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Spring Band Concert
Update Hopkins Public Schools
The community’s guide to the District.
Empty Bowls raises $81,428 for ResourceWest and ICA Food Shelf
The March 11, 16th annual Empty Bowls fundraiser was a smashing success, raising $81,428 for ResourceWest and the ICA Food Shelf. Community members came out to the Hopkins Center for the Arts to enjoy pottery, local entertainment, and a meal of soup and bread.
Barb Westmoreland named HBCA ‘Person of the Year’ The Hopkins Business and Civic Association (HBCA) has named Barb Westmoreland its “Person of the Year,” an award bestowed to community members who have made a long-term commitment to the community through service. Westmoreland has worked for Hopkins Public Schools for 23 years, and serves as the District’s volunteer coordinator. Meadowbrook students return from Mars
Fifth-graders at Meadowbrook Elementary returned from Mars in March after being stationed for a week-long expedition at STARBASE Minnesota, an educational STEM station that features hands-on learning experiences. Through simulations, students traveled to the red planet every day to collect data, build wind turbines, investigate water, and more.
April 2014
Treat yourself to a performance by the Hopkins High School Concert Band, followed by the Symphonic Band, and Wind Symphony. April 24, 6:30 p.m. Hopkins High School Auditorium
com m u ni t y Hot Club Jazz Concert Hopkins High School Hot Club Jazz performers present their spring jazz concert. April 25, 7:30 p.m. Hopkins High School, Cafeteria
Community Dance Join us for an evening of dancing to the sound of Sinatra-style singer Tim Patrick and The Blue Eyes Band. Free dance lesson at 6:15 p.m. $13 advance tickets, $15 at the door. 952-988-4070. Friday, April 25, 7:00-9:30 p.m. Eisenhower Community Center HopkinsSchools.org/Dance
Hopkins Teachers Harness the Power of Technology to Enhance Instruction Dynamic tools provide three-dimensional learning experiences
When Terri Osland taught anatomy and physiology 12 years ago, her curriculum was limited to material delivered in a box at the beginning of the year. Since then, classrooms have changed, largely due to technology, and the pace of that change seems to quicken every year.
West Junior High “Genius Team” students work at the “Genius Bar” during their study hour. Both junior highs have “Genius Team” students who support technology efforts inside the classroom. These students go through special iPad training, which allows them to provide technology support to their peers, assist their teachers, and provide feedback on new educational applications that are being tested.
Consider this, four years ago, Allegra Smisek’s social studies students were building their own Google sites, a practice Even with all this progress, junior-high teachers clearly that is now nearly passé. Just two years ago, math teacher remember a time when organizing technology-rich projects Anthony Padrnos was introducing a new teaching model was cumbersome at best. Students needed to be walked called “flip the classroom,” a term he hardly through step-by-step instructions on laptops mentions today because it’s simply how he or desktop computers in labs. Because of the This is the first teaches. iPad program, students are now accessing instruction seamlessly at their desks. The educational Hopkins Public Schools is managing the technology is invisible, but it’s as integral to the ever-changing technology landscape with shift that is in classroom as air. technology integration specialists, who help the students’ talented teachers use powerful technology. “This is the first educational shift that is in the Integration specialists are in all of the students’ hands,” said technology integration hands. They can buildings, and many, like Robb Trenda, specialist Ben Friesen. “Students can use the use the device split their time between teaching and device to show their understanding in their integration work. For Trenda it just makes own language.” to show their sense to keep one foot in his sixth-grade Friesen describes the change at the junior highs classroom, because it helps him recommend understanding as a transformative process. The first year was technology-based strategies that work. He is focused on student engagement, which remains in their own interested in using technology to transform an important part of the equation, but now learning, rather than just replacing what language. teachers are designing learning experiences that used to exist with new technologies. hone student creativity. Through open-ended “You can no longer just sit back and say I have done this assignments, students can demonstrate their knowledge as unit forever this way and that is the way it is supposed to part of an individual process. Good instruction is at the be,” said Trenda. “You have to evaluate what you are doing, center of every project, and content still has to be mastered, constantly tweaking it to be better. I try to model life-long but it’s no longer a one-size-fits-all approach. learning for my students.” “Students are so much more innovative,” said Smisek. “I One-to-one iPad program can give a really simple task about population growth, and Both junior highs are in their second year of the one-toam amazed by the responses my students come up with. It’s one iPad program. Textbooks have become nearly obsolete, more than you would expect.” as students are issued iPads that they use throughout the Transforming classrooms at the high school school year. A variety of dynamic applications like iBooks Some classrooms at Hopkins High School are moving and open-source textbooks provide three-dimensional away from lecture-based instruction and are instead using learning that was never possible before, while still exposing a flipped approach, a teaching style where students do students to rigorous text and concepts. Interactive images homework in class and watch lectures delivered by short and videos are integrated into the content, and real-time video clips at home. This seemingly simple shift is just assessment is just a click away. Teachers are also able to another example of how classrooms are being redefined. increase the reading level, making the applications a good Students are no longer being spoon-fed information by the fit for the more advanced classes. see Technology inside