Inside My I.T. Classroom

Robotics Club 2011

Tue, 7 Jun 2011 22:19:19 -0400

Our Robotics Club has been hard at work this year. We’ve created an amazing number of different types of robots. A robot spider, a gymnist, a baseball player, a humanoid, an inchworm, and even a robot that can follow a line as you draw it.
I was impressed by all the hard work, dedication and creativity each our our robotics club members put into the club this year. We have all learned an amazing amount and we’ll be ready to compete in the “First Robotics” competition next year!
The following YouTube video shows all of our amazing work!

Integrating ICT into the classroom

Tue, 8 Mar 2011 21:00:36 -0500

My Grade 5 colleagues and I were asked run a workshop explaining our program. I was asked specifically to talk about ICT in Grade 5. I focused on it’s importance and how it can be integrated into all classroom work.
I created the video below for the workshop because I was unable to be there in person.

Grade 5 - Health - Comics and Podcasts

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 22:15:03 -0500

During their "Unit of Inquiry" about the body and health Grade 5 students learned about healthy eating and regular exercise from the “Canada Food Guide” and “Physical Activity Guide.”
Students were challenged to communicate the importance of healthy living to other students at our school.
They did this buy creating comics using Bit Strips for Schools.
They also created podcasts using Zoom Recorders and Audacity. We even got the chance to have a video chat interview with nutritionist Rich Ralph over Skype for the podcasts.

Nutrition tips from Jenny, Sarah Mariah and Julia

Exercise tips from Eva and Hannah

Grade 1 - Virtual Field Trip to Italy

Thu, 3 Feb 2011 21:38:30 -0500

During their "Unit of Inquiry" about communities Grade 1 students at Elmwood in Ottawa had many questions about communities around the world. The wrote their questions down and then we contacted had a video chat with a Grade 1 class at The Bilingual European School in Milan Italy.

Grade 1 - iPod Touch in the Classroom

Thu, 20 May 2010 15:15:32 -0400

My Grade 1 technology class was featured on CBC news this week. A camera crew dropped by to film my Grade 1 students as they learned how to use the iPod touch to create a picture story. Students had spent the previous day learning how to retell and pass on stories in class. They then used the iPod to draw what they felt were the most important parts of the story “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”. We then used an App called “Reel Director” which allowed the girls to create a movie using their pictures and a voice-over retelling the story.
Below is an clip from the Ottawa CBC News from Tuesday Evening.

Here is a movie with one of my students end products.

We were also featured on CBC Radio’s “All in a Day”.

Applications Most Frequently Used by the Grade One Class

Voice Memos (comes with the iPod)
• Students can record their voice while reading and can listen to it while reflecting on their fluency, errors, and overall expression
• Students can record their responses and reflections orally, without being limited by what they are able to write down

Clock Master
• Time is shown on a clock face, students must spin the dials at the bottom to show the indicated time
• Students get immediate feedback as to whether they were right or wrong
• Multi-level: can be adjusted to meet student need

Basic Math Deluxe
• Students pick the operation (addition or subtraction) and respond to the questions
• At the end, they are given their time and a score
• Multi-level: can be adjusted to increase the difficulty of the questions

Tumblebooks To Go (Robert Munsch Pack and Dinosaurs Roar, Butterflies Soar)
• Students can listen to a book being read to them (words are highlighted as they are said) or they can turn off the volume and read independently

Chicktionary
• Making words activity
• Students are given a jumble of letters and must make as many words as they can

Dragon Dictation
• Students can say a word into their microphone to see the correct spelling
• This is used to check work, not to replace the act of sounding out words

Paint Studio Junior
• Students can draw pictures to illustrate concepts or retell stories
• The pictures can be saved to the iPod and can be used in other projects

Whiteboard
• This is a collaborative drawing software.
• Two iPods can be linked using a wireless network and students can together create an image, each working on their own device.

Reel Director
• Students can edit together pictures, photos, and video clips.
• They can add titles and credits to their video.
• They can add transitions between pictures and video.
• They can add music or record sound for the sound track.
• This can be used to create stories, retell stories or share ideas.

Sentence Spin
• Helps students become better readers, writers and communicators.
• Students spin the dials to create sentences that can then be illustrated with a picture that communicates the meaning of the sentence.
• The picture can be saved to the iPod for future use.

Sentence Builder (iSentence)
• Helps students build grammatically correct sentences
• Focus is on the connector words that make up over 80% of the English language
• Multi-level: students can work at 3 different levels, each with more options in terms of correct word usage

Successfully Learning Mathematics Grade 1 (Learn Math 1)
• A variety of games that work on skills such as breaking down numbers, addition, subtraction, geometry, halving and doubling and mental arithmetic
• Multi-level: the more tasks that are solved, the more rounds that can be played

Grade 2 - Perspective and Google Earth

Wed, 3 Mar 2010 18:59:02 -0500

Students in Grade 2 have been learning about perspective in their Unit of Inquiry "The View From Here."
They are now learning about maps in "Living here, living there."
In Tech, we have combined these two concepts. We are using Google Earth to look at our school from a different perspective.

Grade 7 - Programming with Scratch

Tue, 23 Feb 2010 18:51:33 -0500

Grade 7 students describe how they individually programmed video games and then combined them into one big game as a group using Scratch a fantastic programming language developed at MIT.
Scratch is a programming language that makes it easy to create your own interactive stories, animations, games, music, and art -- and share your creations on the web.
http://scratch.mit.edu

Grade 8 - Prezi vs PowerPoint

Mon, 8 Feb 2010 18:43:16 -0500

Grade 8 students review web-based presentation software Prezi and compare its merits to PowerPoint.

Senior Kindergarten - Knuffle Bunny

Wed, 13 Jan 2010 18:23:10 -0500

Inspired by the book "Knuffle Bunny", Senior Kindergarten took photos with their favourite stuffed animals and used the computer to turn them into illustrations.

Elmwood Junior Robotics Club

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:36:44 -0500

The Junior School robotics club have finished building their first robots. We’ve been using Lego Mindstorm building a robot with claws and a bumper. When the bumper is pushed the claws closes grabbing whatever it runs into. The club meets every friday evening after school for 45 minutes and we started the robots at the end of October. There were three stages to the build. The driving base, the bumper, and the grabber. One group reprogrammed their robot to do a victory dance when it grabbed the ball!