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Student Collaboration

Highlights from the Granite FIRST LEGO League 2019 Event

Post by Cherie Anderson, Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader. Photography and video by Tom Sparks, School Technology Specialist at Morningside Elementary and Spring Lane Elementary.

On January 26, 2019, Granite School District held a regional qualifying event for FIRST LEGO League teams. Check out the photos and videos in this post for highlights from the event. Congratulations to all the Granite School District FIRST LEGO League teams who participated in the regional and state tournaments!

Group photo of Granite teams advancing to state competition from district qualifying event.

[Read more…] about Highlights from the Granite FIRST LEGO League 2019 Event

Highlights from Granite’s FIRST LEGO League 2018 Qualifier

On Saturday, February 3, 2018, over 300 students from elementary and junior high schools across Granite School District, 44 coaches, 67 volunteers, and bleacher-filling numbers of supportive family and friends came together at Granger High School for Granite’s FIRST LEGO League 2018 Qualifier. Student teams were judged on their robot design, project presentations (researched, innovative solutions to real-world problems), core values, and performance in the robot games.

These teams advanced to the state competition, held the following week at Weber State University:

Many thanks to the coaches, volunteers, and parents who made this experience possible for our students.   [Read more…] about Highlights from Granite’s FIRST LEGO League 2018 Qualifier

Spotlight: Digital Breakouts at Calvin Smith Elementary

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.

Teacher Spotlight: Tiffany Pontius, Truman Elementary

TNN — Truman News Network

Breaking news! All Salt Lake City news reporters and anchors just may have their job security challenged due to some up and coming talent…hungry for reporting the news. That’s right! Truman News Network, or TNN, is currently taking up residence at Truman Elementary in Taylorsville. Student council members as well as guest reporters tell it like it is every week. Their well-received news cast is filled with information about the weather, sports, holidays, special events, book of the week, word of the day, staff and employee interviews, and the habit of the week. What is the habit of the week, you may ask? Well, on top of all the other awesome things going on at Truman Elementary, they are also a “Seven Habits of Happy Kids” school, wherein they review key ingredients of being successful in life!

TNN is organized by Tiffany Pontius, the School Technology Specialist for Truman Elementary. What could be an overwhelming and daunting task is smooth sailing due to Tiffany’s awesome organization and procedural planning. The best thing about this is that Tiffany prepares her students to be in charge of the news programs. This includes choosing the stories, writing the scripts, and deciding what props and backgrounds to use in place of the green screen when filming and editing. It is purely a situation of a student-led activity. No “sage on the stage” for Tiffany! She simply facilitates this well-oiled machine of news and information. She has used her skills as a top-notch educator to empower her 6th grade TNN members so that they gain confidence in running the news segments.

How do they do it? It all begins with a storyboard. Students choose what assignments they will have for the upcoming news cast during “staff meetings.” Reporters are then on the hunt for the news that will enlighten and inform the students. The student anchors create the script and film the leads. As soon as all of the elements are completed, one of the students edits the footage at home using WeVideo.

When asked the most challenging aspects of this project, the students replied, “…being able to film without laughing…getting everyone on the same page…and finding a time when all are able to meet.” What a terrific way to teach students how to collaborate in an authentic setting!

They also commented that the best thing about TNN is “…being on camera…writing the scripts…editing…hanging out with their friends…and working with Miss Pontius.” We would like to thank Tiffany for being a vital part of Granite School District. Her willingness to go the extra mile with her students and allow them to experience project-based learning, collaboration, problem solving, and creativity in the classroom should be celebrated.

Be sure to visit Truman TNN on YouTube!

Spotlight Created by Pam Moeai, Educational Technology Specialist and Team Leader.

#GSDEdTech Chat Archive: Favorite Apps and Web Tools (12/10/2015)

Many thanks to the teachers in Granite School District who joined our recent twitter chat, sharing suggestions and questions about apps and digital tools for teaching and learning. So many great ideas and resources were shared, as well as questions asked that give us opportunities to reach out and seek new solutions. Read on for a complete archive of the chat. [Read more…] about #GSDEdTech Chat Archive: Favorite Apps and Web Tools (12/10/2015)

Teacher Spotlight: Laverna Benally, Lincoln Elementary

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

Digital Conversion Spotlight: Student Collaboration

In the lead-up to next year’s Digital Conversion implementation, we will be featuring spotlights and discussions from teachers and students who participated in pilot classroom Chromebook programs during the 2014-15 school year. In today’s video, teachers discuss how cloud-based collaborative tools such as Google Drive/Google Docs and classroom Chromebooks enable students to easily collaborate on projects and give immediate feedback to one another through peer-editing of writing.

Spotlight Created by Patrick Flanagan, Granite School District Director of Educational Technology.

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