SBTS EdTech

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.

Fifth graders at Centreville ES have been sharpening their technology skills in preparation for their Global Awareness projects.  All 5th grade classes have been using Discovery Education Streaming, Inspiration, Pixie, and Photostory  to complete science integration projects.  Using this software will help students learn the programs so they can decide which software they would like to use for their GA projects.  Students did research and created Pixie movies on Oceans.  They did their research using United Video clips, and put together a Pixie slide with their information.  Students worked in groups to show the geographic characterstics, ecological characteristics, and physical characteristics of oceans.  They illustrated their Pixie slide using either stickers or the drawing tools, recorded their information using the narration feature, and selected transitions and music for each of their movies.  The movies are fantastic and are posted on the teacher’s 24/7 sites.  For the next project students used Inspiration to organize their research of molecules, atoms,  compounds, or elements.  They then illustrated their research in Pixie,  exported Pixie to .jpeg files, and used these in a Photostory.  The kids loved it!  For our next project we’ll be using Web Blender.  Kids will create web pages on their science fair projects using the scientific method.  We can’t wait!

At Dranesville ES, upper grade students designed snow flakes in Geometer’s Sketchpad and imported them into PowerPoint. In PowerPoint, students learned how to animate the snowflakes into “falling snow.” With these animations, they added winter poetry and winter scenes drawn in Pixie. In addition, some classes are combining all of the individual slides into one “class PowerPoint” adding music and/or narration.

To help support and prepare 5th graders for the Global Awareness Project,  Colvin Run 5th graders have completed research projects on MesoAmerica using PhotoStory and are starting a WebBlender project.  As a kickoff for the project five teachers, the librarian, SBTS and GT Resource Specialist each chose a different question from the eight guiding project questions and prepared a sample GAP project.  These projects use different technology applications: Publisher, Inspiration, PhotoStory, WebBlender, and Power Point.  Students participated in a ”GAP Museum Walk”, spending a few minutes listening to a presentation for each of the eight project.  This helped jump start student thinking about their project before they choose the question and topic they will be researching.  

At Great Falls ES, teachers and students are busy using technology as a tool for learning and teaching.  Fourth grade students are using dialogue blogs in FCPS 24-7 as reading responses and they are doing current events journals where they are finding lots of articles from online kids’ newspapers.  Kindergarten students are becoming quite savvy using Pixie 2 to take a snowman adventure.  Students drew pictures of snowmen in various settings (in space, at the firestation, in the jungle, along a Native American camp) and will be working to add text and voice recordings about their snowman’s adventure.  Students will share their story in their classroom as well as on the morning announcement TV show.  Second grade students created slideshows in Pixie about the lifecycle of crickets and are working on Animal Classification movies in Photostory.