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Granite School District > Educational Technology > Blog > 3rd Grade

3rd Grade

Spotlight: Digital Breakouts at Calvin Smith Elementary

January 2018Josh Whiting

Third Grade Students in Kimberly Cretsinger’s classroom at Calvin Smith Elementary worked collaboratively to solve clues in the Digital Breakout challenge they were given. Digital Breakouts are a newer component of the already well known Breakout EDU web site. Instead of physically unlocking boxes by finding and solving clues, students unlock digital levels of a breakout mystery. Questions contain a variety of content aligned challenges. The storyline for this Digital Breakout explained that students had accidentally been locked into their classroom and would miss the bus if they didn’t solve all the clues to Breakout.
Students worked in groups using their classroom Chromebooks to solve the mystery. Watch the short video above to see these 3rd Grade Problem Solvers hard at work Breaking Out!

Spotlight created by Teresa Bruin, District Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader. This post originally appeared in our January 2018 Ed. Tech. Monthly Newsletter for Teachers.

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Breakout EDU, Calvin Smith Elementary, Digital Breakouts, Game-Based Learning, Kimberly Cretsinger, Problem Based Learning, Problem Solving Activities, Student Collaboration

Teacher Spotlight: Third Grade Team, Arcadia Elementary

November 2017J. Peirce

3rd Grade Small Group Instruction with Mrs. Walton
Mrs. Walton leads math instruction with a small group of 3rd grade students

The third grade students at Arcadia Elementary are becoming Subtraction Masters thanks to a unique approach their teachers are using. Felicia Walton, Matthew Morse, and Kathy Godfrey have created a leveled system and work collaboratively to ensure that all of their students are working and proceeding at their level of understanding. They began by breaking down the subtraction skills students should know by the end of third grade and ranked these skills into twelve levels according to their complexity, beginning with a basic understanding of subtraction to being able to solve complex word problems using multi-digit subtraction with regrouping. To make it more engaging for the students, they gamified these levels by relating them to Star Wars Jedi mastery levels.

Third Grade Subtraction Skills Leveled and Gamified as Star Wars Jedi Mastery
Subtraction Skills Leveled and Gamified as Star Wars Jedi Mastery
Subtraction Masters Tutorial Video
A Subtraction Masters tutorial video created by Arcadia 3rd grade teachers

To provide practice resources for their students, they used their Mimio software to create screen-casted tutorial videos that the students can refer back to as they practice at each level. They then used Go Formative to create sets of practice problems the students work through for each level. The video they created for each level is included in the Go Formative activity for that level, so students have all the resources they need to practice their subtraction in one place.

Not only did Mrs. Walton, Mr. Morse, and Mrs. Godfrey collaborate to create these resources, but these three teachers team up to teach the math. Students will go to one of the three teachers to receive small group instruction with other students who have achieved the same level. Mrs. Walton, Mr. Morse, and Mrs. Godfrey have the small groups in front of their whiteboards to teach the students and provide guided practice at their level during this time.

Mr. Morse Leading Small Group Instruction
Mr. Morse leading small group instruction with Mimio interactive whiteboard

While the three small groups of students receive instruction directly from the teacher in their small groups, the rest of the students work at their desks using Chromebooks to access the Go Formative activity for their level, watch the video, and practice subtraction at their level. Once a student has achieved 80% mastery, he or she levels up to the next level. Go Formative allows the teachers to easily see where the students are at in their mastery of subtraction.

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While this may seem like a lot of work, Mrs. Walton said that each video took them only about 10 minutes to create. Mr. Morse noted that, though there was quite a bit of front end work, using technology in this way has ended up saving them a lot of time. The level of student engagement is very high. One student, Amanda, noted that she really likes learning math this way because it’s fun. Through collaboration, blended learning, targeted instruction and practice, and use of technology, these teachers are ensuring that their students will come away with the math skills they need.

Mrs. Walton Leading Small Group Instruction
Mrs. Walton Leading Small Group Instruction

Spotlight Created by Jenny Peirce, Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader.

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Arcadia Elementary, Chromebooks, Differentiation, Felicia Walton, Go Formative, Interactive Whiteboards, Jenny Peirce, Kathy Godfrey, Math Resources, Matthew Morse, Mimio, Screencasting, Teacher Collaboration, Video Resources

Teacher Spotlight: Tricia Fenton and Katy Halliday, Western Hills Elementary

October 2016Josh Whiting

Tricia Fenton is the STS at Vista Elementary and Western Hills Elementary. She collaborates with teachers at both of her schools on the integration of technology into their lessons on a regular basis. Tricia is excellent at all aspects of her job as an STS. which includes front line tech support, helping implement district online tools, and training students and teachers in multiple programs and technologies. She notes that her favorite part of her job is going into classrooms and working with the teachers and students.

