Friday, October 31, 2014

Miss Allen's Class Shines the Light

Students in Miss Allen's class learned how to use an online google form. Each student submitted a form (Shine the Light) linked from the Teravista website to recognize students, staff members and parent volunteers around our campus. 

They learned to use the shift key to make a capital letter at the beginning of their sentence and the beginning of their first and last name, to put only one space between words, and click through a form.

Good job filling other's buckets class! These Shine the Light submissions will be published in the weekly news sent out in the Teravista weekly newsletter.

Thursday, October 30, 2014

Collaborating in Social Studies Made Easy with Google!

The fourth grade students in Linda Moscovic's class are doing an awesome job with their Native American Projects. After planning their content, students are able to continue working with their partner from home, since they have both have editing rights.







Students have never been so excited to hear that they can work on this from home - especially when both partners are on at the same time and working.
Once projects are completed, everyone will share their particular tribe with the class. Students may also entertain questions and answers from the audience. They can also enable comments from the class so that they can get feedback from the class. 

Monday, October 27, 2014

Kindergarten Logs In and...


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Mrs.Schmidt's Kindergarten class have been practicing logging into the computers for a few weeks now, and it shows! They are able to supply the user name and password almost without looking! 


Amazing how quickly they can learn those! Good thing, because in today's world of user names and passwords, it is really important to get it right! 

Once logged in, they navigated to Starfall and completed the "build a Gingerbread Man" activity. That is a favorite story of all Kindergartners! It is fun to make their own Gingerbread Men!

Friday, October 24, 2014

Edmodo for Enrichment

Every Thursday, I have the privilege of working with a collection of amazing 4th Graders. The group is working on a cross-curricular project/technology project that has them learning about people that had an impact on the Civil Rights Movement.

Currently, the kids are working in Edmodo and their Google Drive. They have connected their Google Drives to their Edmodo accounts and so they have multiple way to access their working documents. All assignments are emailed to the students and posted in Edmodo. The kids access the information through the Edmodo Folders that I created for research purposes. After doing some information gathering, the students respond in writing via Edmodo posts and Google Documents. They share their work with their peers and their teachers.


Student discussion thread discussing and analyzing a poem that was written by an one of the enrichment group participants 

Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Trading Cards - Get Information Fast!




The 5th grade students have been working on a biography project.

Students researched their selected leader using expository texts.

Next, students researched the same person on MackinVIA using online databases. 
Our students now have access to these databases with one easy login. With just one login, users can view, utilize, and manage all of their eResources.

Students then went to Read,Write, Think site and created their Trading Cards, using Trading Card Creator. 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Second graders use a digital microscope to compare and contrast properties of various matter.



Friday, October 10, 2014

Mrs. Timson's Class uses technology in various forms for Tiger Time.  Here is an example of the Tiger Time menu implemented in class.

Students are able to select an item, such as iStation. IStation is a comprehensive computer-based reading program that maximizes students’ reading fluency, comprehension and retention, and academic success. Think Through Math is a math instruction that supports students with an online tutor. As students progress through the learning pathways, if they need help, there is someone assigned to assist with their work. Edmodo is an online networking community for teachers and students. Think Facebook, but in a safe and controlled environment. Stemscopes is an online science curriculum program that provides hands-on inquiry activities, assessments, and problem based learning. 

Wednesday, October 8, 2014

First Grade- Miss Allen and Miss Schlaudt's Classes Publish Their First Writing Piece

The students in Miss Allen and Miss Schlaudt's first grade classes used creative thinking and innovative processes to develop digital products. They created products using word processing software on Microsoft Word and Kidspiration to type their stories from their writing journal. The students communicated to each other the process they went through to publish their final copy. The students are learning to save their documents into folders and print final copies.



