The big push this week was setting up the printing, troubleshooting and delivering in-service training to the teachers on operation and use of the new thin client classroom computers. Each classroom except for grade 3 classrooms received 5 thin clients. Initially, grades K-2 will use the thin clients for center work, research and publishing. Grades 4-5 will focus on research, publishing and academic skill reinforcement.
In an effort to help students focus on grade level skills and research, I have created web pages that provide appropriate literacy and math links for each grade level. In addition, I am visiting the classrooms and working with small groups of students on the operation of the selected software games.
Grade 1: Students worked on an assignment in the computer lab in which they typed and formatted text on plant growth. Emphasis was placed on word wrapping, error correction techniques and file manipulation. The goal of this exercise was to help students work towards becoming independent word publishers.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
Tuesday, April 13, 2010
Week 18, 2009-2010
The main project going on for technology for the past 2 weeks has been creating a video for the IVIE contest. The IVIE video contest is put on each year by the San Diego County Office of Education. The purpose of the contest is to encourage and showcase innovative uses of video in education. Entries created for the contest must address one of the grade level California State Standards.
Students from Ms. Kluch's class created a video for this year's IVIE contest. The video was about writing small moment narrative pieces. Students were involved in brainstorming ideas for the video, script writing, operation of the camera, acting, directing as well as creating title slides throughout the video. The video making process was exciting for all students and really reinforced the material that students had been learning in class. The entry from Torrey Pines was submitted on April 9th and over the next few weeks we will learn if our entry is nominated for further recognition. If nominated, students will be invited to attend a red carpet event scheduled to take place sometime at the end of May.
In other classrooms, assorted technical problems were address in the classrooms of Ms. Hilsen, Ms. Kluch, Ms. Bell and Ms. Randi.
Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 have been working in the computer lab to create Teacher Appreciation projects for their teachers. Their work involves using Tux Paint and Microsoft Word. Students who finish their work early, have the opportunity to work on Dance Mat Typing, a online typing program by BBC.
Students from Ms. Kluch's class created a video for this year's IVIE contest. The video was about writing small moment narrative pieces. Students were involved in brainstorming ideas for the video, script writing, operation of the camera, acting, directing as well as creating title slides throughout the video. The video making process was exciting for all students and really reinforced the material that students had been learning in class. The entry from Torrey Pines was submitted on April 9th and over the next few weeks we will learn if our entry is nominated for further recognition. If nominated, students will be invited to attend a red carpet event scheduled to take place sometime at the end of May.
In other classrooms, assorted technical problems were address in the classrooms of Ms. Hilsen, Ms. Kluch, Ms. Bell and Ms. Randi.
Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 have been working in the computer lab to create Teacher Appreciation projects for their teachers. Their work involves using Tux Paint and Microsoft Word. Students who finish their work early, have the opportunity to work on Dance Mat Typing, a online typing program by BBC.
Monday, March 15, 2010
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!
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
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).
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).
Monday, February 22, 2010
Week 15, 2009-2010
Our laptops have been seeing lots of use and as a result are experiencing some wear and tear. This week, two of the keyboards had to be replaced due to problems we were having. Additional troubleshooting was done with internet access in the ISS and wireless printing.
Students in the 4th grade used the BLOBZ Guide to Electrical Circuits website in Science along with the laptops this week to review and test knowledge of electrical circuits. The site allows students to earn stars for correct answers to the mini-quizzes that helped students review their knowledge of circuits, switches, conductors and more. They had so much fun on this site that they hardly realized that they were reviewing! Mr. Devore's students used the laptops for research and typing papers. Mrs. Baniaga's students used the laptops for their Powerpoint ABC books and also for researching their state's reports. The laptops were also used for the yearbook club. Digital cameras were used for yearbook as well as for taking pictures of Grade 1 students completing actions for their illustrated HOW-TO booklets.
Grade 3: This week, Grade 3 returned to the computer lab after devoting their computer time in January and part of February preparing for the Winter concert. Students were eager to practice their typing skills and really seemed to understand the value of efficient keyboarding skills after being required to use their keyboarding skills for several assignments in their classrooms. Grade 3 students were introduced to the Keyboarding for Kindness program this week. Keyboarding for Kindness is similar to the popular program Free Rice except that instead of earning grains of rice for answering vocabulary quiz questions, students earn donation money for completing lessons in keyboarding. As part of the TPES Keyboarding for Kindness program I will donate 10 cents for each keyboarding lesson a student completes. The money earned will be used to buy chickens for people in Africa or will be donated to help people in Haiti. The program is only available to TPES grade 3 students.
Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 completed their Valentine Cards. The Valentine Cards included a picture created in Tux Paint as well as a Valentine message typed in Microsoft Word. For the project students gained skills in using the paint program, importing pictures into Word and also in saving files.
Students in the 4th grade used the BLOBZ Guide to Electrical Circuits website in Science along with the laptops this week to review and test knowledge of electrical circuits. The site allows students to earn stars for correct answers to the mini-quizzes that helped students review their knowledge of circuits, switches, conductors and more. They had so much fun on this site that they hardly realized that they were reviewing! Mr. Devore's students used the laptops for research and typing papers. Mrs. Baniaga's students used the laptops for their Powerpoint ABC books and also for researching their state's reports. The laptops were also used for the yearbook club. Digital cameras were used for yearbook as well as for taking pictures of Grade 1 students completing actions for their illustrated HOW-TO booklets.
Grade 3: This week, Grade 3 returned to the computer lab after devoting their computer time in January and part of February preparing for the Winter concert. Students were eager to practice their typing skills and really seemed to understand the value of efficient keyboarding skills after being required to use their keyboarding skills for several assignments in their classrooms. Grade 3 students were introduced to the Keyboarding for Kindness program this week. Keyboarding for Kindness is similar to the popular program Free Rice except that instead of earning grains of rice for answering vocabulary quiz questions, students earn donation money for completing lessons in keyboarding. As part of the TPES Keyboarding for Kindness program I will donate 10 cents for each keyboarding lesson a student completes. The money earned will be used to buy chickens for people in Africa or will be donated to help people in Haiti. The program is only available to TPES grade 3 students.
Grade 1: Students in Grade 1 completed their Valentine Cards. The Valentine Cards included a picture created in Tux Paint as well as a Valentine message typed in Microsoft Word. For the project students gained skills in using the paint program, importing pictures into Word and also in saving files.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
Week 14, 2009-2010
This past week was a busy one for Technology at TPES. During TPES Science Night, our laptops were used by students from grades 3-5 and their parents for several interactive activities. Students were able to test their knowledge of weather by taking the Jimmy Bowtie Weather Challenge. They were also able to create their own talking Voki (similiar to an avatar) in which they were to create an avatar, record what they had learned at Science Night and have the avatar say it back. The laptops were also used to generate CD's of digital stories that were created in the classrooms. For classroom work, the laptops were used by Mrs. Baniaga's class for two different projects. Students used the laptops to perform research for their states reports. They also used the laptops to begin creating their Powerpoint ABC books.
Grade 1: Students created their drawings for their valentine's cards using Tux Paint. After creating their drawings, they imported the pictures into their Microsoft Word documents. Through this project, students gained skills in file management, and using Microsoft Word.
Voki for Science Night to get kids interested in making their own Voki characters. Click arrow to play.
Get a Voki now!
Grade 1: Students created their drawings for their valentine's cards using Tux Paint. After creating their drawings, they imported the pictures into their Microsoft Word documents. Through this project, students gained skills in file management, and using Microsoft Word.
Voki for Science Night to get kids interested in making their own Voki characters. Click arrow to play.
Get a Voki now!
Tuesday, January 19, 2010
Week 13, 2009-2010
This week, the laptops were used by students in Grades 3, 4 and 5! Students in grade 3 used the laptops for working on their States research reports, students in Mrs. Saldivars 4th grade class used the laptops for narrating their digital stories and students in 5th grade used the laptops to create Powerpoint presentations on New World Explorers.
Completed digital stories for Ms. Saldivar's class can be viewed at: tpesr10.wikispaces.com (Note: A password is required for viewing the digital stories. Contact Ms. Saldivar or Mrs. Lin for the password).
Grade 1: Students in grade 1 completed their "I Have a Dream" project. For this project, students used Tux Paint to draw a self-portrait. Then they used Microsoft Powerpoint to add their "dream for the world". The above projects were created by students of Ms. Gonzales. Projects for Ms. Chiaro, Ms. Hilsen and Ms. Kluch can be viewed on the TPES Techkidz Showcase page.
Completed digital stories for Ms. Saldivar's class can be viewed at: tpesr10.wikispaces.com (Note: A password is required for viewing the digital stories. Contact Ms. Saldivar or Mrs. Lin for the password).
Grade 1: Students in grade 1 completed their "I Have a Dream" project. For this project, students used Tux Paint to draw a self-portrait. Then they used Microsoft Powerpoint to add their "dream for the world". The above projects were created by students of Ms. Gonzales. Projects for Ms. Chiaro, Ms. Hilsen and Ms. Kluch can be viewed on the TPES Techkidz Showcase page.
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