Changes, Changes

As technology keeps changing, so does our Getting I.T.Right Blog.  This is our final post on this blog.  However, our technology blogs will continue to be displayed on our campus website under Campus News at the bottom of the Home page.  Please continue to see what all is happening at Purple Sage on campus and with technology at https://purplesage.roundrockisd.org/.  The technology blogs will also be highlighted on the district website at https://insttech.roundrockisd.org/ at the bottom of that page under the Getting I.T. Right section.
This blog will contine to be up for the TA TEKS and old blogs for a period of time, but will be removed as a link on our website.

Google Classroom

Teachers at Purple Sage had the opportunity to be trained on Google Classroom this past week by their instructional technology specialist, Ms. Barnard.  Classroom is a new feature of Google Apps for Education that came out in the summer of 2014.  It aims to provide a paperless educational system.  Classroom helps teachers organize, save time and improve communication with their students.  Teachers are able to create assignments for their classes, grade, and provide feedback to their students.

Ms. Garcia, our 5th grade Next Generation Digital Classroom teacher, uses Classroom in all subject areas. This is an example of how she delivers a LearnZillion math video on mathematical equations to her students.  Once the students watch the video, they let the teacher know by clicking on a button saying the assignment is completed.  Other assignments to be graded can be sent to the teacher to grade and then returned to the student, keeping the assignment on Google Drive and paperless.

Newsela

Newsela is an online resource that is being used by our third grade team for expository writing. Expository writing is a type of writing that is used to explain, describe, and give information. Newsela is online news articles in war & peace, science, kids, money, law, health, arts, and sports. It also includes text sets for literature, social studies, and news around the world. Teachers can join to add students and be able to assign specific articles selected by grade level to their students. They are in Spanish and English. There are short assessments at the end of each article.

Go Noodle on a Rainy Day

When we haven't seen rain in months, bring it on!  However, it does put a damper in recess. Ms. Rivera's kindergarten class found another way to have indoor recess.  They used the site, Go Noodle.  It is a fun, interactive way to get the students moving and running off some of their energy.

Digital Citizenship Week October 19-23, 2015

This week is Digital Citzenship Week.  All across our district students are hearing Tech Tips during our morning Broadcast.  They are also watching Common Sense videos to be aware of what is spoken on our tech tips.  As parents, you too, can view what we are showing.  Visit our Round Rock Digital Citizenship website  and view this week's themes.

Plickers.com

Jacqueline Garcia, our Next Generation Digital 5th grade Classroom teacher, used Plickers.com today with her students.  "Plickers is a powerfully simple tool that lets teachers collect real-time formative assessment data without the need for student devices."  Teachers can "tailor instruction with instant feedback."  Plickers can be used "for quick checks for understanding to whether your students are understanding big concepts and mastering key skills."  There is no need for students to log-in on devices.  Each child is given a QR code to hold up to select their answers.  The teacher then uses a cell phone to read the QR code and identify each child's answer.

International Dot Day

Ms. Catherine Jones, Purple Sage's librarian, has started using her newly acquired IPads to introduce activities for International Dot Day.  The students colored their DOT and with the app Quiver, the DOTS become 3D objects that spin.

REMIND

In Ms. Robinson's 4th grade class, she uses Remind to instantly contact parents about any event or school work to keep parents involved.

 "I love it because it is instant, especially with technology being such a big part of our lives today." 

Some examples of when Ms. Robinson uses Remind:
To remind parents of a school function that is happening the following day, a test that is coming up, and to check their email about their weekly newsletter. Ms. Robinson also plans on using it to send quick notes about something they did in class so they can have an open discussion with their student about what they are learning in class.

The Brain

5th grade TAG students are studying the brain as a unit in their language arts class. They are reading Mick Harte Was Here, a book involving a bike accident resulting in a death due to not wearing a helmet. They will be researching about structures of the brain, multiple intelligences, and about bike helmet safety statistics. 

UT Research Engineering Scientist (and one of our moms), Ms. Elizabeth Osterndorff-Kahanek, who works on the effects of addiction on the brain, came in with a model of the structures of the brain and gave the students an overview of the function of each section. Then they watched her dissect a mouse brain to see the similar structures and viewed slides through her microscope. The students will complete a brain webquest tomorrow,

A Letter from the Community

"Woo Hoo!" Ms. Sara Nelson, our Purple Sage principal writes as she relays the following email from a parent, to our Office Staff and Ms. Barnard, our ITS.

