Week 11, 2009-2010

The laptops continue to be very popular with the upper grade classrooms. Mr. Ramirez, Mr. Devore and Mrs. Saldivar used the laptops this week to type up personal narratives as well as biographies for their author's reports. Observations of students using the laptops has highlighted the need for keyboarding instruction and practice. All students are urged to practice their keyboarding skills over the break. There are some excellent, free sites on the internet that offer keyboarding instruction as well as games for reinforcement. Two of my favorite sites are: Dance Mat Typing and Free Typing Games. Both sites are geared toward children and offer lessons as well plenty of practice opportunities.

As far as activity in the computer lab, Grade 1 students finished their very first Microsoft Word project. For the project, students typed and formatted a Snowman Poem. As part of this exercise, students learned the following: opening, closing and saving Microsoft Word documents, importing clipart, changing fonts and many other skills. For a first attempt at using Word, students did great. We will continue to reinforce this skill throughout the year.

Week 10, 2009-2010

The laptop carts were fully utilized this week in the upper grade classrooms. Mr. Devore's class typed "letters to the editor" and worked on their Explorer's Powerpoint presentations. Ms. Saldivar's class and Ms. Randi's class typed their literary essays. All fourth grade students researched polar bear facts as part of Ms. Isom's Science Rotation and began creating a fact sheet of their findings.

In addition to classroom laptop cart usage, students in Grade 1 were introduced to Microsoft Word in their weekly computer lab rotation. Students typed simple words and learned about the space bar, changing the font size, use of the enter key and more.

Week 9, 2009-2010

Final touches were put on digital stories for Mr. Ramirez's class this week. Stories were posted on a wiki for parents to view. Students did not come to the computer lab this week due to parent teacher conferences. Classroom books are posted on the TPES Techkidz Showcase page. Here is a sample of one of the books. To see others, please visit the Showcase page.

Classroom ABC Books on Living and Non-Living Things

Week8, 2009-2010

The laptops were utilized in three different classrooms this past week. Mrs. Saldivar's class used the laptops to perform research for social studies. Mr. Ramirez's class used the laptops to finish typing their narrative stories as well as for digital story narration. Mr. Lee's students typed their reports on the various regions of California.

In addition to technology used in the classroom, the computer lab provided students with technology instruction. Here is a summary of what students did in the lab.

Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 completed their pages of the class ABC book on living and non-living things. Those who finished early, worked on BBC's "Dance Mat Typing", which is an excellent introductory typing instruction program.

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 were introduced to a collection of online games designed to provide students with keyboarding practice. Students were encourgaed to practice keyboarding at home using the games that were introduced.

Week 7, 2009-2010

This week was another busy week for technology. Fourth grade students in Mr. Lee's class used the laptops for the first time this year for a project realted to their study of the regions of California. The project will involve students using keyboarding skills, using comic strip making software, manipulating pictures, using online folders and more. Students will continue with the project next week. Fifth grade students in Mr. Devores class completed the narration on their digital stories, while students in Mr. Ramirez's class started creating their digital stories. Students imported pictures, rotated, edited, built title and ending pages, created their own music and customized motion. Students enjoyed working with the Photostory software and are looking forward to the narration of their stories.

In computer lab, students continued to advance their technology skills.

Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 used Tux Paint software to create their page for the class ABC book on Living and Non-Living Things.

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 worked on their typing skills using Type To Learn. Students also prepared for a test that wiel be given next week.

Week 6, 2009-2010

Last weekend I had an opportunity to attend the all-day San Diego Computer Using Educators Conference.. The conference is specifically designed to help teachers integrate technology into the curriculum. At the conference, I was able to see the many ways that actual teachers in San Diego were using technology to enhance the learning experience in their classrooms. I hope to bring some of the exciting ideas I learned about to the classrooms at Torrey Pines Elementary School.

Laptop cart usage continues to be strong at TPES. Mrs. Baniaga's class used the laptops to create Halloween digital stories. Mr. Ramirez's class typed up their narrative stories using the laptops. As for the activities taking place in the computer lab, here's what students were up to for the week:

Grade 1: Students were introduced to a drawing program called Tux Paint. Opening, saving, entering text, resizing fonts and using the paint tools were a few of the skills students learned while working with Tux Paint. Next week, students will be using their skills to build a page for an electronic class book.

