K-5 Technology for Sept-Oct 2013

Image: Emily Haddon

CHVE Technology

What are students doing in technology?  Each month, come here to take a peek.  
The tools students use: CHVE Links.

TO DOWNLOAD THE BEST MATH FACT PRACTICE ON THE PLANET, CLICK HERE (free for CHVE students)


iPad app of the month: GoogleDrive: 

My new favorite feature is the camera access.  If a teacher wants to make a piece of paper accessible to students, the GoogleDrive app "scans" the document with the camera and automatically converts to PDF, ALL WITHIN THE DRIVE!!!  Huge time saver.  In seconds, teachers can give students/parents access to any document, text-book page, student work, etc.,  Huge applicational value for students as well...read about 4th grade below.

Other posts:

• Learn more about experiences with 5th Graders using a Chat Room.
• Learn more about why we should not shy away from doc sharing in Google Drive. 

Technology activities for Sept-Oct, 2013

Kindies

• Learning how to use a track pad by making their name on the refrigerator.  
• Use Starfall to develop phonetic awareness. 
• Listen to Robert Munsch at TumbleBooks (funniest children's books by Robert Munsch read by the author himself...other stories available, too)
• Explore ABCya and RedFish.

1st Grade

• 5-Frames: In an effort to support common-core math, students work on understanding base 10.  This is a simple site, but their job is to complete this site without ever counting.  When you hold 3 fingers up, you see a representation of 3 without needing to count.  K-1st students are not often solid in this concept.  Using concrete ways to develop this thinking is fundamental in understanding math. 
• Dance Mat:  Students learn how to position their hands for proper typing technique. The doc cam is used to model positioning.   Students close their eyes and see if they can find the 2 keys with the bumps.  Their job is to complete Stage 1. 
• Explore TumbleBooks.
• Education City: Students are learning how to do math activities involving number sense.  Then they check their progress on the class "score-board" giving them immediate feedback on how they did.  Anyone can have access to the scoreboard, but it is password protected so just let me know and I'll set you up!  I print out scores from specific activities and give them to their teacher (this month's print-out: Cash Only).  Students are also using EdCity to have math fact races using the ever-popular, Play Live feature.  Click here to gain access to Education City at home (there's a password after 4:30pm).  

2nd Grade

• With our new STEM program, students engineered ways to generate wind with Lego's.  They document their creations by taking photos through the Wixie app on the iPad's or through the Wixie web-app. Many had time to describe what caused their wind device to work through: oral recording, painting, or writing all embedded within Wixie.  Students by now should all know how to get into Wixie at home. If they have forgotten their password, feel free to let me know and I'll give you the details!
• Dance Mat Mondays:  Complete the first 2 stages.
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.  This month's goal: number sense.  The student works on several assigned activities dealing with this concept. Their work syncs with the scoreboard giving them immediate feedback on their performance.  I print out scores from specific activities and give them to their teacher (this month's print-out: Cash Only).  If a parent or teacher ever wants access to the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
• Make a Ten.  If you were to "flash" 7 fingers at your child, could they tell you right away that you were holding 7 fingers?  If not, they do not have a solid understanding of the base10 concept.  Practice with this site is great for building that understanding.
• AR: A subscription-based site that checks a student's reading comprehension and
  
  provides an immediate score.  Students were read the story, "Click Clack Moo, Cows that type" (Love this story, cracks me up).  They login to AR and take a quiz. This is not accessible at home.

3rd Grade

• The first 8-minutes of every class, students practice their typing skills with Dance Mat.
• Badge Project: Students are working on their first tech project: In their GoogleDrive, they write a few sentences about themselves...things that represent what makes them proud of who they are.  They learn a few tips and tricks about word-processing in Google Docs, insert their own drawing, make a huge mess of their formatting and fix it.   The message we constantly use here is, "Hopefully you will come across a problem that you can't solve.  That's when technology gets fun" 
• When they finish their writing, they use a web-app to build their badge.  This requires transferring .jpg files to and from their GoogleDrive, "sharing" them with me for a final check, print, color, and hang on the wall.  A video was made of this process so students can work at their own pace.  Come check our room out...looks amazing!!!

4th Grade 

• The first 8-minutes of every class, students practice their typing skills with Dance Mat.
• Programming with Lego's: With our new STEM program, in small groups, students
  
  build bird-robots using Lego's.  They document their creations by taking photos through the GoogleDrive app on the iPad's (this lends itself to a discussion on responsible web behaviors).  Then, they figure out how to use Lego's WeDo software to program their birds to perform a variety of tasks.  Finally, students will learn how to add an app to their GoogleDrive account to build a presentation that demonstrates what their Lego bird-robot can do.
• Badge Project: refer to "Badge Project" in 3rd Grade.

