September 2017
In Mrs. Ferenczy's math classes, students are Becoming an Expert. The use iTunes University as their class platform to find all their class needs. They have required assignments and optional assignments. Students are responsible for completing both in two-days time. They get hands-on, minds-on practice in engaging activities.
In the sixth grade social studies classes of Ms. Perkins, Ms. Wiggins, and Ms. Scoggins, students are using technology to research the standards. They have decided among their groups, which questions they will answer then they are putting together a presentation about their topic. At the end all groups will learn from one another so they have all the information.
In eighth grade social studies students have been learning about colonial Georgia. They created old-fashioned puppet shows to demonstrate their learning
May 12
In Mr. Cambre's class students are solving puzzles created using Forms. They work in groups to collaborate to solve these puzzles.
May 5
In Ms. Hain's social studies classes, students are completing decades' projects. They have chosen a decade to learn about in small groups. They decide how to share the information about the culture and important events of that decade.
In Ms. McCaulley's social studies classes, students are diving deeper to actually go to places in Georgia using Cardboard. They go on virtual field trips using the cardboard, and they feel as though they are actually in places all over Georgia.
In Ms. Erxleben's math classes, students have Barbie bungee jumping to gather data to determine correlations.
February 24
Popplet lite is an app that allows students to easily create mind maps on their iPads. In Mrs. Wiggins room they used this app to being to co-plan when she shared the standards for the next unit. Students then created mind maps using those standards.
In the tech lab this week, students had a challenge by @Rumblelab to crush a can using only one finger. They went to work creating and thinking to determine how to do it.
February 16
Mrs. Zachrich and Mr. Squiers classes have collaborated on a cross-curricular project. In Mr. Squiers classes students are building items while Mrs. Zachrich's classes will advertise the creations for the public to order and request new items. What a team!
February 9
Madame Boren took a risk and tried out the green screen as her students layered places in France and became weather reporters. They used authentic vocabulary as they spoke from the scene pulling in pictures like native broadcasters. Well done!
Both Ms. Giannace and Ms. Sandreutter's students traveled to Mexico City by Virtual Reality. They used Google Cardboard to be immersed in the experience.
January 20
Congratulations to our first two badge recipients: Mrs. Noto and Mrs. Shaban for using technology to drive just-in-time direct instruction. Look out for posters and badges to be going up very soon!
November 4, 2016
Mr. Squiers has his students diligently sawing and sanding. They must carefully measure and create boards of exactly the correct measurement. Once they do, they write their name on it. The boards will then be used for a giant game of Jenga. If they aren't all the exact size, they won't work. Brilliant!
In the Spanish classes of Ms. Shaban, Ms. Noto, and Mr. Antonini student are learning about the Day of the Dead from TES Teach by Blendspace. Students chose the articles and videos to learn from and on the following day they painted pumpkins to go with their learning.
October 28, 2016
Mrs. Zachrich worked with her students to create a relevant and authentic learning experience. They made coloring books about internet safety for RNE students; students from her class then delivered the books to Roswell North. Relevant. Authentic. Meaningful.
Mrs. Ferenczy has created a class Instagram account. She includes math problems on it so that as students are scrolling through, maybe they will get a bit of educational value from their social media.
Mr. Thomas and Ms. Heninger completely re-created a health project to include technology and choice & voice for students. Students chose a topic of interest: internet safety, social media safety, bicycle safety, among others. Students followed instructions set out for them and completed note-taking. They then organized their presentation in an iMovie, Smore, or any other way they chose. Ms. Heninger and Mr. Thomas have already reflected on the project are are making changes for next quarter. Well done!
Mrs. Schall has her students tracking their fitness goals in Google forms. They initially set their goals there then they track them daily to see progress.
October 18, 2016
Mr. Shaw had a student who was unable to participate in a lab use a Google Hangout with her group so that she could be part of the group. What a great way for her to experience the lab live rather than be stuck reading the information from a book! Way to use our technology to the best of its ability!
Ms. Edwards has truly embraced student voice and choice. Her students determined how they best learn and could show how they learn. They helped her create a TES Blendspace to use as they learned. Way to go!
May 13, 2016
This week marked our very first Sphero Olympics. Thirteen students competed in rounds with the finals being held in the gym. Help Desk students constructed a course that they had to code the Sphero through.
