Birchwood Students Research the States

Birchwood 5th grade students researched various US states and then used Microsoft Word to create feature articles. This writing took place through their "Writers Workshop" activities, and adults assisted in locating appropriate related images. Students learned and used quite a few formatting options in Word including features such as columns, text boxes, shapes, borders, and more!

Glencliff Learns About Winter

The Kindergarteners at Glencliff studied the winter season using the Tumblebooks website. On that site, they discovered A Penguin Story by Antionette Portis. This is a beautiful story about a young penguin searching for "more." In this case he's searching for more colors. He's only seen white, black and blue, but he believes there's got to be something more out there. Eventually he finds some scientists who have orange clothing and equipment and he's thrilled with his discovery. After reading the story, the students accessed the ThisIsSand.com website. This is a site they've been using for some time to work on mouse skills, and it simulates the use of colored sands to create images. For this project they were instructed to create their vision of the penguin's land. They could only use the colors white, black, blue and orange. They were shown how to get those colors, requiring some finely tuned mouse skills, and they got their creative juices flowing.

Glencliff Makes Movies for Math

Students at Glencliff have been busy making movies to share what they are studying in math class. In the process of making the movies, their teachers are reporting that they are exhibiting greater retention of the concepts taught, and that they are certainly having a great time! They are also learning that movies are one of the ways that they can use technology to share their knowledge with others.

The Kindergarteners learned about numbers in the teens and how to write them. Here is a frame from a video by Mrs. Weber's class:

Hillside Ueses Wikis to Share Their Writing

The fourth grade students at Hillside have worked on developing their descriptive writing skills. The students learned about precise nouns, proper nouns, strong verbs and adjectives, sensory detail, and similes. In order to establish a strong sense of purpose and audience for this writing assignment, the fourth grade teachers have created a wiki based on the internationally recognized "Monster Exchange" website found at http://www.monsterexchange.org. The fourth grade teachers designed the wiki with the intentions of establishing a creative way for students to share their written work with their peers, both within their grade level and throughout the Niskayuna learning community. The wiki also serves as a unique way to create a strong connection between home and school because parents are able to log on to the wiki from home to read and comment on the work. The wiki also serves as a helpful means for reflection and positive feedback among peers.

Birchwood "Peaceful Bus" Video

Birchwood has been participating in the "Peaceful School Bus" program to promote a sense of community while students are being transported on school buses. Recently, students were asked to try to focus on behaviors that make the bus a more positive place. A video was created to model some of the positive behaviors that students might exhibit. Students from the after-school program volunteered to get on a bus and act out scenes, which were taped using one of the school's FlipVideo camcorders. The students acted out behaviors such as one student moving in for another to be able to sit down, or a student standing up to a bully. The clips were then transferred to a computer and edited using Apple's iMovie software. The final video production was shared at the students' next bus meeting. The students enjoyed seeing their peers on the "big screen" and had some very positive conversations about how they can make their buses more positive places.

Hillside Media Center Use of "Activotes"

Hillside 4th & 5th graders loved using the Promethean interactive whiteboard and Activotes for a lesson on literary genres during library classes in the media center. Activotes are handheld egg-shaped devices that are provided to each student. As questions are posed to them, students can electronically respond by pushing the appropriate buttons on their Activotes. Hillside's media specialist, Mrs. Ubriaco, loves how the Activotes provide an instant analysis of responses so that clarification for incorrect answers can be immediately provided to students. The Activotes also show the teacher exactly how each student responded and how long it took them to determine their answer, providing great feedback for assessing student understanding of the content. Mrs. Ubriaco recently created a lesson utilizing Activotes to check for students' understanding of various literary genres. Lessons which already have Activote questions incorporated into them can be searched for on the "Promethean Planet" resource website by adding "activote" to the search term (e.g. "fractions activote").

Kindergarten "Animals In Winter" Video

During their study of "Animals In Winter," Ms. Mathews’ Hillside kindergarten class read several books on the concepts of hibernation, migration and camouflage. The class decided to write and perform a play on these topics. This "project-based" approach to learning is something that Ms. Mathews has been exploring with her mentor and fellow kindergarten teacher, Abby Weber.

