On October 18th, school librarians honed instructional strategies in recognizing news bias, gained insight into what influences human reasoning, and left with ideas and activities for student instruction when collaborating with teachers or teaching information literacy. Two great tools that facilitate the teaching of news bias and is provided to all CA BOCES’ districts are Newsbank’s Access World News and America’s Historical Newspapers.

With links to primary sources, students can explore global perspectives and differing viewpoints on important issues and events.   Articles from newspapers, magazines, and other news media can be easily cited, saved, emailed, or printed.  Access World News provides current information from over 200 countries including Spanish languages sources, and everyday a list of about 12 headlines in news from countries around the world include activities that tie into common core standards.  A monthly list of hot topics in the news provide suggested search terms and critical questions to guide students in effecting searching.  Topics such as Business and Economics, Health, Literature, Performing and Fine Arts, Politics and Government, STEM, and Technology are linked to primary news sources relevant to what students are learning in the classroom.

America’s Historical Newspapers makes collaboration across disciplines amazingly easy!  Organized by eras from the late 1600’s to 2000, primary sources are divided within each era by the following topics:  Government, Military & Political Events; Social & Cultural Issues; and Discoveries, Inventions & Firsts.  While students are learning about the Civil War in social studies, the art teacher can introduce the Impressionist Movement with news and reviews on artists and their work.  Complementing the Vietnam War are links to primary news sources on music: Bob Dylan & folk music; Beatles and British music; literature: Maya Angelou, Steven King, Kurt Vonnegut, and Ken Kesey; PE/Health: DDT banned, Bobby Riggs vs. Billy Jean King, first Super Bowl; Technology: Pong; moon landing.  Students can become more engaged with an era when provided with topics that appeal to their interests. 

Students can learn perspective through original newspapers printed during the Civil War (north versus south) and Westward Expansion (east coast versus west coast/American Indians). 
Please contact me at Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces for personalized training in your district.

By: Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES School Library System Coordinator

This month’s spotlight as we dig a little deeper into the resources we have available to our component school districts in our warehouse is…..our Real Care Baby Simulators!
 
RealCare Baby® 3 (formerly known as Baby Think It Over® or BTIO®) is the world’s most advanced infant simulator. Educators around the world use this unique learning aid to add meaning and accountability to teach early childhood, parenting, infant health lessons and sex education. This smart baby uses wireless programming to track and report on caregiver behaviors, including care events, mishandling actions, time in a car seat and clothing changes. Baby includes four sets of curriculum and activities to help instructors create learning experiences that are relevant and career-driven. 

The RealCare curriculum sections are: 
Basic Infant Care – covers child safety, emergency procedures, child abuse prevention, and infant/toddler development.
Life Skills and Healthy Choices for Middle School Students - an abstinence-plus, comprehensive curriculum focused on sexual education and pregnancy prevention for youth 12-14 years of age.
 
Parenting: A Guide to Parenting Skills for Life – focuses on the stages of child development, parenting styles/impact, the costs involved in raising a child, and much more.
 
Healthy Choices: Relationships, Sexuality, and Family Planning – an abstinence-based, comprehensive curriculum focusing on teen pregnancy prevention. It covers relationships, self-esteem, refusal skills, adolescent health, and reproductive issues, among many other topics.
 
All sections are aligned to the National FACS standards and include Crosswalk documents.

So what are you waiting for? Take a look at our warehouse and give our RealCare Babies a try!

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

The distance learning team at CA BOCES, including Christina McGee, Justine Lombardi, and Karen Insley, have been busy traveling all over the region getting students enrolled in credit accrual and credit recovery courses. Students have a chance to increase the breadth of their transcripts, develop interests, try out vocational fields, and develop skillsets that can’t be offered within their districts. Further, if students are on medical leave or injured, they can keep up with their curriculum, and even with gym classes, in an online setting. Students also have opportunities to recover lessons, units, quarters, and semesters through the CA BOCES credit recovery program, meaning that students can catch up before they need further interventions. The CA BOCES team offers courses through seven different providers, including courses taught by our own teachers, Christina McGee and Justine Lombardi.

