Week 17, 2009-2010

The era of technology being integrated into the curriculum at TPES is definitely here. Students in Mrs. Baniaga, Mr. Kent, Mr. Devore, Ms. Randi and yearbook club used the laptops this week. Mrs. Baniaga's and Mr. Kent's classes used the laptops to finish a project in Comic Life related to their states report research. Ms. Randi's class used the laptops to type their persuasive essays and Ms. Saldivar's class used the laptops to start their Comic Life bartering comics.

Grade 1: Students in grade 1 completed their friendship quilts this week in the computer lab. Students really enjoyed this project and received plenty of practice typing their names as well as typing short messages to their classmates.

Professional Development: I was fortunate to attend an all day conference this week on Technology Integration into the curriculum. The conference, sponsored by Intel and HP, absolutely was fantastic. Not only did I learn plenty from the formal presenters of the conference, but I was also able to exchange ideas and information with fellow conference attendees. It was a very enlightening day!

Week 16, 2009-2010

The demand for the laptop cards has been off the charts this past week. Mr. Devore and Mrs. Baniaga checked out the laptops for typing papers, conducting research and creating projects using Powerpoint software. Mr. Kent's class used the laptop cart for the first time this year. Students used a software called to Comic Life to create a summary cover page for their state reports. The most exciting news concerning technology this week at Torrey Pines is that Grade 3 classrooms received their netbook carts this week. Funded by Proposition S, the netbooks will be housed in each 3rd grade classroom and will be available for student use throughout the day.

Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 are learning the basics of working in Microsoft Word. This week, they received specific instruction in typing capital letter, changing font sizes, spacing between words, word wrapping, as well as opening, closing and saving files.

Grade 3: Students in Grade 3 from Mr. Kent and Mrs. Baniaga's class used Google Images to collect images to use in their cover pages for their states reports (that will ultimately be made using Comic Life software).