From: Colleen Benefield 
Date: Wed, Sep 9, 2015 at 8:20 PM
Subject: Communication Kudos
To: Sara Nelson <sara_nelson@roundrockisd.org>

Just wanted to send an encouraging note that both the newly retooled Purple Sage Press and the school website look great!  The change in layout is much more appealing and professional.  And, I'm also happy to share that our daughter's teacher (Miss Walters) is using both her class website and email as communication tools.  I feel like we have open lines of communication and are being provided with timely and useful information.  I'm so happy to see that clear communication is now a priority at Purple Sage.  

Thanks for helping steer the ship in this direction!

Colleen 

Ms. Thornburg, our office specialist, is now using LucidPress, a Google App to write our monthly newsletter known as The Purple Sage Press.  It is linked to our newly designed website in both English and Spanish.  

Our district decided on redesigning our websites so that all schools follow a similar template to make it easier for our community to recognize where things are on different school websites when they have children in more than one school.  Each campus will include campus and district news.  We are also recommending our teachers or grade levels to have a website linked to their name in our directory.

We thank Ms. Benefield for taking the time to notice and express her appreciation of Purple Sage staff efforts to provide clear communication.

Acceptable Use Policy Presented

Each year we are instructed by our district to present our Acceptable Use Policy to our students at the beginning of the year before they begin using our technology.  This year we used our newly created Instructional Technology Department Digital Citizenship Website to present the introductory Prezi presentation and a video by NetSmartz.  The video we used was Router's Birthday Surprise. Something else new this year was that our ITS, Bunny Barnard, teamed with our librarian, Catherine Jones, and presented to each grade level in the library using some of our new equipment.  We had our data projector displaying the presentation and then we used our new 70" touch screen TV to create a Wordle made from the words that were stressed in our acceptable use policy.  The Wordle image was printed and displayed in the classroom along with the students' signed contract that they will abide by the rules in our acceptable use policy.

Learning about Little Bits

There is so much NEW technology this year!  The one thing new that the district has purchased for campuses to reserve our Little Bit Electronic kits.  Watch the video at http://littlebits.cc/.  Our ITS, Bunny Barnard, had the opportunity to discover and experience the learning from these little modules that snap together to create action. Here are a couple of pictures of her team's creative minds in action. The kit will be reserved in the Fall for our Library to introduce to students during our Makerspace days, and fifth grade is looking forward to adding this to their science unit in October. It will be fun to see what our amazing students can create!

We Did IT!

We DID IT! Our DonorsChoose.org project was funded in ONE DAY! We will have a new camera for our morning broadcast next year. We thank everyone who supported this effort.  Please follow the link to read about our requested project, Candid Camera.

2nd Night of Butterfly Watching

Watch with us from 2pm to 10pm tonight.

Great Night at the Outer Limits

2nd Grade Butterflies (Night of 5-14-15)

Watch our butterflies with us!

It will start at 2 p.m. and last until 10 p.m.

Cisco Tour

Today our winning "Future City" Team traveled to Cisco to present their project via Telepresence to other 5th & 6th grade groups in California, Georgia, Virginia and Mexico City! While at Cisco, they toured the facility and learned about various types of technology from the engineers and design teams.  The Cisco employees talked to the students about the importance of staying in school, the importance of teamwork & collaboration, and never giving up! WAY TO GO RIDERS! WE ARE VERY PROUD OF HOW WELL THEY REPRESENTED TEXAS & ROUND ROCK ISD! 

Online Geoboards

Mrs. Rivera's Class -Kindergarten Dual Language
Math: Shapes 
Kindergarteners are using - http://www.mathplayground.com/geoboard.html to create 2D shapes.

Kindergarten learn about Japan via Skype

Mrs. Rivera's Class - Kindergarten Dual Language - Using Technology - Skype.  

The students learned about friends living in Japan.  It was morning in Austin around 8:30 a.m., but 10:30 p.m. at night in Japan.  Mrs. Rivera's friends, Mrs. Kathy Sandoval and her high school son, Daniel, living in Tokyo, Japan, took their laptops over to the windows to see the night skyline of Tokyo and listen to the sounds at night there.

Each kindergarten student came up to the microphone and asked a question.  They learned how to say, good morning, goodbye and hello and count to 3 in Japanese.  Then Daniel, also taught them Chinese for one, two, and three.  They were saying it in 4 languages, Chinese, Japanese, Spanish, and English!


The coolest thing that happened was when our principal, Mrs. Sara Nelson, came in and went to the microphone and camera and asked Daniel what grade was his favorite, and of course he said 4th grade because Mrs. Nelson was his teacher at Canyon Creek Elementary!  Check out the selfie, Mrs. Nelson took with her student via Skype!

K.13 Science, technology, and society. The student understands ways technology is used in the home and school and how technology affects people's lives. 