Grade 3: Students are making great progress with Type to Learn. A majority of the students are now using the correct keyboard fingering and have been quite accurate in their typing. Way to go third graders!

After-School: K-3 students have been busy with their UCSD buddies working on grade level curriculum games. Students in Grades 4-5 are working on a variety of grade level games, while some are starting to explore individual technology projects.

Week 5, 2009-2010

This past weekend I was thrilled to attend the San Diego Computer Using Educators Conference held in El Cajon, California. At the conference I was able to learn about many exciting web based application and projects that I hope to bring into the classrooms. Workshops I attended at the conference helped me to build knowledge in movie-making, project based learning, student engagements, ways of building online tutorials and more. One of the applications that I am especially excited about trying out is an application called Jing. With the help of Jing, a person can capture whatever is on the computer screen and use it to create online tutorials.

Back at Torrey Pines, the laptop carts were used by Mr. Ramirez’s class to type narrative stories. In addition, the following activities took place:

Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 learned about the different parts of a computer. A cover was removed from one of the computers. Students were excited to see the boards, chips, wires and other parts that made up the inside of the computer. A slideshow was made of the “5 Senses Charts” that had been completed by the 1st grade students last week. The slideshow was shown to the students during computer time. Students loved seeing their work projected on the big screen!

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 continued learning keyboarding with Type to Learn. A one minute test was administered to some students. Mrs. Baniaga’s class came to the computer lab, but did not work on keyboarding this week. Mrs. Baniaga’s class used their time in the Computer Lab to begin their digital stories.

5th Dimension: Students in the after-school program, continued working on educational games with their UCSD tutors.

Week 4, 2009-2010

Finishing touches were put on digital stories for Ms. White's class. Students in Mrs. Baniaga's class were busy creating pictures for their digital stories. 5th Grade Science students used the laptops to complete online simulations on the water cycle and evaporation. For the water cycle simulation, students followed a water molecule as it made its way through the water cycle. In the evaporation simulation, students used what they had learned in class to test the effect of humidity, temperature and surface area on evaporation rates.

Here is a summary of what students did in the computer lab this week.

Grade 1: Students in Grade 2 completed their senses charts using the software program "Drawing for Children". Additional practice using the mouse was also given.

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 continued to advance in Type to Learn. The goal for the week was to reach Lesson 4. As always, proper technique was emphasized.

5th Dimension: Much time was spent this week testing and adding 5th Dimension games to the lab computers. Students have been making progress with the help of their UCSD buddies on the computer learning games

Week 3, 2009-2010

This week, students in Ms. White's Grade 2/3 class, began adding narration to their digital story projects. Students took great pride in narrating their stories, and really enjoyed seeing their stories come to life. The digital story projects will be ready for publishing next week. Weekly rotations continued in the lab. In addition to the laptop cart being used for digital stories, the cart was also used this week by students in the fifth grade to type up narrative stories.

Here's a summary of what students did this week in the lab.

Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 continued working on their "5 Senses" charts, using the program Drawing for Children. Students learned how to load saved files as well as practiced saving their work.

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 were reminded about proper keyboarding technique and the importance of keeping fingers on the home keys. Letters F, J, R and U were introduced this week.

5th Dimension: Students in the after-school program began working on curriculum related software games with their UCSD buddies. Students are getting to know their UCSD buddies and having lots of fun!

Week 2, 2009-2010

This past week, I met with several teachers to assist in implementing blogs and websites. In case you haven't already heard, one of the newest editions to our growing list of classroom blogs is the TP Science Fun Blog. Be sure to check it out. Find out what the students are learning in Science and learn some really cool science facts!

Digital stories continue to be a wonderful way to showcase student writing. Students in Ms. White's grade 2/3 class wrote narrative stories and created illustrations to go along with their writing. Each student imported their illustrations, edited them and are now in the process of adding narration. These surely will be keepsakes for years to come.

Grade 1 and Grade 3 students visited the computer lab this week. Also, the 5th Dimension after-school program met in the lab. Here is a summary of what went on.

