating and I'm very excited to get started with this amazing technology. It is very easy to use, but I know there will be some bumps along the way. Please feel free to call or email me with any questions you may have. I will get back with you as soon as possible. We are all in this together and I can't wait to see how this benefits our students!

Blog #5 (Spreadsheets)

I watched Judy Young's exercise with her 7th grade class. They practiced using spreadsheets for estimation in Wildlife Sampling. The students were given a real-time, local scenario about declining salmon populations and the need for water resources during a drought. Student acted as Fish and Wildlife officers, taking a sampling of salmon in local rivers. Each group of students was assigned a river (paper bag) that was full of fish (goldfish crackers). They used a cup to scoop out a sampling. They recorded their results and put the tagged (pretzel goldfish) fish back into the river (paper bag). Additional sampling was done and results were recorded. The recorded numbers were then imputed into a spreadsheet. The class used formulas to determine salmon levels in each river. 

I'm not sure I would change much of this exercise. I believe it could easily be used for a middle school writing class. I would have the students conduct the experiment just like the example class. Following the experiment I would have the students use the information to write about the issues of water use during a drought, keeping diminishing salmon populations in mind. This experiment would help my students better understand the issues they are writing about help them learn the value of good research prior to writing.