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Summer Professional Learning

A few Ed. Tech. ideas
to explore over the summer...

TOOLS & PROFESSIONAL NETWORKS:

• Happy Summer! Now What? Summer Ed-Tech To-Do List via @CLOUDUCATION_

• 77 Web Resources for Teachers to Try this Summer via @rmbyrne

• 10 Things You Can Do to Make Yourself a Ed. Tech. Star This Summer via @rmbyrne

• SimpleK12.com Teacher Learning Community Free Webinars via @SimpleK12

GOOGLE:

• Google Drive and Docs for Teachers (free e-book)  via @rmbyrne

MOBILE:

• Be an iPad Superstar via @tonyvincent

• 8 Great Free Web Resources Focused on Using iPad in Education via @EmergingEdTech

***  5 Tips for Storing Your Tech. This Summer 

Summer Reading 2012

Summer months give kids an important opportunity to read for complete enjoyment, and research demonstrates that children who don't read during the summer can lose up to three months of reading progress. One way to encourage kids' reading all summer is to visit the ROE LIBRARY online to explore a range of helpful reading resources, including a selection of summer reading lists. Information about reading incentive programs and recommendations for online children’s e-books & learning sites are located there too.

 Weblist -- 2012 Summer Learning Interactives

Bright Ideas for Summer - ReadWriteThink


ROE Summer Reading Information 

Students will soon bring home a Summer Reading HISD ‘Millionaire Club’ Ticket & Flier. They can record books that are read over vacation, and in August, return the completed signed ticket to the ROE Library. Each student will receive a special bookmark to recognize their efforts. There will also be a prize drawing from all the completed signed tickets! Learn more about other great local reading incentive programs @ ROE Library online, including…

• HISD Millionaire Club Readers: Read & log 10 books & earn a special bookmark of your choice in September at the ROE Library.
• Houston Public Library: Read 10 Books—get 1 free book! Read 20 Books—get 1 free book & voucher for a free ticket to a Houston Astros game & a coupon for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus.
• Barnes & Noble: Read 8 Books & get 1 free. Record books in downloadable journal.
• H.E.B: Read 10 Books and mail in for a T-Shirt.
• Half Price Books: Read 600 minutes and earn a $5 Back-to-School Bucks reward.

Working Toward Integration of Google Apps EDU

I am happy to say I have cleared the first hurdle in the process of becoming a Google Certified Educator after recently attending a 3-day Google Certification Academy in Huntsville,TX at Region VI. After successfully surviving all 6 certification exams, I'm a 'Google Qualified' Educator, which means I can take next steps toward becoming fully certified Google Apps EDU Educator & Trainer. 

The next phase involves setting up and administering a school domain. Within that protected and private framework, we can offer instruction, training and guidance on ways to integrate GoogleApps for Education to support and drive learning.

Here's just one excellent example among many of the power of moving in this cloud-based direction--Writing & Collaborative Revision. View clip to see the Growth of a Google Doc In the Eyes of an Elementary Student. Drafts can be shared for both teacher and peer comments and suggestions. It is possible to embed feedback immediately at any point within students' work which is specific, interactive, and powerful! Teachers can gain assessment insights. As writers, students have a real sense of audience and community, and are motivated to read both their own and one another's work with a critical eye. Authentic experiences with digital citizenship and crafting 'academic' comments vs. social comments are also a benefit.

[viewable outside HISD network]

Additional Resources:

• Guide to Going Google
• Becoming a Google Apps Ninja
• GoogleDocs for Learning (Cool Tools for 21st Century Learners)
• Google Drive & Documents for Teachers: What Teachers Need to Know to Get Started (E-Book by R. Byrne)
• Google Launches 'Search Education'

More Collected Resources HERE and HERE

Resource Discoveries

Here are a few great resources discovered through my professional learning networks:

• 21st Century Educators Don't Say "Hand It In.''
  They say, "Publish it!" via @InnovativeEdu

• [Kindergarten: Morning Message, Visual Texts, Blogging, & VoiceThread] 
Interacting with Your Interactive WhiteBoard via @CatchingReaders

• [TIP: To show a feed from any Twitter hashtag, type in your browser http://tweetchat.com/room/ and then the hashtag.
  For example: http://tweetchat.com/room/edtech]
  New Paradigm for Professional Development via @markbrumley

• [Poster sharing great ways to GoogleApps for Learning]
  GoogleDocs for Learning Glogster

• Downloads: 

• Digital Citizenship [Edmodo]
• Scientific Method Posters [Scholastic]

VoiceThread Projects

Posted below are a few recent projects by 5th grade students using VoiceThread.

