Getting I.T. Right!

Blogging in the Frog Bog

KaniaM — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 22:02:17 +0000

Mrs. Lippe’s 2nd graders are using their class “BOG Blog” to blog about “text-to-self” connections. This week, see how they are connecting to “Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day” by Judith Viorst.

Piloting a Promethean Slate

KaniaM — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 19:33:26 +0000

Ms. Barrett’s fourth grade class is one of the classes that is piloting a Promethean Slate…a clipboard sized interactive board. As the student works with the virtual tablet, her actions appear on the projected screen for the class to see. On this interactive “flipchart” page, the students write their guess for solving the math problem on the white circle, and then use the virtual eraser to erase their guess and the white circle to find out if they are right.

Ms. Hale’s Class Wiki

KaniaM — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 19:07:20 +0000

Ms. Hale’s 5th grade students are venturing into the world of Web 2.0 with their class wiki. Besides just being a site that they can get information from, such as daily assignments and the class calendar, they can also log in with their own accounts and interact with the site by contributing to a page or even blogging and chatting with each other.

Middle Ages Webquest

KaniaM — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 14:58:32 +0000

Ms. Burris’ TAG students are going on a webquest to research information about their current unit of study: The Middle Ages.

Wild Things & Similes

KaniaM — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 15:17:04 +0000

After reading the book “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sendak and talking about similies and imagery, Ms. Carneiro’s second graders are creating their own wild things. To help them in better conceptualize their wild things, they used Kidspiration to map out similes that vividly describe their creation.

Letter and Sounds

KaniaM — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 18:56:47 +0000

These students from Ms. Vandermeer’s kindergarten class were totally engaged in learning, working on their letters and sounds using StarFall.com. Students from every grade level can access pre-screened online resources by going to “Student Resources” on the FB website, and then selecting “Fern Bluff Online Resources.”

Publishing Poems

KaniaM — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 17:11:37 +0000

Ms. Skinner’s first grade students are doing great with logging into the computers with their own usernamses (this starts in 1st grade). Today they brought poems they had written to publish using Microsoft Word.

Math Jeopardy via Webcam

KaniaM — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 20:36:39 +0000

Students in Ms. Denkler’s 3rd grade TAG class had the unique opportunity to play Math Jeopardy against students at Cactus Ranch Elementary without leaving campus. To do this, we used a webcam connected to a projector cart and the “shared screen” option in Skype. This allowed the classes at both schools to see the same screen with the questions/answers, as well as see and hear each other. Click here to see it in action! The large portion of the screen is the shared screen from the Cactus Ranch computer. The smaller window on the upper right is the feed from Fern Bluff, and the one below it is the feed from Cactus Ranch.

Principal’s Blog

KaniaM — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 16:58:07 +0000

Fern Bluff’s students aren’t the only ones using technology right. Our very our principal, Dr. Wilson, has started her own blog to highlight campus activities and keep parents updated!
Check out Dr. Wilson’s Blog!

PIE Grant Winner!

KaniaM — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 16:49:47 +0000

Fern Bluff is the recipient of one of this year’s RRISD Partners In Education (PIE) Grants, receiving money to purchase “flip” cameras for the campus. The flip-cams will initially be used by 2nd grade to create a website of videos about Round Rock history. The grant written by and awarded to Mark Kania (campus Instructional Technology Specialist), Deidra Floyd (2nd grade teacher), and Pam Mautz (office support specialist).