First Graders Log Into the Computer and Get Used to Using Computers

The students in first grade have been working hard to become more efficient at logging into the computers. Each class spent time memorizing their user name and passwords, so they can get onto the computers at school to adhere to the acceptable use policies. Whenever a student logs in, they must use their own user name and password. Once logged in they have been working on getting on to safe websites, and keyboarding techniques.  Way to go first graders!

In first grade the students will work on the following Technology TEKS:


(b)  Knowledge and skills.
(1)  Creativity and innovation. The student uses creative thinking and innovative processes to construct knowledge and develop digital products. The student is expected to:
(A)  apply prior knowledge to develop new ideas, products, and processes;
(B)  create original products using a variety of resources;
(C)  explore virtual environments, simulations, models, and programming languages to enhance learning;
(D)  create and execute steps to accomplish a task; and
(E)  evaluate and modify steps to accomplish a task.
(2)  Communication and collaboration. The student collaborates and communicates both locally and globally using digital tools and resources to reinforce and promote learning. The student is expected to:
(A)  use communication tools that allow for anytime, anywhere access to interact, collaborate, or publish with peers locally and globally;
(B)  participate in digital environments to develop cultural understanding by interacting with learners of multiple cultures;
(C)  format digital information, including font attributes, color, white space, graphics, and animation, for a defined audience and communication medium; and
(D)  select, store, and deliver products using a variety of media, formats, devices, and virtual environments.

(3)  Research and information fluency. The student acquires and evaluates digital content. The student is expected to:
(A)  use search strategies to access information to guide inquiry;
(B)  use research skills to build a knowledge base regarding a topic, task, or assignment; and
(C)  evaluate the usefulness of acquired digital content.
(4)  Critical thinking, problem solving, and decision making. The student applies critical-thinking skills to solve problems, guide research, and evaluate projects using digital tools and resources. The student is expected to:
(A)  identify what is known and unknown and what needs to be known regarding a problem and explain the steps to solve the problem;
(B)  evaluate the appropriateness of a digital tool to achieve the desired product;
(C)  evaluate products prior to final submission; and
(D)  collect, analyze, and represent data using tools such as word processing, spreadsheets, graphic organizers, charts, multimedia, simulations, models, and programming languages.

(5)  Digital citizenship. The student practices safe, responsible, legal, and ethical behavior while using digital tools and resources. The student is expected to:
(A)  adhere to acceptable use policies reflecting appropriate behavior in a digital environment;
(B)  comply with acceptable digital safety rules, fair use guidelines, and copyright laws; and
(C)  practice the responsible use of digital information regarding intellectual property, including software, text, images, audio, and video.

(6)  Technology operations and concepts. The student demonstrates knowledge and appropriate use of technology systems, concepts, and operations. The student is expected to:
(A)  use appropriate terminology regarding basic hardware, software applications, programs, networking, virtual environments, and emerging technologies;
(B)  use appropriate digital tools and resources for storage, access, file management, collaboration, and designing solutions to problems;
(C)  perform basic software application functions, including opening an application and creating, modifying, printing, and saving files;
(D)  use a variety of input, output, and storage devices;
(E)  use proper keyboarding techniques such as ergonomically correct hand and body positions appropriate for Kindergarten-Grade 2 learning;
(F)  demonstrate keyboarding techniques for operating the alphabetic, numeric, punctuation, and symbol keys appropriate for Kindergarten-Grade 2 learning; and
(G)  use the help feature online and in applications.
Third Grade - Mrs. Timson's class uses Spelling City online to take their end of unit assessments for the Words Their Way studies.
Spelling City


Monday, October 6, 2014

Second Grade Leaders using the SmartBoard and a Venn Diagram to display their knowledge of shapes.

Thursday, October 2, 2014

Second Graders learning to navigate the new Dell Venue tablets. All classes met in the Next Generation Library for an introduction to the Dell Venue tablets. We noted similarities and  differences in the laptop and tablet. 

After logging in, we navigated through the school website and logged into the library database resource, Pebble Go. Pebble Go is a collection of Animals, Earth Science, Biographies, and Social Studies.