The most popular courses this year are Sociology, Health, Forensic Science, Marine Science, Physical Education, Spanish, Careers in Criminal Justice, English 10, Introduction to Military Careers, Physics, and Psychology. Students are also learning about astronomy, sports marketing, digital art, 3D Modeling and animation, world religions, mythology and folklore, social problems facing the world, and many other notable studies.

For more information please contact Distance Learning at 716-376-8270.

​By:  Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Deselecting books, also referred to as weeding, is necessary for maintaining a school’s library collection of resources. The process of deselecting includes removing damaged, outdated, or books no longer relevant to the curriculum.  Prior to deciding what should be removed from the library, librarians often use Titlewise by Follett to analyze the collection’s strengths and weaknesses based on industry standards. For example, a book on computers with a copyright date of 2000 will likely be outdated, (perhaps not if the focus is on the historical aspect), and books on robotics, forensics, and artificial intelligence may be recommended for strengthening the sciences.  

​When recently asked to help a librarian ‘weed’ the elementary library, I found a book on New York City with a copyright date of 1998.  Although it appeared to be in new condition, the Twin Towers were pictured, and Governor Pataki has since been replaced.  Some other examples of weeded books include The Lincoln Library of Sports Champions featuring Terry Bradshaw, Peggy Fleming, and other popular athletes at the time this text was printed; and The Chinese in America with a copyright date of 1959.  

When a library has not been ‘weeded’ for many years, the process can be overwhelming. Making room for new materials offers an additional opportunity to make the library attractive and inviting. Similar to marketing strategies used by retailers, displaying products often piques the interests of those who may be visiting for another purpose.

Research studies have shown college students prefer to read materials in print rather than in electronic format (Baron, 2016; Foasberg, 2014; Mizrachi, 2015), and a large percentage of students ages 4-15 enjoy reading print books (Kleeman, 2016).  Although the popularity of Amazon Kindle and Apple’s iPhone beginning in 2007 made reading books electronically convenient, print publishers have remained constant for the past ten years ( Mcilroy, 2017).  Balancing the library collection with print and electronic resources is a necessary duty that not all librarians have time to do. 

Schools needing assistance with the deselection process may contact the school library system coordinator: Cecelia_Fuoco@caboces.org

By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources 
 
 
 
Baron, N. (2015). Words onscreen: The fate of reading in a digital world. New York, NY: Oxford University Press,
Foasberg, N. (2014). Student reading practices in print and electronic media. College & Research Libraries, 75(5), 705-723.
Kleeman, D. (2016). Books and reading are powerful with kids, but content discovery is     challenging. Publishing Research Quarterly, 32(1), 38-43. 
Mizrachi, D. (2015). Undergraduates' academic reading format preferences and behaviors.  Journal of Academic Librarianship, 41(3) 301-311
Mcilroy, T. (2017). Startups within the U.S. book publishing industry. Publishing Research           Quarterly, 33(1), 1-9. 

This month’s spotlight as we dig a little deeper into the resources we have available to our component school districts in our warehouse is…..our Leveled Reader Kits!
 
Bring science to life with these engaging, colorful science readers! Elementary students will be able to understand new scientific content with the help of easy-to-read informational text, vibrant images, and examples of scientific practices. Each reader in this kit includes instructions for a fun science activity and related practice problems to provide additional support and a hands-on learning experience. Support STEM education with these 5E lessons that are aligned with the Next Generation Science Standards and incorporate writing to increase overall comprehension and concept development.

Science Reader Kits include:

• Leveled books to support differentiation strategies (16 - 24 titles, 6 copies of each, 24 pages per book)
• A Big Book
• Teacher's Guide with before-, during-, and after-reading strategies, introductory and lab activities to develop academic vocabulary, and strategies to authentically assess student learning formatively and summatively
• Posters, reproducible student activity pages, and audio recordings

​So what are you waiting for? Take a look at our warehouse and give Leveled Readers a try!

