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.