5th Grade

• The first 8-minutes of every class, students practice their typing skills with Dance Mat.
• Badge Project: refer to "Badge Project" in 3rd Grade.  Many 4th graders and most 5th graders worked on this independently or collaboratively.
• Graphing: To support the Science Fair, students learned how to use Spreadsheet in GoogleDrive to create graphs.  First, through document sharing and partners, they built a "Form" to "share" a survey to the class.  Students learned how data and graphs are automatically populated, then used this data to manually create their own graphs.  We tried to use my favorite web-based graph making site (a .gov site), but due to the government shut-down, we had to adjust the activity as the site was down.  

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Elementary Students, Google Drive & Document Sharing: Do they mix?

CHVE Technology

Lately, many conversations are abound regarding cyber safety concerns with elementary students using GoogleDrive. Specifically, the sharing features of documents. 

Google Drive affords classrooms to collaborate and build content anywhere.   Students are also granted free access to sharing their work.  We are a K-12 district where Google Drive is used sporadically from the Elementary level through High School.  This potentially lends itself to some challenging issues:

We were working on a project that involved a sharing feature in Google Drive.  One student pulled up her account and noticed in her gDrive a document she did not create (she was in the "shared with me" files).  She opened the doc up and saw a paragraph written with a bunch of mumbo-jumbo phrases.  At the very end was the word, F***

She was mortified (4th Grader).  She felt awful, was a little embarrassed, and was quick to defend her innocence.  I proceeded to console, and made sure she "deleted" the document (which doesn't really delete…but elementary kids don't know that). I proceeded to have a great chat with the class.  We covered several points:

1.  Just because you have the power to do so, should you (Google makes it incredibly easy to "share" docs, but is that always appropriate)?  With great power comes great responsibility (No good preach should be without Spider Man lines).  Kids don't realize that by sharing a document, they no longer have full control over that document…it's important to think carefully about what you choose to share.

Even if permissions are set to restrict editing, nothing can stop a kid from making a copy…I don't tell them that little nugget though.

2.  Good news for the student: Anything created in the Drive is permanent and has a trail.  If you are worried about being accused of something inappropriate, we can almost always figure out who created documents and when.  We can even figure out down to the minute when an offensive word was written.  In the case of the f-bomb, we discovered the recipient of this word was intended to be an older sibling at a Middle school.  The older sibling had a friend who created this document.  The friend thought he was sharing it with his buddy, but accidentally selected his buddy's younger sibling instead.  I immediately let our principal know and she called the middle school right then.  I handed her printed evidence and she went rolling.  Because of the time-stamp we could help the middle-school counselor determine what period the student was in and therefore the teacher.  Consequences were taken and parents were immediately notified and made aware of actions.  I then shared this story with every 4th and 5th grader at our school.  We didn't have a single incident for the rest of the year.  I think it's so important for these issues to happen at the elementary level so that tragedy is avoided later; case in point (I shared this with every 4th-5th when it was relevant…takes about a month with our tech rotation):

A friend of mine had a daughter in High School who posted something she thought was silly on YouTube.  Turns out it bordered on being racist.  A college she applied to found her YouTube posting and denied her admission to that school.  She was mortified, more embarrassed than anything else as she was an A student.  The lesson: EVERYTHING YOU CREATE, CAN AND WILL BE FOUND.  I am constantly asking them, is it worth not being accepted to a school or program you are excited about just because you thought something you posted would be hilarious?  I also frequently remind them, if your parents were standing right behind you, would they be pleased with what you were doing?  I let them know that everything they create here at this school will be found by potential programs they are interested in later.

This year we had another issue.  Minor, but still…we use it as a great opportunity to discuss ramifications and the impact on the local community.  I met with about 90 parents and discussed all of these events and all of it's surrounding issues.  We preach loudly and often about how this is the time to learn about these issues so they don't later make a costly decision later.  We have an amazing principal who is very proactive with parents and continues to preach this message.  We have been very transparent.  Whenever there is an issue, parents, kids, and teachers all know about it.  Parents are very supportive.  One of the keys to success in this building is that no student is ever sent to work on laptops independently.  There is ALWAYS a teacher/adult checking for on-task behaviors.  If kids know their decisions have ramifications, it makes a huge difference.  

I've worked in several different types of schools ranging from affluent to high free & reduced lunch ratios.  Regardless of the environment, the mentality is always the same: immediate consequences, transparency, communication to students and parents about the ramifications, and teacher attentiveness.  At one school, I was fortunate enough to get an ex-elementary student who was then in middle school.  She came back and talked to many of my tech groups about an incident she was involved in.  She was part of group working on a tech project.  The group faced a suspension hearing for decisions 1 group member made.  It was so impactful, that as she talked you could hear a pin drop.   The elementary students were amazed after listening to an all powerful middle-schooler.  I will continue to find brave souls from middle and high schools interested in coming to talk to our elementary kiddos about ramifications they've experienced in light of being thoughtless with Technology.

