Christmas is coming!

Letters went out to Santa from some of our Kindergarten, 1st and 2nd graders to the Dickson Herald. I know Santa reads this paper so I know he'll get the lists! 

Santa blessed us with three Kindle Fire HD tablets last week (He sure is a great guy). Some of our go-getter's have already earned "Fire-Time" and enjoyed 15 minutes of exploring the Kindles. 

We have been working on Power Point projects that include uploading images, videos, and Power Point's onto Skydrive (cloud storage). The 3rd, 4th and 5th graders have been exploring cloud management. They even had an opportunity to make videos and insert them into the PP's. The project was to choose an inventor and provide information about them. They also had to provide citing because the lesson also included a discussion on plagiarism. They also had to learn to work as a group (just like in the real world) and manage the different personalities. To end the unit they will take a customized survey regarding this project and review the results.

New tables in Lab (much better!)

Thank you for the donation Mrs. Gramling.

We are off to another great year at The Discovery School! Kindergarten has joined us this week so now we are complete. Many new faces have joined us in every grade and we are so happy they are here. Technology Lab has been buzzing with creative minds. We have been covering icons and scrolling along with the ever important Internet Safety. Later on we will tackle keyboarding with Dance Mat Typing. Try out the program here: Dance Mat Typing.

Excel, Excel, Excel!!

We are learning the in's and out's of a spreadsheet. First grade to Fifth grade can save, navigate, adjust columns, select a range, enter numbers, change numbers to currency, rename sheets, insert charts and make a pie chart with exploding pieces. Fourth and Fifth can multiply, divide, and find the average and median of numbers. There are some smart cookies at this school and now we can chart how many are here!!!

Safe in the Cyber World

Have you ever been harassed online? Did someone ever say a mean thing about you online? Has someone posted a "not-so-nice" image of you online? Our students are learning to recognize a cyberbully and what steps to take to fight back. Our students are learning to be good cyber citizens.

Internet Explorer 8

Watch out folks! These students are SMART! They are in the know when it comes to Internet Explorer 8. Ask a 2rd through 5th grader how to save to Favorites, Create a Favorite Folder, make their screen full size and they will be happy to show you!

Educated Elementary!

Watch out parents and teachers! Our students are in the know. They are learning how to make icons, adding shortcuts to I.E.8 and finding home this week! Ask them and they will show you!!

Welcome Back!

We are in the first week of our first block here ar TDS. We are off to a great start! Lots of happy faces every morning. We are focusing on Keyboarding this block with DanceMat Typing. Fifth grade will learn some keyboard shortcuts later on in the block.

4th Block Projects!

1st and 2nd grade are taking a virtual Summer Vacation across Tennessee. We are visiting each region, calculating fuel costs, food, shopping, admission, and hotel costs along the way. They each get a $4,000 budget for 7 days and must spend as much as they can without going over it.
3rd through 5th get to go on a virtual World Summer Vacation for a MONTH! They have a budget of $10,000 and must calculate, along with the above fares, airfare, train fare, and misc. fares. Had some boys want to take a trip up the Congo River. How do you calculate boat rental?! Have to figure that out! They get to make a visual presentation on Tripline.net adding photos and notes. The costs are kept up with in Excel. Now they will know what their parents go through in planning a vacation (I don't know anyone who has taken a vacation with such a big budget, but hey, it's virtual!).

Spring Break

We are on Spring Break for the next week! Yay!! Testing in the lab is over, and so is game day. The student had a very long third block but we dug our heels in and learned a lot. Creating and editing in Word and Power Point, inserting pictures and editing in Picnik.com, making I-Spy's in Power Point and printing them out, and dealing with Facebook issues. Need a rest to re-group for our next adventure in lab!

Test Day

We have been testing in the lab today. Amazing who remembers what we learned this block. We did some fun things in Power Point, Word and even picnik.com! Next block, believe it or not, will be even more fun for the students. But I can't tell...it's a secret!!!

Ahh...

So glad to be back in school! We edited pictures in Picnik.com that we had found at Freefoto.com on Monday. A skill everyone should know how to do. The class will continue to edit while I start our I-Spy Power Points up again. Don't know if we will finish as I will only see each class around 4 more times before break but I'm going to give it my best. I'm going to give the option for students to work on their I-Spy project on game day. We'll see who takes me up on that!

Snow, snow, snow.......

When will it end! We've had one day of lab per class since coming back from Christmas vacation and now we are into Odyssey testing. Un-fun! We have the best projects to do to learn Word, Excel, and Power Point but just don't have the class time to do them. I will only see each class two or three more times before break and am feeling frustrated. I love snow but, come on, let's get it over with already!

