Sunday, February 22, 2009

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.

Sunday, February 15, 2009

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.

Saturday, February 7, 2009

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.