Our 2nd grade musical was a smash-hit and our music teachers, Ms. Aycock and Mrs. Schafer knocked it out of the park with their exemplary directing and iMovie editing skills! Six classes of our talented remote and in-person 2nd graders acted and sang their hearts out while telling the tales of Aesop from our campus and via Zoom. From disco balls, custom props, iPad drawings, filters and costumes to remote actors with Zoom filters, this year's 2nd grade musical was a true masterpiece! 

4th graders in Mrs. Flood's class used Minecraft EDU on their iPads to create a collaborative world filled with original poems. Each student was given a plot of land to create a themed place to leave their poetry. The dog palace houses puppy poetry, the scuba shack has scuba poetry and the giant kid building doing a flip has poetry that is all about turning upside down! What a creative way to showcase poetry! Way to to write, create, and build, Mrs. Flood's class!

Our 5th graders, deep into study of poetry were treated to a virtual workshop by professional poets today! The folks from Austin's very own Typewriter Rodeo inspired our 5th grade in-person and remote students to let their imaginations wrangle up ideas straight from their heads and lay them down to paper without a mere hesitation. A lesson in the process of letting a mistake take you to the edge of your creative notions when composing poetry was a wonderful part of today's workshop with Sean and Jenna, impromptu poet extraordinaires. These talented folks, who compose spontaneous poetry on vintage typewriters, are regulars on KUT's Texas Standard and have been featured in Edible Austin, The Austin Chronicle and even as far as the beaches of Mexico!

Sean and Jenna talked about the process of creating spontaneous poetry and how to ask questions of their "customers" in order to compose a personalized poem that feeds the heart. A poem can be a wonderful gift of kindness. Students also learned a lot about the mechanics of old-fashioned typewriters. As 5th graders oohed and ahhed over machines that don't use electricity or batteries, they were invited to submit their own topics for a custom poem typed up by our presenters. From topics like a Lunchboxes, Unicorns, and Lizards and Football to a poem about Covid and Zoom, our students guffawed, snorted, and smiled whole-heartedly as they listened to Sean and Jenna present tales about their poetic adventures and revealed custom poems for our students. 

To top it off, our students tried their hand at creating spontaneous poetry using their iPads and a cool app called Hanx Writer! Way to bravely create the gift of words through poetry, Mustangs!

Our EE 3rd graders love to hold Market Days each year as a part of their financial literacy unit of study. Students create teams who create, market and sell student-made products or services for sale at their annual Market Days marketplace event. Their marketing skills are put into action when they use iMovie to create their own commercials that are shown at their booths.  All proceeds are donated to a charity that the entire grade level agrees upon. My money's on the Mustangs!

Research projects have reached a new level with our technology tools in our 1:1 iPad classrooms. Showcased here, our 2nd graders use their iPads, Pebble Go, and Pages to complete their biography study. Students in 3rd grade researched the Solar System to create reports and build models. Students in 4th grade use various websites like Tweentribune.com and library databases to research topics to write their feature articles. Our 4th graders are so savvy that they use split screens, Apple Pencils and their keyboards to write up research articles that wow their readers!

Eanes Elementary 2nd graders programmed a surefire recipe of fun with our crew of programmable Dash Robots today! Using the Blockly App, students used a series of challenge cards to program their Dash robots to move, light up, talk, and overcome obstacles. Dash, Blockly and EE 2nd graders are a true recipe for fun!

In 2018, Eanes Elementary had the pleasure of hosting musician Jesse Ruben and his We Can Project. His messages of perseverance, grit, goal-setting, and believing in yourself are really inspiring for kids and teachers alike. In a year of pandemic pandemonium, we were so grateful for our iPads, Macbooks and Zoom so our in-person and remote students could virtually welcome Jesse to help Mustangs believe that WE CAN make it through a school year full of ups and downs! WE CAN! WE CAN! WE CAN!

4th graders in Mrs. Flood's class used the Adobe Sketch app to explore creating self-portraits. Students were amazed to see how they could use a photo of themselves to create a sketch that they hope to animate in the animation style of rotoscoping. 

This school year we have seen teachers and students accomplish the impossible at Eanes Elementary. With hard work, ingenuity, perseverance, innovation, creativity and a whole lot of technology our teachers created amazing interactive lessons for fully virtual classrooms, in-person classes and even "hybrid" or "blended" classrooms. Teachers utilized extra screens, iPads, and Macbooks from home and from school to monitor learners, guide lessons, demo writing, perform science experiments, and create activities for students in-person and at home.

Utilizing Seesaw, Showbie and Google Classroom, our students interacted via Zoom from home and at school digitally with classroom teachers, specialists and Special Areas teachers. We even maintained our K-2 Spanish Immersion program!

Because of our 1:1 iPad program, our pre-K to 5th grade students were given an amazing opportunity to learn so much even through a pandemic. Students and teachers, in and out of quarantine pressed on through it all. Our teachers put their hearts into creating and innovating non-stop this school year and that is pure innovation with a whole lot of heart! Way to go Mustangs!

It starts with a squiggle, a line, a doodle and then the challenge is on...A wonderful way to get your creative juices flowing in 4th grade! A few students in Mrs. Flood's class inspire their classmates with this Padlet full of ideas and exercises in creativity. It's not a...