Developing Good Digital Citizens 
Fifth grade classes have continued to engage in digital citizenship lessons aimed at teaching proper "Netiquette" and keeping students safe. Parents, it's not too early to start talking to your parents about their digital interactions. Do you know what apps your child is using to communicate? Are you monitoring their interactions? What about your own interactions? Are you sharing private information that could put you at risk? Talk to your child about your digital lives.

Students Discuss a Scenario to Determine if it Demonstrates Good Digital Citizenship

Creative Storytelling

Third grade students developed their creative storytelling skills by planning and creating a cartoon. We used the app Toontastic which gives students a structure for adding backgrounds, characters, and the ability to record voice. Students loved working on the iPads while cartooning. They learned about the parts of a story (setting, problem, resolution, etc.) and improved their storytelling skills through this lesson. 

A Student Places her Characters

A Student Records and Moves His Characters to Tell a Story

Book Trailers

One class of fourth graders has been working to create book trailers aimed at developing excitement for reading. Each student worked to plan a narrated slideshow with the app Shadow Puppet that includes images relevant to the story, without giving away the ending, related to the book they chose. This was a fun and creative way for students to practice their summarizing skills. Stayed tuned as projects will be housed on a website to be enjoyed by the entire JGES community! 

A Student Selects Images for her Book Trailer

Learning at All Levels - Tech Take-Out

While most of my focus in this blog has been at the school level. ITRTs are also responsible for district initiatives and trainings. This week our ITRT team spent a day at the school board office to help district leaders with their technology use. During this "Tech Take-Out" day we worked in one-on-one and small group settings to share what we know about Google Apps, Microsoft Programs, Twitter, Facebook, and more! 

One of the Twitter Sessions Led by Tamara Letter

Love is in the Air

With Valentine's Day approaching kindergartners used the app Seesaw to share what they love. Students used the drawing tool to illustrate something that they love and then added a caption with a sentence, "I love...". Students were able to practice their writing skills through this Valentine's Day inspired activity. 

A Student Draws a Picture of her "Mommy"

Students Work on Their Illustrations

Comparing and Contrasting Seasons

Many first graders have used iPads to take photos illustrating and explain the signs of fall and winter. One class, expanded on those activities by completing a Venn diagram which compares and contrasts fall and winter. After a brief group brainstorming session, students set off to work. I was impressed by their ability to think of many different things affected by season change including clothing, animals, foods, plants, and more!

Students Work on Their Venn Diagrams

An Example of a Completed Venn Diagram

Hour of Code at JGES

On Wednesday, February 10th, students at JGES had the opportunity to stay after school with our librarian (Mrs. Churchill), gifted and talented teacher (Mrs. Lott), and me to participate in our school Hour of Code. We used resources from the website code.org. Based on their prior coding experience, students coded either BB8 from Star Wars or a character from Minecraft.

Through coding students are learning how computers work, developing their problem solving and critical thinking skills, having fun, and more!

Students who participated in Hour of Code

Crossing their fingers that it works

Success!

Working together to solve the puzzle

Breaking down the moves step by step

Snow Much Learning

School days have been a bit disjointed with unusual snow fall in central Virginia. In first grade we harnessed student excitement about snow with two winter themed lessons. Many students had the opportunity to take pictures of signs of winter and write about their photographs. We used the app PicCollage to create and then shared with Seesaw.

Students Help One Another Use PicCollage

Students Write about Their Photos

One class of first graders compared and contrasted fall and winter using the app Venn Diagram (and then shared via Seesaw). Students considered how weather, animal behavior, human behavior, plants, and more are impacted by the change in seasons. 

Students Create Their Venn Diagrams

After several days off due to the snow, a class of third graders used Seesaw to review alternative energy resources. Students were assigned an energy type, illustrated the energy, and then wrote several sentences sharing their knowledge. Once shared with the class via Seesaw, students viewed one another's work before learning new energy concepts.

An Student's Finished Alternative Energy Drawing and Writing

Teachers have been busy learning too! Over the last couple of weeks teachers at JGES and HCES have worked to improve their knowledge and use of educational technology by choosing to attend Seesaw and SMART Station Creation professional development sessions with me. Several teachers began putting their new learning to work the very next school day! Kudos to those teachers who demonstrate their commitment to learning and providing meaningful learning opportunities for their students. 

I personally used the time off to grow professionally (and of course spend time with my son!). In preparation for an exciting book trailer project at JGES I became SymbalooEdu Certified. Learn more about Symbaloo here. Through the certification process I learned how to create a webmix that will house student projects to be shared with the entire JGES community. Finding and evaluating educational technology can be a daunting process. Graphite has been an invaluable resource to me in this process and over the snow days I received notification that I have been accepted as a Graphite Certified Educator. Check out my profile, reviews, and lessons here.