Today Ms. Bufkin's 1st graders had the chance to FaceTime with a friend travelling this week and next. It took him almost 30 hours to get to Vietnam from Austin, wow! He shared about his trip to the zoo and all the places he plans to travel in Asia. What an adventure! iPads are helping us reach all across the world!
0 Comments
Bridge Point Elementary's Science Day is "Breaking the mold of a traditional science fair!" http://www.safeshare.tv/w/QSxEvvZWZv Students in Ms. Cimino's 3rd grade used the Comic Life app to create examples of personification. Students illustrated their examples by hand and took a photo to place into Comic Life. They emailed the PDF version to their teacher and she assembled it using Adobe Acrobat. She then uploaded it to the website http://epubbud.com to create an EPub version so it will do a neat page turn effect in iBooks when downloaded from an iDevice. Check out their EPub version. Great work 3rd graders!
Bridge Point opened its doors today to invite parents to experience the life of students as they know it. Students shared artwork, writing pieces, journals, science experiments, class projects, and many of them shared what they have been doing on the iPads. While all styles of learning are appreciated, awed and respected at Bridge Point, this year's LEAP project really came alive to many families. Siblings, parents, grandparents, aunts and uncles were wowed by the ease at which our children have grasped the concept of iPads for learning. From freshly published Scribble Press books by first graders to complex circuitry science journaling by fifth graders, Bridge Point has certainly taken the LEAP! Thanks so much to our families, teachers and students of Bridge Point, it was a fantastic way to start a Friday morning! Have you ever wondered what apps Bridge Pointers are using? Our app lists are located on this blog under the LEAP button.
I decided to take a walkabout around Bridge Point today just to see what was happening. Everywhere I looked I saw students engaged in learning projects. Everywhere I went, there were kids enthusiastically working on assignments in their own ways. Opening up choices to kids brings out confidence in their ability to design their own learning adventures. From creating videos, to designing trigger pictures for Aurasma video projects, these kids are loving learning! As a majority of our students are preparing for Open House this Friday, you could really see they were working for authentic audiences, their families! Check out two videos below inviting parents to come to Open House. Today, three of the five Bridge Point Kindergarten classes went 1:1! Students in Ms. Hester, Ms. Krost, and Ms. Plevich's classes took the LEAP into 1:1 iPad learning. Students practiced using the app iFiles to create their own folder on the BPE student shared servers. They also took a picture of themselves and created a personalized wallpaper and lock screen. They were so very delighted with themselves. Way to go Kindergarten! Stay tuned for the rest of the Kinders to go 1:1.
From Mr. Wirht's BPOV letter last week:
LEAP This week the remaining iPads have been distributed to all Bridge Point grade levels. The LEAP initiative is a now school wide. I congratulate our EISD Technology Services department for executing a huge and complicated logistical challenge. To order, receive, ID, load, distribute over 2,000 iPads to six elementary campuses is a big deal. We appreciate and admire them. The iPads are in our hands and here we go. Over the next two weeks, Marianna Husain and Sandy Medina, our campus “Ed Techs” (teaching professionals who lead instructional technology) are conducting specific orientations for each Bridge Point class. Much has been learned since the December roll-out to grades 3 and 4. We have a high level of confidence that we are doing this well. Results are not immediate and we continue a stream of “lessons learned” but we are confident and proud of our path. Excerpted from my letter a month ago I again urge you to read: “I direct you to the series of “buttons” above this letter. We have just added the “Bobcat Blog” button which consolidates all things LEAP for Bridge Point and for the district. It is a joint resource. The Bobcat Blog is designed for teachers, students, parents and all curiosity seekers (it may help you explain to your in-laws what we are up to!) It is a live site, constantly expanding with information, resources, questions, commentary and tools. Spend some minutes on it for an overview.” We want you to know what we know. It takes a lot of teamwork to get 750+ iPads at our school up and running! The EISD Technology Services (TS) works to process iPads to roll out to students in our district. A team of Educational Technologists and classroom teachers worked together to develop a list of apps to be put on the iPads. The apps are purchased and tracked through our Business Office and then the small team distributes apps through the Apple Configurator. They also barcode and inventory each iPad. Once the iPads arrive at Bridge Point, Mr. Manor, the tech assigned primarily to BPE, has to work on each iPad individually. He makes sure they are all operational, connecting to our Wifi, and in the case of the younger students, help us configure iFiles and set up subscription services. Way to go team EISD!
