Tag Archives: Middle School Student

Resources, School Media Specialist

Association for Middle Level Education offers a Grant

Collaboration Mini-Grant

“Collaboration is a key concept in the successful education of young adolescents, as identified in the following characteristic from AMLE’s foundational document This We Believe: Keys to Educating Young Adolescents: Courageous, collaborative leaders make a difference by putting their knowledge and beliefs into action.

This broad concept includes collaboration between teams, collaboration between a team and exploratory, collaboration with parents, collaboration with community agencies, collaboration with another school, and collaboration within the student body.

The Association for Middle Level Education Foundation Fund Committee is awarding two $2,000 Collaboration Mini-Grants in 2017 to middle grades educators who have taken leadership roles in developing collaborative projects both within and outside of schools. Recipients of this grant will receive funds to enhance an existing collaborative program or to institute a proposed program, and they will be invited present about their collaborative project at a concurrent session at the AMLE Annual Conference. In addition, recipients will be recognized at the Annual Conference. Attendance at the conference will be at the expense of the school and may not be funded by monies from this grant.

Application Information

Eligibility
Any professional member or school that has been an AMLE school member for at least 12 months may apply.

Criteria
Provide a narrative summary of the project or program in not more than three pages. Narrative should include:

  • Groups or individuals involved in the collaboration
  • A description of the collaborative process used to design the program, including how students were involved in its development
  • A timeline for implementation
  • Desired outcomes for students in both academic and social/emotional domains
  • How the project will be sustained in the future
  • How this project will benefit your school, your staff, and your students
  • For projects currently in existence, also include:
    • How long the project has been in place
    • How it changed since initiated
    • Observed student outcomes, both academic and social/emotional

Also include:

  • A budget summary detailing how the grant money will be used
  • A letter of support from the school’s principal
  • Pictures, articles, or artifacts that illustrate the project (not required)

Submission
Each year, applications must be submitted electronically to AMLE no later than April 15. Submissions should be sent to info@amle.org.

Collaboration Mini-Grant Application”

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General, School Media Specialist

South Jr. High students learn teamwork, respect from video game creation

teamwork 5How often do you hear about video games having a positive affect on young people?

Well, it definitely had a favorable impact on a group of sixth – eighth graders at South Jr. High School, when they became creators of their own video game. The project was a collaboration involving students and teachers from South Jr. High working with an SCSU professor.

The game is titled “Save My Dragon,” and the students drew all the characters, backgrounds, and items in the game. They took inspiration from trees, clothing, nature in their backyards and the buildings in the Twin Cities. The students even created the soundtrack for the game, using recording sticks and instruments.

The article explores how the students faced challenges when it came to agreeing on artwork, and how the experience taught them to respect the ideas of others and take constructive criticism. The end result was a feeling of school pride, and the feeling that they had accomplished this game creation as a team.

Image credit: http://tinyurl.com/mg6qkck, licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

 

Academic, Check this out:, General, Public, School Media Specialist, Special

The Influence of Technology on Student Writing

Image by PEW Research. Retrieved online October 8, 2013.
Image by PEW Research. Retrieved online October 8, 2013.

In 2012, PEW Research surveyed more than 2,400 teachers involved in Advanced Placement (AP) and/or National Writing Project (NWP) in the United States. The study asked teachers about their middle and high school student’s writing  in relation to, and perception of, the influence of digital tools/technologies.

The study findings indicated that digital tools created a wider, more diverse audience; and encouraged collaboration and personal expression across multiple platforms. Also, undesirable effects of these digital tools were noted which included the use of a more informal writing style and language. The research goes into further detail about copyrighting, plagiarism, comprehension, etc. Click here for the summary of findings,  full report and additional information about survey methodology for the PEW Research study, The Impact of Digital Tools on Student Writing and How Writing is Taught in School by PEW Research’s (July 2013).