Grade 1: Students were introduced to a program called "Drawing For Children". While using this program, students were able to practice a number of important technology skills. Some of the skills practiced were double clicking, opening and closing files, saving, choosing different tools such as stamps, painting tools, using the Shift key to modify text, importing pictures and much more. Students use the "Drawing For Children" program to work on a project that was directly related to their Science unit on "the Five Senses". As part of the project, students worked on completing a graphic organizer in which they used stamps to indicate what could be seen, heard, felt, tasted or smelled. In addition to the many computer skills practiced through this project, students had an opportunity to reinforce the classroom learning.

Grade 3: Students were assigned computers and began work on the keyboarding program, Type To Learn. Students really enjoy the graphics and time travel theme around which the program is designed. Proper technique was stressed over speed.

5th Dimension After-School Program: The 5th Dimension after-school program pairs Torrey Pines students with a UCSD buddy for learning enrichment activities as well as homework assistance. This week, students participating in the program had an opportunity to conduct a short interview with their buddy and introduce them to the rest of the after-school program participants. Students also decorated folders that will be used for the rest of the year.

Lots of Changes this Year for Technology!

Many exciting changes have been happening in the world of technology for Torrey Pines Elementary! With the district initiative towards technology integration, I will be spending more time in the classrooms helping to integrate technology and less time in the computer lab. Students will soon be using new district equipment purchased with Prop S Funding (due to arrive in October for Grade 3) and will also use Foundation purchased laptops to work on technology projects in their classrooms. I have been busy so far this year holding a staff development workshop on technology projects for the teachers, providing one-on-one assistance in teacher website building plus performing yearly maintenance on laptops and computer lab stations.

Here is a brief summary of what went on in the computer lab during the first week of rotations:

Grade 1: Students were introduced the lab then received instruction on using the mouse (left click, right click, double click). Following their introduction, students had a chance to practice their skills using a program called mouseprogram.com. Students were introduced to basic computer terminology such as desktop and icons.

Grade 3: Third grade students will focus on learning to type this year in the computer lab. Students were introduced to the keys typed by the left and right pointer fingers (12 keys in all)! The children practiced typing with the left and right pointer fingers along with a song.

Week 17

Second grade students have been busy getting familiar with using the laptops. Mr. Serafin's class created Powerpoint presentations to showcase their knowledge of animals. They also created friendships quilts in which they typed messages to each of their classmates. Mrs. Nieto/Gordon's participated in a digital storytelling project in which they wrote, illustrated and narrated text to make their stories "come alive". Completed projects were displayed at Open House and enthusiastically received by parents. Click here to view one of the digital stories. Students in Mrs. Nieto/Gordon's class also completed their claymation projects, culminating a writing/research project on animals.

Week 16

The laptop carts continue to be in high demand with Mr. Ramirez's fifth grade class using the laptops to create Powerpoint presentations on the Revolutionary War and Mr. Serafin's second grade class utilizing the laptops to turn their animal reports into Powerpoint presentations.

This week was the last week of rotations taking place in the computer lab for the 2008-2009 academic year. Here is a summary of what each grade worked on in the lab this week.

Grade 3: Students in grade 3 completed typing and editing their friendly letters. Remaining computer time was spent practicing keyboarding technique.

Grade 4: Students in grade 4 typed and edited friendly letters. Grade 4 students also worked on increasing keyboarding speed.

Grade 5: Students in grade 5 were introducted to a number of technology terms such as wikis, twitter and basics such as hardware and software. The remainder of the 45 minute class period was composing and edited a friendly letter.

Week 15

The laptop cart again was again buzzing with activity during Open House week. The digital story project for Ms. Nieto’s class was completed in time for Open House. Parents just loved seeing the results. Mr. Devore’s and Mr. Ramirez’s classes began creating a Revolutionary War Powerpoint projects. Ms. White’s class finished making their storybooks using the laptop cart.

Grade 3: Students completed typing and formatting their friendly letters. This was the last meeting of Grade 3 students for the year. Outside of computer lab time, students in Ms. Jabbour's class came to the lab to type and format papers they had written in class.

Grade 4: Students continued to practice their typing using the Sponge Bob Typing software. Proper keyboarding technique was stressed throughout the lesson.

Grade 5: Students received brush-up instruction on creating a Powerpoint and were also introduced to some of the advanced animation features that could be included in Powerpoint presentations. Students created a short Powerpoint on themselves that they shared with fellow classmates.