Every year there is always an issue.  Which is GOOD, elementary school is the time to explore.  But it's important to remain vigilant in being loud and transparent.  Kids feel it differently when someone they know has experienced a negative impact.  The lesson becomes tangible, relevant.

I think the biggest mistake we can make as Elementary Educators is to take the easy road by simply denying access.  This Is The Time to Work It Out.  Later is too late.  If we don't start now, we are performing a disservice.  Yes, it's a more challenging road, and it can be uncomfortable, and for that matter, we are not paid to pursue it…but it's the right road to travel.

Most importantly, by keeping kids from the Drive, they miss out on amazing learning experiences.  Kids have so much fun learning!  They build collaboratively, learn to use the side-bar chat box as a learning tool, and are never limited to where they can learn and be productive.  The world is a playground, why not take advantage with proper guidance?  Their going to get out there anyway, why not try to show them what to watch out for?

Technology for Feb, 2013

Image: Emily Haddon

CHVE Technology

What are students doing in technology?  Each month, come here to take a peek.  The tools students use: CHVE Links.

TO DOWNLOAD THE BEST MATH FACT PRACTICE ON THE PLANET, CLICK HERE (free for CHVE students)!

Want to buy your child a computer and need a recommendation?

Read about experiences with 5th Graders using a Chat Room.

For the month of: February, 2013

Kindies - began exploring subtraction iPad apps: (list coming shortly)

1st Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays!  
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.
• Wixie: Many have finished their first digital book!  We have used the web-based version and the free iPad app to work on these (although, it is a bit sluggish).  Many have started finishing.  To see who has posted their project, check the password-protected page by clicking on "Secret Library".  Ask your child what the password is.  If they have forgotten, you can ask me.

2nd Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Began 2 days with Math Lines
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.  Goal: self-monitor: Students look at the assessment and find a score they would like to improve.  Their work syncs with the scoreboard giving them immediate feedback on their performance.  If a parent or teacher ever wants access to the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
• Wixie: Many have finished their digital book!  We have used the web-based version and the free iPad app (although, it is a bit sluggish) to work on these.  Many have finished.  To see who has posted their project, check the password-protected page by clicking on "Secret Library".  Ask your child what the password is.  If they have forgotten, you can ask me.
• Make a Ten.  (higher levels for more advanced students)
• Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions here.  It is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication/Division (most 2nd graders used the +/-...but it's still in beta mode).  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

3rd Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Arcademic: Peer-to-peer gaming that practices math facts (and other skills).  Discussed the "why's" of not using personal information.
• Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions here.  An AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication/Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.
• iPad's: used PicCollage and GoogleDrive apps to learn how to build projects and store FINISHED works in your own Drive.

4th Grade 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• iPad's: used PicCollage and GoogleDrive apps to learn how to build projects and store FINISHED works in your own Drive.
• Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions here.  An AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication/Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.
• iPad app math fact practice: Math Ninja

5th Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays!
• Finished the iMovie, Colony Project and shared with multiple classes.  Click here to read more about the process of the project.  
• Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions here.  An AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication/Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.
• iPad app math fact practice: Math Ninja

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Technology for January

Image: Emily Haddon

CHVE Technology

What are students doing in technology?  Each month, come here to take a peek...The tools students use: CHVE Links.

Want to buy your child a computer and need a recommendation?

Read about experiences with 5th Graders using a Chat Room.

For the month of: January, 2012

Kindies - began looking at how Education City can be used to keep track of your scores.

1st Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays!  
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.
• Wixie: Finishing our book project with Tumblebooks ...stay tuned to see where you can view them! (Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction and Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  

2nd Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Began 2 days with Math Lines
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.  Goal: self-monitor: Their job was to look at the assessment chart of their Education City activities and find a score they would like to improve.  Their work syncs with the scoreboard giving them immediate feedback on their performance.  If a parent or teacher ever wants access to the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
• Wixie: This week, most students finished working on their Non-Fiction books from the information they gathered researching a Tumblebooks topic.  We will link all "books" to a page where others can see what they have created.
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions have been added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links.  It is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Addition/Subtraction, and Multiplication/Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

3rd Grade

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• We finished the book poster's created in ComicLife.  We do not have access to a color printer for all so we learned how to "hollow" out the color.  We printed our documents and colored them in.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Or click here to download it for $30 to your computer (30 day free trial).
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions have been added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links.  It is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

4th Grade - Mrs. Yoffe 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Began a ComicLife project: Researched the history of Valentine's Day and added that information as part of a creation of Valentine's Day cards.  Goal: for students to learn how to think of their Google Drive account as a flash-drive so as to store non-web based projects.  This allows for greater mobility and security.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Or click here to download it for $30 to your computer (30 day free trial).
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions have been added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links.  It is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

5th Grade - Mrs. Chavez - A GREAT WEEK...