Independent Study "Passion" Projects

TAG students have just finished another ISP; this was their Passion Project.  Students in 2nd grade and older began writing their three research questions on a Google Doc and filled in their notes in bullets as they researched to find their answers. They used the online site: Easybib.com to cite their sources.  They created a presentation of their findings in Google Slides, PowerPoint, or Prezi.  They researched a career of someone who'd know about their topic on the website and found key words to describe that person's job. Then they may a Wordle of the career words.  They also researched a career mentor and sent that person an email of interview questions about the job.  Finally, they students made a 3-D product related to their research and created a visual display on a trifold board. Five students, one per grade, represented Purple Sage at the District ISP event at McNeil High School on Tuesday, April 7th, and 28 students will have their projects on display at our Gallery Night on Monday, April 28th, from 6:00-6:30 p.m.

City of the Future

The 5th grade students at Purple Sage Elementary teamed up with Cisco, Inc. to create a "City of the Future." The first phase of the project started in December. Cisco employees pitched the idea of working on a semester long project to create a City of the Future. Through their pitch, the employees took the students back in time through a presentation of how technology has evolved.

Shortly after, the teams of students began drafting ideas on paper. Cisco employees mentored them through this process by opening up the students eyes to how technology is used around the world. The students ideas were limitless.

In February, with the help of Home Depot, the students began crafting their ideas into 3-Dimensional models while continuing to research how technology makes our everyday lives easier. The Cisco mentors visited the students twice a month to help them create their ideas into reality.

Through March, the students continued crafting and painting to complete their models. Our Cisco mentors, visited the students through this process encouraging their ideas while watching projects evolve through many stages. The mentors also encouraged collaboration and teamwork.

At the end of March through the beginning of April, the teams of students collaborated through Google Docs to create an essay explaining their city, the technology in their City, the role that technology plays in everyday lives, and the roles the students played in their city. The essay required the students to think about the future, what type of career they would like to pursue, and explain how technology would play a role in their chosen career.

The last phase of the project, the students utilized the IPads from the "next Generation Digital Classroom" to create digital presentations through Google Slides, IMovie and/or Telestory.

On Friday, April 10th the 12 teams presented their final projects (model, essay and digital presentation) to a panel of 7 Cisco judges.

On April 30th, the winning team will take their project to Cisco to present via Telepresence to other winning teams located in Virginia, Georgia, California, and Mexico City.

And the WINNERS are: Drum Roll Please...
in THIRD PLACE:

In SECOND PLACE:

 In FIRST PLACE:

Be Safe

PBIS Be Safe Powtoons

Click the link to watch our PBIS (Positive Behavior Intervention Support) Assembly for our students. We follow the 3 Bees:  Be Safe, Be Respectful, Be Responsible.  Monthly we meet as a school community and focus on one of our 3 Bees.  This past month was BE SAFE.  Ms. Thornburg, our office specialist, was quite creative to go online and create a Powtoon Presentation.  Watch and Learn (and ENJOY!)

Input...Output

The students in Ms. Robinson's 4th grade class worked on their whiteboards first to help solve the Input/Output Table problem before choosing the correct answer with their interactive Promethean Activotes. 

In/Out Table TChart Lesson and Activity

Purple Sage Community,

     We are pleased to congratulate our Art Teacher, Emily Thurman, and our Librarian, Catherine Jones, in becoming a member of the Next Generation Digital Classroom for the 2015-2016 school year. 

Through their efforts, each student of Purple Sage will have access to technology in our Art Room and Library. Ms. Thurman and Ms. Jones will not only be able to instruct through the influence of technology to each class at Purple Sage, they will also allow for the enrichment of all of our learners.

We are proud of these two educators for paving the way for excellence at Purple Sage.

For more information about the Next Generation Digital Classroom Trailblazer Pilot visit http://ngdcrrisd.blogspot.com/.

Fourth Grade Meet Mrs. Barbara Bush Virtually

Ms. Veronica Robinson's 4th grade class participated in a Virtual Field Trip featuring First Lady Barbara Bush. They were able to hear a variety of questions that were asked to Mrs. Bush from around the world including Ghana and Canada. The fourth graders also heard other students from the Houston area read the book Rushmore. As part of their demonstration of the book, they also learned about augmented reality. Augmented Reality brings the books read to life and Ms. Robinson's class thoroughly enjoyed learning about this new form of technology. They were very engaged during the question and answer part, as well as the augmented reality where the video came to life. 

GIRLSTART

Tonight at our Math & Science Night, you may want to check out the "Girlstart" table in the cafeteria.  This is an Austin-based organization that strives to encourage and empower girls in the areas of Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math. Their activity will be for all of the kids!   They have some programs, resources, camps, etc. listed on their http://www.girlstart.org/ .  

