Spotlight Post by Pam Moeai, Educational Technology Team Leader
I had the pleasure of sitting down with Stephanie Gonzalez, a 5th grade teacher at Academy Park Elementary, to hear more about her successful implementation of Student-Led Conferences for the September 2019 SEPs. [Read more…] about Teacher Spotlight: Stephanie Gonzalez, Academy Park Elementary
Diamond Ridge has one Chromebook for every student in all grade levels this year. Their School Technology Specialist, Ashley Moore, works with teachers and students in the classroom to help them integrate the technology in fun and meaningful ways.
On this visit to Diamond Ridge, Ashley pushed into a fifth grade class with Mrs. George and a first grade class with Mrs. Harbaugh.
Mrs. George’s 5th graders learned about using onomatopoeia in their writing and picked up some new tech skills along the way.
Her students drafted poems using Google Slides. After writing their poems, students used the Screencastify Chrome extension to video record themselves reading their poems.
They then posted their poems to a shared wall using Padlet, where all the poems could be enjoyed by the whole class.
Mrs. Harbaugh’s 1st graders learned about the life cycle of a pumpkin and practiced using the Chromebook trackpad.
Ashley taught Mrs. Harbaugh how to use LanSchool with her students, so that getting websites and documents out to her little learners is easy.
Many thanks to Mrs. Moore, Mrs. George, Mrs. Harbaugh, and their students at Diamond Ridge Elementary for allowing us a peek into their blended learning classroom activities.
Spotlight Created by Teresa Bruin, Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader.
Shelly Prettyman is a 5th Grade Teacher at Arcadia Elementary.
Shelly went through Granite’s Educational Technology Endorsement Program (ETEP), learning many ways to integrate technology into her lessons.
Students in Ms. Prettyman’s class have had opportunities to learn coding and work on digital projects using a variety of web tools.
She also mentors students in a FIRST Lego League team and goes to a district competition with them each year.
Ms. Prettyman has the support of her School Technology Specialist, Ross Pope, as she plans and carries out lessons enhanced with the use of technology.
In this video, Ms. Prettyman’s 5th Grade students were working on their Colonial Projects.
Shelly and Ross worked together, as students learned how to use some new web tools (Google Slides and PowToon) while creating projects around their colonial studies.
Spotlight Author: Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Laverna Benally teaches 5th Grade at Lincoln Elementary in South Salt Lake, Utah. This spotlight begins with her students expressing a few of the reasons they enjoy having Mrs. Benally as their teacher. We see students working on research projects and creating collaborative Google Slides presentations using classroom Chromebooks. One student states that he enjoys using Chromebooks because they help him become more engaged with research. Meanwhile, we see Mrs. Benally roaming the classroom consulting with students individually to meet their needs. Special thanks go to Mrs. Benally, an excellent teacher who engages and supports students in her classroom each day.
Spotlight Author: Patrick Flanagan, Director of Educational Technology, Granite School District
Super teacher LeeAnn Crockett & her 5th grade kids are Kahooting to great test results. Watch them do fun reviews.
Spotlight Author: Cherie Anderson, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
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
Mrs. O’Brien teaches 5th Grade at Lincoln Elementary in South Salt Lake. Watch the video above to see how she integrates classroom Chromebooks into her students’ daily English Language Arts rotations to facilitate writing projects, spelling, and vocabulary work.
Check Out Mrs. O’Brien’s Classroom Website!
Spotlight Author: Patrick Flanagan, Granite Director of Educational Technology