• Dance Mat Mondays!
• Continued our VERY successful research project on colonies that involves the use of chat rooms.  Click here to read more about it!  Many students began recording on iPad's this week and used the iMovie app to edit ($4.99 at home, cost at school: $2.49).
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack by BigBrainz.  This is available at home for no cost (regularly $40!).  Directions have been added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links.  It is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week. 

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This Week in Tech (2)...

Image: Emily Haddon

CHVE Technology

What are students doing in technology?  Each week, come here to take a peek...The tools students use: CHVE Links.

Want to buy your child a computer and need a recommendation?

Read about experiences with 5th Graders using a Chat Room.

Week of: Dec 10, 2012

Kindies - SheppardSoftware.com: Practiced number sense using a fantastic primary Math site (great for older kids as well) 

1st Grade - Mrs. Wilkinson

• Dance Mat Mondays!  
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.
• Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction and Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.

2nd Grade - Mrs. Feltz

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Began 2 days with Math Lines
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.  Goal: self-monitor: Their job was to look at the assessment chart of their Education City activities and find a score they would like to improve.  Their work syncs with the scoreboard giving them immediate feedback on their performance.  If a parent or teacher ever wants to the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
• Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction Books and Science Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.

3rd Grade - Mr. Weiss 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Worked on a book poster in ComicLife & learned the new way to save ComicLife projects in GoogleDrive.  Students designed posters of their favorite book.  They also learned to use the 3 different safe image searches for kids.  (Click here to see "Image search 1, 2, and 3").  Learned some design techniques.  Goal: to add more posters to our library to promote books.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Click here to download it to your computer for $30.
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

4th Grade - Mrs. Yoffe 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Started a Google Earth, Holiday Tour project:  With a partner, students collaborated on 4 different winter celebrations.  They each worked from their own computer but edited the same page using Google Drawing to create a diagram of their research.  Then, they copied and pasted their information into Google Earth "pins" to build a tour around the earth of the ways different cultures celebrate the holidays.  For resources they used the "Holidays from around the world" box to find their info.  But how did they save their Google Earth "tours"?  Google Earth saves "pins" as .kmz files.  They saved these to their Google Drive so that they could work on this at home.  Saving this way is a new process and we do not have 100% mastery...yet.
• For those that finished their Holiday Tour, Students spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

5th Grade - Mrs. Chavez - A GREAT WEEK...

• Dance Mat Mondays!
• Finished document formatting practice in Google Docs (left vs right jusify, Font tools, use "Research Tools" to add images [discussed plagiarism], used the drawing feature).  
• Created Badge by using the video as a guide and each other as resources, NOT A TEACHEr!!  Photos stored in GoogleDrive.  Discussion: Didn't Mr. Krulish say to NEVER put your photo or anything personal on the web?  So why are photos in gDrive?  Issue with "Sharing".  Rule: cannot share without Teacher or Parent permission.  Discussed issues with Sharing (ALMOST all problems with sharing happened because students forget to logout of their account at home or at school.  Kids don't realize they are in someone else's account; Another issue is the mischievous older brother or sister).
• Began a VERY successful research project that involves the use of chat rooms.  Click here to read more about it!  Eventually this will culminate into a News Broadcast project focusing on the 13 Colonies using iPad's:  
• We didn't have time for: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.  

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Chat Rooms and 5th Graders

A chat room, a 5th Grade Classroom, and total silence...

Below is an expansion of my weekly posting covering Tech in an Elementary school (Technology is a Specials Rotation at Cherry Hills Village Elementary - students go to 5 specials).  The blog is an effort to be transparent to parents in our community about what kids are doing with Technology.  The 5th Grade chat room activity was so successful, I though I'd share it independently:

Big Picture: The overall project for 5th grade is to build a news-broadcast on the iPads covering the life and times of a Colonial.  First, using laptops and their GoogleDrive accounts, they needed to build a GooglePresentation.  Here is what we did:

 
First they answered 2 big-picture questions by creating their own thinking map in GoogleDrawing.  Here was the best part: Since everyone was connected to the same big-picture page, we opened up the chat box for all to access.  Scarry?  Sure, but not without a lesson on how chat boxes can be used as a RESOURCE.  If you walked into the room, kids were working on their diagrams.  If any of the 5th graders needed to know how to do something in GoogleDrawing (how to change the color of a box, etc.,) they posted their questions in the chat room.  So this means they had at least 2 windows going at the same time: The big-picture questions, and their own GoogleDrawing document.  They were directed to post questions in the chat room when they didn't know how to use the drawing tools (fyi - I had the students use Google Drawing at the beginning of the year...so this was not there first time creating a Google Drawing).  It was AMAZING how well they responded to that.  Kids are natural multitaskers.  

