French Class

This past December, in French, students took a quiz online in the lab, listening to a recording of the teacher on the website podomatic.  This allowed students to review at their own pace before taking the quiz, versus in the classroom where they must take the listening section as a class.  This also allowed the teacher an opportunity for differentiation, instructing challenged students to pause and re-play as necessary.

M. Parrack's podomatic recording

What if You Designed the Next Hunger Games?

8th grade students were asked to write a persuasive letter based on their class novel study of the Hunger Games.  They used Google Docs to write the letter, which allowed the teachers to check on their progress and leave comments on how to improve their writing as they were working on the project.  They also created a muttation, a suggested combination of two animals to be added to the next installment of the Hunger Games for the Capital.   Students used PowerPoint to combine photos of animals into a new creature and then created an online multimedia presentation about their mutation using Smore.


Here are a few student samples of their muttations:

• Sharkodile
• Skishes
• Wooian
• Kangrilla

Road to Revolution

Seventh grade students in Texas History learned to use PowerPoint in a new way this week as they made info graphics.   Armed with information about the events leading to the Texas Revolution, students set out to show that information in a graphic way.   Here are a few student samples from Ms. Dyer's classroom:

Biographies Come Alive

Students in 6th grade English Language Arts are working on creating movies about the biography book they have just completed.  Students are summarizing the life of a famous person into a first person narrative that includes giving factual information and using proper citation with the help of EasyBib.com

Here are a few samples from this project:

• Pierre Omidyar - founder of eBay
• Alexander the Great
• Roger Williams

Reviewing for the American Revolution

In Mr. Tong's class students are learning to review by making their own Quizlet set of cards that includes images of the famous people or events.  Students then can use these sets to prepare for the upcoming test on any device that has internet access.

Here are a few sample sets from  students:  http://quizlet.com/_gap52

http://quizlet.com/_ig8im

Students Become Virtual Archaeologists

Ms. Woods' Texas History classes are learning to become archaeologists as they work through the remains of the La Belle from La Salle's early Texas Expedition.  This activity lets students explore the artifacts and learn about the times of this French Exploration as well as how scientists can piece together history from the pieces being excavated. Students were highly engaged and were excited to discuss what they were learning!


Check out the website here:
http://www.texasbeyondhistory.net/belle/kids.html

Historical Figures of the American Revolution meet Quizlet

8th grade History students are preparing for their upcoming test by creating Quizlet sets of the famous people they are learning about.  Students took notes over the important people of the time period and then use the program to make sets of flashcards that can be used to study in various games on the website.   

Food Webs in 7th Grade Science

Science students in 7th grade are making food webs to demonstrate their understanding of the food chain and all the interconnected parts.  After conducting research and gathering notes, students are mapping out the web with the help of Inspiration software.  

Google Apps for Education is now available to Students!

During the month of September students were introduced to their new RRISD google account.  Students now can use this account to email staff members, access Google Drive to create and store documents as well as other apps from the Chrome Education store.   All the students came into the Lab and worked with Mrs. Young to log into their accounts, learn about their email, and to set up folders to help keep their Google drive organized.  They shared the folders for each class with the teacher who teaches the class so they can turn in assignments that way.

To access their account students need to go to:  https://accounts.google.com

Enter in their email address:  s######@student.roundrockisd.org   (###### = their student ID number)
Password:  Is the same they use for the computers at school.

Teachers and students will be exploring these new accounts this year and learning new ways to collaborate and create.

8th Grade Civil War Infographic

To Kill a Mockingbird

Students in Ms. Salazar's 8th grade Language Arts classes are reading "To Kill a Mockingbird" by Harper Lee.  She offered extra credit opportunities for the students, and one of their options was to use smore.com to advertise anything about Maycomb, Alabama, as it is portrayed and described in the novel.  Here are two samples made using the website smore.com.

Reviewing "To Kill a Mocking Bird"

Ms. Salazar's students reviewed their knowledge of the book "To Kill a Mockingbird" by answering questions in teams about the book using Socrative.  Ms. Salazar used the results to remind students of important details of the novel and gave them opportunities to tell what they thought certain details might be important as the story develops.  Students were thoroughly engaged with the activity and are ready to continue in their student of this classic novel.

Geometry Gets Flipped!

Students in Mrs. Rutherford's class get to take her home with them through the videos she creates and posts online.   Her YouTube Channel is full of instructional videos that explain the concepts they are learning in class.  She has also found videos from the textbook site to help supplement the instruction. She sends out the link to the videos and reminders to watch through Remind101.   Students watch the videos and take notes before they come to class and then spend class time clarifying what they do not understand and working through problems with their teacher there to help answer questions.

