Be Flexible

Every teacher and student learns to be flexible.  We are learning that at NIS.  The internet in the lab has not been working for several days.  This means that students are unable to check the website for the day’s lesson plan, do research or submit their work in class.  We will bear with the situation and continue our lessons, albeit adjusted a bit.

Grade 7 is a strong group of students.  Their quality of work is outstanding as well as the pace in which they do their assignments.  We will be able to build a solid foundation in one semester with this group.  Well done students.

The level II students are working at modeling the classroom.  Some students are carefully working on their models and learning much.  Others seem to give up when they face difficulty.  That is okay, as long as they develop the skills to work out a solution.  The models look good.

The senior students are building a foundation in HTML at a rapid pace.  My hope is that they will learn to work more independently soon.

All classes are great, the students are wonderful.

Mr. Richard

Responding to Student Needs

It is normally not wise to prepare too much for lessons.  It is much better to prepare lessons as you get to know the students, their learning styles and class dynamics.  The lessons posted on this website are a guide, outlining the objectives for each unit of study.  The daily lessons are built from these plans.  Daily lessons are tailored to class needs.  If you are a parent, or student, and wish to follow along what is happening each day in class, be sure to check out the class websites as listed on this site.

Change of Course

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

We have made some changes at NIS.  Computer and Art courses for grades 8 and up are full year courses now.  This gives us time to explore topics in greater depth.  Grade 8, 9 and 10 students who chose Computers/Art are now in only one of the courses and for the full school year.

The high school computer classes for 2009/2010 are in three levels.  Grade 7 students take the foundational level I course.  Students in grades 8, 9 and 10 take the level II course.  Grade 11 and 12 students take the level III course.   NIS students that go through secondary school will take grade 7 computers and at least one more computer course for necessary credit.  Two courses will prepare the students well for further study and the work world.  Three courses provide more advanced and broader computer skills.  Starting in 2009/2010, elementary classes will receive computer classes with the elementary computer teacher.  At NIS students receive significant instruction in using technology.

ISTE NETS 2007

ISTE NETS for Students

What do you include in a computer course?  Where are your guiding your students to in the course?  These and many more questions are part of preparing a curriculum and lessons for teachers.  Fortunately, we have great minds working together to determine this.  The International Society for Technology in Education (ISTE) has developed the National Educational Technology Standards (NETS).  The latest release is NETS 2007 (see the resources page to download NETS).

At NIS we have implemented NETS for Students 2007 in all our Middle School and High School computer courses.  Students and parents can be confident that NIS has an up-to-date computer curriculum.

“What students should know and be able to do to learn effectively and live productively in an ever increasingly digital world …”

• Creativity and Innovation
• Communication and Collaboration
• Research and Information Fluency
• Critical Thinking, Problem Solving, and Decision Making
• Digital Citizenship
• Technology Operations and Concepts