Mrs. Smith's Kindergarten Navigates Netbooks

Mrs. Smith's kindergarten students explored the new netbooks in January.   As a class, we discussed how laptops are similar to desktops and how they are different. The students came up with some great observations, including how they both have keyboards. Several noticed you could move the cursor on both types, but you used your whole hand on a mouse and only one finger on a touch pad.  The students observed that you had to log into both machines.  After the introduction, the students had a wonderful time exploring Starfall, an interactive reading website.  The students are excited to continue bringing the laptops into their room so they can continue to explore technology! Look out world, the kindergarten students are coming!

Mrs. Teeler's Class Go Digital in Class

Students love to share their work and their thinking.  Who doesn't remember going to the front of the classroom and holding up the paper they worked so hard on to share it with the class only to realize that no one could see it?  Kindergarten students in Mrs. Teeler's class will never have to experience this disappointment.  Using their document camera, students can bring their work up and show it on the projector for all the other students to see.  The students are excited to share their thinking on various problems and prove their answers.  Students share various strategies for solving the same problem and enhance their critical thinking skills by doing so.  The kindergarten students love "their" document camera and projector and look forward to using it all the time.  Way to go kindergarteners!

Whitfield's Munchkins Compose in Word

Mr. Whitfield's kindergarten students are learning the art of composing on the computer.  During the first semester, the students learned how to open Microsoft Word and started exploring the keyboard.  Building on these skills, the students wrote nonfiction pieces on the seasons. They have learned how to change the font and the font size.  Recently, they have begun editing their rough draft pieces using the arrow keys and the backspace button.  We are so proud that these students are revising their writing to create meaningful pieces.  Congratulations Munchkins!  We are so proud of you.

Ginapp's Fifth Graders Discover Moodle

Recently, all the fifth grade teachers attended a day long training on Moodle.  Moodle is the name for the Round Rock ISD Learning Management System.  The purpose of the Moodle is to provide teachers and students with Web-enhanced instructional capabilities.  Moodle allows for an improved level of individualization for students and provides for more collaborative learning.

Mrs. Ginapp reports "My kids are using Moodle to study for a test with their peers in a chat room.  Prior to a test, I announce a day and time that a chat room will be open on my Moodle page for the kids to post review questions and answer each others' questions.  I monitor the chat room at the time it is open and interact with the kids too.  The kids are very excited to chat outside of school and it makes them think of good review questions."

By allowing her students to communicate with each other, the students are taking control of their own learning.  They make studying together fun and relevant.  We are so proud of her students for taking control of their own learning through the Moodle environment.

Bartholomew's Bats Moodle!

Recently, all of the fourth grade teachers at Forest Creek attended a day long training on Moodle.  Moodle is the name for the Round Rock ISD Learning Management System.  The purpose of the Moodle is to provide teachers and students with Web-enhanced instructional capabilities.  Moodle allows for an improved level of individualization for students and provides for more collaborative learning.  Mrs. Bartholomew was very excited  to introduce this new learning environment to her students.  According to Mrs. Bartholomew, "My class loves to go onto our Moodle page.  We have used Moodle to choose book club books using the survey template.  We have also written responses to these books using the discussion page.  The students have written about their favorite Bluebonnet books and responded to their classmates' comments.  Going to First in Math to practice math skills and safely watching the post-it note video on Youtube are also favorite activities for my students.  Now that we have more available computers, we plan on using Moodle more to chat about math strategies, to check on homework assignments at home, and many more exciting things.  We can't wait!"  Way to go Bats!

Johnson's Jaguars Moodle!

Have you ever Moodled?  Mrs. Johnson's fourth graders are exploring the exciting world of Moodle after all the fourth and fifth grade teachers at Forest Creek attended a training. Moodle is the name for the Round Rock ISD Learning Management System.  The purpose of the Moodle is to provide teachers and students with Web-enhanced instructional capabilities.  Moodle allows for an improved level of individualization for students and provides for more collaborative learning.  Each teacher has set up a Moodle class for their classroom. Students must register for the Moodle, so it is a safe online environment.  In the Moodle, the teacher can set up chat rooms, link documents, have students participate in multiple choice quizzes, and journal about specific entries the teacher has set up.

According to Mrs. Johnson, her students love Moodle. They use it not only throughout the school day, but at home as well.  "During class, they can access it to do a "chat" about their book club books. They can even choose by voting on which book-club book they would like to read next.  They also use it to reach the Stemscopes link as well as the First in Math link.  The students have used it at home to pull up Science Fair Packets because they lost their original, or to access homework sheets that they have misplaced.  The neatest thing for me to see is that some students have figured out how to type in the information right on the worksheet itself!"

Way to go Jaguars! You are learning so much about your curriculum while being engaged in an online environment.