Here is a sample video Mrs. Rutherford posted for her students:

Students Developing Apps

Last week students attended a week-long, before school camp where they began learning how to create apps for mobile devices with the help of the MIT App Inventor website.  Students worked through a series of tutorials that taught the skills and strategies needed to begin designing their own apps.   They were very excited to try out their newly developed program on the tablet and see their code in action.

Students Get Graphic with Infographics

8th grade students have been studying the American Civil War is social studies classes.  Recently they were assigned to represent the information they were learning in the form of an infographic.  A technique that takes information and presents in a one page graphic format usually shared online.  Students used PowerPoint and the tools provided with the program to create their infographic.  Teachers reported that all went well and were pleased with the outcomes.  Student samples will be coming soon!

Students Prepare For The STAAR Writing With A Little Brainpop

Students in Mrs. Porter's 7th grade ELA classes spent some time online today working with Brainpop videos and quizzes to test their knowledge about grammar.  Students emailed their quiz results to their teacher so she use one more piece of assessment to  see how prepared they were for the upcoming STAAR test.

Math Review Gets Interactive

Students in Mrs. Rutherford's math classes reviewed for the upcoming Math STAAR exam with the help of the Turning Points Student clickers.  Students were able to read the question, solve it and then send in their answers through the clickers.   Mrs. Rutherford then showed the results of how the class did and explained which answer was right and why.  This gave students a chance to seek clarification on math skills they did not understand and showed Mrs. Rutherford what concepts the students needed more help with.  

Tectonic Vocabulary Goes Music Video

In Mr. Sralla's and Ms. Granda's science class students showed their knowledge of vocabulary words by making Animoto videos to define and illustrate Tectonic vocabulary.   Here are some of the student products:

Tectonic Plates
Oceanic Basin
Inner Core
Oceanic Crust
Plasticity
Asthenosphere
Not my FAULT
Inner Core
Stress
Inner Core
Crust
Oceanic Basins
Faults
Stress

Andrew Jackson - Hero?

That was the question students in Mrs. Collins US History class were asked to answer in the form of an online digital poster with the help of smore.com.   Here are a few of the student's projects:

Texting Students - Remind 101

With the district's open policy on Bring Your Own Devices this year the teachers on campus have been looking for ways to take advantage of the technology the students already own.  One of those ways has been to use Remind 101.   Remind 101 is a texting service that allows teachers to "safely text message students and stay in touch with parents."   Students and parents sign up for the service (which can include emails or texts) by texting into the subscription number.   All phone numbers are kept confidential and all texts are recorded in the program's history.

Mrs. Billings, Mrs. Rutherford uses it for her science class to remind students about important dates and tests.   Ms. Salazar's says that " It is working quite well because I have students remembering to turn in homework, permission slips, and school events. Parents have caught on, subscribed to my text feed, and help remind their kids. I like that you can schedule a time to send the text without visiting the site too."    Mr. Alexander also puts bonus questions out to students to encourage them to stay in touch.  Mrs. Gibson uses it with her clubs as well as her classroom to remind the students about meetings and share information.   Ms. Pfluger says " I am taking 43 students to UT next Wednesday for an engineering event.  I have setup a Remind 101 to update students on what to plan for, and will use it onsite to make sure we all know where to be.  Great since the app is on my phone!"

Ms. East found Remind 101 this summer through Pinterest and has been using it all year to remind students to bring specific supplies to class, or " If I receive lots of homework questions through email or catch a mistake on the homework.  I will send out a remind 101 text clarifying the homework issue.  I also use it to remind my advisory when report cards and progress reports are due.  I may start sending advisory texts about Wednesday's dress up days, too!"   One of the features she likes most is that you can schedule the texts to go out ahead of time.

Check with your classroom teacher to see if they are using Remind101 to stay in touch.

Mrs. Collins' Classes Make Smores!

Students in Mrs. Collin's US History class are sharing what they know about Andrew Jackson by creating smores that explain if Jackson was a "hero" or a "villain."  Students are using class notes and DBQ resources to make their case as well as searching the internet for images and movies that help make their point.   Final products will be shared when available.  Several other history classes will be completing this project as well in the coming weeks.

Students in Motion

Students in Mr. Alexander's class are learning about velocity  Venier Motion Sensors.  Students were taught to use the motion detectors and then mapped various motions included walking at various speeds and riding a bicyle.  The results were mapped on the Go Motion devices and were later analyzed by the students in class.