VoiceThread allows the creation and sharing of interactive multimedia albums or slideshows. By uploading images, documents, or videos, creators or viewers can comment on any slide by typing, recording an audio or video comment, or drawing on the image itself. 

Students have recorded presentation narration and reflective comments about their work. They give and receive voice and text feedback from not only their peers, but also the wider ROE school community. This helps to develop greater awareness of audience for their learning products as it expands into engaging online discussion and extends outside classroom walls.

More Classroom Possibilities from VoiceThread Digital Library EDU

• book reviews and  sharing 'good fit' books

• letters from internment camp

• math problem solving

• student portfolio
• writing: show-don't tell
  
  [About VoiceThread Digital Library and Tutorials ]

VoiceThread: Overpopulation of Animals

Overpopulation of Animals by Maysen & Atiana

VoiceThread: Inquiry Projects on United States Symbols

Inquiry Projects on United States Symbols 
[Reflections & VoiceThread Discussion by Mrs.Goodman's 5th Graders]

VoiceThread: A Day in the Life of a Brain Cancer Patient

A Day in the Life of a Brain Cancer Patient
 by Audi, Haley, & Audi
 

Practice Sites for Mouse, Touchpad & Keyboarding

Consistent practice of keyboarding skills leads to greater speed, accuracy, and general productivity when using technology tools for learning, communication, and collaboration. Kids can continue to develop 'home row' proficiency through a range of online lesson sequences and interactive games. See many keyboarding practice options on ICT @ROE site. One example is 'SpiderTyper.' Type (letters at the easy level and words at more advanced levels) on chameleons as they crawl across the tree branches. Can you type quickly and accurately enough so the spider climbing up on the other side escapes the slurping chameleons?

At bottom of Keyboarding page, find also a list of links for online Paint sites, such as Canvastic and Artpad Digital Canvas (see a replay of your painting process).These are great not only for creative expression but for development of mouse and touchpad skills too. 

How well do you know your keyboard shortcuts? These are a great way to speed up your work! Check out our hallway display and enter the quiz challenge created by Mrs. Richardson in the ROE Library!

QUICK LINKS:

• Keyboarding: ICT @ROE [ Interactives from Beginner-->Challenge ]
• DanceMat Typing
• Ready-Set-Type!
• Typing Games for Kids
• Type Online
• Directions for Artpad Digital Canvas

2nd Grade Resources: Where We Are in Place & Time

2nd Grade UOI Resources: Where We Are in Place & Time

1st Grade Poetry Resources: How We Express Ourselves

1st Grade UOI Resources: How We Express Ourselves

3rd Grade Math & Reading Review Resources

3rd Grade Math & Reading Resources

Digital Storytelling with Storybird

“Storybirds are short, art-inspired stories that are curiously fun to make, share, and read. Teachers love them because they inspire their most reluctant writers and readers and reward their most adventurous. Kids adore them because they feel empowered by the tools and supported by the social feedback.” (storybird.com/teachers). Here a few recent digital stories created in Storybird by ROE 2nd graders:

• Go Bunny Go! Soccer Adventures by Cami
• Jet Fighter by Andrew
• Leopard  by Hampton
• Maya by Orian
• Monkey's Friends by Disha
• Party by Marisa
• The Sky by Jessie
• Sleepover Birthday by Dora
• Treasure Hunt  by Brandon
• Triplets by Emma
• The Wonderful Ms. Klapesky by Gabby

& more coming soon..

Family Road Trip on Storybird by Charlize

Resource Links:

Storybird Quick Tour
More resource links HERE

ROE IBPYP Exhibition 2012

Links to student projects are available on the Exhbition 2012 website. 

Stay tuned for further project sharing on this blog
& check out some also in our hallway display!

