the network for middle school math and science teachers

Jessica Fries-Gaither Female Columbus, OH United States: Share on Facebook Share Twitter

Blog Posts (3)
Discussions (17)
Events
Groups (3)

Jessica Fries-Gaither's Friends

View All

Jessica Fries-Gaither's Groups

MSP2 Book Club

40 members
Literacy in the Content …

38 members

Science

60 members

View All

Jessica Fries-Gaither's Discussions

Polar Science in the middle school science classroom?
7 Replies

Started this discussion. Last reply by Jessica Fries-Gaither Sep 16, 2009.

View All

Gifts Received

Jessica Fries-Gaither has not received any gifts yet

Give a Gift

Jessica Fries-Gaither's Page

Latest Activity

Kim Lightle replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Here is an article from the NYT that I thought was really appropriate for this discussion -- The Times and the Common Core Standards: Reading Strategies for ‘Informational Text’

Jan 30

Jessica Fries-Gaither replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

I'll start looking!

Jan 30

David Lawrence replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Hi again, Jessica. Anything that you can recommend for the writing component?

Jan 27

David Lawrence replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Thank you Jessica! That was hugely helpful. I'll dig into some of these this weekend. Sincerely, David

Jan 27

Jessica Fries-Gaither replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Hi David! Here are a few resources to get you started. I'll continue to look and post as I discover more. 1) A good place to start is with Laura Robb's book, Teaching Reading in Social Studies, Science, and Math. It's very readable…

Jan 27

Services and Resources to Engage Youth in Computer Science
April 5, 2012 from 2pm to 3pm
Engaging Underserved Youth: Strategies for Family Involvement
February 22, 2012 from 2pm to 3pm
Making Sense of SCIENCE: Going Deep to Go Far by Linking Science and Literacy Instruction
February 8, 2012 from 1:30pm to 3pm

1 more…

Events posted by Jessica Fries-Gaither Jan 26

David Lawrence replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Thanks Jessica! Looking forward to it.

Jan 26

Jessica Fries-Gaither replied to Jessica Fries-Gaither's discussion 'Common Core ELA in Science & Technical Subjects' in the group Literacy in the Content Areas

Hi David - thanks for the reply! I am going to pull some resources together for you and will get back to you in a few days!! Jessica

Jan 25

Profile Information

Which best describes your position?: Classroom Teacher (preK-12)

Jessica Fries-Gaither's Blog

Citizen Science, Real Data, and Web 2.0 Combine in Snowtweets Project

Real data and citizen science projects are wonderful ways to engage students, but they often are best conducted during the fall and spring. What’s a teacher to do in the colder months of winter?

The new Snowtweets Project from the University of Waterloo has one answer. The Snowtweets Project provides a way for people interested in snow measurements to quickly broadcast their own snow depth measurements to the web. These data are then picked up by our database and mapped in near real… Continue

Posted on November 12, 2009 at 12:16pm

Wordle as a reading comprehension tool?

If you aren't familiar with Wordle, it is a tool that generates "word clouds" from text that your provide. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text. You can play with fonts, colors, and layouts to personalize your word cloud, save it to a gallery, or print it out.

I came across Wordle some time ago, thought it was pretty nifty, and then forgot about it. An article in the August 2009 issue of… Continue

Posted on September 2, 2009 at 9:30am — 2 Comments

Session Archive: Tech Talk: Digital Storytelling

On August 12, I moderated the third Tech Talk for MSP2 using Ellumniate viaLearnCentral.org. We had approximately 24 participants and some great ideas for using digital storytelling and voice thread in the middle school science classroom.

During the talk, I gave an overview of digital storytelling and provided strategies for getting started with students as well as some possible ideas for science-themed… Continue

Posted on August 12, 2009 at 3:30pm — 1 Comment

Integrate Polar Science and Literacy Into Your Teaching!

I'm involved with the MSP2 project here at Ohio State, but am also the Project Director for another NSF funded project called Beyond Penguins and Polar Bears. We produce issues of a free online magazine (cyberzine) at http://beyondpenguins.nsdl.org/ and a polar blog at http://expertvoices.nsdl.org/polar/.

Through this project, we hope to increase teachers' understanding of the polar… Continue

Posted on May 13, 2009 at 10:35am

Comment Wall (17 comments)

You need to be a member of Middle School Portal to add comments!

Join Middle School Portal

At 10:23am on February 15, 2010, Todd Williamson said…: Thanks! I'm really looking forward to presenting at MLE! It's going to be intense, 3 sessions each day. Luckily I'm doing the SAME three sessions each day. The focus is going to be on getting the most out of the technology you already have available in your school/classroom. Should be a fun time!

At 9:38am on October 5, 2009, Rebecca Lawson said…: Yes, I have heard about the Michigan game. In fact, Jacob showed me the pond he jumped in - along with the thousands of others who are supposed to be intelligent. ;-)

Maybe since he did it last year he won't have to repeat the insanity this year.

At 10:23am on October 3, 2009, Rebecca Lawson said…: Jjessica,

...just wanted you to know that I was in Columbus a couple of weeks ago .. the week of the USC game. I thought that Clemson people knew how to tailgate, but it is nothing like OSU.

We enjoyed the Skull session with the band that afternoon. .. and tailgated with another doctoral student's group - although none of us had tickets. The RV lot over by the track stadium was full of people with no tickets. Amazing!

At 2:10pm on June 23, 2009, Mrs. A said…: I can't believe how great everyone is in responding. I am looking forward to being able to spend some time digging deeper to learn what is available. Thank you!! :)

At 4:39pm on June 22, 2009, Mrs. A said…: Thank you! I am looking forward to being part of an inspired group of teachers.
I am presently most interested in learning new was to enrich my gifted students in both Math & Science. We currently already enroll them in Math & Science Olympiad competitions, but I am looking for activities or resources that would help them be prepared for these events.

At 9:19pm on June 15, 2009, Janet L Griffith said…: Thanks for the welcome-aboard well-wishes. Having this opportunity will be a great resource. I look forward to hearing great things from you and the others.

At 3:35pm on June 15, 2009, Mary Worden said…: Thanks Jessica for the welcome. I just got home from a technology training that still has 3 days left . . . integrating podcasts, googledocs as well bighugelabs. I love to use technology in my classroom and have done many webquests and am looking for a yet another forum to get even more ideas!

At 3:12pm on June 15, 2009, Jennifer Kurtz said…: Jessica~
Thank you for the great links! And especially the warm welcome.

I can't wait to hear all your wonderful ideas!

Peace~ Jenn

At 9:55am on June 15, 2009, Leigh Brown said…: Thank you Jessica for your welcome. I am an 8th grade teacher. I have 4 sections of Science and 1 Section of 8th grade civics. It is quite interesting. I have to change gears during the day and can be a bit confusing, but it works.

I am really excited about being involved in this group. I tried a few things this year such as Wiki's, a blog and a voicethread. They were so much fun, but they need a little work. I would love to learn more about how to incorporate these technologies into my classroom for true assessments.

Anyway, thank you for the welcome. I hope to speak to you soon
Leigh