AEA Online Resources- 3rd-6th Grade

The Third-Sixth Graders will be introduced to the AEA Online Resources.  The websites that are provided include:

• Accu Weather
• AP Images
• Atomic Learning
• Discovery Education
• EBSCO
• iCLIP ART for Schools
• Learn 360
• SIRS Issue Researcher
• World Book Online

The AEA provides a user and password for the students and staff of our district.  The user and password will be distributed this week.  The students will learn how to use these sites.

Glogster Intro- 3rd & 4th Grade

I introduced the Third and Fourth Graders to Glogster today!  We watched the short videos about Glogster (see "video" in the subject panel).  The students were given their new "nickname" and password for their student accounts.  They were very excited about Glogster!  Some of them even began working on their first glog.

iPad, Kindle... What Next?- Education of the Future

Times are changing.  The way we envision a classroom now will be a thing of the past.  Books will be replaced with hand-held personal computers, flyers will be replaced with blogs, and hard-copies of student work will be delivered digitally.  At ZSJ, we're beginning to sense the change.  Through the state and national standards, we're feeling a push toward a digital world... Some of our more seasoned teachers who have been teaching with pencil, crayon and paper for the past couple of decades question whether this change to the digital way of life is necessary.  New teachers are entering the education world prepared and excited to try out all of the technology.

What point am I trying to make?  I'm not really sure.  This is all very new to me, even though I'm the Tech Coordinator at ZSJ.  I'm on the fence.  A part of me wants to jump right into this virtual world of teaching, and the other side of me wants to hold tight to what has worked for so many years.  Unfortunately, I think my option for holding on to the past is... not going to be an option...  Strap on your seat belts people.  Be prepared for a ride of a lifetime!

Buisness Letter to the Mayor- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders are starting on a project for their Iowa history unit.  Each student selected a city or town in Iowa to research, and they typed a business letter to the mayor of their city requesting specific information.   Maybe the next time the we do this assignment, we'll be emailing the letters to the mayors, or even better, we'll video conference!

Puncation Paintball- 3rd & 4th Grade

The Third and Fourth Graders played Punctuation Paintball, which is an educational game provided by Discovery Education.  We are so fortunate to have access to Discovery Education; the AEA covers the subscription fee for our district.  This game supports grammar skills including punctuation and captolization.  The students were surprisingly engaged with this game.  Some of the kids reached the 20th level! 

When the students couldn't take the intensity anymore, they navigated to Free Typing Game to practice their typing skills.

100th Day of School- Kindergarten-2nd Grade

The Kindergarteners started their computer class off with a short game on Starfall.

Then they created an image for the 100th Day of School on Paint.  The First and Second Graders also created the same kind of image.  Their work looked much like the image below:

Fun was had by all, except for the poor Dell color printer.  The old man printer has seen better days :)

Espon Brightlink

Espon Brightlink

The Brightlink is looking pretty promising!

Interactive White Board Options

We're looking into interactive whiteboards!  Below are some short videos as an introduction on some of the options available to us:

SMART BOARD


POLYVISION ENO


PROMETHEAN ACTIVBOARD


EPSON BRIGHTLINK

Paint- Kindergarten

The Kindergarteners are discovering Paint on their own!  They are just in amazement with how they can manipulate the images on their monitor screen!  It's such a joy for me to watch :)

Glogster- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders were introduced to Glogster on Friday and they were given their student accounts today.  I sense a lot of excitement about Glogster.  The students have begun working on their first glog!  We can't wait to get started on a class project :)

Favorite Ice Cream- 2nd Grade

Free Rice- Game of the Week

Freerice.com

Update- 2nd-6th Grade

The Second Graders continue their exploration of MS Excel.  They recently finished their pet graphs, and they'll get to test their Excel skills by graphing the colors of Skittles candies! 

The Third and Fourth Graders are finishing up their slide shows about their bird.  Before their presentations, the students will make a link to a video of their bird.  I will preview youtube videos of their birds, post the videos to the student blog and the students will add a link to the video post on their slide show.  I'll be looking for youtube videos that are short in length, high in resolution, appropriate in content and interesting for young audience.

