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!