In 3rd Grade at SPES, we have been learning about a Famous American each week. The students research each Famous American, and then they have the choice of projects to present the information they found. One of the choices is making a Who am I Voki.

What is Voki?
Voki enables users to express themselves on the web using a talking character. You can customize your Voki to look like you or take on the identity of lots of other types of characters… animals, monsters, anime etc.

Here’s the steps we went through to complete the product:
1. Students research a historical figure reading print resources or internet websites.
2. Students create a short and concise summary of their Famous American focusing on important information but DO NOT state the figure’s name.
4. Students then enter their synopsis onto their own Voki.
5. Each student then presents their historical figure from the class blog after embedding the code into a new post.
6. The rest of the class has to guess which historical figure is being presented.

An example can be found at Mr. Hart’s Class Blog

–Tyler Hart

At Lakeside, we are having monthly technology meeting with interested staff members based on our needs and interests.  What’s great is that these meetings are being led by Lakeside staff.  These staff members attend trainings or consult with technology trainers and bring back info to share with other staff members during times that are more flexible for us.

In the month of November I always have the students write what they are thankful for.  I had Jen Barnett come in and help teach the students how to use iMovie.  I’ve asked the students to bring in pictures from home of the things they are thankful for.  We are going to take their writing and turn it into a digital story.  Their iMovie will incorporate written words, pictures, audio, and video.  It is something they can share with their families over the holiday – Brooke Mondy

One of our fourth grade teachers had her students create weather reports using Photo Booth. Students completed research in the library on different types of extreme weather. They used this information to write “weather reporter” scripts before recording. Students added hurricane or tornado videos to background and then recorded themselves explaining weather conditions and safety precautions for the “audience”.  Some even held umbrellas, wore rain jackets, or swayed back and forth for effect!  Kim Slayton

Technology Contacts -  By November 15 – please post a brief description of one great idea, observation, strategy, or something you have planned for your faculty or classroom in the weeks ahead.  Please be sure to include your name and your school’s name and any links that would be helpful.

Andrew Einolf (Contact at Three Chopt) was unable to attend the Idea Jam in May; however, he sent these links to share:

http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/threechopt/moran_s/ko-mo/Henrico_21.html

http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/threechopt/moran_s/ko-mo/Henrico_21.html

http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/threechopt/whitehead_r/Site/Washington.html

http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/threechopt/moran_s/ko-mo/Smithsonian_Projects.html

I showed the 3rd grade Henrico 21 Project.  We used Blabberize, PhotoBooth, Comic Life and Keynote for individual projects about Greece and Rome.  Then all of the movies and pictures were uploaded to Museum Box for viewing.

museumbox.e2nb.org/creator/viewer/show/77400

museumbox.e2bn.org/creator/viewer/show/77905

http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/jacksonjournal

This is the link to the class blog I started this year with the help of our ITRT, Stephanie Wright.  The goal is to give students more opportunities to write about math, science, and social studies curriculum.  Each student created an avatar in Pixie for their log in – they like seeing their avatar on the blog when they post.  The children comment on the posts, and then they also respond to other students’ comments with ideas and edits.  The librarian and resource teacher reply to the students and encourage them to think further.  This definitely encourages higher level thinking of content material, which helps students to be successful on tests.

I am looking forward to introducing the blog at back to school night next year, and hopefully get more parents involved (the ones that read it now tell me how much they enjoy it, and some even comment).

Please let me know if you have any comments, suggestions, or questions.

Catherine Jackson (cmjackson)

Covais    Adams

Students made a flipchart to present research they performed on Ancient Mali.

Lindsay Kingoff  - Arthur Ashe

Scientific Investigation, Reasoning, and Logic Technology Project (5th Grade)

Cody Lizotte    Chamberlayne

Two fifth grade classes worked on “Virtual Books”  where students worked in groups on their writing skills to create a story.  Then using Pixie, each group created pictures, typed their text, and recorded their voices.  It was then exported as a Podcast, and students were able to use the iPads and iPods to watch the finished virtual books.
Angie Carter    Dumbarton

I am planning to share our Henrico 21 project.  It incorporates lots of technology and art.

