SBTS EdTech

At Lane Elementary, Fifth Grade special education students are learning to speak math as they teach their fellow classmates strategies for multiplication. The students are using the Smart Recorder to demonstrate their learning. They plan their “lesson” and demonstrate their learning as the other students observe, listen and learn. Their recordings are then posted on the teacher’s Blackboard site so parents can better understand the new strategies they are learning.  

At Weyanoke Elementary school teachers are working with the SBTS and other resources teachers to use technology to analyze data and create common activities and assessments.

The 2nd , 3rd  and 4th grade teachers are collaborating with their SBTS and 2 SUM teachers to improve student scores in math.  These professionals are creating common activities and assessments and then meeting to analyze the data. This project materialized as teachers were looking at SOL math scores and noticed a disparity between boys and girls, as well as, in certain math strands. In order to work towards a solution to this problem the SBTS organized a plan to implement Destination Math in grades 2-4.  The SBTS trained the 2 SUM teachers and the grade level teachers in the use of the Destination Math software.  The group planned common activities and tests for each grade level that targeted the areas of need.  They are currently working collaboratively to analyze the test results during common planning times and then use this information to drive their math instruction.  In the future the SBTS and teachers are going to use this same approach in creating Aspire tests in grades 2-5.

Science SOL scores indicated that girls were outperforming boys 4:1. The SBTS, 2 resources teachers and all grade level teachers are now working to create common assessment in ASPIRE that highlight the lowest science strands.  The teachers are using the data from these teacher created assessments to determine the strengths and weaknesses of the students.  They are now working to locate remediation activities that would best serve the students.

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.