Using Skype and the classroom document camera and projector, students were able to ask questions about school and food and time differences between Texas and New Zealand.
Keeping learning real and engaging in second grade!
One afternoon in March, before packing up to go home, Ms. Bray's second graders had the opportunity to chat with a couple New Zealanders who were having their breakfast just before heading off to school. Using Skype and the classroom document camera and projector, students were able to ask questions about school and food and time differences between Texas and New Zealand. Keeping learning real and engaging in second grade!
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Librarian and GOE Teacher of the Year, Clarissa Grindle, invited author, Bruce Hale to Skype with students here at Great Oaks Elementary. Mr. Hale interacted with hundreds of students before Spring Break through the internet video-phone service. Mr. Hale spoke to the children about how he became inspired to be both a reader and a writer and then shared the book Snoring Beauty with them. Lots of fun had in the library, as always! Ms. Day's first grade class has been using the Samsung SDP-860 Document Cameras a lot lately! The video below shows Grace sharing her picture and thoughts about what she'll do when she's 100 years old. Ms. Day is also using the camera to help her students increase their reading fluency. Students are recorded reading from text. They can then review the video, discuss what they like and don't like, what they may or may not change in their reading and then have an opportunity to re-record. Students are highly motivated to improve their performance and love hearing and seeing themselves on the computer screens. Lots of fun and learning going on in first grade! Mr. Stout's art students are recording audio files to accompany their artwork and making them available to download by creating QR codes. The codes can be scanned with handheld devices which decode the black and white bricked images. Once they scan, the code reading app navigates the user to a web-host which allows the audio to be played back. Come by Great Oaks or scan the codes right from this screen and listen to what our children have to say about art! Ms. Tjon, one of our TAG teachers here at Great Oaks, made great use of one of Round Rock's Learning Management Systems, Edmodo, during the recent testing cycle. Because she sometimes has limited time with her classes during the testing period, she set up Literature Circle groups within Edmodo that allowed her keep in touch academically with her students. Edmodo allows teachers to create student accounts, post and grade and comment on assignments. Teachers also moderate and participate in students' virtual conversations. On days when her students weren't in class, they would log in to their Edmodo accounts to read and submit work as well as converse with other classmates. Testing is over, but they continue to use the program because it's useful, fun and allows students to strengthen their technical skills as they apply acquire and apply other academic skills. Ms. Lyle's fourth graders spent time doing independent research using the Independent Investigation Method and created personal projects to share their findings. Cody spent a lot of time learning about electricity and shared the information he gained in the form of a PowerPoint Presentation. However, this was a PowerPoint with a fun twist! Great Oaks has Mouse Mischief hardware that allows for multiple wireless computer mice to be used at once. Cody incorporated Mini Pop Quizzes throughout his presentation that checked his classmates' understanding of the material as it progressed. At the end there was a more comprehensive test. The program provides immediate feedback as to each student or group's answer selections once everyone has responded. Using seven mice in this activity allowed small groups of 2-3 students to talk about the material before selecting answers. Cody was impressed with their results. "They pretty much all got 100s," he told me. I suggested that he must have taught them well. Keeping learning fun out in the Cottages! Ms. Bray's second graders read the story Molly's Pilgrim. In the book, Molly's teacher assigns the class the task of making pilgrims using a clothespin. Molly's pilgrim doll was dressed to look like a young girl from Russia. Her family was from Russia and they are modern day pilgrims. We talked about how all of us have family that came from another country. We gave students a clothespin just like Molly had in the book, to make a pilgrim doll. Students went home and talked with their family about the country/ countries their family came from. Each student decorated their doll to represent a country their family came from. Students wrote about their family heritage and any other information that learned about the country their doll represents. Each student presented their doll to the class. They also created a PowerPoint slide with a picture of their doll and the flag representing that doll's country. They then recorded narration for the slide from a prepared script to accompany the photos they imported.
Ms. Looper's kindergartners are doing calendar on the SmartBoard! SmartBoards are interactive whiteboards that use touch detection for user input. Students are able to manipulate pictures and graphics on the board like they would a touch screen or tablet. They can write and erase as well. The day I visited the classroom, students were working with picture and number patterns, discussing, classifying and recording weather all with the aid of the board. Mrs. DeVeny's class started working with the Dell Latitude Netbooks and Lego WeDo Kits. Lego WeDo teaches students basic programming skills while incorporating the fun of Lego. Students build simple and complex machines with Lego pieces. Gears, motors and bricks fit together and spin, tilt, respond to keystrokes, timing and more as dictated by student created programs built using the software's dashboard tools. Ms. Chappelle's fourth grade class is using SpellingCity.com on the Dell Latitude 2110s in their classroom. SpellingCity's mission is to provide an efficient game-based study of literacy skills using any word list. Utilizing this website allows the teacher to differentiate instruction by providing students with individualized lists and self-paced practice and progress. The web-site provides spelling and vocabulary support that is engaging and effective. |
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April 2015
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