Technology in the Classroom at CAIS
September 2014 Edition
Just
over a month into the new school year and already our students have
been busy using technology! In the Lower School, the new classroom sets
of Chromebooks have been coming in handy for our third, fourth and fifth
graders for tasks ranging from practicing their keyboarding skills to
studying Chinese characters. In the Middle School, all sixth, seventh
and eighth graders now have iPads and faculty new to the 1:1 iPad
program (including our three new teachers and eighth grade Chinese
teacher) have seamlessly transitioned into teaching and learning with
iPads.
Read
on to learn more about the exciting ways teachers and students at CAIS
have been using technology in the first month of school!
"Our School, Our Community" Digital Storytelling
First
graders started the year off with a bang with their first integrated
unit...and first technology project! As part of the "Our School, Our
Community" unit, students used the Drawing Pad
app for iPad to create colorful portraits of themselves. Next students
combined these images with photos of different areas of the school to
generate a slideshow. Finally, students recorded their stories along
with the slides using the iPad app Explain Everything.
Students enjoyed recording it again and again to perfect their speech!
Below is an example of how a first grader described CAIS and himself.
Using Edmodo in a Blended Learning Format:
Digital Chinese Initiative (DCI) Update
Fourth
Grade Teacher Lucy Sui, working together with DCI Program Manager Adam
Ross, created a blended learning assignment to teach students how to do
multiple digit multiplication in Chinese. After Lucy taught her math
lesson in class, students were later tasked to log in to an online class
page in the educational website Edmodo
to review the steps of multiplication in a flipped classroom video.
Students then engaged in a task to listen to an applied problem in
Chinese, and then to provide a recorded answer to the task in their own
words in Chinese, which they then uploaded to the Edmodo site. Lucy and
Adam will be planning more work for the fourth graders via Edmodo in the
coming weeks. |
|
Sample assignment and student response on Edmodo.
|
Memorizing
Chinese characters can be fun! Fourth grade teachers Lucy Sui and Annie
Liu created a virtual vocabulary learning class using Quizlet,
a free study tool. In Quizlet, teachers create a list of new phrases
and their definitions, then invite students to log in using their
classroom Chromebooks. Once students log in (with their CAIS Google Apps
accounts), they can learn the new phrases at their own pace in
different modes such as flashcard, speller, and scatter game. Teachers
can see students' participation, performance, and even study habits on
each activity. Fourth grade classes are thrilled to use this tool -- how
about your class? (Click here to see Lucy's classes' Quizlet flashcard sets.)
Fifth Graders Go Globetrotting with Google Tour Builder 
Take
a virtual trip around the world and experience summer through the eyes
of one of our fifth graders! In Sean Mosconi's fifth grade class,
students started the year with an innovative project that integrated a
fresh, new tech tool to a traditional back-to-school task: writing about
the summer. First students composed personal narrative stories about
five different places they visited over the summer, honing in on a small
moment for each story. Next, students used Google Tour Builder
to create a virtual tour of the places they visited and experiences
they had along the way. Students pinpointed the various locations and
customized their tours to include photos, text, icons and more! To take a
spin around the globe with one of our fifth graders, click here (note that you must have the Google Earth plugin installed on your computer to be able to view the tour).
Take
a virtual trip around the world and experience summer through the eyes
of one of our fifth graders! In Sean Mosconi's fifth grade class,
students started the year with an innovative project that integrated a
fresh, new tech tool to a traditional back-to-school task: writing about
the summer. First students composed personal narrative stories about
five different places they visited over the summer, honing in on a small
moment for each story. Next, students used Google Tour Builder
to create a virtual tour of the places they visited and experiences
they had along the way. Students pinpointed the various locations and
customized their tours to include photos, text, icons and more! To take a
spin around the globe with one of our fifth graders, click here (note that you must have the Google Earth plugin installed on your computer to be able to view the tour).
Go For a Space Race in Middle School Math Class! 
