12/8/08 4th grade Powerpoint

Today, Ms. McKinney let me know that she wanted to show her kids how to use Microsoft PowerPoint to create presentations. Her class is studying animal diversity, and will be making presentations to show what they have learned. We started a new PowerPoint presentation, and went through the steps of making a title slide, adding additional slides, typing information and resizing the text boxes, adding photos from the internet, and saving the presentation. Our sample presentation was about foxes. Each step was displayed on the projector at the front of the room, and students followed along on their computers. They found fox information on a National Geographic site, conducted a web search of public domain photos, and selected a fox photo for their presentation. Students looked for copyright information and cited the photographer who took the picture they chose. It was a good basic introduction to PowerPoint. With some guidance, students should be able to build upon their new skills when they start their presentations next week.

10/16/08 7th and 8th Grade: Beginning Microsoft Word

The 7th and 8th grade classes came down to the lab, this morning, and began working with Microsoft Word. We went over opening the program, how to format a paper (name, centered title, date), double spacing, and saving a file. They practiced by writing a short essay. Many of the students were not too familiar with the new version of Word we have at school, but by the end they were more comfortable with how to use the new software.javascript:void(0)

10/16/08 5th grade: Circulatory, Respiratory, Skeletal Systems

Today, Ms. Gonzalez's 5th grade class learned more about three body systems that were introduced in their science class. We used a bellevue public schools website about the body to transition from cells (which they learned about a few weeks prior), to body systems. Students built on what we had learned about cells to talk about groups of cells that worked together (tissues), and bigger groups of cells that worked together to perform a function (organs), and organs that worked together to perform several related functions (body systems). We covered three systems ( the circulatory system, respiratory system, and skeletal system), today, and the website presented a thorough overview in accessible and grade appropriate language. To review what the students had learned about the systems, they took a quiz as a class. We passed the wireless mouse around the classroom, and table groups discussed the question at hand before clicking their response. Students appeared to enjoy the quizzes which were in the style of 'who wants to be a millionaire?'.

Circulatory System:
http://www1.bellevuepublicschools.org/curriculum/k6web/fifthgrade/bodysys/Circulatorysystem.html
Respiratory System:
http://www1.bellevuepublicschools.org/curriculum/k6web/fifthgrade/bodysys/Respiratorysystem.html
Skeletal System:
http://www1.bellevuepublicschools.org/curriculum/k6web/fifthgrade/bodysys/Skeletalsystem.html
Quia Quizzes:
http://www.quia.com/rr/117725.html
http://www.quia.com/rr/269891.html

10/14/08 6th grade Microorganisms

Mrs. Sheffie found a website to work on with her class, today. I turned on the computer, and she was off. The site, biology4kids.com, had a lot of well organized pages about cells and organisms. She showed the site to her students, and talked with them about microorganisms. Her lecture followed the site, and hit the important points about microorganism types and structure, when they were first discovered, and followed up with a quiz on the page.

Microorganisms site: http://www.biology4kids.com/files/micro_main.html