Friday, December 5, 2014

StMM Teacher Reflections...

What are our teachers in grades 4-8 saying about our changes to technology this year? Check out some of these quotes:



"I love how my project was completed so much faster this year. With Mrs. Cade working with my students in the media center with their research, the children doing their project in the computer lab, and with the Chromebooks in the classroom, the children didn’t forget what they were doing from week to week because they were able to work three days a week instead of just once a week."


"The math program we used on the Chromebooks was awesome!  The students loved being able to quickly and accurately see how changing information affected their graphs.  Being able to visualize multiple different scenarios in a short period of time was very beneficial.  I am looking forward to seeing how this experience translates to their overall comprehension."


"As a teacher whose curriculum priorities don’t necessarily work with using technology, I was delighted to utilize the Chromebooks and Google Drive to take my elective students’ skills to new levels. By harnessing our collective obsession with taking digital pictures, we created shared class slideshows, individual projects and even provided the Yearbook elective students with a host of quality photographs to use. The Chromebooks opened a door into an exciting and creative learning world."


"In November, we completed a one-week project as a culmination to our novel study in language arts class.  The project was an inquiry into different aspects of the time period. Using various websites, students took screen shots or “snips” of their work and placed them into a Google Drive document.  The final part of the project was a student-written radio transcript and recording.  It was great to hear the students being reporters telling us about what happened to the survivors from our novel. The project went well, with adequate time and Google Drive was easy to use. Students didn’t really encounter many problems along the way."


"Being able to use Moodle for religion homework and for taking religion tests has been a wonderful experience.  Both of these activities prepare the kids for the future.  Kids love being able to take tests using the computers.  Teachers like that students can submit their homework online, thus eliminating lost papers or forgetting to turn in completed assignments. 

"Using Google Drive for our social studies simulation will be a fantastic way for the kids to share ideas and information at home."

"Using the Chromebooks in class for testing and for practicing keyboarding skills is one of the students’ favorite things to do."


"I was nervous that we didn't have a scheduled time for technology every week, but it has been great to have technology instruction in our classrooms; it even seems better. The individualized instruction on the Chromebooks is awesome as well!"


"I love the Chromebooks, and hope to get another set of 30 to use. With the Chromebooks,  we can solve equations using Algebra Tiles. It is tedious to do this by hand whereas the online tool makes it much more successful.  Graphing linear, quadratic, and inverse functions can and should be done by hand, but by using the Chromebooks Application we are able to compare many functions on the same coordinate plane in a much quicker manner."


 
 

 


 
 
 


Monday, October 20, 2014

Kids and Coding - Resources!

Research is starting to show the benefits of learning programming skills at a young age.  Coding teaches higher level thinking skills, and there are some amazing resources available at no or low cost. Check out this website to find out more!

http://code.org/learn

Happy Coding!

Sunday, October 19, 2014

Parents Tech Training - Thank You!

Thank you to all the parents who came out to our first Tech Training Weekend.  It was great to work with you, and learn some new things, too! Keep an eye out in an upcoming Parents Newsletter for future tech training workshops!

For reference, here is a list of tutorial videos based on Google Documents and Presentations - more to follow for Spreadsheets and Forms!



Introduction:

Working with Google Drive:

Google Drive in Plain English (I didn’t make this one, but it’s great!):

Working with Google Docs: (Word Processing):

Research Tools in Google Docs:

Google Presentations – Getting Started

Google Presentations – Comments and Sharing

Google Presentations – Research, Links, Pictures

Google Presentations – Animations

Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Teachers and Technology in Action!

It has been wonderful to work with our upper grades teachers in technology this year.  Here is a quick rundown of some of our current projects!

8th grade - Ultimate Gift research and presentations
7th grade - Marian Shrine project (in progress), online testing for Mr. Callus
6th grade - Europe in a Box (using Chromebooks!)
5th grade - online Moodle testing, Google Presentations training
4th grade - Saints project (just about to start!)
Electives - Fine Arts photography elements (in progress, using Chromebooks!), Astronomy elective plants project (using Chromebooks!)

We have many projects in the works including a 7th grade Language Arts project, several 7/8th grade math projects, and much more!

StMM Technology Training for Parents!

Dear Parents,
We are happy to be offering training in two initial sessions on our new Google Drive account. A flyer was sent out via RenWeb yesterday, but here it is for your reference!


You can use this Google Form to sign up or indicate interest in future sessions if these dates do not work for your schedule!

Thursday, September 4, 2014

9/4 Parent Newsletter - Re-Posting Google Document

Good morning, and happy Thursday!

We would like to repost the link to the Google document shared in the September 4 Parent Newsletter. You can find it here. Thank you, and have a blessed day!

Wednesday, September 3, 2014

8th Grade Religion Projects!

It was a pleasure to work with the 8th grade in the lab this past week, using our new on-demand schedule.  Our 8th graders were putting together proposals and presentations for their Ultimate Gift Service Project, and did a wonderful job utilizing our new Google Drive accounts!  The best part is that because they could share their work with Mrs. Blum, she was able to access and view it from her own Google account.

This project took almost 6 weeks last year, but with our new system, and the implementation of Google Drive, students were in the lab for about 4 class periods, over the span of one week, leaving a lot of open time for other grades to come to the lab when they were finished.  Next up, we'll be working with 6th grade on their Europe in a Box project!