Biographies with Vokis

Third Grade teachers enjoyed taking a half day of professional development training to refresh and learn new technology skills.  Then, they immediately went back into the classroom and shared their knowledge with their students!  How awesome is that!  Ms. Tyler incorporated Vokis into her students' biography unit.  They created their characters and shared some important information.  View them on Ms. Tyler's TeacherWeb.   http://teacherweb.com/TX/PurpleSageElementary/MrsTyler/apt2.aspx

Third Grade Research Published through Glogster

Third Grade Students conducted research from two resources about an interesting animal. After learning about main idea and details, nonfiction text features, and how to conduct research and take notes, students created Glog pages. They practiced logging on to the website and creating a page showing what they learned about their animal. Most students also added text features similar to ones they encountered in the NF text. Ms. Tyler hyperlinked the Glogs to her TeacherWeb page for parents to view at home. Here is one to share: http://lorintyler.edu.glogster.com/elizabeth/

Smartboard in the Library

Our new librarian, Mrs. Stenulson, has made our reading pit interactive for the students with our Smartboard.  She recently has been using the Smartboard with biographies.  She has also had the students interact with BookFLIX, audio books online, and shown Stratelogica map lessons to name just a few ways technology is being used in the library.

Independent Study Projects

On Tuesday, Oct. 25th, nineteen TAG students in grades 3 through 5 presented the culmination of nine weeks of their hard work in an Independent Study Project Expo event. 



3rd Grade Pet Comic Strip

  

Third grade students focused on an exploration of the costs and values of various pets, resulting in their final advertisement for the pet of their choice. In the course of this Pet Parade project, some students chose to use Excel to create tables of costs, Power Point to make adjective wheels or their pet advertisement, Publisher to create a monthly care calendar, or a video player to display a video-taped commercial for their pet. Many of their project pieces were word-processed, as well.

A Pet "Recipe"

Fourth graders explored a favorite state's climate and terrain features in order to create their Backyard Getaway. Students used a variety of technology while completing this project, from Excel tables to creating a Garden Flipbook through a website link, a Word document, or Publisher.

The fifth graders planned their Travel Passport--a vacation plan of their dreams, within a $5,000 budget. They researched costs of flights, passport requirements, lodging costs, and other related expenses. Throughout this project students used Excel to create an expense spreadsheet, graphed their expenditures, and created a daily itinerary of their trip. They wrote letters via e-mail to travel agents or hotels at their destination (and got responses!) to get brochures for their display boards. All TAG students in each grade used the resources available to them for researching on our website.

A 5 Day Itinerary to New York City

Skyping at Purple Sage

Our previous librarian, Natalie Wilgoren, retired last year, but before she did, she promised us she would skype with us and read to our students.  This past week, Ms.Wilgoren honored us with fulfilling her promise.  We skyped with Ms.Wilgoren in Cape Cod, Massachusetts in our library.  She read I'm Mighty! by Kate and Jim McMullan to first and second graders who of course recognized the surprise reader!

Welcome to Purple Sage's Technology Blog

Welcome to Purple Sage's first posting on their new Technology Blog, Getting I.T. Right @ Purple Sage, where we will showcase instructional technology on our campus.  For a few years now, Purple Sage has been blessed to have Promethean Boards in many of their classrooms.  This year we actually have them in all classrooms 2nd grade to 5th grade.  Last year through district bond funds, the district was able to complete putting ceiling mounted data projectors and document cameras in every classroom.  We also were able to refresh laptop carts, and now we have 5 netbook carts of 24 netbooks to share in grade levels.  This truly brings us into the 21st century!  All this new equipment has been greatly appreciated by everyone, teachers and students alike.  Teachers are able now to immediately display student work onto the big screen for all to see and edit or view different ways students solve problems.  They no longer need to show education video streaming on the tiny TV screens, but can enjoy "big screens."  We've even had Skyping happening at Purple Sage with this new hardware.  Every year teachers come up with new ideas on how to use our equipment and software to enhance student achievement.  
This blog will be our way to showcase our technology in action happening at Purple Sage.  Please come back often to see what our teachers are sharing.