![]() Join the HCMS staff as they invite 50 educators from across Texas to learn more about all things iPad. Watch live via the Live stream website and learn more about what's happening at Hill Country MS here: http://hcms.eanesisd.net/leap/hcms_ipad-site-visit. Nola Wellman of the Eanes school district has been named Superintendent of the Year by the Texas Computer Education Association. “Dr. Wellman is a leader in recognizing the value of educational technology in advancing student-centered learning,” said Kal Kallison, Eanes school board president. “Dr. Wellman is quite deserving of this award, and I am pleased to see her efforts recognized.”
![]() Bobcats love learning with iPads! Today fifth graders at BPE received their 1:1 iPads. After enjoying a few months with the shared iPad model, students and teachers are excited to extend their learning repertoire to include a personal iPad. On this deployment of iPads, the entire group of Educational Technologists throughout our district collaborated on a broader list of apps to include reviewed and recommended by EISD teachers. The list of apps included on the 2nd deployment of EISD iPads can be found here on our blog under Leap-App Lists. Stay tuned for more excellent iHappenings! Kinder, 1st and 2nd are expected to join the 1:1 model late next week. Go Bobcats! ![]() EISD's team of educational technologist, fondly referred to as the iVengers stormed TCEA this year and presented a variety of topics. The elementary team of Marianna Husain, Jon Samuelson, Janet Couvillion, Margie Brown, Debbie Smith and Jolie Jennings presented the hard work of our EISD teachers. Check it out at http://teach-different.org or click on the interactive dots on the picture above to visit other awesome EISD schools.
Students in "Buddy" classrooms in Ms. Iles' 1st grade and Ms. Cimino's 3rd grade got together today for an iPad project. They created short videos about their buddies using the Animoto App for the iPad. The 3rd graders were instructed to give verbal directions and to let the 1st graders do all the "driving". The 1st graders caught on fast and it was wonderful to see the 3rd graders in a leadership role. It was fun to see them pick out music together and practice spelling and writing. Way to go! Check out some samples: Ella and Keira, Dogs, Jake and Sarah. ![]() Today EISD turned on access for students to You Tube SafeSearch. Here is a note to our staff from Carl Hooker, Director of Instructional Technology at Eanes ISD: __________________________________________________________________________________ Staff, Today we evolve into another level of access and personalized learning with the activation of YouTube SafeSearch for students. Your voices have been heard as 78% of teaching staff surveyed requested that student access to YouTube be enabled. There are a wealth of educational resources your students now have access to via this tool. In addition, students with iPads can now use their school gmail accounts to "publish to YouTube" which will help with file management, file size, etc. Like anything else, technology or otherwise, please be cognitive of what they are viewing and actively monitor your class. Here are some instructional ideas to help you get started: (courtesy Ed Tech Greg Garner -WRMS) - Record class presentations so students can view them outside of class - Utilize a channel of recorded lessons to begin moving towards a "flipped classroom" model - Have students create instructional videos that will demonstrate their learning - Have students find and curate a list of videos that are related to a given topic - Create a list of videos for students representing a variety of viewpoints and discuss bias and media literacy - Encourage students to utilize relevant videos in their classroom presentations - Assign Khan Academy videos as you deem relevant. _________________________________________________________________________________________________ Need more info for your family? Check out Google's Family Safety Center:http://www.google.com/goodtoknow/familysafety/tools/ ![]() Today, Dr. Wellman came to Bridge Point to award 5 members of the Bridge Point family with Eanespiration awards. One of those award winners was Jeraine Manor, an essential contributor to the success of our LEAP program. Here is what was written about him and presented by Dr. Wellman today: Jeraine Manor came to our campus as a Support Specialist from the Tech Services Department. He is our “go to” guy for all tech solutions. While his job is to repair, install, trouble shoot, and problem solve for all our technology problems, he goes well beyond the already high level of expectations set by our district. There is no problem too small or too large for Jeraine’s dogged attention. He doesn’t have the word “can’t” in his vocabulary. He only knows phrases like “Here’s how…”. “I’ll find out” or “After researching,…” always ending with “That’s done.” He has had a huge impact on the success of our LEAP initiative as well as the management of all our many other technologies. It is with his support that we are able to provide innovative, instructional gains for our school. His high level of competence is exceeded only by his joyful spirit. Jeraine is always wearing a smile, even when given tasks that that range from seemingly overwhelming to likely impossible. In this community of high achieving performers Jeraine goes discreetly about his business accomplishing his work with amazing speed and accuracy. All of this, he manages with the ultimate degree of courtesy and professionalism with both students and staff. We are fortunate and grateful to have his influence and knowledge on our campus. THANK YOU JERAINE!! The Final ProductA great group of 4th graders got together with a few very supportive parents to create this awesome BookSpring promo! They used the Superhero template to plan their video. The 4th graders and parents used a variety of iDevices to get the job done. In the end, all photos and videos were emailed to Arin so she and Claire could edit the iMovie trailer on Arin's school iPad. Way to go Max, Arin, Claire, Hunter, Brock, and Carter!
