Mrs. Stork has created a blog for her class. The class is doing a book study and she uses the blog to pose questions to the students. The students leave comments on the blog in response to the question. The students are interacting with each other and the teacher.

This blog takes learning beyond the classroom! The students are able to respond in class, at home, from their cell phones, or wherever they have an internet connection. This encourages students to participate and it gives them an individual platform to have their ideas heard.

This is AWESOME Mrs. Stork! Check out the blog at http://5thgradetag.blogspot.com/

I had the awesome pleasure of working with Mrs. James and her students this morning in the computer lab. In class they wrote out the information and brought that to the computer lab with them. They pulled up a Venn Diagram template and started placing their info into the right sections. As her students worked on their science curriculum they learned very important technology skills. They learned how to insert text boxes, make them bigger and even move them around.

What I liked best was that they were recalling the information from their minds and labeling it in the right spots. They were all actively engaged and on task! Something tells me that they liked this project. Way to Hook’em Mrs. James! (Hook’em – is short for “getting them ready for college!”)

WOW!

Ms. Cox has her Kinder students logging into the computers all on their own. They have created Word documents, saved files, navigated web pages and this week they visited our Library Resources page to use BookFlix.

Ms. Cox, good job preparing those kindergartener students for first grade! I look forward to your next project!

Last week we had several teachers participate in a workshop for PhotoStory 3. Our teachers learned how to take pictures from our digital cameras and turn them into a video production with voiceovers and music. We all shared ideas of how our teachers can use this program in the classroom and ideas for how they can have their students use it. Ideas like: Angle Hunts, Timelines, Noun Hunts, Talking Books, How to Vidoes, Photo Tours, About the Teacher/Student Videos, Visual Poems, Idiom Videos, Visual Dictionaries, and lots more! I hope to see some good projects coming from this soon! Check out the pictures below of our teachers taking pictures for their videos.

WOW, Mrs. Wilhelmi started a blog to inform her parents about what was going on in her class.  Your blog is looking AWESOME!  I know your parents will enjoy reading about what is going on.  I also like the fact that you highlighted how you are using your new technology!  I hope this will inspire others to take up blogging.  Thanks for helping to lead us forward!
To take a look at Mrs. Wilhelmi’s blog follow this linkhttp://bpewilhelmi.blogspot.com/ .

I walked into a classroom this week to check on something for a teacher and I saw something great! Mrs. Roach was using the SmartBoard and a PowerPoint Jeopardy game that she created. It wasn’t just a game, but it was a learning experience. They were reviewing Science materials for a test. Mrs. Roach, I was not only impressed with the Jeopardy game you created, but also how quickly and accurately your students could respond to such tough questions. They’ve been educated well! Keep up the good work! You all should ask her for her template and get a little Jeopardy going on in your classroom. The Smartboard isn’t required but it is a nice touch. (Get it, “touch” “Smartboard” you touch the Smartboard.) OK, bad joke!

You can also find lots of PowerPoint Templates and premade PowerPoint Activities in my Educational PowerPoint Resources Galore!!! blog post at http://www.techedknow.com .

Let me know what is going on in your class so you can be highlighted in our BPE Tech Blog!

Mrs. Johnson’s class has been studying the Native Americans along with their cultures while focusing on Landforms and Natural Resources.  Their purpose was to learn about the natural resources the Native Americans used and how physical characteristics and regions affected peoples activities and settlement patterns.

Mrs. Johnson incorporated technology by allowing her students to use the digital camera to take pictures of the project creating a story.  After putting the slides in order of topic they used the computer and microphone to record a narration expressing what they’ve learned.

I think their video turned out fantastic, Mrs. Johnson.  Take a look at the video and see what her students created with random materials.

Thanks for using technology!  I’m sure your students loved it!

Mrs. Johnson\’s Class Video

Last week I had the privilege of joining Mr. Hazlewood in his music class. He had his students using and interacting with the Smart Board learning rhythm. It helped to remind me how important our specials teachers are to our core curriculum. The counting, rhythm and pacing that I saw taking place with his students will certainly be useful in their Math, Reading and Language Arts classes. Not only were they learning pacing techniques they were learning skills that will transcend into writing awesome 4th grade TAKS papers. Thanks for taking your music class up a notch by using technology and the Smart Board, Mr. Hazlewood! Here are some pictures from that day.

A few weeks ago our Kinder students were studying “Patriotism”.  Ms. Cox took her students on a “Patriotism Hunt” where her students used a digital camera to take pictures of everything they could find that showed patriotism.  Yes, that’s right!  She let her kinder students use the camera!  How awesome is that!!!  She put together a Power Point to show what her students found around school. Take a look!

Way to integrate technology, Ms. Cox!!!

This week I’m revitalizing my Round Rock Tech Guy blog.  I will continue to add Tech Tips to the http://www.techedknow.com blog, but this site will refocus on what my teachers at Blackland Prairie Elementary are doing with technology.

I think it’s important to focus on what our teachers are doing with technology in education.  It helps to inspire others by recognizing the good that is going on around us.  Don’t you wish our TV News channels would do that?

I’m excited about the repurposing of my original blog.  Come back often to see what’s going on here at Blackland Prairie Elementary!