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

The second Southern Tier Annual Film Festival (S.T.A.F.F.) was held at the Cuba-Rushford Central School District auditorium on Friday, May 18.  Participating schools included Allegany-Limestone, Belfast, Cattaraugus-Little Valley, Cuba Rushford, Fillmore, Olean, and Whitesville.
Administrators, teachers, parents, and students gathered together to watch and vote on student productions to see which district would take home the trophy.
 
Leading up to the event, Courtney Brisky, a student at Olean High school, created the artwork for posters to be distributed throughout districts across Allegany and Cattaraugus counties to advertise and promote the festival. Student submissions for the festival were due in mid-April and the finalists for the event were decided by graduate students at the University at Buffalo.

Audience members watched forty-three films, voting in a mere six films as finalists. 

Finally, the moment came for the audience to choose the winning film and they selected a parody of the popular television sitcom, “The Office.”  Students DeAndre Ahrens, Gabby Dutton, Hannah Erwin, Cody Findlay, Dana Hatch, Colston Saulter, Jonah Williamson, and Trenon Zeager took home the trophy for Cuba-Rushford. The trophy was previously housed at Fillmore Central School District and will now spend the year at Cuba-Rushford until next year’s festival.

​Teachers have been preparing for this festival throughout the year by attending ongoing professional development offered by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES and presented by Dr. David Bruce at the University at Buffalo and Dr. Sunshine Sullivan at Houghton College. At the ongoing events, teachers hone their skills, brainstorm, and develop curriculum for teaching students to craft narratives, investigate the correlation between images and narrative, develop writing and media skills, and tap into creativity. 

​The first film festival developed out of a week-long summer professional development opportunity offered to English teachers through the region through a partnership by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES, Houghton College, and the University at Buffalo. This opportunity culminated with the creation of the Southern Tier Annual Film Festival by teachers because they wanted to offer their students the same kind of enriching experience in the classroom and give students the chance to present their work to a live audience.
 
“Writing with Video: Rural Voices” is going to be offered this coming year to teachers in every discipline to hone their skills, collaborate, and plan future film festivals.  If you have interest in bringing this unique opportunity to your students, look out for the upcoming summer institute as well as for future film festivals.
 
By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Barb Busack is an Olean native whose parents nurtured an appreciation for nature. Whether it be traversing through the jungles in Costa Rica, hiking the west coast of Greenland, or walking in Spain, Barb enjoys nature and learning about different habitats.  With digital camera in hand, she captures a variety of images from her adventures and readily shares with others. It is no surprise that Barb’s experiences and energy for life have allowed her to successfully grow CA BOCES’ Environmental Science program, CoSer 416.
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Barb meets with approximately 5000 students each year, engaging them hands-on activities that complement classroom curriculum such as studying habitats (see photo), or creating a molecular model of a snowflake (see photo).  

Barb is state certified in geology, biology, and elementary education.  Every summer, she takes 7th graders from Cuba-Rushford to a three-day camp where they take guided nature walks, learn about snake hunts, identify edible plants, and observe insects and amphibians in the Allegany State Park.  She especially likes providing instruction on animals and plants in the region, and the Three Great Cycles (water, soil and air) that sustain our life.   
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In this photo, Barb is speaking to students about ladybugs.  Ladybugs are highly beneficial to gardens since they eat aphids and are an important part of our ecosystem. 

​Although most of Barb’s interactions are with elementary students, Science on the Seneca is a research program sponsored by Hobart-William Smith College that provides high school students an opportunity to be on a research boat and participate in a plankton drag.  Students view plankton under a microscope, conduct a chemical analysis of water, and dredge up soil to analyze its contents (see photo).  The results are then added to the college’s findings to assist in ongoing research.

Barb’s creativity and enthusiasm for nature is a true passion and contagious!  If you would like to know more about the Environmental Science Program, please contact Amy_Windus@caboces.org at Learning Resources.