The class started by generating a list of the animals that they had read about, and each student chose one animal to represent in their play. Each student was expected to explain how their animal survives during winter months in order to meet its needs. They discussed what a play looks like and what they would need in order to perform, including a backdrop, props, and an audience.

After the play was written, the students practiced their lines and drew & painted representations of their animals based on photos obtained from Google image search results. They then placed the animals on popsicle sticks, painted the backdrop, and rehearsed. One of the more "technology savvy" students recorded the play using a handheld FlipVideo camcorder. Finally, the video was edited in Apple's iMovie software by Ms. Mathews and then distributed to parents using "Dropbox", a free internet file storage & sharing service.

Tundra Animals Research Website (3rd Grade at Hillside)

After researching a variety of tundra animals, students in Mr. Neely’s 3rd grade authored informational documents on each animal studied. These documents included facts on habitat, appearance, diet, etc. The students then converted their documents into PDF files to share on a website. They uploaded their files to the "Tundra Animals Research" website using "Dreamweaver" software.

Students were very excited to be able to share their research on the Internet so that grandparents from around the country (and even several living in other countries around the world) could view their work online the same day they uploaded it!

Online Google Docs Form Used for Book Awards (Grades 2-5 at Hillside Media Center)

Students in grades 2-5 nominated their favorite books for the annual Hillside Book Awards a different way this year. They used an online form!

The form was easy to create with a Google docs account. After forms are submitted, the responses are automatically added to a spreadsheet connected to the survey. The collected information can then be viewed in charts and graphs generated automatically. For more information on how to create a Google docs form, and then embed it into a web page, click here.

Mrs. Buanno (2rd Grade)

Inspiration Software: Inspiration software allows students to create digital "thought webs." These webs can be easily edited, shared and even converted into an outline format at the click of a button. As part of their reading instruction, Mrs. Buanno’s 2nd grade students learned about fictional character traits. From their own trade books, each student identified some of the traits of a favorite character. Using the identified traits, character "webs" were created using the Inspiration software.

Excel Spreadsheets: During the week of the Winter Olympics the class graphed the number of Gold Medals won by several top countries. This activity was done as a whole group using their new Promethean interactive whiteboard. The students were so excited about this activity they ended up creating their own personal spreadsheets as well. Students surveyed their classmates’ favorite things (e.g. favorite sports, American symbols, cars, colors, ice cream flavors). They input the data collected into Excel spreadsheets, and then generated various styles of graphs to represent the results.

Elementary School Podcasting

Craig Elementary School (3rd Grade)

As part of their social studies curriculum, Mrs. Buanno’s 3rd graders use Excel spreadsheets to record the high & low temperatures in countries they were researching. The spreadsheet automatically calculates monthly average temperatures for the students. Additionally, students can quickly generate graphs from the spreadsheet data. These graphs are incorporated into PowerPoint presentations that students create about their countries!

Glencliff Elementary School (1st Grade)

A Glencliff first grade class created a book of nursery rhymes using the Kid Works Deluxe software. This program allowed them to use basic word processing capabilities, and also to illustrate their work!

Glencliff Elementary School (4th Grade)

Fourth graders at Glencliff were recently introduced to databases. They brainstormed how to design a database for New York State animals, and subsequently developed one using the AppleWorks software. Using the database layout, each student chose a NYS animal to research. They inserted the information learned into the "fields" of their animal’s record (e.g. habitat, diet, weight). When that was completed, students exchanged their information so that they each had a very comprehensive database of animals in New York. The records were sorted in various ways to better understand the capabilities and power of database software.

Birchwood Elementary School (5th Grade)

As 5th graders approach middle school, they work on developing and applying a variety of technology skills. One of their projects at Birchwood relates to the annual States Fair. Each student researches one of the 50 states and then word processes a report using Microsoft Word. The students also use AppleWorks Draw documents to design state brochures with information and images on climate, places to visit, and fun facts.

Birchwood 5th graders are also learning how to create podcasts using the Audacity audio recording software. The students in Mrs. Opiela's class have recorded a podcast in radio station format on a character education trait. Both students and teachers were interviewed about their personal definition of the word "empathy" and the podcast was played for the school at a "Bravo Birchwood" assembly. Mrs. VanAlstyne's class produced the following episode for the character education trait of "self-control". These podcasts will also be made available on the Internet, so that family and friends can subscribe to them.