Racing rocket ships in math class? Sounds like Socrative! This easy-to-use student response system is just one of the tools Kaicy MacLeod uses to make her seventh and eighth grade math classes fun and interactive. Using Socrative, Kaicy prepares practice problems and quizzes for the class, then pushes them out to students with the tap of a button. Students log in to her classroom via their iPads, solve problems and submit their responses. Teachers can access an automated report showing details of how students responded and can opt to display student responses anonymously to the entire class. Best of all, Socrative can be used on any device (laptop, tablet or phone), is appropriate for all age levels, and is completely free! For more ideas on how you could use this great tool in your classroom, click here.
Racing rocket ships in math class? Sounds like Socrative! This easy-to-use student response system is just one of the tools Kaicy MacLeod uses to make her seventh and eighth grade math classes fun and interactive. Using Socrative, Kaicy prepares practice problems and quizzes for the class, then pushes them out to students with the tap of a button. Students log in to her classroom via their iPads, solve problems and submit their responses. Teachers can access an automated report showing details of how students responded and can opt to display student responses anonymously to the entire class. Best of all, Socrative can be used on any device (laptop, tablet or phone), is appropriate for all age levels, and is completely free! For more ideas on how you could use this great tool in your classroom, click here.
Google Scripts Disrupt Eighth Grade Chinese Writing Class 
Looking for a good way to distribute your Google Doc assignment to students and give students timely and individualized feedback on their work? Doctopus and Goobric are the way to go! In eighth grade Chinese writing class, Chu-sheng Tang created a writing assignment in Google Docs and pushed it out to her students using Doctopus Google App script. Doctopus automatically creates a folder in the teacher's Google Drive with copies of the assignment sheet for each student. Then Chu-sheng created a rubric for the assignment in Goobric (another Google App Script) and used it to assess her students' writing. Finally, Goobric generated an automated email to each student containing their score, the rubric, and individualized feedback. Click here to see a sample email sent to an eighth grade student with feedback on the writing assignment.
Looking for a good way to distribute your Google Doc assignment to students and give students timely and individualized feedback on their work? Doctopus and Goobric are the way to go! In eighth grade Chinese writing class, Chu-sheng Tang created a writing assignment in Google Docs and pushed it out to her students using Doctopus Google App script. Doctopus automatically creates a folder in the teacher's Google Drive with copies of the assignment sheet for each student. Then Chu-sheng created a rubric for the assignment in Goobric (another Google App Script) and used it to assess her students' writing. Finally, Goobric generated an automated email to each student containing their score, the rubric, and individualized feedback. Click here to see a sample email sent to an eighth grade student with feedback on the writing assignment.
Back and Better Than Ever:
Typequick and Common Sense Media Programs
Now in their second year of implementation, Typequick and Common Sense Media
return to campus much like our students after their summer break: a
little older and a little wiser. Once again students in kindergarten
through eighth grade
are building their digital citizenship skills with the help of Common
Sense Media. In the Middle School this year, Common Sense lessons will
take on new life as part of a newly enriched and evolving advisory
program, led by Middle School counselor Rachel Packer. Typequick, too,
returns to campus with enhancements to the program. Students in third,
fourth and fifth grades have been busy with start-of-year typing
assessments and getting their typing practice underway.
Now in their second year of implementation, Typequick and Common Sense Media
return to campus much like our students after their summer break: a
little older and a little wiser. Once again students in kindergarten
through eighth grade
are building their digital citizenship skills with the help of Common
Sense Media. In the Middle School this year, Common Sense lessons will
take on new life as part of a newly enriched and evolving advisory
program, led by Middle School counselor Rachel Packer. Typequick, too,
returns to campus with enhancements to the program. Students in third,
fourth and fifth grades have been busy with start-of-year typing
assessments and getting their typing practice underway.
Upcoming Technology Professional Development Opportunities
OETC IntegratEd - San Francisco, CA, October 3-4
Fall CUE Conference - Napa Valley, CA, October 24-25
EdTech Innovation Symposium - Santa Clara, CA, October 27
Increase Student Learning with Mobile Devices and the Best, New Apps (Grades 6-12) - Sunnyvale, CA, December 9
Annual CUE Conference - Palm Springs, CA, March 19-22, 2015