10 Little Items

Okay students, remember to bring in 10 "little" items for your I-Spy project. If it doesn't fit in a Kroger bag, don't bring it. You MUST ask your parents permission to bring them in. As soon as we take the photo you can take them home. Until then, they will be under lock and key in the lab. Please do not bring valuable items. If your parents have any objection to you bringing in the items, I have a classroom full of "like objects" that you are free to use. Your only limitation is your imagination! This is going to be a BLAST!

Snow Days...

I can't wait for the ice to clear and to go back to school!! So much to teach, and now, so little time. Testing to do, projects to assign, icons, toolbars, charts, surveys, digital photo's to make, slideshows, movies... HELP! And this is TCAP block!! Whew! I am breathing now... all will get done. And we will have a great time learning new things. I have a great school with wonderful students! Best ever!!!!!!

Student Made Video

Check out the video one of our 5th graders made!

Wednesday projects

Well, we have some projects going on in lab. 1st grade made a Word Search with cyber safety words in it, 2nd grade is making a flyer to hand out about online safety, 3rd and 4th are making brochures about internet safety, blogging and what they learned from Brain pop videos and 5th might have the most exciting project of all. They are making a movie with the xtranormal web site. This is a web 2.0 tool and it must be a dialogue about cyber safety, blogging, cyberbullying and so on. Can't wait to post the best ones. We have some very create students!

Help for mom

After class on Wednesday, I had a student approach me after her class had left and told me an interesting story. She said that her mother was online and received a pop-up telling her she had just won something and to click here to receive it. She did and the student said it started showing bad words. This students ending of the story was, her mother should have asked her what to do. The ending of my story is, I wish more of my students would follow Rule #6 of my Computer Lab...When you learn something in Lab, share it (before your parents get into trouble!)

Cyber bullies

Just like in real life, cyberbullies make people feel bad with what they say. A person can forget their manners when they think they are anonymous. If you ignore the first rude comment they will probably give up and leave you alone. If it continues, keep a copy of it and tell your parent or another adult you trust. Remember, just like in the real world, kind words should always be your first choice.

Online Safety

We learned about keeping passwords a secret, never give out personal info, tell parents if you receive a text from a stranger.

Cyberbullying

Today we are learning about Cyberbullying. A bully in the cyberworld is just the same as the real world. Neither should be tolerated. Tell a teacher, parent or trusted adult and they can help you. Do NOT retaliate. They are looking for an emotional response. People can forget their manners online.

Our new YouTube.com Channel

Great news! TDS now has a YouTube Channel! You can find it at youtube.com/TDSToday . There are videos to help you and your parents with homework. Right now it has a lot of math. Ask your teacher to make a video of something you are having trouble with so you can see the way she does it. It might even help your parents help you. The only bad thing is, we cannot view it at school. Mrs. Albright is our first teacher to make a video for our channel. The video describes how to find the area of a triangle. I've attached it here here since we can't get youtube at school. When you see her in the hall give her a big thumbs up. UPDATE- just found out you can't play the video at school yet-am working on fixing it!

Wacky Wednesday

Third and fifth grade have dressed down today because they had full attendance on Monday's short day. Congratulations!! They are going to love the video on Digital Etiquette.

Short Day on Monday

We have a short day today. Wonder who will win the video test? Boys? Girls?

Digital Etiquette

Digital etiquette is just plain being kind to each other. If you were face to face with someone you can tell how your words effect the person you are speaking to. In the cyber world you have nothing to go by but words. That is why you have to take an extra moment to think before you speak. "How would I react to the words I am posting?" If someone is not being kind to you, you always have the option to end the conversation and not retaliate. If the conversation makes you uncomfortable, tell an adult. Mind your manners in real life and cybersphere!

Wednesday with Team 1

Today we are watching a Brainpop video on Digital Etiquette and testing to see if the boys or girls paid the most attention to the video. Then we will play games at Netsmatzkids.com and IKeepSafe.org. I'm going to see if a student would like to make a post instead of adding a comment.

First day back after fall break

Okay, well, I think everyone had a great time in lab today. It was nice seeing all the students again. The blogging lesson went well and the students who participated seemed to like it. I hope they continue to expand on their posts and ask me questions along with comments. We really do need to check our spelling though. I know what they mean but I'm not sure everyone else does. They did get a kick out of each others misspellings. I hope they share this with their parents!

Why should I blog?

I love to learn new things. I love to teach things that I learn. Blogging gives me a place to organize my thoughts and maybe teach others things that may be new to them. I hope this year in tech lab to give students a place to write about things they understand, things they want to learn, comments on things done in the lab, and the knowledge that somewhere, someone cares what they have to say.

Technology Lab

Can't wait for the first day of school!!