Friday, May 8, 2015

Second Grade Leads, Kinder Succeeds

Kindergarten students in Mrs. Woodfin's class were creating Mother's Day cards in MS Word this week.  Mrs. Reyes's second grade students came into the computer lab and became technology mentors to the kindergarten kids.  Together, they practiced writing for an audience, making sure to use correct punctuation, adding clip art, and learning how to right click on a word to find help with spelling.

Both classes had an amazing time and great fun showing each other what they had learned.  Way to synergize, kindergarten and second grade!

Tuesday, May 5, 2015

Do You Code?

Students in third, fourth, and fifth grade had the opportunity to participate in a six week long after-school coding club.  They were able to start learning about coding with a variety of visual coding languages.  All members participated in the hour of code on Code.org and then moved on to Scratch. The students created short programs to make a sprite move and interact with other sprites.  Scratch is an open-ended program that allows students to create imaginative works.  The students were excited that they could continue their programming at home and all year long.  Way to go Coding Club!




Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Book Groups come alive with Guys Read: True Stories

Several fifth grade boys are involved in a book study revolving around a book of short true stories. The boys were able to create a PowToon about their story to try and convince others to read their story.  The boys added the PowToon app to their Chrome apps and then created their book review. Check out these awesome book commercials and get ready to read Guys Read: True Stories.


Monday, April 13, 2015

Fourth Grade uses email to enhance their learning

Carmen Scott's fourth grade students are having fun with a game gone digital.  According to Mrs. Scott,
I started doing some fun/enrichment type things this month. I'm typing the game card questions from the game, 5 Second Rule and emailing them to my students. The first 5 kids to email me back receive a treat from me the next day! They LOVE it!! 
A sample of the game is below:
Hello Super Stars!!  

Email me your answers to the following questions. I will let you know if you are one of the winners.
                Ready! Set Go! 

Your teacher,
Mrs. Scott
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------



Name 3 Shapes



Name 3 things a you do when you wake up 



Name 3 States surrounding the Great Lakes



Name 3 Ice Cream Toppings

Way to go fourth grade! Using technology in a fun way to increase knowledge is what our campus is all about.

Wednesday, April 8, 2015

Nearpod brings learning near in second grade

Laurie Reyes, a second grade teacher at Blackland Prairie, has been using Nearpod with her students to make learning more fun, personal, and interactive. She reports:
My students had a great time learning about money using a website called Nearpod. On Nearpod teachers can create or download interactive lessons that challenge students and meet their different needs. This lesson was a self-paced interactive money lesson that I also used as a pre-assessment for our money unit.
Way to go second grade!


Tuesday, March 10, 2015

Kinder is blending with technology

Ms. Cortez' class has been working on blending sounds in language arts so they can learn to be better readers and writers.  Her classroom recently started using a Smartboard and the kids are fascinated with it. They are engaged during the lesson and can't wait for their turn to manipulate the board.

Ms. Matocha's class researches and creates with Power Point

Ms. Matocha's class has been researching different animals and are now creating presentations to share with each other.  Way to go second graders!

Mrs. Patterson's Fabulous Technology

Mrs. Patterson's first graders are simply letting their knowledge of the world explode with the help of technology. Read all about it!
"The Patterson Pals joined a game show this week as they played Math Jeopardy, a game designed to make math fun while reviewing place value, money, time and problem solving."



"We are creating recycling webs in Kidspiration, helping to remind us that WE are in charge of keeping our world GREEN!"



Wednesday, March 4, 2015

First Grade Get Tech-y

Mrs. Fuchs' first graders love using technology to enhance their learning.  Recently they have been sorting words into different groups based on attributes. They learned how to change the orientation of their pages so that they had more room to create groups. They also made a table in Word to put their words into separate columns.

According to Mrs. Fuchs,
 We made a concept web for showing our progress towards personal goals of the day.  The goal was to be in the center of the page and the web had to have at least 3 ways they could color in their progress as they demonstrated their goal.
The students are using technology to enhance their personal leadership goals. Way to go, first grade!

Tuesday, March 3, 2015

Kindergarten Gets SMART!

