Mrs. Lafferty's 3rd Graders use EduCreations on the iPads for Math Arrays

Mrs. Lafferty had her 3rd graders using EduCreations on the iPads to explain arrays.  The students wrote 2 math problems (example: 3x4=12) and then had to create the array for the problem as well as give the fact family.  Students included pictures and narration of themselves explaining the problem!

Mrs. Coker's ES PE Classes on Study Island

Mrs. Coker got her 2nd-4th grade elementary PE classes on Study Island to complete the writing prompt: "Explain why warming up is an important part of exercise.  Give at least 2 reasons".  Students did a great job of responding to the question.  Elementary teachers will be looking at the writing responses based on a specific rubric soon. Great job Brandy of integrating writing and technology into PE!

Miss Dryton's High School Government Music Videos

Miss Dryton's High School Government classes created music videos to explain sections of Article I of the Constitution.  See the assignment instructions and a couple of the videos 

"Constitution Rap" below or at the links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s00hOVv-lm0. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e7KqOkfno_s  

They are hilarious and very informative!

Mrs. Funk's Elementary Christmas Program & Mrs. Simpson's Video Productions LiveStream

If you did not get a chance to attend Mrs. Funk's Elementary Christmas program you missed out!  What an engaging and fun program for the kids to perform.  This year we integrated 3 tech components including a pre-show movie quiz, an interactive show on 2 screens during the performance, and a live-feed streamed online by Mrs. Simpson's High School Video Production class.  The show even included a special guest performance by our very own High School principal, Mr. Rhodes as Buddy the Elf.  Check out his #elfieselfie below.

"Something New This Year: Family and friends who are not able to attend the concert will still be able to see the show.  Log on to  Elementary School Live Program  The event went live at 6:45 p.m. December 11th, school ID: 121638."

Mrs. Gunden's 1st Grade Fun4thebrain.com

Mrs. Gunden uses fun4thebrain.com to help her students practice skills such as "Silent E" after working in Study Island. I like this site because it is broken down into subjects: Math (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division), Science, English, and has a place for Quizzes and Tests as well as Just For Fun.  The Math quizzes will grade themselves!  Check out this site for elementary practice!

Miss Unruh's Kindergartners Skype with Wise Oceans Marine Biologist

Wise Oceans even tweeted about us!!

Miss Unruh's Kindergartners Skyped with Abbie, a Marine Biologist from the UK.  Abbie is passionate about educating kids about oceans and the importance they play in our world.  She has started Wise Oceans.  Find out more about them here:  www.wiseoceans.com.  

"WiseOceans is a specialist Marine Education and Conservation company striving to spread awareness for our wonderful yet fragile oceans and the creatures that live within them.

We are a leading resource in marine conservation jobs, advice, news, events, marine education, information and recruiting marine educators."

Our students first watched an interactive video made by Abbie full of facts about her underwater travels as well as dancing and singing along to the songs.  Abbie Skyped with us and answered our questions about oceans such as "What is it like to swim in the sea?" and questions about lion fish, sea stars, and jellyfish.  See a little of their Skype visit below!

Miss Unruh's Kindergarten Brain Breaks-Gonoodle.com

Miss Unruh uses a fabulous website to "get the wiggles out" of her Kindergartners!  Gonoodle.com is a free, easy way to have structured brain breaks (or for those yucky indoor recess days).  The activities are tailored and structured for kids and teachers to use.  Their favorites?  Have a dance party with Kid Bopz or have your kids run a race (they think they are actually influencing the program, however Miss Unruh is making their character run faster or slower based on taps on the keyboard). They have a blog full of free resources and ideas!
Create your free account (it only takes a minute) and check out gonoodle.com!!
You can either play in the demo mode or it can track your class progress.
Watch this short tutorial for GoNoodle below.  You can also find lots of them on YouTube.

Ms. Bisoni-Lais 3rd Graders use QR Codes

Ms. Bisoni-Lais had her kids use the QR Code Scan app to check their answers while practicing homophones.  QR codes are a great way to quickly get students to websites without them having to type in a big, long web address.  High school teachers could have it posted on your door and the students could scan it on their way in and already have it loaded for when you need it in class.  You can link about anything to a QR code so it is a great way to get resources to your students quickly and easily.  They are great for checking for understanding, scavenger hunts, and can easily be created through a website such as qrstuff.com.  Students could even create their own QR codes to link to a video project they created and works great with the Carousel Feedback structure.

Mr. Richardson's 8th Grade Science EduCreations Projects

We love EduCreations!  We have been using it in 3rd grade for several projects on the iPad and now are using it in 8th grade Science.  The students first project was to create a video lesson discussing mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and symbiotic relationships using graphics, text, and recording their voices explaining the relationships.  The next project included a discussion of the different biomes.  It is an easy and fun app for the kids to use...there are some setup tricks that can help your classroom run smoothly, let me know if you would like to use it!

Teacher YouTube Channels

I'm not sure if everyone is aware that they have a free YouTube account that comes with your Gmail account.  If you are in your mail and you click on the App Switcher button (9 squares located in upper right same one used to go to your Google Drive), you will see YouTube.  Click on the YouTube button and it will take you to your school YouTube account.  You can easily upload videos to your account and make them public (a great way to share what is happening with parents!) or private and could share them on your teacher webpage on the school website.  There is limited space, I think the largest video you can upload at a time is 2GB or 15 minutes, but most class projects won't exceed that amount.  Let me know if you need any help using this tool!

Below is an example of how Mrs. Jaso used it to share and communicate with her 2nd grade parents.  The students love to show their families what they are doing!

"Good Evening Families - 

By now I'm sure you have heard about the WONDERFUL performance that your student participated in today.  Our 2nd Grade class had the opportunity to perform the play, "The Strongest One" for the Hesston Elementary 1st graders.  This play was based on a story from our Scott Forseman reader. Each and every student did a FANTASTIC job creating their costume, preparing and performing the play.  I wanted you to be able to enjoy the same performance.  Follow the link in this email to YouTube and enjoy!! Congratulate your student on a JOB WELL DONE!!"

  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aj3lAw11Z34