Artsonia

Congratulations to Donna Staten for being selected to present to elementary visual art teachers from across the state regarding her work with students and the web gallery Artsonia at the Texas Art Education Association Conference – Artistic Foundations in November in Dallas, Texas. She was featured in the RRISD Close-Up Publication. Check out our student artwork at  posted by our Art Teachers Ms Staten and Ms L'Eplattenier at http://www.artsonia.com/

 

Literacy with Document Cameras

First Grade teachers Ms. Drews and Mrs. Slavin both used the document camera or flipcam with students to make video presentation of their research projects. Students were able to research a topic, and create a visual aide for it.  This is a great way to take something on paper and digitize it, add narration and share it with peers, parents, or keep for a future measurement of growth. Watch these videos created by students in both classes.

• To See more from Ms. Drew's Class see her Research Project page on her teacher website at http://teacherweb.com/TX/GattisElementary/MsDrewsClass/apt2.aspx 
• To see more from Mrs. Slavin's Class visit her Research Project/Proyectos de Investigación page at http://slavinduallanguage.blogspot.com/2012/11/research-projects-round-2-proyectos-de.html

Tag Math Excels

In 4th Grade Tag Math, students use Microsoft Excel to determine the best value in pay by determining which pay scheme will net them $1000 first.

Math Skills: 

1. Create a table of values for a given pattern 
2. Describe, extend, and analyze patterns
3. Graph a given table of values 
4. Plot points on a coordinate grid 

 Technology Skills:  Use of Spreadsheet Application to...

1. Change heights and widths of rows and columns 
2. Create formulas 
3. Use the Fill function to extend tables 
4. Graph given sets of data displayed in tables 
5. Formatting cells to include commas
6. Navigate to Save on Network Folder

Smart Library

Not only is Mrs. Wallingford one smart Librarian, but she uses the Smart Interactive board with her classes. She has all sorts of lessons she does with her students using this interactive technology. Anytime you see a class having a lesson in the library, check out if she has them up at the board, or giving feedback. Here the class is voting on books and Genre. Way to go Mrs. Wallingford!

Bilingual Commercial

Gattis is a Dual Language Campus! Our 2nd Grade Dual Language Class created a Commercial with Miss Hintz for our Canned Food Drive for our Morning Broadcast and Gattis website. Mr. Marcano likes to use Technology with his class and as a way to communicate with his parents. Check out some of his resources, photos and videos on his Teacher Website at http://teacherweb.com/TX/GattisElementary/marcano/gallery1.aspx


Watch our Canned Food Drive Commercial here:

Poetry Word Clouds with a twist.

In 4th Grade this 9 weeks students are studying Poetry in Literacy. In Miss Jeffereson’s class students were creative in the way they published their poetry by using the Web 2.0 word cloud site http://www.tagxedo.com/ . All of their work is proudly displayed outside of their classroom. Here is just a few samples of Tagxedo –ed Poems.

Reading on a Computer

Students in various grade levels love to read and love the computer, why not read on the computer? There are many only programs that are interactive with reading. Here you see students using http://www.starfall.com/ to read books. Starfall has an option to have some of the words read out loud for you, great for young readers.  As Gattis has the Dual Language Program at our School, we especially love to read on bookflix and Tumblebooks since it has both English and Spanish options.

3rd Grade Writing

Third Grade Students in Ms. Kasper's class have been working on Personal Narratives. To complete their writing they published pieces in the computer lab. Students were able to put their own personal "flair" on their writing by changing the font size, and style. They were able to navigate to their individual folders on the server to save their work. Here is just a sample of writing.

Gattis Goes Google!

This School year Gattis Elementary and all of RRISD has gone Google.  Teaches are using a version of Gmail which will enable them to streamline communication with parents. We are using Google forms to collect data and survey our families, students and staff and Calendars to keep each other informed!  If you would like to subscribe to our Gattis Google calendar here are the steps. 