By:  Cece Fuoco, School Library Coordinator for CA BOCES

Take your students on a trip...without leaving the classroom.  Virtual field trips are a great way to connect your students with experts from around the world.  Download our May Virtual Field Trip guide.  

Schedule a trip:  
Carrie Oliver, 716-376-8270, carrie_oliver@caboces.org
Karen Insley, 716-376-8281, karen_insley@caboces.org 

All Schools Day brings component districts together to share Video Conference courses from within and outside the region. CABOCES Distance Learning hosted a successful All Schools Day February 9th. Lead by the Distance Learning Coordinator Karen Insley counselors and administrators from nine districts met in person and over Zoom to offer and seek video conferring courses. Video Conferencing courses are live courses where students and teachers meet from different locations utilizing a video and audio connection. Exciting offerings for next school year include College Biology from Belfast, College Sports Management from Boliver-Richburg, College Calculus from GV, and a suite of Agricultural Business courses from our partners in the Erie 2 BOCES region.

You can learn which video conference courses are available for the next school year on the Distance Learning Database located on the CABOCES Distance Learning webpage. The guest username and password are distance.

By:  Justine Lombardi, CABOCES Learning Resources

On February 5th and 6th, CA BOCES’ Digital Star Lab visited Friendship Central School (FCS) providing students in pre-k through fifth grades a sampling of what the digital planetarium offers.  David Yochum, the middle/high school science teacher, arranged for the visit and offered four of his 10th grade students an opportunity to instruct an eighth-grade class on pertinent topics using this technology.

During my two days at FCS I was able to introduce students to an outer space view of planet earth, moon phases, constellations, nebulas, the milky way, and the planets in our solar system.  Each field trip ended with watching the sun rise from the surface of Mars.  Students were awed by the experience and demonstrated an increased awareness of our solar system as the planetarium allows for on-demand instruction regardless of temperature and time.
Collaboration with your school librarian is made easy when resources, like the following suggestions, are paired with lessons:

• Pre-school & Kindergarten: Goodnight Moon by Margaret Wise Brown; Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me by Eric Carle
• Kindergarten – 2nd Grades:  Kitten’s First Full Moon by Kevin Henkes; Sunshine Makes the Seasons by Franklyn Branley; Gravity by Jason Chin; The Big Dipper by Franklyn Branley and Molly Coxe; The Seasons of Arnold’s Apple Tree by Gail Gibbons.
• 3rd -5th Grades: Follow the Drinking Gourd by Jeanette Winter; Zoo in the Sky: A Book of Animal Constellations by Jacqueline Mitton; Find the Constellations by H. A. Rey; They Dance in the Sky: Native American Star Myths by Ray A. Williamson.
• 6th Grade – 12th Grades: Heroes of the Night Sky: The Greek Myths Behind the Constellations by Tom Kindley; Space, Stars, and the Beginning of Time: What the Hubble Telescope Saw by Elaine Scott; Planet Hunter: Geoff Marcy and the Search for Other Earths by Vicki Oransky Wittenstein; Earthrise: My Adventures as an Apollo 14 Astronaut by Edgar Mitchell; The Dialogues: Conversations about the Nature of the Universe (Cartoon Book) by Clifford V. Johnson; The Cartoon Guide to Physics by Larry Gonick.

The StarLab may be reserved through the SNAP system at snap.caboces.org. 

​By:  Cece Fuoco, CABOCES Learning Resources

Check out this month's AdvancingSTEM Challenge!   

AdvancingSTEM Challenges are designed to bring engineering and design to your classroom in a simple, easy-to-implement, challenge-based way.  Modify our Advancing STEM Challenges for your classroom.  A new challenge is posted monthly.  

Post a photo of your students in action in our comment section or post a comment on how you modified the Challenge to work in your classroom.  ​

Welcome to digging a little deeper into the resources we have available to our component school districts in our warehouse.

This month’s spotlight is…..the GoPro! Why go amateur when you can go pro!
How can this be used in the classroom?

