Social Studies Staff Attend Minnetonka Institutes

Over the past three years several social studies staff members (along with other school staff) have fortunate to attend the leadership institutes put on by the Minnetonka School District. The Minnetonka Summer Institutes have cutting edge leaders in the field of education. Doug Reeves, Dylan Wiliam, Bill Daggett, and Mike Schmoker have been just a few of the top leaders who have spoken. The focus over the past three years has been on assessment of student learning and grading. Staff have come back to the district with sound ideas based on research. Being able to have staff attend these institutes has propelled us forward in terms of assessment. Handouts from this summer's sessions can be found at Minnetonka website and notes from the Bill Daggett, Ann Davies and Doug Reeves presentations can be found here.

iPads in Social Studies

  

One of our 9th grade American Institutions teachers is piloting the use of iPads in his classroom. Mr. Bergstrom was able to use them for the last two months of school once things were up and running. He has started a blog about using iPads in his classroom entitled the iPad Experience.  In one post he discusses the immediate feedback students received by using the iPads the the Socrative app. He was also able to have students analyze political cartoons using the iPads and an app.  Check out his blog. Mr. Bergstrom attended Minnetonka's Ipad Institute this summer. Here are the presentation notes from the Ipad Institute. Here is Minnetonka data that was collected regarding the use of ipads.