Katy Halliday is a 3rd grade teacher at Western Hills Elementary. She eagerly seeks out ways to enhance learning through the use of technology. She isn’t afraid to try new things, knowing that it doesn’t always go perfectly the first time, but that’s what learning is all about. She finds ways for her students to think critically, communicate, collaborate and create with the use of technology.

In this short video, students share the biographies they’ve been working on. They are able to wirelessly cast what’s on their Chromebook screens to the projector for the class to see by using Google Cast For Education. The students have done their research using the Chromebooks and have built their presentations using Google Slides.  Katy sends out assignments using Google Classroom, which makes managing digital assignments a breeze.

Both Tricia and Katy are excellent teachers individually. Teamed up together, they make a Dynamic Duo!

Spotlight created and authored by Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Chromebooks, Google Cast for Education, Google Classroom, Google Slides, Katy Halliday, School Technology Specialists, Teresa Bruin, Tricia Fenton, Western Hills Elementary

Teacher Spotlight: Kirsten Carroll, Redwood Elementary

January 2016Josh Whiting

Kirsten Carroll is a 3rd grade teacher at Redwood Elementary. She makes excellent use of the technology in her classroom, creating fun and meaningful learning opportunities for her students. She finds online resources that help her students better understand the concepts they are learning in class. With several of the online tools, she is able to monitor their progress in real time. At a glance she can see who is struggling and needs help. She is able to provide reteaching and individual instruction in a timely manner. Kirsten’s class recently gained access to a set of Chromebooks for their classroom, and she didn’t waste time putting them to good use. She uses Google Classroom to manage and send out assignments. The students are then able to submit their assignments digitally, creating more efficiency and saving paper at the same time. Some of the other excellent online resources they are using are: goformative.com, xtramath.org or the XtraMath Chrome App, the Prodigy Chrome App,  Google Docs, Google Drawings, and so much more. Thanks Kirsten Carroll for being such an awesome teacher!

Spotlight Creator: Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Chromebooks, Goformative, Google Classroom, Google Docs, Google Drawings, Kristen Carroll, Prodigy, Redwood Elementary, Teresa Bruin, XtraMath

Teacher Spotlight: Katie Ricks, Howard R. Driggs Elementary

October 2015Josh Whiting

Katie Ricks teaches 3rd Grade at Howard R. Driggs Elementary in Holladay, Utah, where she and her students utilize technology daily in the classroom. In this spotlight she discusses how having technology in her classroom has allowed her to differentiate her teaching throughout the day and support students in working at their own paces. She also describes how classroom technology has opened up new avenues for communication, collaboration, and creativity between the students, the teacher, and parents.

Spotlight Author: Patrick Flanagan, Director of Educational Technology, Granite School District

Filed Under: Digital Conversion, Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Chromebooks, Collaboration, Communication, Creativity, Differentiation, Google Apps for Education, Katie Ricks, Patrick Flanagan, Prezi

Teacher Spotlight: Katie Ricks, Driggs Elementary

January 2015Josh Whiting

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

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: 3rd Grade, Chromebooks, Code.org, Coding, Driggs Elementary, Hour of Code, Katie Ricks, Khan Academy, Kristen Johnson, Problem Based Learning, Tynker

Teacher Spotlight: Robin Farnsworth, Armstrong Academy

October 2014Josh Whiting

Mrs. Robin Farnsworth is a third grade teacher at Neil Armstrong Academy. This 2014 Excel Award winner is noted for ensuring that her students learn by doing and that they are each active participants in her classroom. Whether they are creating on an iPad, using their hands for exploration, connecting to the world by participating in a Global Read Aloud, blogging, doing a #MysterySkype, or another innovative learning opportunity, Mrs. Farnsworth uses a variety of ways to engage her students in learning. She also emphasizes innovation and world problem solving with her FIRST LEGO League (FLL) team that she coaches before school. FLL students have to build a robot and learn how to program it to perform various tasks for competition.

Outside the classroom, Mrs. Farnsworth is inspiring teachers to collaborate and share. She had the vision to bring Edcamp to Utah on October 11, 2014 at Armstrong Academy. Edcamp is a type of “unconference” designed to bring teachers together to talk about the things that matter most to them. With the help of Jared Covili of UCET, Mrs. Farnsworth’s vision was a success. Teachers who attended Edcamp Utah were able to discuss topics of interest, share their own knowledge, and leave with new knowledge and ideas for teaching.

If you are interested in learning more about Edcamp Utah you can go to www.ucet.org/edcamput. Also, watch Neil Armstrong’s principal, Tyler Howe, interview Robin Farnsworth about Edcamp Utah’s success:

Spotlight Author: Kristen Johnson, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist

Filed Under: Teacher SpotlightsTagged With: #EdcampUT, #MysterySkype, 3rd Grade, Armstrong Academy, Edcamp, First LEGO League, Global Read Aloud, Kristen Johnson, Robin Farnsworth

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