Here are a few examples:
A class in Pittsburg used the GoPro Hero3+ camera and chest mount so that they could film each of three amusement rides from the rider’s perspective. What made this project increase its learning value was that a student next to the camera was equipped with a smartphone and an app called Physics Toolbox that captured acceleration data during the ride. The video they submitted presented a multi-split screen that allows the viewer to experience the ride while watching real-time graphs of the measured accelerations. Students correlated the action in the video with the graphed accelerations and related these to the physics concepts involved in the ride, specifically Newton's Laws of Motion.
 
Or, most schools have a morning news segment performed or produced by students. GoPros can be used to add content comprised of student-made videos. Student created videos can create quite a bit of excitement for these news show and get even more students interested.

Or, CABOCES has been working with Houghton College and UB for our Writing with Video series. Composing with GoPros? Yeah! You can do that!

So what are you waiting for? Take a look at our warehouse and give GoPros a try!

By:  Alexandra Freer, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Last week District Superintendent Lynda Quick, Esq. learned that Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES has been awarded a grant for $466,686 from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA). The grant, known as the Rural Utility Service (RUS) Distance Learning grant, will be implemented by Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES and eleven area school districts to upgrade video conferencing equipment and other technologies.

The equipment upgrades will provide all three Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES Career and Technical Education (CTE) Centers, as well as Belfast, Bolivar-Richburg, Cuba-Rushford, Franklinville, Friendship, Genesee Valley, Hinsdale, Olean, Salamanca, Scio, and Wellsville Central School Districts, with new portable, high definition video conference capabilities that schools will use to provide students and teachers with a variety of distance learning opportunities including videoconference courses, virtual field trip experiences, and expanded access to nanotechnology capabilities.

This is not the first USDA RUS Distance Learning grant received by Cattaraugus-Allegany BOCES and component school districts. The Distance Learning Team at CA BOCES has been applying for and receiving RUS grants since 1997, resulting in eight previous awards and millions of dollars in equipment for our schools.

“Over the years, USDA funding has built a virtual school in our region," stated Lynda Quick. Over forty virtual classes connect via video conference every single day, allowing schools to share the instructional expertise of their outstanding faculty members. Additionally, hundreds of students to take other online courses because of this funding. These virtual courses are critical in expanding offerings in small rural schools that, over time, have been stripped of the ability to offer many (or any) AP, college credit, or elective courses to their students.
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Lynda Quick also shared, "This award helps put a dent in leveling the playing field. It helps our students build a transcript that can be competitive in the post-secondary arena." Grant implementation will begin immediately.

In addition to the virtual field trips we offer, FieldTrip Zoom allows students the opportunities to visit faraway places and interact with experts in a particular field, museum, aquarium, etc.  FieldTrip Zoom offers both interactive and recorded opportunities for teachers to bring the world into their classroom.  This is in addition to the virtual field trips that we have traditionally offered.  Contact Karen Insley or Carrie Oliver to get more insight into this great offering.

To Access Fieldtrip Zoom:
Teachers create an account (using their school email) at fieldtripzoom.com, book a program that fits your schedule from the Zoom Zone calendar, and then you and your class can sit back and enjoy the trip! There is no need to fill out a request form for the Zoom Zone trips since you book them on the FieldTrip Zoom Zone calendar.

You can also connect anywhere with Zoom.  Each district in the Distance Learning COSER is given a Zoom Pro Account for use with administrators, faculty, and students.  Zoom allows multi-user video conferencing, small group conferencing, content sharing, and so much more!  Zoom is very user friendly and versatile.  How will you use it with your students?

Contact Karen Insley for training or suggestions for Zoom use within your district.

By:  Karen Insley, CA BOCES Learning Resources

The American Association of School Librarians recently released its updated National School Library Standards.  Concepts imbedded in the new standards include shared foundations, key commitments, domains, competencies, and alignments which strongly supports new standards in school curricula. Recently, district librarians came together to review the standards and participated in collaborative activities and developed activities for student engagement.

