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.