Bridge Point teachers convened today to learn from the best, OTHER BRIDGE POINT TEACHERS!! Mr. Wirht created a day of iLearning for our teachers that included a panel discussion about the Dripping Springs visit that occurred earlier this month and a five session iLearning rotation. The sessions were:
Scribble Press, led by team Husain & Medina: In this session teachers learned how to create their own illustrated stories that can be saved to view online, in PDF or in EPUB format. Differentiation, led by team Bechtol & Green: Teachers learned how to use Pages (turning off spell check for spelling tests), iFiles (paperless tests), Notability (creating tests that have recorded instructions with space to answer and work out problems), and Socrative (to create modified assessments and spelling tests) to help reach all styles of learners. Inside the 4th grade 1:1 classrooms, led by Team Joseph, Rollins and Cook shared how they use Nearpod to teach interactive math and science lessons. How Popplet Lite can organize thoughts and create fun math games. And how Comic Life was used to create Graphic Novels. They also had QR Codes to lead to more resources on teaching and learning with Comic Life, Popplet, and Nearpod. Inside the 5th grade shared iPad LA classrooms, led by Team Mojica & Campbell. This session showed teachers how to encourage students to find academic purposes for the apps on the BPE iPads using an iExploration guide created by Ms. Mojica. Ms. Mojica shared a lesson on homophones she did with her FIT (Focused Instruction Time) class where students created a visual of how to understand homophones as if your were a young learner or English language language learner. The student's whose work is showcased above, interviewed her preschool sibling to determine the best way to teach homophones and created a great video using Puppet Pals. Ms. Campbell shared how she works in her FIT group to read with expression using the camera iPad, simple and effective! Inside the 3rd grade 1:1 classrooms, led by Team Crowley, Cimino and Van Zandt shared with us how to use Animoto, Puppet Pals, iFiles and Tools4Students to teach content in a different way. Today is a day that we are proud to say we are educators. Some of our Bridge Point teachers participated in a "fish-bowl" experience this morning as 15 Dripping Springs guests weaved in and out of classrooms to see the LEAP program in action. As we walked the group of Administrators and K-5 educators through classrooms, we, along with our guests, were stunned to see such innovative, engaging, student-centered instruction. It was evident that the planning that went into today's teaching was not an orchestrated performance for visitors, but it was a part of what our teachers believe is best for our Bridge Pointers. The use of iPads with students was seamless and awe-inspiring...a mere reflection of well-developed teaching practices Bridge Point teachers utilize everyday. Kudos to our staff for their professionalism, flexibility and willingness to share with colleagues.
