It's the End of Ocober!

Where does the time go??  I guess time flies when you're as busy as we have been in the Technology Lab!

On Friday, Many parents met with Carla to discuss the Common Core.  On thing that became clear during her presentation was that, although there have been "technology standards" in the past, and we have known that having tech saavy kids will be imperative in this century, the Common Core model pushes teachers and parents to make it happen.

If you are interested in the specific ways in which technology skills are integrated into the Common Core, this document is helpful: http:// bit.ly/1aDHscs

One area in which parents can really help support their kids is in typing practice.  Once a week in the Technology Lab is not enough.  As I mentioned before, Dance Mat Typing is a great FREE online typing program.  We want our kids to feel comfortable writing on computers for many reasons, but the coming changes to standardized testing is a big one.

Over the past couple of weeks, I have been attempting to get the 4th and 5th graders set up with their LAUSD email/cloud storage/GoogleDocs accounts.  Ideally, by the end of this week they will all be set!

2nd and 3rd grade have been working on typing practice in a different way by creating "word cloud poems" about themselves in abcya.com.

1st grade has continued to work on math skills, playing Money BINGO and Base Ten BINGO on abcya.com.

 

 And finally, in abcya.com, for advanced typers only...

Happy Halloween!

A Beautiful Week!

It's been a beautiful week so far at Community.  Such a lovely view outside of the Technology Lab!  :-)

This week, in addition to typing practice...

In 1st grade we played math games in the 1st Grade area of abcya.com.  There are a number of great, FREE, educational games on this site, but many address subject matter that has not yet been covered in the 1st grade classrooms.  This week we tried "100 Number Chart", "Number Grid Fireworks", and several different levels of "Connect the Dots".

2nd and 3rd graders played the spelling and vocabulary games that are a part of the Treasures (Language Arts) online curriculum. They started with activities using words from stories they are reading this week, and then went back to play games using words from stories from previous weeks.

4th and 5th graders discussed responsible email use, school (not private) vs. home (private) email accounts, and cyberbullying.  We also watched BrainPOP's "Cyberbullying" video to reinforce the main ideas.  These guys are at the age where we need to start talking about this stuff.

The Acceptable Use Policy went home in backpacks this week.  Please read and sign it with your child, and return it to school as soon as possible.  The intent of LAUSD's AUP is "to prevent unauthorized access or other unlawful activities by users online, to prevent unauthorized disclosure of or access to sensitive information, and to comply with the Children's Internet Protection Act."

New Headphones And Other Stuff

I'm very excited about our new headphones in the Technology Lab!  They are much more durable than the old plastic ones, and will also be easier to clean.

This week, in addition to typing practice, 2nd-5th graders continued to discuss internet safety.  We wrapped it all up by watching the BrainPOP video, "Online Safety".  It's a great one to watch and review with your kids at home.

In 1st grade, we've been practicing typing as well, but have also been making use of the online components to the Treasures (Language Arts) and Everyday Math curricula.  Everyday Math has some really fun two-player math games!

The kindergarten teachers have been interested in having students work on "beginning sounds" and "end sounds", so this week students have explored the Letter Muncher, Word Magic and Reading Raven apps. Word Magic is especially useful with regards to the skills that the K teachers wanted to target, because you can go into the settings and tell it to focus on "beginning sounds", "middle sounds" or "end sounds".  I anticipate using all three apps throughout the year to help the students practice their reading skills.

What is Edmodo?

Several of our upper grade classrooms are using Edmodo this year, and some of you have been asking, "What IS Edmodo??"

wiki.answers says:

"Edmodo is a social networking site made for communication between teachers and students.  It operates a lot like Facebook, with wall posts, status updates, and the like.  You can even pass in homework on it.

It is completely safe for kids to use.  A 6 character code that is known only to students and teacher is required to access a "classroom", and any unauthorized person caught inside can be prosecuted.

In short, a wonderful classroom resource."

In addition to posting homework and discussing projects, edmodo allows teachers to interact with students, academically, outside of the classroom.  One Community teacher, for example, posts "challenge questions" and gives a prize to the first student with the correct response.

Edmodo has the added benifit of being a great way to introduce kids to social networks in a safe, supervised environment.

Recommended Apps

Dave H., who does tech support at Community, has a great list of FREE educational apps:

http://ramona-lausd-ca.schoolloop.com/ipad

Thank You!!

I have to give a "shout out" to 5th grade parent, Chris W.,

who set up the technology lab so that we can charge our devices at the tables instead of having to run them back to the carts half-way through the day.  Thank you SO much!!