1. Have a Google account of your own, it doesn't have to be Gmail, in fact you can go to google.com and register another email address to create a Google account.
2. Go to the Gattis website at http://schools.roundrockisd.org/Gattis/
3. On the bottom right of the calendar, click on the “+Google Calendar” button
4. A prompt will appear that will ask you “Would you like to add calendar: gattis_master@roundrockisd.org?  Click “Yes, add this calendar”

Now, when you look at your google calendar, you will see our Gattis Calendar as well! Never miss another fantastic Event!

Food Chain in Kidspiration

Second Grade students created a food chain in the mind-mapping program, Kidspiration.  This was a great assessment of the concept of Science concept of food chains for the students.  Students also did writing about their food chains as a curricular link to Language Arts.  Great job Grade 2 in Ms. Wolfean's Class!

Technology as a Tool

Technology is a great tool for various reasons!  In the Resource classrooms there are some great individualized programs that students can use and set their own pace. Students are motivated by the interactivity of the programs and teachers are able to monitor progress.

Preparing for STAAR goes Interactive

As classes prepare for the upcoming STAAR Tests, they get interactive with Promethean Boards and Voting Devices.  Here are just a few examples of a 5th Grade Science, 4th and 3rd Grade Math Review Flipcharts.  Using the voting devices is a great way for teachers to get instant feedback on what skills need further review.

Create a Story Online

Second Grade Students enjoyed creating stories online through http://www.artofstorytelling.org/kiosk/ site. This coorelated with their writing unit they are working on. It was fun to select all the different parts of the story!

Skype to Saskatchewan, Canada

Have you talked to students in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada? First Graders at Gattis have! They took a virtual trip via Skype. The students of Moose Jaw shared some of their favorite book suggestions with Gattis students this week. Each student walked up to the webcam and showed their book and gave a summary. And of course they did talk about the weather.

New Technology

Gattis Technology had a facelift last week! Thanks to bond money in the past and the diligence of our Technology Department we were able to replace all of the desktop machines in the classrooms, office, computer lab and library. That’s over 100 computers!

Angles - What do we know?

Ms. Baker's 4th Grade class is going to be learning about Angles. The class worked in pairs to come up with what they already knew and then record their prior knowledge on the interactive whiteboard in the classroom. This page can then be saved and revisited as the class continues their learning. Great use of the Promethean Board Ms. Baker! What do you know about angles?

Software for Individual Learners

Computers are not just for the mainstream classroom. Here at Gattis and at many schools across the district we are able to purchase and use specific computer software to help with individual students who need some extra strategies. Here we have students working with Earobics software which provides individualized instruction in critical areas of reading. This software is interactive and has some fun characters that make the activity engaging and motivating for students! Our incredible Intervention Specialists are able to monitor and personalized plans for each student.

1st Grade Writes, Publishes and Reads Books

Ms. Kloecker’s Class wrote “All About Books”. To share the books, students used flipcams to record a peer reading the book, then published the video on their class blog. If you want to see and hear some of the students read their books, check out their blog at http://kidblog.org/mskloeckers1stgradeduallanguageclass/ckloeck1110/all-about-books/

Technology Used in Science Fair Projects

Gattis had it's annual Science Fair on Jan. 26th. Several Students incorporated technology into their projects. Graphs for data collection and results, digital photos, word processing, research on the internet and more! Check out some of these projects!

3rd Grade Letters

Mrs. Dawson's third grade class published their letters. Their focus was writing a friendly letter in Microsoft Word. Students had to change the font style, size and color then add a picture. They also had to save it into their own folders.

Fuel Up Video on Broadcast

As part of the Fuel Up to Play 60 Program that Gattis PE classes are involved in this year, Ms. Rosberg and Ms. Hintz put together a movie of students self created FuelUp song. This video has been played on the morning broadcast as a way to motivate and inform other students. Students also created posters to hang around the school and are tracking their progress online. Way to be healthy Gators!

5th Grade Presents with Prezi

Mrs. Boehler's 5th Grade class has made Prezi Presentations on various topics that they then present in class. Check out a few examples below:

What is Matter:

What is matter? on Prezi

What's My Number:

Lizzy on Prezi

Amanda on Prezi