Teresa Bruin, one of our district educational technology team leaders, recently brought Chromebooks to kindergarten classes at Hunter Elementary for students to try. The goal was to see how easily the young students could work with the Chromebooks in various hardware configurations (touch screen, trackpad, large mouse, or small mouse.) She recorded this rough video, which shows just how quickly the kindergartners learned to use the devices and how excited they were about their success.
Emily Jewkes is a Kindergarten teacher at Academy Park Elementary in West Valley City. In this spotlight, Miss Jewkes demonstrates how she and her fellow Kindergaren teachers collaborate in creating common formative assessments using the Quizizz web app. Students take the quizzes using classroom iPads and receive immediate feedback, while the teachers receive immediate quiz results. The class then reviews the information and results together at the interactive whiteboard. We thank Miss Jewkes for sharing her process in using this great learning tool with us.
Spotlight created by Samantha Mitchell, School Technology Specialist at Academy Park Elementary.
Kindergartners at Hunter Elementary are happy and making tremendous progress with the loving care of their amazing teachers, Kris Handley and Kelly Stevens! These five and six year old students enjoy learning using technology. They are using iPods and QR codes to practice reading. They are also using iPads and OSMO. OSMO helps them to learn letters, sight words, numbers and to do a variety of math activities including the use of tan-grams. They are masters of the Mimio interactive board and enjoy interacting with a number of programs on it including one of their favorites: pinkcatstudio.com. They work independently at their computer center and especially enjoy starfall.com to help them with their reading.
Kris and Kelly successfully use PLC time to plan for the success of all their students. Principal, Kayla Mackay, describes the progress their Kindergarten students are making under the care of these two top notch teachers.
Spotlight Creator: Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Erin Evans makes learning meaningful and fun using various forms of technology in her Kindergarten class. The students use iPads with carefully selected apps during student rotations. This video highlights that, as well as Erin and the STS, Stephanie Evans, working with students who are using a new iPad suite of apps called Osmo. Osmo includes Words, Tangrams, and Newton, a critical thinking app. Students problem solve as they interact with the apps using letter tiles, tangrams and drawing in front of the mirror attachment for the iPad. The attached mirror recognizes what they have placed or drawn in front of the iPad and helps them with phonemic awareness, problem solving skills in math and critical thinking skills in the physics app as they draw lines to make a falling ball reach its target. Students also have access to a cart full of iPods (not shown in this video). Most of all, the students are fully attentive and enjoying learning in their classroom!
Spotlight Author: Teresa Bruin, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Apps and Resources Shown in Video:
Osmo: https://www.playosmo.com/
Homer: https://learnwithhomer.com/
Frog Hop HD: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/frog-hop-hd-math-problems/id585700693?mt=8
Mrs. Shanna Bingham is a kindergarten teacher at Pioneer Elementary. I had the opportunity to watch her work with her students on counting and number recognition. Her students worked as partners and used iPads to scan QR codes. Those codes took the students to her UEN website (http://my.uen.org/myuen/230078). The students then counted the number of pumpkins and wrote the number on a worksheet. Once that activity was complete the students then used the app Doodle Buddy to practice collaboration and providing feedback while counting. One student would say a number and the other student would tap out that amount of snowflakes on the screen. The first student would then give a thumbs up or down to indicate whether the student completed the request accurately. The final activity was using the app ShowMe which was the first time using this application. The students were give a two minute explanation as to how to use the app. Then with their partner they created a mini counting movie. It was amazing to see how engaged and the amount of collaboration that took place during this forty minute lesson.
Mrs. Bingham is always eager to incorporate technology into her lessons. Whether it be using the SMART board to instruct from or having her student use iPads instead of worksheets to complete lesson activities. She always keeps productivity at the forefront of her lesson planning. Her lessons are engaging and keep her kindergarten students collaborating. To quote one of her students “This is super awesome!” She is a true 21st Century teacher.
Spotlight Author: Heidi Meenen, Granite District Educational Technology Specialist
Additional Resource Shown on Video: Class Dojo