Week 14

The laptop cart again was buzzing with activity. Mr. Devore, Ms. White, Ms. Nieto/Gordon and Ms. Randi used the laptops for various projects. One project that was particularly exciting is a digital storytelling project that I have been working on with Ms. Nieto. For this project, students wrote narrative stories and then the stories were made to "come live" with the help of scanned pictures and narration. Several problems were addressed this week including a backspace key that had fallen off one of the laptop keyboards, a glitch that prevented one of the batteries from charging, a bad video card also a laptop that was re-imaged. Additionally, there was a teacher laptop on which the hard drive failed. A network printing problem is plaguing the computer lab. The problem is still being investigated.

Grade 3: Students returned to the computer lab after 2 busy weeks of testing. Students were introduced to an online piano (http://numbera.com/musictheory/piano.aspx) on which they could play music while at the same time practice their typing. Students also began typing a friendly letter.

Grade 4: Students practiced their typing using the Sponge Bob Typing software. The break from the MicroType Pro typing software was welcomed by the students.

Grade 5: Students used Microsoft Excel to create graphs for their science fair projects. Students also performed an online frog dissection in preparation for their science class frog dissection lab. The online frog dissection was found at http://www.froguts.com/flash_content/index.html.

Week 13

Students did not come to the computer lab this week again due to STAR testing. The laptop cart was very popular though with use by Mrs. Gillespie, Mr. Devore, Ms. White, Mr. Ramirez, Ms. Randi and Ms. Nieto/Gordon. I was very excited to be involved in the classrooms with Ms. Gillespie and Ms. Nieto. In Ms. Gillespie's class, students created slideshows using Powerpoint to showcase their state research. Student's really enjoyed this project. These reports turned out absolutely gorgeous! Students in Ms. Nieto/Gordon's class are making their narrative stories come to life by transforming them into digital stories. Several technical problems have arose with using laptop cart 2. These include: inconsistent internet access and a computer that currently won't boot.

Week 12

The laptop cart continues to be used by Mrs. White's class as they make progress on their states brochures. Next week, Mrs. Gillespie's class will use the laptop cart to start creating Powerpoint slideshows. (Week of 4/28 and 5/1 - students not visiting computer lab due to STAR testing. Laptop cart used by Ramirez, Devore, Saldivar, Gillespie, White. Second laptop cart is up and running).

Grade 3: In the computer lab, 3rd grade students received a review lesson on proper keyboarding technique. Student spent time keying in words as they were announced. They also spent time trying to advance through the Type to Learn keyboarding software. Children who had completed at least 10 keyboarding lessons were encouraged to use the keyboard covers.

Grade 4: In observance of National Poetry Month and Earth Day, 4th grade students composed acrostic poems using the letters in the words “Earth Day”. Once the poems were composed, students created word collages from the words in their poems using a website called “wordle”. Completed poems have been uploaded to the 3rd grade drop.io website. From drop.io, poems can be downloaded and printed.

Grade 5: Students in grade 5 continued to work on a project in which they are creating a brochure that ties into the required 5th grade science curriculum. Students selected their planets, researched the planet and are beginning to create their brochure in which they advertise adventure travel trips to their planets. Students are creating their brochures in Microsoft Word.

5th Dimension: 2nd and 3rd grade students in the after-school 5th Dimension program participated in a newspaper scavenger hunt this week. They were asked to find items such as a compound word, a word that has at least syllables, the names of 2 countries in Europe, the names of 2 countries in Africa along with many other items that helped to reinforce their classroom learning. Students worked as a team with their UCSD buddies and really enjoyed the game! The 4th and 5th grade students began working on a Reader’s Theatre play. Student divided into groups and decided on their parts. They also began making props. Students will work on this project for several weeks.

Week 11

The laptop cart continues to get used by Mrs. White's class as they continue their work on the states brochures. In addition, Ms. Jabbour's class has checked out several of the laptops for classroom work.

Grade 3: In the computer lab, 3rd grade students participated in a hands-on explorations of the concept of symmetry by creating beautiful symmetrical designs using the online paint program Sumo Paint (http://www.sumopaint.com/). The designs that the students made were absolutely stunning! Student designs can be viewed and downloaded from the Grade 3 computer lab dropio website.