While they were working on their own diagram, they kept an eye on the chat room.  Whenever someone posted a question, several kids were right there to post answers.  The entire class was completely interdependent.  I, the teacher, was simply a facilitator.  I jumped in the chat room and clarified directions but did not respond to any "how do I" questions.  For 30 min. straight, you could hear a pin drop in the room.

THIS TOOK GROUNDWORK!  

In the beginning, we set some ground rules:
I told them they needed to monitor each other.  If someone posted something silly or goofy, a peer kindly was instructed to walk over to them and respectfully ask them to stop.  Initially, they couldn't see why they had to walk over to them..."can't I just post it in the chat room?"  We discussed how the chat box is reserved for positive posts only.  Telling someone not to do something is negative.  When kids start critiquing one another, the beginnings of cyber-bullying takes shape.  Anyway, If the silly/goofy comments persisted, even after peer-intervention, I took away their laptop for 2 min.  The time doubles for each additional infraction.  We discussed: 

Is there a time to be Goofy?  SURE!  But not in a place of learning.  Everyone has a right to learn without distraction.  If you are causing distraction by posting silly things, there are consequences for that.  If you want to be goofy, great!  Get with a buddy at home and knock yourselves out (this also led to a conversation on cyber-bullying and gossiping).  Not one kid lost their laptop for 2 min.  When they finished their responses (which they gathered from a BrainPop resource about Colonies), they "Shared" their diagram with me, I inserted Comments on their diagram letting them know if they received an A for their work, or guided them (through inserting comments) on their misperceptions.  When they finished, they moved onto the next task...
(view my tech-blog to learn about the rest of the project)

I shared the experience with the teacher in hopes that it might provide insight into a new way to instruct.  I also let the kids know they should encourage their teacher to use this tool in lessons where it might be appropriate.  It was a fantastic week and look forward to pursuing this with all 5 classes.

If you are interested in seeing what I've done with any or all grades, I post weekly here (I don't like the organization...but will live with it till I have time to attend to it)

CHVE Tech

Image: Emily Haddon

CHVE Technology

What are students doing in technology?  Each week, come here to take a peek...The tools students use: CHVE Links.

Want to buy your child a computer and need a recommendation?


Week of: Nov 26, 2012

Kindies - Education City: Practiced Language Arts and Math, began exploring how to look at your scores in Education City to improve your "Success Graph".  If parent or teachers want access to this graph, contact Mr. Krulish!

1st Grade - Ms. Valentine

• Dance Mat Mondays!  
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.
• Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction and Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.

2nd Grade - Mrs. Malone

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Began 2 days with Math Lines
• Education City: click here to gain access at home.  Goal: self-monitor: Their job was to look at the assessment chart of their Education City activities and find a score they would like to improve.  Their work syncs with the scoreboard giving them immediate feedback on their performance.  If a parent or teacher ever wants to the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
• Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction Books and Science Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.

3rd Grade - Mrs. Gallagher 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Worked on a book poster in ComicLife & learned the new way to save ComicLife projects in GoogleDrive.  Students designed posters of their favorite book.  They also learned to use the 3 different safe image searches for kids.  (Click here to see "Image search 1, 2, and 3").  Learned some design techniques.  Goal: to add more posters to our library to promote books.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Click here to download it to your computer for $30.
• Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.
• Spent one day take the Safety Survey.

4th Grade - Mrs. Yoffe 

• Dance Mat Mondays! 
• Started a Google Earth, Holiday Tour project:  With a partner, students collaborated on 4 different winter celebrations.  They each worked from their own computer but edited the same page using Google Drawing to create a diagram of their research.  Then, they copied and pasted their information into Google Earth "pins" to build a tour around the earth of the ways different cultures celebrate the holidays.  For resources they used the "Holidays from around the world" box to find their info.  But how did they save their Google Earth "tours"?  Google Earth saves "pins" as .kmz files.  They saved these to their Google Drive so that they could work on this at home.  Saving this way is a new process and we do not have 100% mastery...yet.
• For those that finished their Holiday Tour, Students spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

5th Grade - Mrs. Kirby - A GREAT WEEK...

