Girl Scout Silver Award Project benefits Kathy Caraway Elementary

Valerie Quach, a girl scout and student at Canyon Vista Middle School, approached Shelly Hohmann, our principal. last Spring with a project plan she wanted to present to our school.  We were all delighted in August to be presented with beautiful computer visual aid posters for our computer lab.  Also, Valerie designed and built dividers between computer monitors for privacy during testing and to provide better learning focus.  She added to her task to reorganize our robotic area by providing shelves for robotic kit storage.
Caraway Elementary is proud to accept Valerie Quach's Girl Scout Silver Award Project and show you her work through pictures and powerpoint here on our Getting I.T. Right Blog. https://docs.google.com/a/roundrockisd.org/file/d/0B9U-2of_pMocdnU4REdUNzJFbzQ/edit

                                        

Computer Lab Posters

Privacy Dividers for Desktops

Shelving for Robotics

Media Literacy in First Grade

Mrs. Hadden and Mrs. Leyva, first grade teachers at Caraway, used technology with their first grade classes during their Media Literacy Unit recently.  They saved their voices using Audacity, and created their advertisements on PowerPoint.

The students each used technology while creating advertisements that incorporated the following objective TEKS: Students started and exited a program independently, created and saved a file independently, used font, color, and graphics for effective communication, and created and published original products in a variety of media including a printed copy, monitor display, digitally stored files, and voice recordings.

Please understand first grade's inventive spelling; they have not been introduced to spell-check.  The joy of writing is the key.  Listen to their voices by clicking on the speaker symbol.

First Grade Media Literacy Links

Geometry Vocabulary

Mrs. Kolodzinski's 5th grade TAG Math class applied their knowledge of geometry terms by creating geometry scenes using Microsoft Word and PowerPoint. 

http://teacherweb.com/TX/CarawayElementary/Kolodzinski/apt31.aspx

Create Your Own Personal Font

This week's Tuesday technology tip is seriously cool! 

Using your own handwriting as a font in Microsoft Word!

Even if you have bad handwriting, with this tip you are able to upload one good set of letters, and then when you type, it's as if you are your own calligrapher!

MyScriptFont.com - a free online tool

Full credit and a round of applause goes to Casey Henegar, Caraway's second grade teacher, for the super idea, and to Gareth Cook, Caraway's fourth grade teacher, for making the Jing tutorial video.

Click, watch, and try it out yourself...Also attached the presentation if you decide to give it a go and want to work through it step by step. 

VIDEO - Create your own font tutorial

Powerpoint Presentation

Public Service Announcements

Ms. Wilczynski's 4th graders chose an environmental issue about which they were passionate, and conducted an independent research study project. One part of this project was making a Public Service Announcement – a voice or video recording, or Powerpoint slideshow in support of their environmental issue. They used multimedia of all kinds to get their voices heard!

Check out a few of them by clicking HERE.

Deck the Halls

Jesse Sosa, a third grade teacher, decked our halls with Biography PowerPoints.  Once the PowerPoints were created, they were printed in three different formats: a full size slide for the Title,  handout sizes for the hanging mobile slides. and top it off with a holiday red ball ornament!  Happy Winter Break!!

Edmodo in 5th Grade

Yesterday, Caraway's fifth grade team met with Mrs. Barnard, our instructional technology specialist, for their team's tech training. They previewed many online resources provided by the district's RRISD Online Resource Live Binder.  The team also addressed new Technology Applications TEKS through the district's "Just In Time" powerpoint to get new ideas for embedding technology into their curriculum.  Paper Slides, using our document camera's video feature, was demonstrated to them.
Mrs. Barnard also introduced them to Edmodo, a safe social network to collaborate with their team and students, providing students with assignments and easy access to their homework through a digital backpack.
Mrs. Marshall went immediately back to her class and had her students sign up on her Class Group.  She had a fun assignment and a survey to take a poll waiting for them once they entered. The students were thrilled.  Here are some of their comments:

" It's a way for kids to talk with each other when they are apart."

" It's like Facebook but for younger kids but safer."

"It's a good way to give kids work when they are bored."

"It's so cool!!!"

Data Graphing Projects

Check out Ms. Wilczynski's 3rd grade TAG Math class' Data and Graphing Projects that they just completed. Students surveyed 3rd and/or 5th graders with a question they were interested in evaluating. They made a prediction before collecting data, as well as analyzed the results after graphing it.
MsWilczynski 3rd Grade TAG Graphing Projects