Blair Lazarchic    Echo Lake

5th Grade Blogging
Kim Slayton    Fair Oaks “2nd grade weather podcast

3rd grade soil investigation”
Elizabeth Lacy    G. F. Baker

Zoo in Room 25 – Lesson on perimeter and area….with previous introduction of this skill by flipchart.

Cheryl Alexander    Glen Allen

Project – Kindergarten Life Cycle of a Butterfly Group Pixie Movies

Connie Alves    Greenwood

Voice Thread for first grade math project

Morgan McMullin    Harvie

Comic Life – Second grade classes at Harvie used Comic Life to create a comic strip on Egypt.
Kimberly Holloway    HSES

IMovie Book Trailers
Melissa Nacy    Jackson Davis

I will be sharing my website with links to student created projects.  These projects include imovie, garageband, and keynote.
Jay Schwermer    Johnson Elementary

2nd grade class project.  Group inferencing keynotes with a pixie animation put together in a quick time video.
Stephanie    Laburnum

“Student blog
Teacher videos”
Joy Herod    Longan Elementary School Henrico 21 school website created to store school H21 lessons.

Deanna Pollard    Mehfoud Elementary School

2nd Grade Student Projects – Famous Americans
Whitney deBordenave    Montrose E.S.

We will share our staff development that we did at Montrose. Teachers were able to select a two topics and then had an “unconference” at the end of the session. They made their selections by using a google doc form.
Kevin Schatz  Nuckols Farm “3rd Grade Project
The Next Best Seller (Children’s Engineering)”
Valerie Bennett    Pemberton ES

“Grade One Classrooms Each Write a Story in Pixie for a Schoolwide Vote

Read Aloud: Arthur Writes a Story by Marc Brown
Whole class instruction to discuss story elements.
Class is divided into small groups (3) and provided a story prompt.
Story prompts for each group are unique; however, they will sequence into a fully developed plot.
Small groups write a storyboard and draw their [part] of the story using Pixie
Class story made into a Pixie “”movie.”"
Each class Pixie movie is linked to a Quia.
Quia allows students in upper grades to link to each class story, view the story and vote on their favorite one!
Three open ended questions are included in the quia for student voters.”
Stacie Carlisle    Pinchbeck Our fourth grade students used the Mixbooks site (www.mixbook.com/photo) to create individual photo books for Va History.  The students added clippings, pictures, photos etc.. and then added text based on what they had studied in class.  The students now have a personally made book that covers Va. history.  It became a digital interactive notebook.  Students will have the option to order a hardback copy when they are complete.
Colleen Rust    Rivers Edge “http://blogs.henrico.k12.va.us/jdkoontz/

This blog is for the fourth graders at Rivers Edge Elementary as they participate in the Journey North Tulip Garden and Climate Change Study.

Feel free to check out the program’s web site at:

http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tulip/index.html

“
Catherine Jackson    Sandston Elementary

Jackson Journal Blog; I will also share plans/ideas for next year’s staff development with the teachers in each creating their own classroom or grade level blogs.

Crissy Rhyne    Shady Grove Elementary

Little Bird Tales:  Online books made by Kindergarten students
Margo Clifford    Springfield Park

Third Grade Important Americans Project using Tagxedo, blogging, and more!
Andrew Einolf    Three Chopt ES

Henrico 21 Award Winning Project by our 5th grade team

Heather Lang    Trevvett

This year I worked partially throug our schools Staff development PLC’s to increase awareness of Active Inspire in the school especially with those teachers who do not have Promethean boards, showing how charts could be used in centers on student computers.  I will share some kindergarten resources developed with this in mind.
Suzy O’Connor Tuckahoe

Pixie photo essay
Tom Adair    Twin Hickory

“1) Had students recite preamble to Constitution using Voicethread.
2) Also had math class research and present information on famous mathematicans using either Keynote, a flipchart (Inspire) or Voicethread.”
Trish Fallis    Varina Elementary    ”Library Blog- use for voting for favorite book
Voice Thread- use in Novel Study for creative expression.”
Maripat Hyatt    Ward Elementary

I will be sharing the 3rd grade student projects that were submitted for H21. The students researched different habitats in the library. The students then worked in groups to decide what information would be needed to “tell a story” about their habitat. They created illustrations for the story in Pixie during art classes and added voice over and text in the classroom.