Collaboration occurs through different venues and a Zoom meeting was used to connect more than 50 librarians from CA BOCES and Eastern Suffolk BOCES.  Shared ideas for student engagement using library books included: Snowflake Bentley and making snowflakes, reinforcing the concept of symmetry, and a STEM challenge involving falling snowflakes; and Bill Nye’s Germ book, growing germs, identifying bacteria, and a STEM challenge involving germ fighting products. 

The Extraordinaire Design Pro kit was introduced for Maker Space ideas with some participants enthusiastically embracing the design challenge.  Also demonstrated was the use of Zome Tools for grades K-12 with ideas for ELA activities and STEM challenges. 
With Zoom’s increasing availability, participants were encouraged to consider its use in connecting students to learning beyond walls, buildings, and geographic locations.

​By:  Cece Fuoco, CA BOCES Learning Resources

Many teachers committed to the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute over the past two summers and now attend quarterly reunions throughout the year in order to plan, collaborate, and write about the upcoming Southern Tier Annual Film Festival (S.T.A.F.F. Awards).

Teachers from the institute are invested in including digital audio and video assignments in their classrooms throughout the year in order to help students solidify their writing process through planning, pre-writing, and reflection. Students complete a variety of video projects including research, narrative, poetry, remix, vocabulary, and themes that they will then present to their classmates, publish, and screen to a larger audience.

Students who have created video projects across the region are invited to submit original films. The submission deadline is April 13, 2018. All student films will be judged by University at Buffalo graduate students in the education program.

Students whose films are chosen will have their films shown at the S.T.A.F.F. Awards which will be held at Cuba-Rushford Central School District this year on Friday, May 18th. Students will have a chance to see student-produced films from across the region, eat snacks, vote alongside the entire audience, and help choose a winning entry. The winning student or team will take home the traveling trophy to their school.

If you would like more information or would like your student to submit a video entry, please contact Christina McGee at christina_mcgee@caboces.org.
​
By: Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

This summer I played, and I learned simultaneously. I had the opportunity to attend the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute with Dr. Sunshine Sullivan, associate professor of education at Houghton College, and Dr. David Bruce, associate professor of learning and instruction at the State University of New York at Buffalo (University at Buffalo) Graduate School of Education. Under the guidance of Tim Clarke, Senior Program Manager for Professional Development at Cattaraugus Allegany BOCES, this summer institute was presented to area teachers throughout Cattaraugus and Allegany counties for two consecutive summer sessions.

During the week-long institute, I worked alongside many other English teachers including Lacey Gardner (Whitesville), Michelle Grillo (Cuba-Rushford), Brendan Heaney (Fillmore), Michelle McGraw (Cuba-Rushford), Micah Rust (Fillmore), Suzan Snyder (Allegany-Limestone), Stephen Sorensen (Olean), Louis Ventura (Olean), and Sally Ventura (Olean). We collaborated, learned to use digital media on the fly with guidance from Dr. David Bruce and Dr. Sunshine Sullivan, and then created our own projects including narrative sequences, “Me in Six Words/Images,” video vocab, multi-genre e-publications, and “This I Believe” digital essays. These projects became model projects for our students when we incorporated similar projects into our curriculum. These models would help students use media alongside written reflections and heuristics to present their understanding of content and concepts.  

The whole week was one of the most rewarding, challenging, and engaging professional development opportunities that I’ve been fortunate enough to attend – and it was difficult work. As Sally Ventura, a teacher at Olean High School said, "Rural Voices has been such an energizing experience!  It has been as fun as it has been challenging. It has been a pleasure working with smart, creative colleagues in the area.”  