Biblionasium

Biblionasium.com is a website and app that can be used for kids to connect with friends, parents and teachers in order to share and recommend their favorite books. They can setup virtual bookshelves, catalog books, track their reading minutes and write book reviews.  It's like a Goodreads for children. Grades 3-5 have been introduced to the site by our librarian, Ms. Jones, registered as students, and most have already changed their avatar and started their virtual bookshelf.  Please feel free to register as a parent or teacher as a way to connect with your student and make reading an everyday conversation.    

Future City, Purple Sage Students Envision Innovate for Competition

The Round Rock Media Services just announced this on the Round Rock Webpage.  I want to make sure our Purple Sage community sees it too.

A self-sustaining city in the clouds is just one of the ideas Purple Sage Elementary School fifth-graders have for a future city, a project created for a worldwide Cisco System Inc. innovation competition.

The 11 teams at Purple Sage are the only students in Texas participating in the competition, and they’re putting no limits on imagination for the projects. The semester-long assignment tasks students to envision a future city that would run on alternative energy.

“This project utilizes technology, teamwork and all of our academic subjects like social studies, reading, writing and math,” said Jacqueline Garcia, fifth-grade teacher. “It’s an ideal project for the students to work on at this grade level. It integrates perfectly with our curriculum.”

The students must map out their city, think of new technologies and eventually build a 3-D model, which will be judged in April. The classes have been getting ideas for their cities by looking at innovative technology in Central Texas and around the world.

“This is a real-world opportunity for the kids to see not only how our community is working, but how other communities are working as well,” said Jacqueline Garcia, Purple Sage fifth-grade teacher. “I think they feel like they have given back to the community because they’re bringing their ideas to life.”

One of the fifth-grade teams envisioned their city in the clouds during the year 3050. The team planned for trees and gardens to produce oxygen, water pipes from the cloud to the ocean to pump up water, and a pool of water that produces lightning to generate energy. Windmills and solar panels were also planned throughout the community to produce extra energy.

“You get to use your imagination more because it’s basically like you’re building your own city with your friends,” said Malichi, Purple Sage fifth-grader. “We can see what we’ll be able to do in our lives.”

As part of the program, Cisco System Inc.  employees visit the school twice a month to facilitate the project and will be the individuals judging the projects. The winner of the Future City competition will visit a Cisco System Inc.  office and present their city via video conference to fellow students across the world.

Biographies with a Technology Twist

The 2nd graders om Mrs. Santineau's class did research on historical figures using the Biographies section of the PebbleGo site.  Then, they used their data to complete an assigned timeline template in their Google Drive account using www.teach-nology.com, the big timeline in their web tools.

The students loved it!!  

Independent Work in TAG Math

Mrs. Jacks, our Talented and Gifted teacher, must be testing tomorrow. Her third grade students have been studying the critical attributes of 2-D shapes. Mrs. Jacks has shared this Google Slides template with her students for them to work independently to create  a 2-D Important Book slides.

Cover...Sample to follow...one of the 10 shapes to complete

The fourth grade has their own Google Slides template to work on too.  Theirs is with Perimeter and Area.

Cover...3 of 6 slides to complete

Showing OFF I.T. on Campus

This past Thursday, we had two district Instructional Technology administrators, Robert Autrey and Jeff Uselman, come to Purple Sage for a district walk-through to view technology in the works.  That they saw!

They were first impressed with our librarian, Catherine Jones.  Ms. Jones was working with Ms. Kosub's first grade class using her library Smartboard and tools, Brain-Pop, and our TurningPoint clickers.  Now that is "SMASHING APPS!"

Next, they moved on to our Next Generation Digital Classroom and saw Jackie Garcia with 10 additional "guest" students who couldn't be recognized as new students to the IPad because Ms. Garcia's experienced students were teaching them as they worked. They were multiplying fractions with whole numbers.  They were working through problems on slides with one IPad and creating pictures of the problem using Virtual Manipulatives with another and airdropping the pictures to the first IPad to add to the problem slide. The were all so engaged in the activity.  They all loved learning!

Then, Mr. Autrey and Mr. Uselman saw Travis in Ms. Munoz-DeLeon's 4th grade classroom sharing his Google Presentation of his autobiography with his class, and Ms. Jackson's first graders using Stellarium and learning about the earth's meridian, as well as reading an associated story in Spanish and English using our library online resources. They popped in last into TAG and saw fifth graders doing an interactive activity using elastic bands, as well as third graders working on online math practice.

We unfortunately missed all the action in 2nd grade and kindergarten because time ran out.

Teachers, thank you all for opening your classrooms to our guests and showing off all the technology that is happening in our learning and making Purple Sage ROCK!