Spring Update

It has been many moons since the HeathcoteTech blog has been updated. And that is a good thing!

The lab has been cranking. Students are in most hours of the day. iPads are being checked out, MacBooks are being borrowed, Chromebooks are running full steam. It's been a great few months, students learning and creating amazing things.

Here is a quick rundown of what's been going on in the lab since February:



Kindergarten

• self portraits in Pixie - practicing typing and drawing - basic keyboarding as well as fine motor skills
• poetry in Pixie - tying poems created in class and adding illustrations
• RazKids - using the online service RazKids to bolster independent reading skills
• OneMoreStory - using the online service OneMoreStory to bolster independent reading skills

1st grade

• self portraits in Pixie - practicing typing and drawing - basic keyboarding as well as fine motor skills
• birds-eye-view maps in Pixie - taking the hand drawn birds-eye-view maps they made of their rooms and drawing them out using the Shapes tool. Also used the Text tool to label all the elements of their map
• poetry in Pixie - tying poems created in class and adding illustrations

2nd grade

• animal adaptations in Slides (Onofri) - using Google Slides to create short (4 slides) explanations of the animals they researched in class. Slides included text, pictures, and formatting
• animal adaptations in Comic Life (Citron) - used Comic Life to create a comic book style representation of the animals they researched, including text, pictures, and formatting
• presentation skills - classes have used both Keynote (Higgins) and Slides (Onofri) to work on basic skills or organizing, designing, formatting, and animating a presentation
• research skills (Citron) - discussions on proper Google search techniques, checking multiple sources, and using Google Docs to take notes 
• RazKids (Higgins) - using the online service RazKids to bolster independent reading skills

4th grade

• iPad opera compositions - Ms. Bescherer worked with the entire 4th grade in the computer lab to create, record, and publish original operatic works. Garageband on the iPads was the platform and the final products were published to YouTube (Ms. Arbeeny's class - Ms. Rago's class - Ms. Robert's class)

5th grade

• infographics - 5E and 5B used Piktochart to create infographics from their Westward Expansion research 
• Ignite presentations - 5D used the Ignite style presentation format to present their information on their Westward Expansion research - 5D Ignite on Youtube
• augmented reality - after 5E had such success with their "iMovies on paper" project they decided to use Aurasma for their poetry projects as well. In addition, 5B has also picked up on Aurasma. Both 5E and 5B students are using Aurasma to make their paper poems come to life with video readings of famous poetry, as well as original work
• screencasts - 5E has used SnagIt by TechSmith, a Google Chrome extension, to create video tutorials of their portfolio websites. They have created these video explanations using both their Chromebooks and the lab iMacs

Outside of the lab great things are happening as well...

• 4th and 5th graders are using their Chromebooks extensively for research, writing, collaborating, and supplemental enrichment activities such as MangaHigh
• 3rd grade often checks out the mobile cart of MacBooks for using various Google Drive tools such as Docs for their poetry unit and Slides for their Information books.

Heathcote students are doing great work and pushing the bounds of the tools and platforms available. This blog has languished without an update because there have been too many great things happening, and not enough time to write. And that is awesome!

#heathcotepride!