Bookflix and Mapping

Mrs. Thomas’s class did a fantastic activity with maps comparing two bookflix stories. They navigated our school website, went to our Library pages and under “Online Resources” found Bookflix. They choose "Earth and Sky" and selected two stories, "Hansel and Gretel" (fiction) and "We Need Directions" After listening to both stories they used the program kidspiration to build a compare/contrast web. This project helped them illustrate their understanding of how the mapping in the two stories were alike and different. Great idea Mrs. Thomas!

Turtle Pond

Ms. Carlson’s Second Grade class worked with Ms. Hintz our ITS in the computer lab to get turtles to the pond! This was a super fun way to explore math and social studies TEKS that align with the Second Grade Curriculum in mapping and plotting a course through measurement. Students navigated to our School Website and the “for Students” page where Ms Hintz hid a turtle. If you want to go directly to the pond yourself, go to: http://illuminations.nctm.org/ActivityDetail.aspx?ID=83. Once on the site, students came up with navigating directions to send their turtle to the pond. Those that dared tried to do it without the grid and added obstacles. Many want to challenge their parents to see if they can do it. Most think their parents will their need help! So parents, can you get the turtle in the pond?

Thank you to Sommer Elementary ITS, Jen Freeman, for sharing this activity!

Laptops in Grade 1

Students in Grade 1 worked in pairs to logon and off of the laptops, find icons, and even navigate the Gattis Website and discover online reading resources. Students worked on Acceptable Use Policies and appropriate ways to handle our equipment. These responsible students did a fantastic job working together and demonstrating our AUP at Gattis.

AcivCafe at Gattis

Gattis Elementary hosted a districtwide Promethean training on Nov. 10th, 2011. District Educators had the opportunity to learn how to use Promethean ActivInspire's screen recording tools to create videos and tutorials that they can post on their TeacherWeb or blog to share with students and parents. Karen Adams from Promethean was our guest presenter and was fantastic at sharing ways to apply this and other clever tools available in the software.

If you are a teacher in the district and you are interested to see more Promethean resources created and shared by RRISD Instructional Technology Specialists, visit our Flipchart Wiki at http://rrisd-flipcharts.wikispaces.com/. There is one more ActivCafe Scheduled for teachers on Dec. 6th, register on Ecampus if you are interested in attending.

ActiVotes in Grade 3

Miss Hintz had the privilege of working with all of the Third Grade classes and getting them going with their ActiVote devices. Students learned about Cause and Effect while learning different ways of answering questions with their student response devices. Classes worked on a mission to convince their classroom teachers that using the ActiVotes was a FANTASTIC idea. Teachers, were you convinced?

Gattis Online Art makes District Headline

Our fantastic Art Program was featured on the district Headline on September 29th. Here is an exerpt from the article:

Gattis Elementary online art program ranks 1st in state, 4th in nation Posted Date: 9/29/2011
Gattis Elementary art teacher Donna Staten has been recognized by Artsonia, the world’s largest online kid’s art museum, for outstanding leadership in the area of arts education at Gattis Elementary School. The school’s online art gallery - ranks first in the state and fourth in the nation, according to Artsonia.

The Leadership Award presented to Staten honors teachers who go beyond the classroom walls to encourage family and community involvement in arts education. The award also recognizes significant achievement in the area of technology integration within the school arts program. State and nationwide rankings are based on specific criteria, which demonstrate both aspects of the Leadership Award.

While teachers in more than 100 countries showcase their student artwork on Artsonia, Staten has created a school community deserving of recognition. During the 2010-2011 school year, the Gattis Elementary School gallery showcased 10,241 pieces of artwork. This popular collection of art has been visited more than 397,404 times and has received 2,220 comments from friends and family.

“Artsonia is a simple yet effective way to get parents and family members more involved in art education, and my students love it,” Staten said.

Complete Article

Gattis Artsonia Site

Grade 1 Web Conferences with Military

Skype with Joe for “Celebrate Freedom” Week.

Ms. Kloecker's Dual Language class is doing great things with technology. Including learning more about out country and the military. Check out her blog post for more about this article:

"Joe Himpelmann is a veteran who has been to Iraq, Afghanistan, and all across the United States in the U.S. Army. Today we spoke with him via Skype (videochat) to learn about the United States in relation to the pledge of allegiance and “Celebrate Freedom” Week. " Click to see more of this article.

Cyber Safety

Cyber Safety – Resources for keeping your children safe on the internet.
- http://www.ikeepsafe.org/ “You don’t have to be a Computer Expert to keep your Child Safe Online” This site has basic rules of Internet safety for Children and Parents.
- http://www.thesafeside.com/downloadcenter.html On The Safe Side's downloads page are free resources for schools and families that reinforce and expand the concepts presented in the Stranger Safety and Internet Safety.

A few Activities/Games you can do with your children online are:
http://www.disney.co.uk/DisneyOnline/Safesurfing/javascript:void(0)- Games created by Disney to help children understand how to safely surf the internet.
• http://pbskids.org/webonauts/- PBS Webonauts Internet Academy

Earth Day By Grade 3

Students in Ms. Tilger's class created some fantastic Earth Day Posters to go along with their writing unit. They used Microsoft Word and really got into the editing and manipulating of clipart.

Carlson's Class Blabberizes

Ms. Carlson’s Second Graders got digital with their biographies. Each student researched a famous individual and recorded their information first on paper, then with digital microphones. The class created a class blabberize account at http://blabberize.com/ . Then each student on their own inserted a photo of their famous person, used the mouse to specify the points of the mouth, recorded their information and saved their projects. Click to view a few of the projects.

http://blabberize.com/view/id/411198
http://blabberize.com/view/id/412793
http://blabberize.com/view/id/41217

Library gets Interactive

Mrs. Wallingford is one Smart Librarian! She has fantastic lessons with students of all grade levels and being the Smart lady that she is, she uses the Interactive Smart Board with students! This allows students to manipulate images and charts in ways that other whiteboards can’t. Mrs. Wallingford is always on the lookout for what students like and how to keep them interested while improving their learning! Way to go Mrs. Wallingford!

Mozart with ActivInspire

Mr. Crenshaw our Music teacher tries some new interactive technology. He is using a Promethean ActivSlate to control the computer screen that is projected onto the screen through a data projector. Here his class is learning about Mozart with interactive sound clips, questions for the students, and images in an interactive software called ActivInspire. Students had a chance to use the slate as well and were motivated to pay attention. Great way to incorporate technology into the music curriculum!

Out of the World Assignment

This week Mrs. Dawson's 3rd Grade Class went to the computer lab and signed into Kidspiration, after we changed our passwords. In Kidspiration we put the planets in order in relation to the sun. We printed them so we could send them home and show parents. They were "out of this world"!

Science TEK - 3.8D - Identify the planets in Earth's solar system and their position in relation to the sun.

Tech TEKs -
1e - access remote equipment on a network
3a - follow acceptable use policies 7ab - use sofware programs...
11a - publish info in a variety of media