• Dance Mat Mondays!
• Finished document formatting practice in Google Docs (left vs right jusify, Font tools, use "Research Tools" to add images [discussed plagiarism], used the drawing feature).  
• Created Badge by using the video as a guide and each other as resources, NOT AN ADULT!!  Photos stored in GoogleDrive.  Discussion: Didn't Mr. Krulish say to NEVER put your photo or anything personal on the web?  So why are photos in gDrive?  Issue with "Sharing".  Rule: cannot share without Teacher or Parent permission.  Discussed issues with Sharing (ALMOST all problems with sharing happened because students forget to logout of their account at home or at school.  Kids don't realize they are in someone else's account; Another issue is the mischievous older brother or sister).
• Began a News Broadcast project focusing on the 13 Colonies:  
• First they answered 2 big-picture questions by creating their own thinking map in GoogleDrawing.  Here was the best part: Since everyone was on the same big-picture page, we opened up the chat box to USE AS A RESOURCE!  If kids needed to know how to do something in GoogleDrawing (how to change the color of a box, etc.,) they posted their question in the chat room.  It was AMAZING how well they responded to that.  Kids are natural multitaskers.  While they were working on their own diagram, they kept an eye on the chat room.  Whenever someone posted a question, several kids were right there to post answers.  The entire class was completely interdependent.  I, the teacher, was simply a facilitator.  I jumped in the chat room and clarified directions but did not respond to any "how do I" questions.  For 30 min. straight, you could hear a pin drop in the room.  THIS TOOK GROUNDWORK!  In the beginning, I told them they needed to monitor each other.  If someone posted something silly or goofy, a peer kindly walks over to them and respectfully asks them to stop.  Initially, they wanted to post that in the chat box.  I told them, the chat box is reserved for positive posts only.  Telling someone not to do something is negative.  When kids start critiquing one another, the beginnings of cyber-bullying take shape.  Anyway, If the "silly chatting" continues, I take away their laptop for 2 min.  The time doubles for each additional infraction.  We discussed, is there a time to be Goofy?  SURE!  But not in a place of learning.  Everyone has a right to learn without distraction.  If you are causing distraction by posting silly things, there are consequences for that.  If you want to be goofy, great!  Get with a buddy at home and knock yourselves out (this also led to a conversation on cyber-bullying and gossiping).  When they finished their responses (after watching a BrainPop video on the Colonies), they "Shared" their diagram with me, I inserted Comments on their diagram letting them know if they received an A for their work or guided them (through inserting comments) if there were any misperceptions.  When they finished, they moved onto the next task:
• Students work in small groups to research information about the 13 Colonies (resources provided in Learning Links. Look in the "Colonies" box for the different resource links).   They take notes using a template Mrs. Hemphill created in Google Drive.  They can print-out the template and write on it, take a copy of this GoogleDoc template and type right in it, or they can build a diagram using Google Drawing to help them best organize their information.  Whatever works best for their learning style.  Most chose to print out the note-taking template and just write using a pencil.
• Next, they took this information and built a presentation using GooglePresentation (directions here).  We want students to learn how to use a presentation to practice their public speaking skills.  Presentation programs are not designed to have multiple sentences.  ONLY key words/concepts should be visible.  The student learns to have a "conversation" with the audience.  The building of the presentation is designed to be collaborative.  All group members shared one presentation.  Were there issues?  YOU BET!  Lots of strong-minded kids that wanted everything to look their own way.  We used this analogy: Let's say you are sitting at a table with a peer and you have your materials on the table and so does your neighbor.  If you don't like how your neighbor has organized their stuff, would you stand-up and organize it for them?  Everyone enthusiastically and overwhelmingly responded with no.  We applied the same thinking to collaboration.  If you don't like the image your group member placed on a particular slide, do you delete it?  Absolutely not.  your job is to turn away from the computer, stand up and go talk to them (some of them seemed appalled by this...).  Yes, that's right, actually stand up, turn away from your computer and have a face-to-face conversation about the issue.  Collaboration means there is going to have to be some give-and-take.  Your jobs are to assign work fairly and then LET GO.  Trust that they will get it done.  If it doesn't happen, it's the teacher's job to intervene.  For this week, no group finished their presentation.  That will be done in the Library with Mrs. Hemphill.
• When they are finish with the presentation, they will use iPad's to create a News Broadcast.  Their Google Presentations will sit on the "Anchor" table similar to the ESPN broadcasters (they always seem to have a laptop sitting off to the side as they deliver stats, etc.)  App: TBA
• We didn't have time for: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.  

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Week of: Nov 12, 2012

Kindies - Education City: Practiced the Language Arts and Math zones, began exploring how to look at your scores in Education City to improve your "Success Graph".  If parent or teachers want access to this graph, contact Mr. Krulish!

