BrainPOP & BrainPOP Jr.

1st and 2nd graders are already utilizing BrainPOP at home!

We’re happy to inform you that BrainPOP is now part of your children’s curriculum! Roosevelt School’s teachers and PTO have come together to purchase a subscription to this award-winning web-delivered resource, enhancing children’s engagement in the classroom.  A special thank you Roosevelt’s Classroom Teachers, the PTO, and the Track-a-Thon for bringing Brain POP back to Roosevelt!

BrainPOP creates animated, curriculum-based content that supports educators and engages students. Hundreds of topics within Science, Social Studies, English, Math, Technology, Arts & Music and Health are all brought to life through short, animated movies and related interactive quizzes and features.  BrainPOP Español provides BrainPOP content in Spanish.  All content is aligned to and searchable by state standards.

BrainPOP Jr. provides educational movies for K-3 learners and addresses a wide range of grade-appropriate topics.  Each animated topic has a movie, leveled quizzes, games, activities, and lesson ideas that develop critical thinking and inquiry skills. All content is read aloud so young students can browse the site on their own.  Because BrainPOP and BrainPOP Jr. are delivered entirely online, there’s nothing to install or download. You can use BrainPOP resources with PCs, Macs, projectors, and interactive whiteboards. Getting started is easy by using the step-by step Getting Started Guide. There is also a free app you can download to use Brain POP & Brain POP Jr. on your iphone, iPad, etc.

Your child’s subscription to BrainPOP will remain active for the school year, 24 hours a day, in which time they will have full access to all the movies, quizzes, and interactive resources both at home and at school. Questions? Feel free to contact BrainPOP at 866.542.7246 or e-mail me and I’ll be happy to help you.

Common Sense Media: A Great Resource for Families

Common Sense Media is a wonderful resource for families to utilize in terms of seeking out what's going on in the world of media - which is a huge part of our children's lives today.  From movies, TV, apps, games, etc., Common Sense Media has a range of resources to help parents educate themselves on what's age appropriate and what's best for kids.   Common Sense Media is dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology. You can access a variety of content from Common Sense Media just by going on their site, however, there are even more resources if you create a free account.   Click here to visit Common Sense Media. 

One thing that I highly suggest reviewing together as a family is the  Digital Citizenship Section.  It's important in the world we live in today to be open about what the expectations are for being a good Digital Citizen, and how to stay safe online.   By law, we teach students on a yearly basis about what it means to a good digital citizen at school.  Common Sense Media has some great resources for how to continue this conversation at home. Click here if you'd like to read more and to see a helpful video you can share with your children.  

If you'd like to see a topic featured on the Roosevelt Bits and Bytes Blog, please leave a comment below.  I'd love to know what topics you'd like to see featured!  Thanks for reading!

RAZ-KIDS iPad App

Our Kindergarteners through 3rd graders are very lucky to have a great resource available to them both at home and at school called Raz-Kids. Your children in K-3 can read and listen to books on Raz-Kids and even record themselves reading. Afterwards they can take a quiz to check for comprehension.

You can also monitor your child's progress using Raz-Kids.  You can see which books your student has been reading, send them messages, and review all their activity with our Parent Access area. Simply log in as your student, click the "Parents" link in the top right, and register.   

Our Roosevelt teachers are currently in the process of sending home the letters with log-in information for each student.   If you have any questions about your students log in information, please contact your child's teacher and they can help.  To access Raz-Kids, click on the picture above or scroll down to the helpful links section on the right hand side of the blog. 

Since we have subscriptions for our K-3 Students to Raz-Kids, we also have access to the Raz-Kids app for the iPad. This app lets you access eBooks and eQuizzes for the 300+ titles on Raz-Kids, all on your tablet!  In addition to engaging kids at their reading level and in their area of interest, this award-winning resouces gives kids 24/7 Web access to the practice they need to become better, more confident readers.  Please click here to download this FREE app to your iPad so that your students can have access to their eBooks and quizzes.   If you have any questions or problems, please let me know and I'd be happy to help you troubleshoot.   

What is a Chromebook?

Roosevelt 5th graders are using their Chromebooks for various assignments.

Right now at Roosevelt we have three fifth grade teachers who are on week 4 of having a class set of chromebooks in their classroom all day every day.  This "one to one" pilot is rotating through grades 3-5 over the course of the school year.   Each intermediate class gets to use the chromebooks for a six week period where they are devoted to their classroom.  You may be asking, what is a chromebook?  The video below explains this great computer that runs on the Google Chrome operating system.

Students and teachers have been using the Chromebooks over the past four weeks in a variety of different ways.  A lot of work the students do on the Chromebooks is in their Google Drive.   Their Google Drive have access to a variety of applications similar to the Microsoft Office Suite.  The nice thing about Google Drive is that not only can you access your work anywhere with computer access, but you can also collaborate with peers in real time on a document, presentation, etc.   Having the Chromebooks in the classroom all day every day (for six weeks) allows students access to online learning tools anytime, instead of teachers having to check out a computer cart to use it.   Teachers so far are reporting that students are able to use the Chromebooks more than traditional laptops, and both the students and teachers are loving this instant access to information.   I know that the three fifth grade classes are not looking to giving up the Chromebooks at the end of the month, however, two 3rd grade classes and one 5th grade class is very excited for this new addition in their classrooms.   We are excited for these to be traveling around the school, and have an additional cart of Chromebooks for teachers to be checking out and using as well.  We are hoping that one to one learning is something that we will see in the future at Roosevelt School.   Look at what Sal Khan has to say about the possible future of education in this clip from 60 Minutes below.   Do you see going one to one as a good idea in your child's classroom?  I'd love to hear your comments  by you posting below!

  

Technology at Roosevelt Elementary School

On Wednesday, I had the opportunity to present to the Roosevelt School PTO about the Technology currently used at Roosevelt School.  This year, as you may or may not be aware of, we have greatly increased the amount of technology students and teachers have access to.   Below you will see highlighted a bit of what was added.    I also plan on keeping a slide show on the right hand side of pictures of Technology in Action here at Roosevelt School.    Please keep an eye out for all of the ways we are using technology here at Roosevelt.   If you missed the PTO meeting last night and are interested in the the updates, please watch the brief slideshow below.  Most of the links work with the exception of some of the student examples to for privacy purposes.  If you have any questions, please feel free to email me, or use the contact form to the right to send me an email.