Last week in Mrs. Swift’s class, students were introduced to Book Creator. We read the story What Do You Do With a Tail Like This? Then students were asked to create a page in Book Creator on something they learned from the story. They wrote a sentence and then illustrated the page to go along with the sentence! Students created amazing pages! I was so proud of the work they created in a short amount of time! Way to go Mrs. Swift’s Class!

I have never seen a program that captures the attention of all students! I mean ALL students! This past week, I worked with multiple elementary schools in order to help students get started with a research-based program called ST Math. It is a visual mathematics program that uses a penguin named Jiji to complete levels in a game like fashion. This program is designed to increase math comprehension. Watching all ability levels play has been such a joy! The most struggling of learners are excelling in ways I never thought possible. I can only imagine what the effects will be after a year of working with Jiji.

The most inspiring part of all were the conversations and “buzz” about Jiji. Students from various grade levels were asking others if they had seen Jiji or played. These conversations happened in the hallway, cafeteria, and even recess. Students were so engaged they wanted to miss lunch to continue playing. I can’t wait to see how this program helps students with math!

Here is a clip of a kindergarten student logging in with his picture password!

Do your students keep deleting your bookmarks? How about creating a desktop shortcut with images students will remember? Check out this tutorial to learn more!

All iPads have been deployed within two weeks of school starting! Students and teachers are excited and ready to begin another year of innovative learning!

Welcome to an amazing school year! I hope you are energized and ready! Teachers,maintenance staff, custodians,and many others have worked countless hours to prepare the schools for this year!

We will start iPad deployment tomorrow!

iPads will be deployed to students following the schedule outlined below: August 23-24 – Goochland Middle School (Grades 6-8)

August 25 – Goochland Elementary School (Grades 3-5)

August 29 – Byrd Elementary School (Grades 3-5)

August 30 – Randolph Elementary School (Grades 3-5)

Have a great first week of school!!

I was thinking the other day about how students have been doing great things with coding!  What if they could take it a step further and try to build their own app?  This is a great site created by MIT where students can!

http://appinventor.mit.edu/explore/

Here are a few other choices! https://www.touchdevelop.com/app/

https://www.makeschool.com/build-an-iphone-game-in-your-browser 

I have deleted all my old posts in an effort to start fresh with this new blog!  I have kept the wonderful pages that I created on my old blog so that teachers may use them as a resource.  I look forward to sharing some wonderful technology ideas!