Grade 4: 4th grade students completed their assignments in which they typed up several paragraphs related to how the wireless internet works. For this project, students brought in clip art and formatted the document to produce a professional looking document. Students were required to bold text, change fonts, center, create double spacing, right justify text, insert and resize clipart as part of the assignment. Students also learned the difference between hardware and software plus learned what a processor and RAM is.

Grade 5: Students in grade 5 continued to work on a project in which they are creating a brochure that ties into the required 5th grade science curriculum. Students selected their planets, researched them and are beginning to create their brochure which advertise adventure travel trips to their planets.

5th Dimension: 4th and 5th grade students in the after-school 5th Dimension program participated in a newspaper scavenger hunt this week. They were asked to find items such as a compound word, a word that has at least syllables, the names of 4 countries in Europe, the names of 3 countries in Africa, a homophone, a homonym and many other items that helped to reinforce their classroom learning. Students worked as a team with their UCSD buddies and really enjoyed the game! The 2nd and 3rd grade students played bingo using cards that had the vocabulary words that they had learned so far this year. They also loved playing the game with help from their UCSD buddies.

Week 10

Laptop cart usage is up at our school! This week, Mrs. Saldivar’s class used 2 carts to type up their persuasive paragraphs. Mrs. White’s class used the laptops to start creating brochures on the states that they had been researching.

Grade 3: In the computer lab, 3rd grade students wrapped up the state trading card project Students researched information on their state and typed in the text for their last card. The cards turned out beautiful and can be viewed and downloaded from the Grade 3 computer lab dropio website. Students are continuing to contribute to their classroom blogs. 3rd grade blogs can be viewed at http://amazingb4.blogspot.com/, http://amazingb5.blogspot.com/, http://amazingb6.blogspot.com/, and http://amazingb7.blogspot.com/.

Grade 4: 4th grade students put the finishing touches on their explorer’s webpages. The completed webpages can be viewed at http://poster.4teachers.org/. Once at the site, scroll to the bottom of the page and search by teacher name. The teacher name is : tpeslajolla. Select the desired webpages (posters) to view by clicking on the poster number. Students spent the bulk of the 45 minute period learning about how wireless internet works. They learned about routers, they typed up several paragraphs related to the subject. Once text was typed, students brought in clip art and formatted the document to produce a professional looking document. Students were required to bold text, change fonts, center, create double spacing, right justify text, insert and resize clipart as part of the assignment.

Grade 5: Students in grade 5 began a project in which they will be creating a brochure that ties into the required 5th grade science curriculum. For the project students are researching a planet and creating a brochure to advertise an adventure travel trip to the planet.

5th Dimension: A new group of UCSD students has joined us in the lab. We played an ice breaker game so that everyone could get to know each other. After the game, 4/5 students worked on reviewing their vocabulary through a bingo game. 2/3 students continued to complete game related task cards with their new UCSD buddies.

Week 9

Another week in which much time was spent resolving technical issues. Print drivers were installed on 15 of our newer laptops. In addition, a new printer was was installed for Mrs. Bell. The second laptop cart was used for the first time this week. The laptop cart was used this week by Ms. Randi, Mrs. Bell and Ms. White. I had the rare opportunity to be in the classroom while the laptop cart was being used. Was definitely impressed at how teachers and students managed the use of the cart!

Grade 3: Grade 3 continued to work on their state trading card project. This week students added their pictures to their trading cards and made text boxes.

Grade 4: Grade 4 continued to work on their Explorers web pages. This week students added a picture of their explorer as well as a link to an external website. Webpages can be viewed at the 4th grade webpages link. Go to the bottom of the page. Search for the teacher named: tpeslajolla.

Grade 5: Grade 5 did not come to the computer lab this week due to their Balboa Park field trip.

week 7

Much time was spent this week attending to numerous technical issues around the campus. Updates were installed for the laptop computers as well as printing issues resolved for Mrs. Bell, Mrs. Baniaga and Mr. Berry. Time was also spent addressing a problem with one of the document cameras. The laptop cart was used by Mr. Devore and Mr. Ramirez.

Grade 3: Grade 3 continued to work on their state trading cards. As a warm-up for this project, students had an opportunity to play a word game that challenged their skills on state names. Students also practiced copying pictures from the internet for their trading cards.

