Mr. Foreman's HS Robotics Team

Congratulations to Mr. Foreman's HS Robotics team 

for adding to the list of Hesston State Champions! 

Make sure you follow HesstonHS & SwatherAD on Twitter for all of Mr. Rhodes' and Mr. Stoppel's HS news!

Vimeo

Use Vimeo to store and share your videos.  You can get a basic account for free, or upgrade for more space and options.  Vimeo allows for easy searching of specific topics of videos.  Speaking of Vimeo..

click here to check out this one of Kaleigh Glanton 

(currently on "The Voice") performing for our 7th-12th graders!  She was given a Swather State Basketball t-shirt and took pictures with the teams as well as lots of students!  Follow her on Twitter and check out some of the pictures our students captured at #kaleighonthedaily.

Mrs. Schroeder's HS Interior Design

Mrs. Schroeder's High School Interior Design class used technology and objects in the real world to create a project explaining the "Elements and Principles of Design".  Below are a couple of their presentations.

HS State FBLA

Ms. Roth, Mrs. Goevert, and myself took a group of 30 students to represent them at State Future Business Leaders of America in Topeka.  8 students qualified for nationals in Nashville this summer by placing in the top 3 in the state.  Students competed in areas including Digital Design and Promotion, Business Ethics, Marketing, Banking & Financial Systems, Management Decision Making, Computer Applications, Network Design, Desktop Publishing, and Emerging Business Issues to name a few.  So proud of our students (and Ms. Roth) and all of their hard work!

Dori Roth was named Kansas State Adviser of the Year! 

(see her priceless reaction while being secretly filmed).  

HS Teachers receive iPad Airs

Exciting week at the high school this week...the high school teachers received their iPad Airs!  Within an hour of handing them out several teachers were already using them in their lessons!  Mr. Pauls loves being able to reflect his iPad so he can freely walk around the classroom to teach and not be tied to his computer!

1st Grade Skypes with Nova Scotia Paleontologist

1st Grade embarked on our first global Skype to Nova Scotia with a Paleontologist from the Joggins Fossil Cliffs.  Dr. Grey showed us different fossils from long ago and had us close our eyes to venture back millions of years ago to trek through the rainforest with giant bugs, plants, and animals.  The students asked questions to her such as "What is the oldest fossil you have ever found?", "Why did you become a paleontologist?"  Her interactive and knowledge-filled presentation for the students provided a trip back in time!

Kahoot! Miss Reed's 7th Grade LA

Miss Reed's 7th Grade Language Arts used Kahoot! to review for their Roll of Thunder, Hear My Cry unit test.  The students love the competitiveness and game-like feel!  You can create your own quizzes or use ones other teachers have created.  The students can play on almost any device!

World Read Aloud Day Skypes: Boese, Unruh, Kaufman

World Read Aloud Day was celebrated at Hesston Elementary by having books read to us through Skype.  Liz Garton Scanlon, a famous children's author read her book, "A Sock is a Pocket for Your Toes" to Mrs. Boese's 3rd Grade from her home in Texas.  A student from Mrs. Boese's class also FaceTimed in from Texas where she is on a medical trip with her family.  The student was able to catch up with her class on what they have been learning and didn't have to miss our famous author Skype!  Mrs. Unruh's and Mrs. Kaufman's classes were visited through Skype by Jenny Levinson, from Miami Dade Schools.  She read us Dr. Seuss books in honor of his birthday!  She also sent us some warm sunshine from Florida!

Google Drive's NEW Add-Ons!

Check out Google Drive's new Add-Ons...there are some great ones that would be fantastic for education!  I installed 2 very quickly just to play with it: MindMeister and Texthelp Study Skills.  MindMeister allows you to create a mindmap instantly by selecting a group of words.  Texthelp installs several highlighter tools that allows you to pull out all of your highlights and group by color.  Both of these add-ons could be very beneficial for students!

Mr. Richardson's 7th Grade Science Animations

Students in Mr. Richardson's 7th Grade Science classes are studying the brain and how the eyes ability to perceive motion from still images (persistence of vision).  Students were challenged to make an animation using only still images.  Students created the following animated iMovies from pictures they took...one with about 200 images!  They blew us away with what they created!

eduCanon: Mr. Graber's HS Social Studies

eduCanon is amazing!!!  Take any YouTube video and embed questions for the students to answer as they watch the video.  They can not skip forward in the video, they can only rewind.  The students can be given immediate feedback and their progress is graded and tracked for you.  You can easily see as a class or individual student which questions were missed.  The student is engaged and held accountable!  Below is a short video of how you use eduCanon.  The pictures are screenshots of Mr. Graber's lesson on the atomic bombings of Japan.  

Mrs. Jaworsky's 6th Grade Social Studies

Students in Mrs. Jaworsky's 6th Grade Social Studies class were given several options to create a tech project and present to the class on Ancient Greece.  We had a wide variety of projects including Scratch Animations, GarageBand Podcasts, Keynotes, PowerPoints, Prezis, and Audacity.  Here are a few examples of some of their projects.  The Scratch Animation was in depth and fun for the students to create!  Students were guided on how to present and not just read from the slide!  I love how students can work anywhere with technology!