Our Tech Zone has opened. Students can come for open lab on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays at 8:00 AM to create and learn in the lab. The can join us to code with Sphero and Ollie, program with Arduino and Raspberry Pi, create with Little Bits, build robots, go on virtual field trips with Google Cardboard, and more!
May 6, 2016
In Ms. Shaban's foreign language classes, students are creating review activities using iPads. Each pair has been assigned a unit from the year and that pair is responsible for creating the activity for the class to use as review. Some are doing Kahoot.it, others Quizizz --whatever their favorite is!
April 22, 2016
In Ms. Wood and Ms. Jennings's sixth grade science classes, students are actively engaged in learning and reviewing. They are using Quizlet Live which creates three-student teams, gives the students time to collaborate on their answer, and lets the students know which team member is the one who actually has the match for answer. The teams are then changed up by Quizlet, allowing for quick movement; but students need to stay on their toes to get to their new team and collaborate yet again to answer the questions and keep up with the leaderboard at the front of the room. The teachers receive the data and students are engaged in great learning!
In Ms. Shaban's Spanish classes, students are creating travel brochures. They are convincing their audience that they should come to Mexico City by highlighting some of the main attractions. In the process of using iPad apps like iMovie, students are learning about the culture and historical events of Mexico.
March 24, 2016
Mr. Cambre's students are creating websites. They completed literature responses for To Kill a Mockingbird where they wrote about topics such as racism and prejudice.
Ms. Donley's students took a stand on how the earth's moon was formed and used their iPads to research and develop arguments for that stand. They worked collaboratively with others who agreed with them to develop their argument then had to convince the rest of the class about their stand. They then organized a trial where students had to make statements about their findings. Because this met so many learning styles, they were able to argue for and against their findings easily with evidence. Students who are not always vocal about their learning were involved and eager to share what they learned and believed.
Ms. Burns's French students worked through a Blendspace in an authentic activity to learn about Paris. Through it, they were able to practice reading, writing, speaking, and listening skills as they worked their way through the food of France. Yum!
March 11, 2016
In Mrs. Bennett's reading classes this week, students created debates. They researched their choice of topics and did their brainstorming. Sixth graders even had to determine a counter-argument and get into the opposing side's perspective! Once they had their debate mapped out and organized, they created a presentation using their choice of tools. They could use a presentation that had been modeled for them --Puppet Pals HD, Sock Puppets, or iMovie, or have a voice and propose to the teacher a method of their own. Through it all, students integrated reading, writing, speaking, presenting, and thinking standards with the technology.
March 4, 2016
In Ms. Gaffney's classes, students are creating Rube Goldberg Machine's. They test, re-test, and when it doesn't work, test again until they get it to do what they want. It is certainly a lesson in trial, error, and perseverance for these middle schoolers as they problem solve their creations. What great life skills these students are learning!
Ms. Militana has connected her standards to her students by having them decide if technology has helped or hurt us. They researched specific topics under this big essential question and each time focused back on this big idea. They did this jigsaw style. They used iPads for research as well as to present projects back to their groups. Students had choice in such presentation tools as power point or Sock Puppets...that's right, sock puppets presenting the pros and cons of technology.....the students got a kick out of it! Students had a rubric to share out feedback with one another.
Ms. Jennings's students learned about natural disasters through internet resources. Once they collaborated with their group to learn about their topic, they pulled it together into a presentation and shared it with the class. The class listened to give each group feedback on their presentation.
February 26
In Ms. Mason, Ms. Nolan, and Mr. Shaw's seventh grade science classes they used choice in technology tools to demonstrate their learning of their biomes. They worked collaboratively in groups to learn and to create. Students chose from such tools as blogging, Touchcast, easel.ly (for infographics), Educreations, and iMovie to use as teachers conferred with them about their learning. The students' focus was on their learning of the concepts.
Ms. Davidson's students are being introduced to their wave unit through exploration. They are exploring stations to learn about waves from this partnership that she created with community members. The students are excited about learning science as they make the connection to the real world.
Ms. Wiggins organized her class into partners so they could research and become experts in one component of economics and trade. As each partnership learned together through sources that she provided as well as ones that they found on their own, they felt responsible since they were to teach it to the class at a later time. Once students understood their component, they created a powerpoint slide that later would be shared through a museum walk. There is a collaborative feel to the classroom.
February 19
Students worked collaboratively in Mr. Melton's music class. They learned about unique instruments in small groups organized by continent. Each student chose one of the instruments as they created a presentation in power point to teach the rest of their class about their instrument unique to their continent.
