A Day in the Life of 6th Grade

What did you do today at school?

This is the question we hope that students are being asked by supportive parents as they eat dinner together each evening as a family! Right??

Well, this may not be the picture of the modern family, but it is still an important question that someone somewhere should be asking. What would the answer be and what would we hope it to be? Are students spending their time passively or actively learning?

Here is a glimpse into some of the activities that our 6th graders were involved in just last week:






Students in Coach Sutton's Social Studies classes were collaborating on Google spreadsheets as they researched countries and compared the governments, religions, and economies.

Students in Mrs. Taylor's Science classes were using iPads to research earthquake activity in our area.









Mrs. Burns' AP Writing class was videotaping the commercials they had written.


So..what did YOU do at school today??

Who is in charge of "Show and Tell" in your classroom??

Teachers everywhere are using great technology to encourage student production that fosters independent learning. These awesome educators are no longer running all the learning in their classroom, but instead, students are in charge of a great deal of the "Show and Tell" that takes place at school. This is a hallmark of true engagement and learning.

Unfortunately, these heroes of the classroom often go unnoticed as they are too busy facilitating, planning and experimenting to share or broadcast their own efforts or the endeavors of their students.

Enjoy this student product created on Educreations in Mrs. Taylor's 6th Grade Science class. This was their first project using this app!

The Asthenosphere   

What have your students created today....

this week....

this school year?

Get Creative with Educreations!!

In an effort to move toward student production on the iPad, Educreations has been added to our devices. As always, it takes a great teacher to get out there and test the waters for everyone, and our 6th Grade Science teacher, Mrs. Taylor, played with Educreations to produce the following video on models. This Educreation was then embedded in her Edmodo for students to use in centers this week, and then next week, students will be publishing their own Educreation.

Students Love Prezi!

One of my favorite tech tools is Prezi! Kids love it, it is simple to use, and accounts are easy to set up. I knew that some of our Middle School teachers had been offering Prezi as a project option for students, but today's feature is from one of  the students of High School History teacher, Calvin Kennedy.

For those wary of the zooming and twisting of Prezi....this one won't even make you seasick!
Enjoy!



Thank you to Mr. Kennedy for sharing his student's products. Mr. Kennedy's classroom can be found on Facebook at www.facebook.com/kennedyhistory

How have you used technology to reach and teach students?
What have your students created today?
Would love to hear from you!

Students Explore Space!

Mrs. Taylor's Science class has been studying space for the past several weeks and have researched, created, presented, and even pretended to be planets. Get a glimpse into all these great classroom activities through this project video!

Communication is Key, so Get Started with Weebly!

Wow! Things have been so busy that I am just getting back to the blog....and continuing the idea that there is something on the web for all subjects and all grade levels.

Today, I want to focus on "communication". It is central to all human interactions: parents to children, spouse to spouse, boss to employee, teacher to teacher, teacher to student and parent....the list is endless. Technology has become a HUGE part of our culture for interpersonal communication, and it should translate seamlessly into school as well. Right? Well, not always.

One hurdle is accessibility. Many of the tools we love to use personally, such as Twitter and Facebook, are often blocked at the public school level. While there are some understandable concerns in using and "controlling" the use of Twitter and Facebook, these are natural places for communication for literally millions of people. So, where can we go next?

There are so many tools out there that it can be difficult to know, and, for many people, time can be a concern. So, let's consider something clean, simple and very easy to use: Weebly.com or Weebly for Educators.  This free tool allows you to create a website by just dragging and dropping. It is really that simple! Weebly can be used to quickly set up a site for classroom announcements, instructional videos, photo galleries, and links to classroom resources. If you join as an educator, you can even manage your students' accounts and accept assignments online. Need to see more?

Visit one of our very own Weebly sites: A Piece of Our Pi in Room 103!  This great site was started by a busy math teacher and mom, Mrs. Spivey.



So, if you need to communicate with your students beyond the classroom walls but have limited time to learn the ins-and-outs of a more complicate website builder or even consider yourself a "non-techie", then Weebly is a great solution to go "high tech" without the hassles of a steep learning curve! Try it out!

Think Technology is NOT for Your Subject??

With so many technology tools available these days, it is important for teachers to get out there to explore and play with what is available until they find the perfect fit for teaching style, content needs, technology skill level, and purpose.

So many times, teachers think that THEIR subject or grade level is just not a good fit for technology, but there is something for everyone if you just look! Take "Art", for example. What can we do with technology in art? Our teacher, Mrs. Spivey found Artsonia to be the perfect website for her subject. In Artsonia, she can create student accounts, upload pictures of her students' projects, and even sell items that have the students' artwork printed on them!

To see our students' work on Artsonia, just go to the website, find the box to select a school by name, and type the word "Eustace". You will then see the link to the Middle School art work, and Mrs. Spivey has uploaded 472 student works that can be viewed and enjoyed by everyone! Parent permission is required to post work, and the students' full names are not used.

A link to the Artsonia site is also included on the Middle School webpage for easy-to-remember access. I hope you pop in to view our students' art work on Artsonia! I also hope it makes you wonder how technology could be used for YOUR subject......