"Hour of Code" comes to CAIS!

From this week's school newsletter, the Thursday Flash:

Sixth Grade Students Participate in Worldwide ‘Hour of Code’

During Computer Science Education Week, from December 9-15, millions of students are learning computer code during the "Hour of Code." The campaign was launched by nonprofit organization Code.org and is designed to get students interested in computer science. The goal of the worldwide campaign is to get 10 million students of all ages to participate in the Hour of Code.

CAIS sixth graders participated in the Hour of Code on Thursday, December 12. Educational Technology Coordinator Kerri Willa and math and science teacher Mark Churchill teamed up to bring students a one-hour introduction to coding. The interactive activity included a lesson on computer generated drawings, a coding challenge and a free form activity using what students learned during the lesson.

"The idea is to show students that anyone can learn the basics of programming," Kerri Willa said. "Understanding the power of computing is crucial to success in today’s world, and Mark and I were excited to introduce our students to and participate in this worldwide campaign," she continued.

What's Happening in Classroom Technology

Welcome to my first 2013-2014 newsletter on technology in the classroom at CAIS! Each month I will bring you a sampling of the exciting classroom projects that are happening in the area of technology. Read on to learn about what's been happening with tech this fall at CAIS! 

Building Better Digital Citizens
Our school-wide implementation of the Common Sense Media digital citizenship curriculum is now in full swing! In the lower school, lessons are taught in English classes; in the middle school, Common Sense Media lessons are taking place in advisory. Students have been studying topics ranging from choosing good keywords for online searches to learning about their digital footprint. In third grade, students kicked off their digital citizenship lessons by brainstorming what the words "Common Sense Media" meant to them. Coming soon: Chinese translations of key vocabulary and questions for each Common Sense lesson to allow students to discuss newly learned concepts in Chinese.

  

Koalas, Emus and Dingos, Oh My!

This fall we unveiled a new keyboarding program to our third, fourth and fifth graders called Typequick. (Fun fact: it was once used by our very own Pete Moore with his students during his former life as a technology teacher in Australia!) In Typequick, students build keyboarding skills while traveling around Australia accompanied by adorable native Australian animals. Third through fifth grade English teachers have been busy introducing Typequick to their students in class. The new program is getting rave reviews from kids, who enjoy its video game-like features that make learning to type more fun!

A New Spin on Paperback Chinese Books

Kindergarten and first grade students and teachers are using technology to transform traditional paperback Chinese books into interactive, multimedia reading experiences. Using the Educreations iPad app, students and teachers take photos of the book pages and record themselves reading the books aloud. The digital storybook is automatically saved online for public access. Students can access these books at home using links that teachers email to their parents. In addition, teachers attach QR codes linked to the online storybooks to the back of the paperback books. Students use iPads at their classroom listening station to scan the QR code and read the digital storybook. See below to watch a Kindergarten student in action!

Not Your Mother's Book Report
Book shares have taken on new life this year in Jake Sproull's sixth grade English Humanities class! As Jake has continued to innovate the integration of iPads to his curriculum, he has developed a new take on an old project: each month students are using a different tech tool to report on their independent reading. For their first book project of the year, students used iMovie to make a trailer designed to entice people to read their book. Each student had to incorporate basic literary elements such as theme, characters, a plot summary and setting to their iMovie trailer. "It definitely made it a more interesting and authentic way to share books," said Jake. See below to view an example of a student's iMovie book project.

Middle School Multimedia Essay Project

This year, seventh and eighth graders are experimenting with new ways to share their outdoor trip experiences. Seventh graders used iMovie to make short slideshows highlighting their trips. Eighth graders participated in an "Outdoor Trip Essay Press Release Event" in which they read their trip essays aloud and fielded questions from an audience of classmates, then created and edited videos of these presentations. In both seventh and eighth grades, students posted their videos online and created QR codes linked to the videos. Finally, students printed out their QR codes together with their essays. Click here to see a sample of a student essay. Don't forget to scan the QR code with your smartphone to watch the video! 

Fall CUE Gets High Marks from Teachers

On October 25-26, four CAIS teachers (Kimberly Reid, Ryan Hughes, Susan Sherman and Jake Sproull) joined our educational technology coordinators for two days of learning about teaching with technology in sunny Napa Valley. Mark your calendars for the next great opportunity for ed tech PD: the fantastic Annual CUE Conference in Palm Springs, CA, on March 20-22, 2014!