Smore to Present

In Ms. Jeffereson's 4th Grade class students created biographies.  They had several choices on how to present their final products.  They were introduced to the online design flyer tool called "smore"  Several students created smores on their person. Click on the links below to see their products.

• Walt Disney
• Magic Johnson
• Lionel Messi
• Abby Wambach
• Cleopatra
• Galileo Galilei

Skype with a Soldier

Several of our Gattis classes wrote letters of encouragement to Soldiers deployed in the Middle East.  This was great writing exercise and a way for them to give back to those who serve.  On Veterans Day, one of the Soldiers they wrote to surprised them by flying in and speaking to the whole school and then individual classes.  Fourth students were so excited they continued to write other soldiers and had a chance to then Skype with one as seen here in the image below. Although technology wasn't used in the writing itself, it was key in the communication with the soldiers and getting information that the classes needed for this worthwhile project.

Counselor uses Activotes

Our resident Counselor, Mrs. Shannahan, is working with all of the classes on making good decisions. She has been doing lessons in the classrooms and giving students different scenarios and asking them to choose the kind solution or action.  They aren't just voting with their hands, they are voting with the Promethean Activotes.  After students vote it displays a graph of how many votes each answer received which is great for follow up discussion.

Spanish Phrases of the Week

Did you want to learn some Spanish Phrases? How about one a week?  As part of our Dual Language integration here at Gattis, we have a weekly Spanish Phrase. Our Dual Language classes are working hard to create a video of the phrase which is then featured on our morning Broadcast.  You can find the videos on our Gattis Website in the News section or at this direct link after they are aired. 

http://gattis.roundrockisd.org/news/spanish_phrase_videos

How To Health Video

How to Wash Your Hands - Technology to Promote Health! 

Our Nurse at Gattis, Teresa Edgemond likes to be sure all of our students are preventing the spread of germs. To help demonstrate how to properly wash hands at school we enlisted the help a Kindergarten student, Aureylia and our ITS, Angie Hintz to created this video. The video is being shown on our School Broadcast, and now here on our Technology Blog. Technology is a great way to get a message across to our students and community.
 

Art Teacher Featured on News for her Technology Use!

PE Teaches Dance with Technology

Our wonderful P.E. Teachers Alett Rosberg and Cindy Healy got the kids all grooving in the air conditioned gym during the first week of school.  How can the kids see them do the dance moves? How will they be able to keep the attention of so many of them?  The answer, a very very large whole wall projection of a teacher teaching the moves.  The kids felt like they were at the movies and loved every minute of it.  As I walk down the hall, I still hear some of them sing some of the words to "Peanut Butter Jelly Time", the name of the song and dance that they learned.

Gattis Launches a New Website!

At the start of the 2013-2014 School year, Gattis Elementary as well as the rest of RRISD launched new websites! Our new address is http://gattis.roundrockisd.org/ . We hope parents, students and teachers enjoy the now even more graphic based website. Be sure to look for your teachers' individual pages as well!

Think Through Math Student Tutorial Video

Grades 3, 4 and students have access to an online Math Application called Think Through Math.  Here our very own 4th Grade student, Cole demonstrates what the program looks like for students.  Enjoy his tutorial.

Animal Research PowerPoints in Grade 1

First grade classes researched animals on Pebble Go and created PowerPoint projects. Once teachers showed them how to create one they took off, even adding transitions and sound. They had so much fun!  Check out some of the projects here.

Edmodo- online collaboration

Some of our students and teachers are really taking advantage of Edmodo, an online safe and secure social network.  Teachers can assign lessons, share files, start blog posts and much more.  Here, Mr. Brillhart's Tag class is using Edmodo in class to collaborate with each other!  Check out www.edmodo.com ‎  

Reading on the Computer

Our Kindergarten students love to read, and the love computers.  Why not combine both? Here you see students actively engages, reading stories and having them read to them.  Students are able to navigate from our school website to the Starfall webpage.  A favorite site for students.

StemScopes and Think Through Math

As 5th Grade students prepare for the upcoming STAAR Tests, they look to online resources that the district has provided.  Stemscopes and Think Through Math are two of the resources they went to the most. Students can work at their own pace and can even access their accounts from home.  Students were loving it so much they were aleady asking if they could use them in the summer months!

Document Camera and Interactive Whiteboard

Here at Gattis Elementary, teachers use technology everyday! Here we see a student showing how to solve a math problem using the interactive software on the Promethean board, while the problem is projected from the Document Camera. No longer are teachers using transparencies and overhead projectors.

 

Time on the Computer

Telling time can be a challenge.  Converting from Analog to Digital and calculating elasped time.  Luckily there are some fun ways to practice on the computer.  Check out these online resources some of our students enjoy!

• Basic Clock face http://www.teacherled.com/resources/clockspin/clockspinload.html
• Elasped, digital, analog, words http://www.mrmyers.org/Math_Mania/Math_Games/Jude_e-Clock/clock.htm
• Great options, clock face, digital and words  http://www.wmnet.org.uk/wmnet/custom/files_uploaded/uploaded_resources/503/clock.swf

4th Grade Build Presentations

4th Grade students work collaboratively to research and build multimedia PowerPoint presentations on the Water Cycle.

3rd Grade Researches Solar System

All of our awesome Third Grade teachers worked in the lab or with the netbooks in their classrooms to have students research the Solar System.  Students were given a set of questions to look for on a specific planet and sites to find the information on.  They then compliled their research into a report.  To see the sites they used to research, check out http://goo.gl/4a5QU

Art goes Online

Ms. L'Eplattenier, one of our Visual Arts Specialist here at Gattis uses all sorts of online resources with her students! She uses Google art project to look at Van Gogh Museum in Amsterdam, Uffizi in Florence, The Louvre in Paris and several other major art museums throughout the world. Students have used our Library Research Resources such as, Gale info bits Encyclopedia Britannica and World Book Online to research artists such as Frida Kahlo, Andy Warhol, Roy Lichtenstein Grandma Moses, Keith Haring, Norman Rockwell, Georgia Okeefe and the Renaissance masters.  What do you want to know about art?