The Fifth and Sixth Gradres will be introduced to Glogster.com on Friday for "teacher-choice day." This whole week they followed the computer class routine with typing lessons on Monday, spelling on Tuesday, game of the week on Thursday and teacher choice on Friday.

Pet Graph on MS Excel- 2nd Grade

The Second Graders continue their introduction to MS Excel with a mini project of graphing the number of pets that they have.  On Friday, the students typed the labels into the appropriate cells.  On Monday they will use the "auto sum" tool and create a graph.  I think they'll enjoy experiementing with the various formatting features that MS Excel 2007 has to offer.  The students will print their completed graphs and put them on display!

Constellations Research- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders selected a constellation to research.  They are using the Internet to research their constellation and to find images that depict the characters in their constellation.  The students will create a poster by hand in their homeroom and present their work on Monday.

San Diego Zoo Website vs World Book- 3rd & 4th Grade

I ran into the San Diego Zoo website while exploring the World Book site.  The zoo website contains the perfect setup for the project that the Third and Fourth Graders will be doing.  The site contains a long list of bird species, and the type of information for each bird is age-appropriate for this younger group of students.  The World Book site was posing a hassel for the students because it requires a user and password (provided by nwaea), and the site was difficult to navigate.  The students were getting lost with all the steps to view information about their bird, and the information was minimal.  The San Diego Zoo site was linked to the World Book, and thus, I made a great discovery!

Glogster in 90 Seconds

Here's a cute video about Glogster :-)

Digital Learners- What's Your Opinion?

I want to hear from you.  What is your reaction to the following youtube video?  I had mixed feelings, but in a way, it's where our world is going, like it or not.  Please watch the video below and let me know your opinions.

Glogster- All Grades

There is just a bunch of cool resources out there on the Web!  I found another site that I look forward to sharing with all of the students, Second Grade and up.  "Glogster EDU Premium is a collaborative online learning platform for teachers and students to express their creativity, knowledge, ideas and skills in the classroom."

World Book for Research- 3rd & 4th Grade

The Third and Fourth Graders chose a bird species from the World Book- Kids selection of birds.  They will use the World Book-Kids site as the basis for their research.  They will create a PowerPoint Slideshow about their bird.  They will answer the following questions about their bird: 

• Where does the bird live in the world?
• What kind of habitat does the bird live in?
• What does the bird eat?
• What kind of nest does the bird use for its young? 
• What is the life like for a the young of this species?
• Is the bird a migratory specie?

Game of the Week- WORDO

Optical Illusions Power Point Presentation- 2nd-6th Grade

I shared a very cool power point presentation to the Second-Sixth Graders.  I would like to post the entire slideshow using google docs, however it is "macro-encrypted," which means it is protected from any kind of modifications.  I had to omit the third slide while I presented the slideshow to the students because of it's visual content.  I would like to share, however, one of the slides that the students liked the most:

Back to the Wiki- 5th & 6th Grade

We tried out VortexFlash, and I think the kids liked it.  The students will post their animation on the wiki.  This will require them to use a "widget" that decodes HTML/Java Script. 

We were running into road blocks with the blogs, so at the present time we'll be focusing on the wiki.

Web 2 in the Classroom

Cool Tools for Schools is an excellent wiki with awesome Web 2 tools.  I look forward to exploring these tools with the students!

Flash Vortex- 5th & 6th Grade

The Fifth and Sixth Graders will be using Flash Vortex on Tuesday!

Blog Introduction- 5th & 6th Grade

Today the Fifth and Sixth Graders were introduced to blogs.  We defined blogs as a "web log" where someone can keep a journal on the Internet.  We reviewed the definition of "digital footprint" and discussed the importance of posting appropriate material that leaves an acceptable impression of one's character.  The students navigated to zsjstudents.blogspot.com to log on with their generic google accounts and type comments to the first post.