7th Grade ELA Brushes Up on Reading Skills

Students in Mrs. Porter's and Mrs. Pickle's classes spent the week before STAAR using the school netbooks and online resources to help prepare for the upcoming STAAR Reading Test.   Students worked through stations including grammar rules with the help of BrainPop videos and online quizzes.    Another station had students on Newsela reading current events and answering questions based on their own reading levels.   This allowed the teacher to work in small groups with other students to review key points and review strategies they had learned all year.

Reviewing for 8th Grade Science STAAR

8th Grade Students went online to review for the upcoming STAAR Science test.  Using materials chosen for them to address high stakes TEKS students interacted with the science concepts and got to clear up misconceptions the weeks before the Science Test.  

Math Loves Technology!

Sixth grade students started off the new year by diving into Think Through Math.  "Think Through Math is a Web-based solution that provides adaptive math instruction for students in grades 3 through Algebra 1. Developed by teachers and technologists to help students prepare for rigorous Common Core and TEKSstandards and assessments, " (http://www.thinkthroughmath.com/)


Seventh grade math spent much time in the fall semester using technology to review and practice math concepts with  various websites for math practice for students including Think Through Math, SumDog, and math-play.com. The students also used online quizzing software like Socrative for formative and sumative assessments.   Mr. Ritchie says "My students love using technology! I think it is the future of education. My students use an online educational software called Think Through Math. It is a self paced software that only lets you move on as fast as your knowledge will let you. There are also incentives for the students to be successful. That is an added bonus. "

Eighth Grade student have also spent time on Think Through Math to reinforce skills, especially in the Algebra and Geometry classes.  These students are taking the STAAR 8th Grad Math exam as well as the Algebra and Geometry End of Course Exams, so this program allows students to review math concepts that were covered in previous years.

BrainPop helps with Clauses

Mrs. Porter is using the netbooks and Brainpop as a station in her room to help students understand what clauses are and how to use them properly.  Students take a quiz at the end of the video and email the results to the teacher.  This activity is in part of their writing unit in preparation for the STAAR Writing exam coming up in a few weeks.  Brainpop is a subscription service paid for by the RMS PTA this year.