Thank You from Jenny

Today is my (Jenny's) last day as a technology intern here at Roland Story Elementary. After winter break, I will be back, but as a student teacher. I am excited for the next chapter, but also sad to see this one end. As I reflect back on the last year and a half of working at Roland Story elementary, a few words come to mine:

[created using wordle.net]

I want to thank all the teachers, staff, and students for all the support you've given me. It has been a learning experience and I appreciate all the patience and kindness everyone always gave me. 

Coding

You might have seen articles about "How all students need to learn how to code" or "Hour of Code" or "Why are we teaching our students how to code?"  Watch the TED Talk and Check out Hour of Code for more information on why students should learn how to code.

If you are like me and enjoy TED Talks, then you should check out this TED Talk all about teaching kids how to code Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code.

If you don't have time to watch the video, here is a quote from it that I think is really good:

"...a lot of times people feel that young people today can do all sorts of things with technology. I mean, all of us have heard young people referred to as "digital natives." But actually I'm sort of skeptical about this term. I'm not so sure we should be thinking of young people as digital natives. When you really look at it, how is it that young people spend most of their time using new technologies? ...there's no doubt that young people are very comfortable and familiar browsing and chatting and texting and gaming. But that doesn't really make you fluent.  So young people today have lots of experience and lots of familiarity with interacting with new technologies, but a lot less so of creating with new technologies and expressing themselves with new technologies. It's almost as if they can read but not write with new technologies.  And I'm really interested in seeing, how can we help young people become fluent so they can write with new technologies? And that really means that they need to be able to write their own computer programs, or code.  So, increasingly, people are starting to recognize the importance of learning to code."

I've read some of the articles about coding, and I agree that not every student NEEDS to learn how to code -- especially at a young age.  I took a class a few semesters ago called Toying with Technology and we learned how to code Lego Robots.  After we learned how to code them to do various things, we taught students at United how to code the robots and students from all over the state came to ISU to learn how to code the robots.  My mind was BLOWN at how fast these students picked up on how to code.  It was amazing!  They were doing things in an hour that had taken us weeks to learn.

December 8-14 is Computer Science Education Week.  To celebrate that, a campaign was started to get tens of millions of students across the world to participate in the Hour of Code.  The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.  I actually participated in this last year and was surprised how easy it is.  There are so many options including Code with Anna and Elsa and Write Your First Computer Program.  Check out http://hourofcode.com/us or http://code.org/learn and encourage your students to participate in the Hour of Code this week!  Coding can be used with people ages 4-104 so don't think you are too young or too old to learn!  There is also an iPad app that can be used: Codecademy: Code Hour.

If you would like to learn more about coding, want to add the Code Hour app to some iPads, or have any other questions about it, feel free to ask me!

Thank You from Jill

The end of the semester is near, which means my time as a technology intern is almost done.  I will be student teaching next semester in Storm Lake, which is about 15 minutes away from my hometown.  I am sad to leave this great school district with awesome teachers, but I am also excited to move on to the next step in my journey. 

 I just wanted to take the time to thank each and everyone of you for helping me grow and learn so much more about technology.  I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I will never forget the things I learned.  Not only did I improve my skills in working with technology, but I was able to teach lessons in the classroom using technology.  I was not able to receive that opportunity in any of my practicum experiences, so it was so great to be able to do that here.  Hopefully I was of some assistance to you, and thank you again!  - Jill

Last Call for Badges!

As I'm sure you are all aware, the end of the semester is in sight!  This also means that the B.I.G. is coming to an end also on Thursday, December 18.  We will have a prize for the teacher with the most points so hurry up and make some comments, share ideas with the interns, or invite an intern into your classroom!  Here is our schedule for the next 2 weeks so feel free to email us if you want us to teach a lesson in your classroom!

12/8 - Jill 8 am - 12 pm

12/9 - Jenny 8 am - 12 pm

12/10 - Jill 10 am - 2 pm

12/11 - Jenny 8 am - 12 pm

12/12 - Courtney 12:45 pm - 4:45 pm

12/15 - Jill 8 am - 12 pm

12/16 - Courtney 8 am - 12 pm

12/17 - Courtney 12 - 4 pm

12/18 - Jenny 8 am - 12 pm

Interactive Educational Games

Hello! My name is Katherine Carpenter and I am one of the technology interns at the middle school! I found a fun educational site that I thought would be great to share with the elementary teachers and students. The website is called ABCya.com, and it is “the leader in free educational kids computer games and activities for elementary students to learn on the web.” I saw this site being used in a third grade classroom, and it was a hit with the students! To use this site…

Type in http://www.abcya.com into your browser, or click on it as a link! A site that looks like the image below will pop up. These games were all created or approved by certified teachers, but feel free to test them out before having your students complete them! Each game is connected to a range of grade levels that they suggest, as well as a list of Common Core State Standards that it addresses!

The site gives suggestions on many of the featured games and apps that have been especially successful, so check those out as well! A picture of what this looks like is below:

Next, chose a grade level. For example purposes, I chose first grade and there were tons of options to choose from! The games were organized into groups that were labeled: letters, numbers, more (shapes, geometry, patterns, mouse manipulation and art), holiday and just for fun! I highly encourage you check these out, the games are easy to navigate and connect math or literacy concepts to more interactive work. Students will love it! Below is a picture of what the first grade page looks like. Enjoy, and let us know how you like it!