Mrs Woodfin recently started using a Smart Board in her Kindergarten classroom.  The students are so excited to be able to control the computer themselves by touching the board. Mrs. Woodfin has quickly started created great lessons for her students using the software.  She has been using the board in all of her subject.  According to her
  • I used the Smartboard for coin recognition and  to assess students. 
  • I show students a sight word and the student says the word.  Then they write the word and use it in a sentence. 
  • I will use the Smartboard software to write a math problem and the student will draw the answer and explain it to the class.
Student engagement always increases when they can intereact with content in meaningful ways.  Using the Smart Board is one way of doing this. Way to go Kindergarten!














Texas History Through Technology

Mrs. Williamson's class has had the opportunity to study Texas history in fourth grade.
According to Mrs. Williamson,
The students are presenting information on a variety of topics, including The Cattle Kingdom, Railroads & Industry, Oil, and Texas in WWII. They are looking at Texas' history from the late 1800s through the mid 1900s.
The students were able to chose the method of presenting their information. Many options were available, including Prezi, Powtoons, and WeVideo.  Way to go fourth grade!




Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Third Grade Art Blasts Off

There has been so much research into the importance of the arts education in elementary school.  When students can seamlessly combine art and technology to enhance their learning, amazing things happen.

Ms. Mitchell's third grade students created space ships through water color. They were then asked to imagine what sound their ship would make as it flew through the cosmos.  The students used an app on the IPad to create their ship propulsion noise and record it.  The sounds were then turned into QR codes, Visitors can scan the QR codes attached to the spaceships hanging in the hallway to visit these amazing creative projects.

Traveling the World through Google Earth

Students in Laurie Reyes' second grade classroom have started using technology to direct their own learning. They have integrated multiple applications, Google Apps for Education, and Google Earth into many different disciplines.  They are creating new ways in which to enhance their learning!

According to Mrs. Reyes,
For the last two weeks, my class has been working to identify and learn information about the seven continents. During this time, we have discovered Google Earth and the students are having a blast!  We use Google Earth to look up continents, countries and historical landmarks. The enthusiasm for Google Earth has now spilled over into our partner reading time. Three of my students found a book about landmarks around the world and came to me with a plan. Their idea was to read about three landmarks three at a time (each student choosing one) and then search for the landmarks on Google Earth. It wasn't our customary way of partner reading, but it sounded like fun, so now we are excited about reading and traveling the world!




Way to go, second graders!

Wednesday, February 11, 2015

Creating Dinosaurs

Fifth grade used technology to create dinosaurs.  The dinosaurs had to be able to survive in a specific environment. Students had to decide whether their dinosaur was a carnivore or herbivore and give the dinosaurs adaptations to allow them to eat.

Way to go future paleontologists!


PowToons Partners in Fifth Grade

Mrs. Reynolds' fifth grade students worked with a partner on researching alternative energy sources. Mrs. Reynolds reported:
Over the last week, we have been working with a partner to research alternative energy sources that are replacing our dependence on fossil fuels. Once the research was completed, partners have been creating a PowToons presentation.

Wednesday, January 28, 2015

Have you ever wondered?

Fourth grade students are exploring many wonderful things in the world including how seedless fruits are made, how we know if animals are color blind, and why chewing gum can make your ears pop. Wonderopolis is a website that allows students to answers these questions and many more through videos and text.  After learning about their wonder and recording their findings, students were able to take a fun "Did you get it quiz?" to test their comprehension.

Keep wondering, fourth grade!

Wild Weather Captured!

Mrs. Brewer's first grade students have studied weather in many different ways over the last weeks. They have observed local weather patterns and researched other types of weather using books and online resources.  Students were able to choose such topics as blizzards, hurricanes, and tornadoes.

Once the students had completed their research and written their notes, they created Power Point slideshows collaboratively with a partner.  Students took turns creating slides and adding in pictures to enhance their presentations.

Way to go, first graders!


Monday, January 12, 2015

Postcards from Texas

Students from Mrs. Wood's class at Ridgeview Middle School partnered with students from Mrs. Scott's fourth grade class on an assignment about Texas.  The seventh graders created digital posters about Texas. They sent them for the fourth graders to view and learn from. The fourth graders in turn created postcards about moving to Texas.  The collaboration among the students excited both classes. Mrs. Robin Young, the Instructional Technology Specialist helped the seventh graders and then came to help in the fourth grade class.

The students not only learned about Texas but had a wonderful time doing it!