January 22
To give students a voice, Ms. Ellis has her students blogging. They have started this week by responding to literature through their class blogs. They are able to respond to her and to one another on the class blog.
Ms. Mason created a choice study board that they use as they go through the unit. These choices move up in Blooms as well as DOK levels. Students used their iPads to create items such as recording themselves teaching concepts.
Ms. Davidson's students has choice in their project as they expressed their learning of energy conversions. They connected this to real life. Students made videos, documentaries, interviews, or newscasts for their final products.
Ms. Wood created Google Forms for students to answer questions about their ocean projects as well as other students' ocean projects. They then took time to reflect on the project and answered reflection questions on the forms. This is a great way to curate this information in an easy to manage chart!
January 15
App Speed Dating
This week our Help Desk students shared their favorite Apps with their teachers in a before school professional learning session. So much excitement was generated from this unique learning opportunity that we will do it again in a few weeks.
Students in the seventh grade science classes of Mr. Shaw, Ms. Mason, Ms. Pouncey, and Ms. King researched to learn about body systems. They created iMovie presentations to synthesize the information they learned.
January 8, 2016
The new year has begun and with a short week to start, teachers have started the year strong with their iPads!
In the foreign language classes of Ms. Shaban and Ms. Proctor, students completed a virtual field trip. They searched for places in Mexico City using their iPads. Once they learned about each place, they wrote about them in Spanish. Finally, they created using the iPad, to show what they learned.
December 18
Sixth grade was on fire this week!
In the social studies classes of Ms. Perkins, Ms. Jenkins, and Ms. Scoggins, students became entrpreneurs as they created a product, business, and determined how it will work. They used technology to create a visual presentation to share their business venture with Sharks, Shark Tank style.
In sixth grade science with Ms. Wood, Ms. Donley, Ms. Giles, and Ms. Jennings, students had their choice to delve deeper into any science topic from the semester. They then had their choice of technology multimedia resources to present that topic to their peers.
December 11
Teachers found so many ways to use their iPads immediately after the 1:1 deployment. Here are just a few examples.
Mr. Mendelson had his students save a frequently used link to their iPad home screen for easy access on a daily basis. What a great time saver!
The students in eighth grade ELA personalized their learning thanks to the amazing planning of Ms. Ellis, Ms. Braddock, Mr. Cambre, and Ms. Allen. They had choice in their path as they worked their way through a project-based learning unit of the 1930s and 1940s. This learning culminated at Teaching Museum North in a showcase of artifacts last night.
The students in Ms. Edwards's class are working on How to.... projects. They are using Power Point to create their presentations.
The students in Ms. Merritt's class are creating their own online quizzes to help review content. By taking one another's quiz, they will have an even deeper understanding of what they are learning.
Students in Mrs. Zachrich's class are using Scratch to code. Some are following directions in the booklet while others are going rogue to discover how to do it on their own!
December 4
Even when the iPad classroom carts were collected, that didn't stop teachers from finding ways to use technology!
In both Ms. Noto and Ms. Wright's Spanish classes, Kahoot was a hit as students practiced their language skills and teachers were able to keep a tab on student misconeptions.
In Ms. Militana's ELA classes students continued to revise their essays using computer skills.
Ms. Shaban engaged her Spanish students with relevant videos to start their class. She quickly assessed their understanding and was able to address misconceptions.
November 20
What an engaging week it's been for our students! Here are just a few examples of teaching with technology:
What an engaging week it's been for our students! Here are just a few examples of teaching with technology:
In Ms. Wade's ELA class, students were using iPads to get current as they connected current events to their standards in other classes. Students also compared and contrasted fiction stories to non-fiction text.
In Ms. Wade's ELA class, students were using iPads to get current as they connected current events to their standards in other classes. Students also compared and contrasted fiction stories to non-fiction text.
The students in Ms. King, Ms. Sullian, Ms. Howell, and Mr. Sarris's seventh grade math classes were proving the area of circles using a rectangle or a triangle theorem. They took video of themselves explaining it thus going more into depth.
In the eighth grade ELA classes of Ms. Braddock, Ms. Ellis, Mr. Cambre, and Ms. Allen, students are working on personalizing their learning through project-based learning. They are currently researching the 1930s and 1940s to put together their research (with citations) papers and eventually artifacts for a museum.