Meme

This week in Mrs. Salazar's 6th grade World Cultures classes students crafted memes to demonstrate their knowledge of Europe.   Here is one of them:

Sharing the Information!

The teachers at Ridgeview are getting creative in how they are sharing information and resources with students.  Recently in the United States History classes the teachers created a Thinglink that explained the famous engraving of the Boston Massacre and helped students explore the events leading up to and following this historic event.

In our Next Generation Digital Classroom  Ms. Raph and Mrs. Allen are grouping resources using Blendspace to allow students to work through the websites at their own pace and at the same time sharpen their math skills.

Mr. Clark's World Cultures classes are exploring Europe with the help of Symbaloo - an easy way to visually organize the links they will need to learn the material.

Students Review the Bill of Rights

Students in Mrs. Collins, Mr. Jasman, Mr. Tong and Ms. Webster's class are getting familiar with the first ten amendments as they research how they have impacted various court cases over the years.  After completing some research they were to write 2 letters to the editor expressing both sides of the court case related to the amendment they have chosen.  


Students also expressed their opinions of various uses of the first amendment through the use of polling software, Socrative.   Students chose to agree or disagree with statements and then as a class discussed the results of the class versus results given to the American population.  The discussion allowed for students to critically think through the First Amendment and their thoughts about how it should be and is being applied to American life.

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:

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.   

8th Grade Civil War Infographic

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!

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:

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.

Making Connections in US History

Students in Mrs. Collins, Mrs. Koch, Ms. Sphar, Ms. Webster and Mr. Jasman's classes used technology to research a "Seed of Democracy" and then constructed a paper slide video to explain how that seed played into the Constitution and how we run our country today.   Paper slides were recorded with Flip cameras and then viewed by the entire class so they could learn from each other and review they Constitution.

View Student Projects

Come to Texas!

Ms. Dyer, Ms. Conrad, Mr. Cockroft and Mr. Wrinkle have been keeping their 7th grade students busy as they have been assigned to work for an empresario to get settlers to come to Texas!   First they gathered information about what Texas was like in the 1820s and then created a storyboard plan to create an advertisement using images of Texas, key information from the 1820s and a modern web 2.0 tool -  Animoto.  The results were a commercial that covered the key TEKS for the unit and some great technology skills in creating a multimedia presentation.

The students enjoyed the project as well.  Here are some of their comments:

• "its like a powerpoint but not as boring"
• "This project was very fun and I enjoyed doing it. I liked having the power to be creative and choose my own style."
• "I like that there's a hint of my inner self and style in there"
• "I love how easy it is to make the video, but I don't like the character limit!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"
• "I loved the animoto itself, it is way easier than powerpoint! I think the most challenging part about this project was find the right pictures."

Here are some student product from this project:

My Come to Texas Project

Lorenzo do Zavala

Come to Lorenzo de Zavala's Colony

Come to Texas - David G Burnet

Come to Texas - Stephen F. Austin

Dewitt County

Come to Burnet County

Research in 6th Grade World Cultures

Students in 6th grade World Cultures have been busy in the labs and on netbooks researching a Latin American Country using online resources such as Culturegrams and the CIA Factbook, found on the library research page.

Students will then demonstrate their knowledge of that country and of PEGS by constructing a poster board of their country to present to the class in the next few days.  

Students are gaining valuable research and note taking skills in this project that they are sure to use in future years.

Technology is up and running at RMS

Technology has played a big part in getting back into the school routine this school year.

•  Moodle is in use in sixth grade as World Cultures and Science are assessing student knowledge. 
•  7th grade math is using technology to reinforce math skills using Sumdog.   
• Science teachers are using Stemscopes and Explore Learning in sixth and seventh grade to teach concepts and run simulations.
• Math teachers are assessing Algebra readiness using TEA's MSTAR.

This is going to be a great year for technology at Ridgeview!

Texas History Writes Civil War Diaries with the help of Technology

Over the past few weeks students in Mrs. Collins, Mr. Wrinkle and Mr. Jasman's Texas History classes have been learning about the American Civil War.  The culminating project has been for the students to create a Civil War diary from a particular point of view of someone who would have lived during this time period.  This year the teachers added a technology component by having the students create a book of diary entries with the help of Voicethread.com.  The students were to create a jpeg slide to go along with their diary entry that would be narrated.   The students found images from Matthew Brady online and used PowerPoint and Easybib to create the jpeg slides.  The files were then uploaded to Voicethread where the students narrated the image with the text from the diary.  The students loved seeing their slide online and found using easybib an easy way to cite their images.

Mrs. Collin's Class Voicethread

US History Seeds of Democracy as told by 8th Graders

Recently the students in 8th grade US History explored the seeds of democracy through the creation of paper slide videos.  Students were given an event in history that had an impact on the writing of the US Constitution.  They were to research the event and explain how it played a part of the development of the US Constitution.  The students worked in teams of 3 to 4 to create 4-6 pieces of paper, "slides" that told the story of their event. These slides were then videotaped with flip cameras while the students narrated the images.  The teachers then used these videos to the review the class on the various seeds of democracy that they students need to know according to state TEKS.    Here are a few examples of the final products:

World Cultures Brochures

Sixth grade students are researching provinces of Canada to create a travel brochure for their region.   After using CultureGrams to gather their information, they are using Publisher to create the brochure.   

Texas History Explorers

Texas History students began working on their Explorer powerpoints were they are to research explorers who were in Texas and to map the routes they took on their journeys.  Students will work in partners over several days to complete the assignment.

Moodling in Sixth Grade

World Cultures students got their first taste of Moodle this week as they logged in and began completing assignments for class.  Sixth grade students will be working in Moodle all year for several of their classes.