1st Grade - Ms. T.Walker

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.
-Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction and Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.
2nd Grade - Mrs. Jaynes

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Began 2 days with Math Lines
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.  Their job was to find an activity they did not do well in and see if they could make some improvements.  This improves their overall score on the scoreboard.  If a parent or teacher ever wants to see the scoreboard, please let Mr. Krulish know and he will give you directions.
-Wixie: Began researching a topic through Tumblebooks.  Students looked at the section on Non-Fiction and Videos to investigate something they are curious about.  After taking notes, the students followed a template on how to build an online book in Wixie.  Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password to get into Wixie.  Students did not finish this book and will continue during the next rotation.  Eventually all "books" will be linked so students can view each other's work.
3rd Grade - Ms. Berner 

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Used GoogleDrive to Finish Badges: nearly all finished.
-Worked on a book poster in ComicLife & learned the new way to save in GoogleDrive.  Learned some designing techniques.  Goal: to add more posters to our library to promote books.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Click here to download it to your computer for $30.
-Spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.
4th Grade - Mrs. Yoffe 

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Started a Google Earth, Holiday Tour project:  With a partner, students collaborated on 4 different winter celebrations.  They each worked from their own computer but edited the same page using Google Drawing to create a diagram of their research.  Then, they copied and pasted their information into Google Earth "pins" to build a tour around the earth of the ways different cultures celebrate the holidays.  For resources they used the "Holidays from around the world" box to find their info.  But how did they save their Google Earth "tours"?  Google Earth saves "pins" as .kmz files.  They saved these to their Google Drive so that they could work on this at home.  Saving this way is a new process and we do not have 100% mastery...yet.
-For those that finished their Holiday Tour, Students spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.

5th Grade - Ms. Breen
-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Finished document formatting practice in Google Docs (left vs right jusify, Font tools, use "Research Tools" to add images [discussed plagiarism], used the drawing feature).  When finished, signed a shared document for me to see who completed task.
-Created Badge by using the video as a guide/eachother as resources, NOT AN ADULT!!  Photos stored in GoogleDrive.  Discussion: Didn't Mr. Krulish say to NEVER put your photo or anything personal on the web?  So why are photos in gDrive?  Issue with "Sharing".  Rule: cannot share without Teacher or Parent permission.  Discussed issues with Sharing (ALMOST all problems with sharing happened because students forget to logout of their account at home or at school.  Kids don't realize they are in someone else's account; Another issue is the mischievous older brother or sister).
-Began a News Broadcast project focusing on the 13 Colonies:  --Students work in small groups to research information about the 13 Colonies (resources provided in Learning Links. Look in the "Colonies" box for links).   They take notes using a template Mrs. Hemphill created in Google Drive.  They can print-out the template and write on it, take a copy of it and type right in it, or they can build a diagram using Google Drawing to help them best organize their information.  Whatever works best for their learning style.
--Next, they take this information and build a presentation using GooglePresentation.  We want students to learn how to use a presentation to practice their public speaking skills.  Presentation programs are not designed to have multiple sentences.  ONLY key words/concepts should be visible and the student needs to learn to have a "conversation" with the audience.
--Finally, they will use iPad's to create a News Broadcast by using their Google Presentations.

-Students spent one day using a new program: Timez Attack.  This will soon be available at home for no cost.  Directions will be added to GoogleDrive via the Learning Links very soon.  This is an AMAZING program to increase recall speed with Multiplication and Division.  Requirement: 3-4, 20min sessions/week.  

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Week of: Nov 5, 2012
Kindies - Education City: Practiced Language Arts and Math; Tumblebooks; ABCya.  Want to have access to all this at home?  Click here.
1st Grade - D'Angelo

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.
-Wixie free play; Contact me and Ask for help if your child lost his password.
-Tumblebooks
2nd Grade - Swanson

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.
-Addition Day!  Worked with a partner to figure out sums.  Then worked on Addition fact speed.  Finally, they competed against each other in an addition competition using Education City's "Play Live".
3rd Grade - Gully 

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Used GoogleDrive to Finish Badges: nearly all finished.
-Started book poster in ComicLife & learned the new way to save in GoogleDrive.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Click here to download it to your computer for $30.
4th Grade - Schultz 

-Dance Mat Mondays!
-Finished Badge, several will need to proofread next time.  Videos on how to do this at home are on our Learning Links in the "How to" section.
-Started the "Celebrations from around the world" project.  Students are building circle maps/diagrams in Google Drawing from research about how different cultures celebrate the holidays.  They will then build a "tour" in Google Earth containing the  information they discovered.
5th Grade - Regalbuti
-No Dance Mat practice this week due to short week.
-Finished document formatting practice in Google Docs (left vs right jusify, Font tools, use "Research Tools" to add images [discussed plagiarism], used the drawing feature).  When finished, signed a shared document for me to see who completed task.
-Created Badge by using the video as a guide/eachother as resources, NOT AN ADULT!!  Photos stored in GoogleDrive.  Discussion: Didn't Mr. Krulish say to NEVER put your photo or anything personal on the web?  So why are photos in gDrive?  Issue with "Sharing".  Rule: cannot share without Teacher or Parent permission.

