SBTS EdTech

Fifth graders at Colvin Run Elementary are one of four FCPS schools participating in a Global Classroom project as part of their social studies curriculum. Students in one 5th grade class have been participating in a special part of the project, using video conferencing to connect with students from Oldbury Wells School, Shropshire, U.K., sharing and learning about each other’s cultures.  This collaborative learning experience was highlighted at the Governor’s Luncheon on October 26th as the 300 luncheon guests, including Gov. Tim Kane, shared in a live video conference between Colvin Run 5th graders and the students from Oldbury Wells School in Shropshire U.K. The video linked here was shown at the luncheon and outlines the Global Classroom Project.

Building Community through Technology

As part of a Language Arts lesson, first grade students at Cunningham Park Elementary used Pixie to write sentences introducing themselves to their classmates. They said, for example, “My name is Johnny, and I like to ride my skateboard.” Next, they drew pictures of themselves doing the activity they selected and then they imported a photograph of themselves into their Pixie drawing. The final step was for students to record themselves reading their sentences (with great care taken to be sure there was one-to-one correspondence between the spoken and the written words.) The final project was assembled and posted to Blackboard. The audio from the project was recorded to CD, and one set was printed and bound. These books and CDs circulate among the first grade classrooms, and now all first graders know a little bit about each other. This was a perfect way to begin teaching writing to first graders while building community and making personal connections!

At Cameron ES, a September training was conducted on Photo Story and Movie Maker. The goal was to get cameras into the hands of teachers who in turn would do the same for kids. The results have been fabulous! Students and teachers at various grade levels are creating photo stories and mini movies that are posted to Blackboard for all to see. The principal spotlights some of them on Cameron Morning News.

Grade 1
School Bus Stop Safety
Students created a mini movie to discuss the importance and procedures for exercising good safety tips for the bus and walkers. Students created posters in groups with various tips and then generated their scripts from the posters.

Grade 5
Social Studies
Students created timelines of their lives, including pictures and memorabilia, on poster board. They took photos of each timeline and narrated them using Photo Story. Students enjoyed sharing their videos with family on Blackboard.

Grade 6
Language Arts
The principal works with a small reading group daily. After reading about the solar system and the planets, kids created posters and a script to create a Photo Story about the Solar System. The kids were engaged and loved the entire process from start to finish.

5th Graders at Island Creek ES told the story of Pangea and continental drift by animating Google Earth screen shots of continents in Scratch. Click link to see a sample: http://scratch.mit.edu/projects/6ghokie/723479

At Hayfield ES, a fifth grade teacher and SBTS worked together to create persuasive commercials in Movie Maker. Students worked in cooperative groups and used a classroom set of digital cameras to practice the art of video recording. After the final videos were created and downloaded to the school server by the students, the SBTS trained the class in using Movie Maker. Students successfully added a title and credits, edited the video and created separate clips with transitions and video effects, and added music from a free music production site. The videos may be posted to Blackboard so that students can access them anytime/anywhere.

Neighborhood D is using Delicious!  We have set up a neighborhood site on Delicious that we are sharing between ourselves.  The idea is that we give the link: http://delicious.com/tech4u to our teachers, as a resource for finding educational websites and tell them when they have a new one to send it our way.  This will keep us all updated with some great sites and an easy way to search for them.  Teachers can then pick and choose what they would like to put on their 24-7 site for students.

In the Professional Learning Community that is Cunningham Park Elementary School two of the main questions are “What will we do for students who haven’t learned,” and “What will we do for students who have already mastered material we are teaching?”  

This school year, as part of that philosophy,  changing groups of students in grades two and five who have mastered concepts being taught in their math classes as evident on pre-assessments work with Scratch programming to enrich their mathematics instruction and foster critical thinking and problem-solving skills.  They use Scratch to solve challenges presented to them and are surprised when they discover they’re using math to complete their tasks!

These groups change frequently based on their teachers’ formative assessments, so the group often combines students who know a great deal about the tools in Scratch mixed with students who are seeing Scratch for the first time. Watching these students collaborate to solve problems and seeing their satisfaction at a classmate’s success is amazing.  Students learn innovation and creativity skills, problem-solving, collaboration and critical thinking and have a great time doing it!

Lynbrook Elementary’s Fourth Grade is working very hard, but still having lots of fun, with blogging!  The fourth grade students are working on book discussions and various critical thinking topics within the Blackboard forum.  Students have become so excited about the ability to blog that many are continuing the discussion from home! 

In addition, fourth grades, as well as fifth grade are in the beginning stages of using the Senteo Interactive Responsive system.  Teachers and students are excited to use this technology tool in time for SOL reviews!

Second graders at Hunt Valley are participating in Skype sessions with an elementary school in Alaska.  The Alaskan school is raising salmon and will act as experts as they answer Hunt Valley Student’s questions about the unique life cycle of Pacific Salmon runs and about life in Alaska.  Hunt Valley students will then act as experts about Washington DC and other historical attractions in our nations capital.

The hope is that a relationship will develop between our schools so that future projects on all grade levels will occur.

Hayfield ES is in the process of getting podcasting on their website. We have already recorded .mp3 files for a project for our Musician Museum. Those are currently posted on the music webpage as .mp3 files.   Also, Tori Meleski (SBTS: Colvin Run)  and Michelle Crabill (SBTS: Kings Park)  came to Hayfield to present current technologies that can replace traditional projects in the classroom. For example- Photostory, Blackboard blogging, podcasting, etc. Melinda (SBTS: Hayfield)  is working with ESOL students and the ESOL teacher to capture stories about students coming to America. The students are using Photostory. She is working with her START team members to create “How To” commercials to show on the morning news.

Leila (SBTS: Clermont) talked about using a Wii remote and a electronic pen to create a “pseudo smartboard”. She is going to send us the information.

We’re also holding discussions about creating class kits of digital cameras, digital recording devices, and flips.

Mark (SBTS:  Island Creek)  is doing a vertical technology plan. Melinda is also doing this in her library/tech committee. Mark uses Google Docs to create surveys for his teachers. Similar to Survey Monkey. Last year Adam created a technology plan with roles and responsibilities and standards. We are interested in the central scaffolding project and what information will come from that.

We are interested in using Google Earth 5. Some are already using it we are working to arrange a training on it at an upcoming neighborhood meeting.

www.CultureGrams.com- major kid friendly website. Perfect for International Night, global awareness project.  Adam also mentioned the Futures Channel which gives authenticity to various math concepts. Adam uses a generic worksheet and hands out to kids in the lab when they are done. This is the video I watched and this is what I learned. Adam created a Global Awareness page and we can link it from our own websites.

Leila showed us a way to make SOL practice tests using BB, not eCART.