Online Resources for Developing Researchers

ROE students are involved with research investigations across the curriculum and throughout the year. View the screencast and screenshots below for recommended online resources that are especially supportive and helpful not only for our developing readers, but also our intermediate students too, as they encounter online sources at higher ranges of complexity. We have recently used WorldBook Kids, Nettrekker, and PebbleGo with 2nd grade students' recent research into human body systems and Kindergartners' ongoing study of living things. Each one of these has embedded audio support features, embedded dictionaries, and interactive information in a range of formats.


These resources require passwords for at-home access. Click here for a downloadable brochure, and look for password reminders in upcoming ROE News. (Contact Ms. Eastman).

[Click at right to view Full Screen]

World Book: 'Hear Text Read Aloud'' (Click to enlarge screenshot image)

Red arrows point to audio & dictionary features
(Click to enlarge screenshot image)

• World Book Kids
• Nettrekker
• KidsHealth.org
• National Geographic Young Explorer
• PebbleGo

2nd Grade: IIM & Research Studies

ROE students are developing and applying an array of reading, writing and research skills in the context of our IB Program of Inquiry by using the IIM research process. They are becoming increasingly independent researchers as a result of teachers' effective guidance within Units of Inquiry across the year. As one example---2nd graders investigated the systems at work within the human body within the IBPYP theme of "Who We Are." 

Student Questions by Ms. Klapesky's class

Notefacts by Daniel G.

Students worked through the process of creating a concept of map of questions and background knowledge. They generated questions of interest complimented by teacher guiding questions that moved research forward. 

Additional reading, writing, and research skills that are embedded in these studies are :

• Creating a research plan.
• Locating and using multiple sources to answer questions.
• Reading non-fiction and determining importance.
• Taking notefacts and citing sources.
• Understanding concept of plagiarism and ways to avoid it.
• Organizing and summarizing information.
• Creating projects in effective formats using visuals to support meaning.





Goal-Setting by Ms. Klapesky's class



Knowledge creation - 2nd grade research

Click to view expanded photo set of 2nd grade research.
Teaching Students to Paraphrase via Amsco Extra!

Celebrate Dr. Seuss!

Celebrate Dr. Seuss! March 2nd is his birthday. Can you guess who these characters are from their silhouettes? Do some research in the ROE library by checking out one of our many books by this extraordinary author.

Silhouettes adapted from original Dr. Seuss illustrations by Mrs. Richardson

• The Lorax Project
• About Dr. Seuss
• Seussville.com
• The Cat in the Hat: PBSkids.org
• 30 Dr. Seuss Quotes that can Change Your Life! (Infographic)

ROE Scholastic Book Fair

Celebrate the 100th Day!

Our 100th day of school is January 31st! Here are a few resources with worthwhile learning activities connected to this event:

SMARTExchange: 100th Day (SMART Notebook file downloads)
SMART Exchange is searchable database of notebook files. Filter your search by standard, subject, topic, and grade level. Preview and download files which can be used as is or adapted and customized for your students. 

More Instructional Ideas from...

• Scholastic 
• Read-Write-Think
• Starfall
• BrainPop Jr clip with Teacher & Family Activities
• Splat Squares & Reveal (interactive 100s chart)
• 100th Day: Glogster 

Pinterest: 100th Day Activities Board

More Interesting Reading on Pinterest:

• Pinterest: A Beginner's Guide
• Best Guides to Figuring out Pinterest
• My previous post on Pinterest

1st Grade Projects

1st graders used TuxPaint and Micosoft Word to create these descriptive writing projects as part of their study of communities under the theme 'How We Organize Ourselves.' Click tabs at top to scroll through just a few examples, and click magnifer at bottom left of window to zoom in. These are authentic pieces of 1st grade work, and thus are not perfectly edited. They represent the ongoing development of writing skills with 1st graders.

TuxPaint is a free and families can download it at home too. Students applied touchpad and keyboarding skills. They didn't draw these with a mouse! They also connected back to their earlier study of maps this year in order to create a bird's eye view of the community they wrote about and 'painted.' They used a variety of brush and line sizes, and explored stamps, and 'magic' effects too. 

Adaptations

What do 4th Graders in Ms. Waugh's classroom observe and wonder about how animals adapt physically and behaviorally to their environments? We used these images as a way to introduce and engage students with this concept. Listen and look at this VoiceThread to hear students' comments and discussion about several different organisms. View full screen here & see further project details here.