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Week of: Oct 14, 2012

Kindies:  Education City: Practiced Language Arts and Math; did not learn how to keep track of scores.  Want to have access at home?  Click here.

1st Grade - Wilkinson
-Dance Mat Mondays!  
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.
-Wixie free play; Wixie About Me project: 1 word for each answer, sticker to go with work, paint a design, picture frame.  Learned how to connect to GoogleDrive.  Did your first grader forget their password?  Help is here!
2nd Grade - Malone

-Dance Mat Mondays! 
-Began 2 days with Math Lines
-Education City: click here to gain access at home.
-Worked on Wixie project: must have full complete sentences with caps & periods; paint a design, relevant sticker, frame, leave background white, connect to GoogleDrive, add photo.  9 finished.  Does your kiddo need access to their Wixie account?  Ask for help!
3rd Grade - Weiss 

-Dance Mat Mondays! 
-Used GoogleDrive to Finish Badges: nearly all finished
-started book poster in ComicLife & save in GoogleDrive.  Get ComicLife at home for $4.99 on your iPad!  Click here to download it to your computer for $30.
4th Grade - Borchert 

-Dance Mat Mondays! 
-Wax Museum: researched notable Revolutionary War person, typed info in GoogleDrive, discussed synthesizing, plagiarizm, copyright violation. 
-Tried to finish Badge, several still need time to finish.  Videos on how to do this at home are on our Learning Links 
-Finish Voki of "about me" paragraph

5th Grade - Chavez 
-no Dance Mat 
-Generated graphs from their own class surveys by using Google Spreadsheet: Goal - support Science Project 
-3 days of Mrs. Hemphill's Explorer Glogster project: write explorer facts (Who, When, Where, Why) up in GoogleDrive.  3 facts on each category.  Must login to Glogster through GoogleDrive.  Had difficulty with pictures (just need to refresh browser).  

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Week of: Oct 7, 2012

Kindies - Education City

1st Grade - Valentine: Dance Mat Mondays!  Education City; Wixie free play; Wixie About Me project: 1 word for each answer, sticker to go with work, paint a design, picture frame.

2nd Grade - Jaynes: Dance Mat Mondays! Began 3 days with Math Lines; Education City, finished Wixie project: must have full complete sentences with caps & periods; paint a design, relevant sticker, frame, leave background white.

3rd Grade - Gallagher: Dance Mat Mondays! Finished Badges; worked on Word (learning how to upload/download evacuation poems to GoogleDrive); started book poster in ComicLife & save in GoogleDrive.

4th Grade - Blauman: Dance Mat Mondays! Wax Museum: researched notable Revolutionary War person, typed up , Finish Badge, finish Voki of self paragraph.

5th Grade - Kirby: very little Dance Mat: 2 days of using Google Spreadsheet to learn about Science graphing; 3 days of Mrs. Hemphill's Explorer Glogster project: write explorer facts (Who, When, Where, Why) up in GoogleDrive.  3 facts about each.  Login to Glogster through GoogleDrive.  Had difficulty with pictures.  Did not see Lauren's Glogster video.  Kids need more time to finish: due date Oct 16.

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Week of: Oct 1, 2012
Kindies - Tumblebooks

1st Grade - Walker: Dance Mat Mondays! EdCity, Tumblebooks, k-2 math; Wixie free play, need to start Badge.

2nd Grade - Swanson: Dance Mat Mondays! did 1 day of math lines, edCity; finished Wixie Badge; free play

3rd Grade - Berner: Dance Mat Mondays! finish badges; started ComicLife project on building book poster on favorite book.  Saved in GoogleDrive

4th Grade - Schultz: Dance Mat Mondays! Finished Wax Museum research and built Voki.  Many started on Badges.  need new videos!  Need to check finished badges, need to create a list for them that they can add their name to (start a google drawing where they sign their name and add a "sticker" (create your own sticker)

5th Grade - Breen: Dance Mat Mondays! Started Badges, did not finish; Created Survey; Started Form, need to finish

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Week of:  Sept 24, 2012
Kindies - Tumblebooks

1st Grade - Di'Angelo: Dance Mat; EdCity; Tumblebooks; free play on Wixie, started Wixie project

2nd Grade - Feltz: Dance Mat Mondays! EdCity, Math Lines; need wixie badge finished (re-design?), did not add name to list of kids finished.

3rd Grade - Gully: Dance Mat Mondays! 7 finished badges; did NOT start comicLife favorite book project.

4th Grade - Yoffe; Dance Mat Mondays! Most finished badges, but only some had no errors…go back and check!  Began surveys…did they start Forms?  I think so.

5th Grade - Regalbuti: Dance Mat Mondays! worked a TINY bit on badges.  Not close to done.  Finished Survey; nearly finished Forms…but need new video since they could not fill out each other's forms!