Grade 4: Grade 4 did not come to the computer lab this week, due to parent teacher conferences.

Grade 5: Grade 5 students gained background knowledge on the solar system by visiting a website where they earned space trading cards: http:// http://amazing-space.stsci.edu/resources/explorations/trading/directions.html and also a site where they acted as a space doctor taking care of astronauts who had landed on Mars http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/space/playspace/games/spacedoctor/. Students completed a space oriented crossword puzzle to reinforce their knowledge of planets, asteroids and comets.

5th Dimension: Due to UCSD spring break, the 5th Dimension after-school program was not held this week.

Week 6

The TPES technology committee met this week to discuss the school technology plan as well as brainstorm ideas to increase use of the laptop carts in the classrooms. The laptop cart was used this week by Mr. Devore and Mr. Ramirez.

Grade 3: Students started making “States” trading cards in Microsoft Word. This week students learned to make a table as well as modify the sizes and color of different rows of the table. The project will continue next week with inserting auto-shapes into the table, using Google Images to search for photos, inserting the images into table cells and creating text boxes. Students practiced saving word documents into their individual folders under My Documents.

Grade 4: Student in Grade 4 continued to work on creating their Explorer’s webpages. This week students continued to research and compose text for their webpages. Some classes started building their webpage.

Grade 5: Students worked with their partner to record their podcasts using Audacity software. After recording podcasts, students had a chance to mix in an intro soundclip. Students enjoyed exploring the different effects that could be added to make their productions sound professional such as fading out the intro music. Listen to the 5th grade podcasts, by clicking on the 5th grade podcast listening link. Completed podcasts are also available for download from the 5th grade dropio site: http://dropio/grade5computerlab/login.

Week 5

This week was the first week of computer rotation for many of the 4th and 5th grade students. The laptop cart was used this week by Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Devore.

Grade 3: Students spent time in the lab doing research for the states reports that they were doing in class. Remaining time was spent using Type to Learn software to practice typing. Students also learned how to input their entries into the classroom blog. Students enjoyed creating entries for their classroom blogs.

Grade 4: Some of the lab time this week was spent on housekeeping activites (seat assignments, moving files, going over rules) since some of the students were new to computers and/or had switched rotations. Students were also introduced to a new project that involves creating a simple web page on an Explorer of California (Cabrillo, Vizcaino, Cortes, de Portola).

Grade 5: Some of the lab time this week was spent on housekeeping activites (seat assignments, going over rules) since some of the students were new to computers and/or had switched rotations. Students were introduced to podcasts and were give time to write a script for a persuasive podcast they might want to produce. A suggested topic for a persuasive podcast was attendance.

5th Dimension: After school 5th Dimension students who were interested in creating digital stories continued to work on the stories with their UCSD buddies. Other students completed computer based activities.

Week 4

This week was the last week of computer rotation for many of the 4th and 5th grade students. New students will be joining existing computer classes starting in the lab next week. The laptop cart was used this week by Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Devore.

Grade 3: Students came back to the lab after an absence of 2 weeks due to the holidays that fell on the previous two Mondays. Students continued to work on their keyboarding skills. Although some debate whether or not keyboarding should be taught in the lab, I feel strongly keyboarding instruction should be emphasized at the grade 3 level. For the most part, students in grade 3 are very open to keyboarding instruction. In fact, most seem to enjoy keyboarding and like the structure of the Type to Learn keyboarding software that we are using. As a parent of two girls in high school, I have observed that being able to type efficiently offers the middle and high school student a huge advantage, since most assignments must be handed in typed. Other computer skills essential for success in middle and high school are internet research skills and also being able to express learning through a variety of media (powerpoint slideshows, papers). Students in grade 3 were introduced to the 3rd grade classroom blogs that they will be contributing to. Several students volunteered to contribute to their classroom blog. Blogs will be up next week.

Grade 4: Students who did not have a chance to present their Energy and Magnets Powerpoint Quizzes presented their quizzes to fellow classmates. As mentioned last week, great work by the students. Students especially enjoyed the challenge of incorporating animation into their quizzes. Students were shown a variety of "cool" applications that could be built with Powerpoint, including claymation and games created with Powerpoint.

