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Digital Conversion: Granite School District and 21st Century Learning

Last week Patrick Flanagan, Director of Educational Technology for Granite School District, reported to the Granite Board of Education on proposed plans and timelines for Digital Conversion, an initiative to place mobile computing devices in the hands of every student and classroom.  [Read more…] about Digital Conversion: Granite School District and 21st Century Learning

Teacher Spotlight: Karen Fox, Sandburg Elementary

iPod Touches are out and about in Karen Fox’s first grade class. On the iPods, students practice math, reading and writing in fun and meaningful ways that Karen has designed for her students. With a dice app, students shake their iPods to roll their dice. They add them together to get a sum, and then either hop, tiptoe or skip to find others with the same sum. Students use the mic app to record themselves reading their story. Afterwards, they listen to their recordings to hear themselves reading. Then they’re moving on to writing their Word Wall words using the notes app. Karen carefully demonstrates the instructions for each activity by placing an iPod under the doc cam to show her students what is expected. Students get busy typing their word wall words and then get a chance to individually read them to their teacher. Karen makes “Every Day Count and Every Minute Matter” for her students. Thanks Karen Fox!

Spotlight Author: Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

Granite Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter – January 2015

Granite Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter – January 2015

Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District, and you can also access it here.

This month’s highlights Include:

Teacher Spotlight: Katie Ricks, Driggs Elementary

Hour of Code with Katie Ricks’s 3rd Grade Students

Katie Ricks, a 3rd grade teacher at Howard R, Driggs Elementary School, is one of many teachers participating in the Hour of Code throughout Granite School District. Most of the 3rd graders at her school have the opportunity to program while using Chromebooks. Programs such as Code.org, Tynker, and Khan Academy are some of the sites where Ms. Ricks’ students learn how to drag and drop programming commands. She says that the students are really excited about Hour of Code, and that she sees it as having great benefit for increasing problem-solving skills as well as an overall learning of basic programming.

Spotlight Author: Kristen Johnson, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

Teacher Spotlight: Suzette Prevo, Fremont Elementary

Mrs. Suzette Prevo is a fifth grade teacher at Fremont Elementary. I had the opportunity to visit her class and watch the innovative things she is doing in her classroom. The students had written an essay A Person I Admire and they were working on editing their writing. Mrs. Prevo had the students using Voki to help them with the editing process. The students would copy text from the essay into Voki and then listen to the avatar read the text back. The students were listening for correct pauses and word choice. After listening to their writing they would then go back to the essay and make the necessary changes. The students were highly engaged in the editing process.

Practicing math facts has taken on a new twist in Mrs. Prevo’s class. The students used Socrative to work as teams to propel their rocket ship across the screen. You could feel the excitement in the air as they worked together to accomplish their goal.

These students use technology everywhere they go. The final activity I experienced during my visit was the fifth graders working with their first grade buddies. They went to the first grade class and helped them practice reading. Each student had a leveled reading book and the fifth grade student would record their buddy reading. Once the student finished the book they would then watch the video clip of themselves and talk with their partner about how they read. What a truly collaborative experience!

Mrs. Prevo has created a classroom environment where technology is the norm, just like using paper and pencil. Her students are engaged in the learning process, they collaborate, and the classroom environment is so inviting.

Spotlight Author: Heidi Meenen, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

#GraniteTechChat Archive: Hour of Code (12/15/2014)

Granite EdTech sponsors a monthly twitter chat on teaching with technology called #GraniteTechChat. This chat is open to any interested parties, but is especially focused on the participation of school technology specialists and library media educational technology specialists in Granite School District.

#GraniteTechChat Archives

Follow the links below for archives of our most recent chats, saved and published via Storify.

#GraniteTechChat: Hour of Code – December 15, 2014

Below is an embedded selection from our archive of the most recent chat, in which we reflected on recent Hour of Code activities and began to look at how to expand upon student interest in coding by integrating it into everyday classroom activity, after school clubs, etc.

Granite Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter – December 2014

Granite Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter – December 2014

Our department’s monthly newsletter was recently sent out to all teachers in Granite School District, but you can also access it here.

This month’s highlights Include:

Let #GraniteEdTech Help You

(Video Creator: Patrick Flanagan)

6 Ways #GraniteEdTech Can Help You Right Now

Looking for information and resources? Have a question, need, or suggestion for us?  Here are five easy ways that we are reaching out to you and that you can reach out to us right now.

  1. Follow the #GraniteEdTech conversation on Twitter and see the resources being shared by teachers and technology specialists. You can also join the conversation by tweeting your ideas, resources, and experiences.
  2. Follow EdTechGSD on Pinterest, where we are compiling useful Ed. Tech. resources on timely topics such as Coding, Chromebooks, and Google Apps for Education.
  3. Follow our Blog.  We post new stories and resources here at least two times per week. (Sometimes more!)
  4. Read our EdTech Monthly Newsletter! This is how we share class registrations and other professional development opportunities for Granite teachers.
  5. Use our handy Request & Suggestion Form and we’ll get back to you soon with a response, and usually a great solution.
  6. As always, talk with your school technology specialist, library media educational technology specialist, and/or media assistant.  They are wonderful and have so many ways to support you and your students.

Video: How Students Access Email

More About Student Email and Office 365

Did you know that all students K-12 in Granite School District have access to Microsoft’s Office 365 Education for Students? This includes several valuable tools and services: [Read more…] about Video: How Students Access Email

Introducing Granite EdTech’s Twitter Tag a Teacher Contest!

In an effort to use Twitter as a way to collaborate amongst members in our department, today we are kicking off the “Twitter Tag a Teacher” Contest. Below are the details of this contest.

Contest Goals

The goal is to share amazing ways in which teachers around the district are integrating technology into their everyday teaching practice and to encourage collaboration amongst Ed Tech staff through the use of Twitter.

Duration

December 2nd through December 17th, 2014

Rules

  1. Share awesome ways that teachers in your building are integrating technology into their daily practice through tweets.
  2. In each of your tweets be sure to tag or mention the teacher who is integrating technology in the classroom. If possible include a picture of the teacher in action. (Please get permission from the teacher before tweeting out their picture.)
  3. Include the hashtag #EdTechContest in each of your tweets.
  4. For each tweet you send out, tagging a teacher and spotlighting their innovative way of using technology, your name will be placed in the drawing. The more tweets you send out spotlighting teachers in your building the more your name is placed in the drawing and the better chance you will have at winning the prize box.
  5. Participation in this contest is not mandatory. (It will be so dang fun spotlighting the amazing teachers in our schools that it will be hard to resist participating in this contest.)

Prize

There will be two boxes of fun tech gadgets given away to two lucky Ed Tech Dept. members. The drawing for these boxes will be held on the morning of December 18th and winners will be notified via Twitter.

I look forward to seeing all of the amazing ways super star educators in our district are effectively using technology to engage students and increase student learning. Good luck to each one of you!

Patrick Flanagan
Director, Educational Technology