The days at the institutes were packed and I was always surprised that it was time to go home. The amazing thing was that I didn’t stop learning and thinking when I walked out the door. Instead, I continued ruminating on the drive home. I tinkered with ideas at home. I filmed at home. I reworked difficult pieces.  I researched. The entire week, from the moment that I woke up until I went to sleep, was spent planning, collaborating, developing, creating, and reflecting – exactly the kind of experience I want for my students. As Brendan Heaney said, “The work being done at the Institute is revolutionary.  Teachers will learn how to truly incorporate technology in a way that enhances student literacy and composition skills.  If you buy into this and utilize it in the classroom you will see student engagement go through the roof.  You will also see some of the best quality work you’ve ever seen from students.” 

Out of this experience, a project was born. Brendan Heaney worked tirelessly to help organize the First Annual Southern Tier Film Festival, an event where students from five districts competed for a prize for the best film. All the teachers involved in Rural Visions collaborated to help plan, develop, and contribute to this amazing event. The film festival was advertised regionally through social media, local newspapers, and radio stations.

​On the night of the event, parents came to see their children’s work and creativity. Teachers attended to see their student’s efforts. Administrators attended to see the work of their teachers and their students and to have an opportunity to relax and enjoy some great film. It was truly a community event where students showcased their videography skills, thoughtfulness, and ingenuity to a real audience and competed for a chance to bring their school home a traveling trophy.  

The film festival showcased thirty student films over the course of three hours with breaks and refreshments offered between each of the hour sessions.  The audience voted for their favorite films with one final vote at the end to determine the school winner.

Out of this amazing grass-roots effort, came a multitude of class projects which culminated in an annual film festival. This year’s Southern Tier Annual Film Festival will be held tentatively at Cuba-Rushford toward the end of the school year.
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Many of the teachers involved in the summer institute went on to present their learning experience using digital video in their own classrooms at the New York State English Council ( NYSEC) Annual Conference in Albany, NY held in October this year.  Projects ranged from research thesis statements to video poems, documentaries, film class projects, and six-word memoirs. Dr. Sullivan remarked, “It was a privilege seeing our teachers present what they are doing in their classrooms as a result of our summer institutes and how well received it was by their audience at NYSEC. Our teachers are becoming teacher leaders in the field in writing with video. We are also looking forward to seeing our teachers attending and presenting at NCTE in St. Louis later this month.”

If you have an interest in entering student work in this year’s Southern Tier Annual Film Festival or attending the festival in preparation for next year, please look out for upcoming announcements at your school district or contact Christina McGee at christina_mcgee@caboces.org or (716) 376-8281.

If you would like to learn more about the Writing with Video: Rural Voices Summer Institute, please contact Tim Clarke at 716-376-8321 or tim_clarke@caboces.org. 

By:  Christina McGee, CA BOCES Learning Resources

In an effort to the meet the ongoing math needs of our district, Learning Resources is currently working with a vendor called CueThink. In a nutshell, here’s what it is.
 
Funded by The National Science Foundation, CueThink is an innovative application and a pedagogy focused on improving critical thinking skills and math collaboration for students in grades 2-8. Their mission is to foster a growth mindset and empower students to see challenges as opportunities.
 
Students apply mathematician George Pólya’s 4 phases of Understand, Plan, Solve and Review to slow them down and explain their thinking.  Students unpack the problem by answering the questions: "What do you notice?", "What do you wonder about?" and "What is your estimate?" We help them "Choose a strategy" and "Write a plan". Once they have created their solution, CueThink provides checklists to help them review their math and their recording.
 
In CueThink, students create "thinklets" or video vignettes of their solutions using the drawing and writing tools we provide. They record their voice as a think-aloud or a presentation. The teacher then uses these digital artifacts to highlight errors and missteps as well as illustrate effective solutions. Individual student solutions become part of the learner's digital portfolio, showcasing growth and change over time.

Students become teachers as they view each other’s solutions. They offer thoughtful, intelligent feedback through annotations and also reflect on and revise their own work. The goal of CueThink is to foster digital citizenry and build a community of social math learners in the classroom. 
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We are demoing CueThink for all districts this year, for all students in grades 2-8. Please contact me if you would like to know more or if you would like me to come out to your district to roll this out. Let’s make math social!
 
Alexandra L. Freer, CABOCES Learning Resources