Grade 5: Students have been studying the colonial days as part of their Social Studies curriculum. To complement this unit, student in Grade 5 completed an online simulation called the Jamestown Adventure. In the adventure, students re-enacted the voyage of English settlers to Jamestown. They were faced with many decisions (just as the real settlers were) such as where to settle, what crops to plant, how to related to the Native Americans that they met and what resouces to use. Students referred to the charter from the queen to help them make decisions, they also considered the advice of the Native Americans. If student made wrong decisions, the settlers did not do well in the New World. If the right decisions were made, the settlers thrived. Upon completing the simulation, students filled out a crossword puzzle that tested their knowledge of the settlement of Jamestown.

5th Dimension: After school 5th Dimension students were shown additional examples of digital stories by a visiting professor from Sweden who had been involved in creating digital stories in Sweden. Students worked on their own projects, some taking pictures to incorporate into their digital stories.

Week 3

Another short week, but still a productive one. On the technical side, time was spent fixing a printing problem for Mr. Kent, testing and installing software for 5th Dimension as well as troubleshooting printing problems for Mr. Ramirez and Mrs. Gordon. The laptop cart was used this week by Mr. Ramirez and Mr. Devore.

Grade 3: Due to the holiday, grade 3 did not come to the computer lab this week. Looking forward to seeing the students this week!

Grade 4: Students completed their Energy & Magnets Powerpoint Quizzes. What masterpieces! Students really seemed to enjoy this project and learned many Powerpoint tricks as well as had a chance to demonstrate their knowledge of Energy and Magnets. Students had a blast presenting quizzes to fellow students.

Grade 5: Students completed their elements project. The project involved adopting an element from the periodic table, creating a picture of the element based on the number of protons, electrons and neutrons for the element. They also looked up important facts such as uses for the element, the boiling point, the atomic mass etc. Some of the element pictures created by students can be seen on the TPES Technology Showcase.

5th Dimension: After school 5th Dimension students worked on educational games with their tutors. Students in the 4th and 5th grades were introduced to digital story telling. Several students chose to create a digital story. Students brainstormed ideas for their projects with UCSD buddies. They also spent time planning their projects by filling out storyboards for their projects.

Week 2

Although it was a short week, much was accomplished. Spent time assisting Mrs. Gordon with the laptop cart and also trouble shooting problems printing to the laptop cart printer.

Grade 3: Due to the holiday, grade 3 did not come to the computer lab this week.

Grade 4: Students continued to work on their Energy & Magnets Powerpoint Quizzes. I'm very pleased with the results! There's so much creativity has gone into these projects. Students have learned how to animate slides and create special effects. Projects will be presented to the class next week.

Grade 5: The students are studying elements and the periodic table as part of their Science curriculum. This week, they each adopted an element and are in the process of creating a baby book for the element they adopted. Students created a picture of their element based on the number of protons, electrons and neutrons for the element. They also looked up important facts such as uses for the element, the boiling point, the atomic mass etc. This information will be included in the baby books.

5th Dimension: After school 5th Dimension students worked on educational games with their tutors. Many games were tested and will be added to the computers. Next week, the 4th and 5th graders will begin a digital story telling project.

Week 1

So glad to be back at our wonderful school! Many thanks to Natacha Hosy and Andrea Dahlberg for filling in while I was out. Jumpstarted the week troubleshooting several technical problems: laptop hardware problem for Mr. Devore, laptop cart printer setup and problems, laptop virus problem for Ms. Gonzales, printer setup for Ms. Parker, document scan formatting for Ms. Isom.

Enough tech support talk! Here is a summary of what students in grades 3-5 have been up to in the computer lab.

Grade 3: Computer lab rules were reviewed and students used the internet to perform research for their American Indian reports. They also had a chance to practice their keyboarding skills using Type to Learn software.

Grade 4: Students started a project based on the 4th grade science curriculum topic - Magnets and Electricity. Students had a quick review of the Powerpoint software and started creating a quiz game to help them review what they have learned in their classrooms. Students are loving this project!

Grade 5: Gearing up for creating research reports in class, students created a bibliography entry for a website from a real online source. Students learned that although it is important to identify the source for your research, finding the information needed to create bibiography entries is not always simple.

5th Dimension After-School Program: After-school students continued computer based learning activities. Several 4-5th graders got hooked on a directing a robot using programming type commands.