In the Classroom

ACPS and Blended Learning

Emily Dillard

ACPS defines blended learning as the deliberate connection of educational technology with face-to-face instruction to enhance and personalize a deep and meaningful curriculum.  This year, administrators, technology integration specialists, and teachers will participate in blended learning cohorts to build and define the ACPS Blended Learning Model!  This is an exciting opportunity for our division, as blended learning support the ACPS 2020 Strategic Plan.  To kick off the year, ACPS held the first annual Blended Learning Camp in August!

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We’re going on an iPad Hunt!

Ms. Doughty

Many teachers are familiar with the Michael Rosen classic, We’re Going on a Bear Hunt.  Kindergarten classes at William Ramsay are using this text as inspiration to go on iPad scavenger hunts.  Students are using the iPad camera to walk around the school and take pictures of shapes, numbers, letters, rhyming words, and more.  After collecting pictures of the taught concept, students design a collage with pictures, words, and colors using the app Pic Kids.  Students of all ages can use this app with its simplistic design and icon based features.  What could your students hunt for inside and outside of the school?

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Charles Barrett Meteorologists

Mrs. Walsh

Green-screenIn February, students in Ms. Wines 2nd grade class at Charles Barrett investigated weather.  Students identified common storms such as thunderstorms, blizzards and tornadoes; then wrote weather reports that reflected their understanding.  Using an app called Green Screen, students recorded themselves as meteorologists in the storm!  They smashed their Green Screen video into iMovie, adding ‘news’ theme music and ‘news’ captions.

March TLP Session

Mrs. Walsh

20160303_175701On March 3rd, teachers part of the 2015-2016 cohort of the Teacher Leadership Program, met at George Washington Middle School to share ideas about technology integration and how they are implementing technology at their schools.   Brianna Becker, Amy Leslie and Rosetta Stewart from Matthew Maury Elementary presented on a web based tool called EdPuzzle.   EdPuzzle is used in conjunction with videos to provide students with interactive lessons that can include questions and teacher voice.  Lessons are self paced for each individual student.  Laura Murphy and Pei Wing from Lyles-Crouch Traditional Academy presented a cross grade level lesson with 1st and 5th graders. It included integrating iMovie into explanations 20160303_173050about Ancient Civilizations.  5th grade students taught the 1st graders content about the civilizations and how to use iMovie!  Laura Zybrick, 3rd grade teacher from Lyles-Crouch also presented about Google Classroom.  She demonstrated the ease of use students encounter when they use Google Classroom, specifically when they click on embedded links.  For more information about TLP, please see your building Technology Integration Specialist.

Book Reviews!

Mrs. Walsh

Students in Ms. Mull’s 1st grade reading class recorded each other using the iPad talking about a book they had recently read.  They used an outline graphic organizer that contained key components they were suppose to include in their review such as:  title, setting, characters, and problem.  In the end, students could recommend the book and describe how many ‘stars’ they would give it!  As a bonus, students took their video and placed it in iMovie where they could add background music to their book review.  Students enjoyed reviewing books, listening to themselves on a video, listening to their friends reviews and adding music!

 

 

Nonfiction Readers!

Mrs. Walsh

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Students in Ms. Fisher’s 3rd grade class at George Mason  spent time reading and exploring nonfiction texts.  They discovered headings in nonfiction text contain key words that give a preview of main ideas they may read about in a section!  3rd graders learned nonfiction texts contain certain features they won’t usually find in fiction books such as:  a table of contents, glossary, bold words, and headers.  Students read their nonfiction texts, then created a shadow puppet using an iPad explaining main ideas of a section in their book. 

 

 

Fraction E-Books!

Mrs. Walsh

Agunlockt George Mason Elementary, students in Mrs. Dean’s 1st grade class demonstrated their understanding of fractions by creating e-books.  After a brief introduction of the app Book Creator, students were given the opportunity to work on pages of their books explaining different types of fractions and what the fractions represented.  Book Creator then gave them the opportunity to download the book as a PDF, or save it as a movie with them discussing elements of fractions.  Students then took their e-book ‘movie’ and added light background music in the app iMovie.

 

 

The Benefits of Coding are No Secret at John Adams

Jacki Mechanic

Coding, a 21st Century Skill which is required in jobs from farming to medicine, is engaging, fosters collaboration, and promotes critical thinking and problem solving. Several classrooms at John Adams Elementary participate in weekly coding classes. Students are exposed to a variety of coding platforms, such as Code.org, Scratch and Bitsbox. While solving puzzles, students reinforce and expand upon skills taught in math and science.

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TLP-C in action at Maury

Melissa K King

TLP-C is an online professional development offered by technology services to all PreK – 12 teachers. Presenters are teachers who share a technology they have used in their classroom.   gra-picOne of the monthly topics was the global read aloud.  The global read aloud is the reading aloud of one common book and then student participants communicate and collaborate using digital tools.  The book for ages 7 & up was The Year of Billy Miller by Kevin Henkes.  Ms. K Evans (a TLP-C participant from Maury Elementary) and her second graders participated in the global read aloud and made connections with students around the world using Padlet (think an online wall of stickies), Skype (video calling) and blogged on WriteAbout.  Here is a picture of the students exploring maps to locate one of their partner classes in Canada while Skyping and an example from the Padlet.padlet