The enthusiasm from the Dripping Springs educators regarding the evolution of teaching and learning was contagious. We had the pleasure of learning with them today and look forward to collaborating more with them as they continue on their journey to integrate iPads in their schools. What did we see today? In Kinder, students use the Counting Board app at a math center to practice skip counting skills. First Graders enjoyed practicing math skills using Every Day Math Apps in pairs. A Second Grade class received their first intro to iPads lesson (see examples of videos created by students below). Studying matter was never more fun as students in Third Grade used a variety of apps to demonstrate the different properties of matter. Fourth grade really wowed us all with a variety of math lessons including assessments of learning with Socrative, an interactive lesson of dividing with remainders using the Near Pod app, and practicing Math Boxes with various apps. Homophones came alive today in Fifth Grade Language Arts FIT groups as students were challenged to create presentations on their iPads to demonstrate the meaning of sets of homophones that will be shared with ESL teachers and students. 5th grade students created Reading Rainbow style movies using the iMovie app as they practiced reading with expression and fluency. Final edited movies will be shared with our primary grades to enjoy. (5th grade photos and project examples coming soon) Phew! And to think, that was just one morning in the life of a Bridge Pointer?! Bravo Bridge Point!! ----Kim, Marianna, and Sandy 2nd graders came back from their winter break to start the New Year learning with iPads. The BPE Second Grade team has one set of 20 iPads for 7 classrooms to share. We reviewed the Primary iPad Contract with them, reviewed the parts of an iPad, iPad gestures, and worked on the app Screen Chomp to visually and verbally describe a number model. Students worked on demonstrating their knowledge of compound words as well. WELL DONE 2nd grade!!! In the first video below, a student writes the compound word something and in the 2nd video, a student writes out a number model with hearts. Third graders traveled around the world in search of penguin facts without ever leaving their classroom! Using QR codes, they were connected to live webcams of penguins all over the world. They observed many different species of penguins and were able to make observations over several days. They also used QR codes to get linked to research sites to gather information on penguins. They used a packet to guide them through their research while observing live penguins on each of their iPads.
First Grade students in Ms. Guthrie's and Ms. Stone's classes started up our shared iPad model today with an iPad orientation. We started with the Primary iPad contract and I was extremely impressed with the student's knowledge of how to care for an iPad. They were also very familiar with all the parts of an iPad including the sync/charge port! We introduced landscape and portrait views to the students and a few multitasking gestures. After reviewing the parts of an iPad with the students, each student received an iPad and we played Simon Says to review the parts. They were great listeners but what is so amazing for me to see time and time again is the way students are excited to help and collaborate with their classmates. WAY TO GO FIRST GRADE!! I really wish I could have stayed all day to learn with these kiddos! We finished out the intro lesson by using Screen Chomp to record a number model with their verbal explanation. Included in my directions were to keep going even if you make a mistake and correct the mistake so we can watch your learning. Take a look at Kaya's video below and listen to how he explains his model and corrects his mistakes. The following day, we worked with Ms. Tremel's class. After they did their number model, I let students chose something else to teach about. Check out Caroline's explanation of the life cycle of a plant below as well. ![]() Today, HCMS hosted several local area schools to get an inside view into the LEAP program at the middle school. The meetings are posted online and were streamed live: http://new.livestream.com/accounts/2097008/events/1732926. it was a great precursor to the board meeting held the following evening. School Board meetings are recorded and posted online on our district website and can be found here: http://www.eanesisd.net/school-board/audio The students in Ms. Rollin's 4th grade are studying the novel, Frindle. In this book, a boy name Nick challenges his no-nonsense, dictionary-loving teacher to an all out war on words.
After reading the book, they used the Socrative student app to take an online assessment that was created by their teacher. This program works on an iPad or on a computer. The program also grades the assessment automatically for the teacher, cool! As they read the book, they used Popplet Lite, a free graphic organizer program similar to Inspiration, to record the main idea and supporting details of each chapter. To complete the book study, pairs of students will take one chapter each and use the Comic Life app to create a graphic novel of Frindle. Students will use their hand drawn pictures as well of "App" drawn pictures for their graphic novel. A few interesting things happened in this class while I "helped" them learn about their apps. One, I noticed a few kids ON THEIR OWN use the invert colors feature to add contrast to their screens because it helps them read better. How'd they do that? Go to: Settings-General-Accessibility-Triple-click Home and choose INVERT COLORS. Two, a student drew a picture of Nick using Draw Free, and I asked him if he needed help getting the picture to the camera roll and I reminded him of the SEND button. He said he remembered that but what he liked to do was just make a screenshot. I bantered with, but then you will have the toolbar showing on the left. Oh, no problem, says he, all you have to do is crop it and he proceeded to show me how to use the Photos app to crop it in 2 seconds or less, wow! I'd never even thought of that! He was so proud to teach me and I was so proud to learn from him! Thirdly, the other interesting event was that while I was showing them the ins and outs of Comic Life, they seemed to already know how to use it. So I stopped TEACHING it and just let them start using it. I's amazing, it seems like this device encourages the whole idea of the "Entrepreneurial Learner", it's a device that is like a human extension of the arm and brain, it just makes sense and we can just use it. Hmmmm....
|
Archives
June 2018
|