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

Have you been persuaded? Mrs. Hubele’s third graders typed up letters to persuade one way or another on their topic. The students used and learned about Microsoft Word features and used correct letter format. This was a great lesson covering the TEKS 3.21 Persuasive text. The classs had several mini lessons beforehand over how and where to save their documents, how to change fonts, indenting, capitalizing letters, etc. If you were Mrs. Hubele, would you give in?

Kinder Students Log on!

Do you remember your days in Kindergarten? Were you learning your letters? How about your numbers? Did you learn how to find them on a QWERTY Keyboard? Here at Gattis, most of the Kindergarten students spent some time with Miss Hintz, the Instructional Technology Specialist and their classroom teachers and practiced logging on and off. This was a challenging task met with great successes! Each student has an individual username and password. Usernames have both numbers and letter in them, and their secret passwords are so secret, it just looks like dots when you type it (that’s hard to find mistakes on!). Big Cheers for Kinder students and teachers who were so patient, even when the technology was challenging us!

Friendly Letters for Grade 3

Mrs. Tilger and Mrs. Dawson’s third graders reinforced their friendly letter writing skills in MS Word. They have been working on the friendly letter format in writing. Formatting, clipart and revising are all a part of the lesson to help make their letters fantastic! Of course it never hurts to let the teacher know how great she is!

2nd Grade explores BBC Schools Science

Mrs. Duckworth's class has been using the computer lab in correlation with their Science unit on matter and energy. They found a really great intereactive website http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/scienceclips/ages/6_7/science_6_7.shtml that the students have really enjoyed exploring! Check out the site and try to grow your own virtual plant, or test your knowledge on matter and energy.

Gattis Teachers Teach Dell Executives

On November 3rd, Dell Account Executives reached out to our Gattis Educations for a lesson in teaching. Ms. Dawson, Ms Hubele, Ms. Baker, Ms. McCollum, Mr. Brillhart and Ms. Buckles were selected to represent out school as outstanding educators. The comments from the Execs were very flattering and they were impressed with each of the teachers teaching.  Some of them were trying to figure out the math problems, one said they were scared of their own children bringing home the math to work on with them in coming years. One of the Executives has students in a non-Promethean school in the district was asking when those teachers would get the technology we have available here at Gattis. A big thank you and shout out to our Fantastic Gattis Team!