Mrs. Tumenas

This is a long awaited change for all the young (and old) programmers out there- a new web based version of Scratch! The 5th graders are currently working on math games in Scratch and will be excited to see the new version, I’m sure.

 

Make sure you check out the video and then head over to their web site to try it all out!

This is from MITs introduction:
Scratch 2.0 Beta

Welcome to the Scratch 2.0 Beta website!

Please explore and experiment with this preview version of the new Scratch. Check out the Featured Projects and Featured Studios below. Click Help to learn more.

The Scratch 2.0 Beta is open to everyone. But you can only log in if you created your Scratch account before January 26th.*

We still have a few features to add, and lots of glitches to fix! You can help us by reporting bugs and glitches. The sooner we find and fix them, the sooner we can officially release Scratch 2.0.

Find out more about the move to Scratch 2.0.

*Note BCD students have an account- check your account page from the fall or see me.

Every year I ask the students in Middle and Upper School to set goals for the year and to talk about the plans they are making to achieve these goals. The goals cannot be generic, as in ” I want to get good grades.”, but must be more specific and include an action plan, not “I will try harder.” I have asked the students to really think about these goals and to try their best to make realistic plans. Some of the questions asked about the plans included: What does that look like? How will I be able to tell that you are ….? When will you do this?, etc. Almost all of the students have their goals and plans posted on the VoiceThread below, with a few yet to be added next week.

Dear Parents,
This year in computer class the students will be using various online tools. We have our own Google Apps for Education domain. This gives the students access to all of the many Google tools, including email, calendar, documents and sites and other tools from the Google Apps marketplace, such as SlideRocket and EasyBib. Student’s usernames and passwords will be shared with you, so that you may monitor this account. It is important for students to begin to understand how to utilize digital tools in their schoolwork and by having an account that is only to be used for school, much as you may have a business account, I hope to help them learn to effectively and ethically use these tools for their schoolwork. Google’s terms of service (TOS) include a clause that users must be at least 13 years old or have parental permission. This also applies to many of the other services we use.

Please find the link to the digital form at the end of these pages, which must be signed in order for your student to access these tools. All students in grades 4-8 will receive a sheet with all their usernames and passwords to bring home. If you would also like a copy to be emailed to you for your records, please email me.

Information
Computer Lab Info 2012-13

Form to be signed…

Students may make appointments to come for extra help at any time. We will now have a regular help session time on Fridays at lunch/recess. Please be aware that students cannot eat/drink in the computer lab and should plan on having their lunch before arriving for help. Students who are working on a project on a specific computer should be sure that all of the work needed is saved onto the server so that they can work on any available computer.

I heard about this challenge today while reading a blog post on Edutopia. I set up class accounts for the students in grades 5 and 6. I will mention this to the students this week as an extra credit project which they can do at home. The 5th and 6th graders have used toondoo, a similar online application, to make comic strips in the past. Several 6th graders said they would like to try it. I will email the account codes to interested students and their parents.

Bitstrips for Schools, a popular online platform for using comics in education, is teaming up with the Cartoon Network to launch the comic challenge during Bullying Prevention Month.

Each week during the campaign, Bitstrips will release a new comic template that sets up a different situation, such as cyberbullying or cell phone bullying. Students start by using online drawing tools to create their own avatar, which is dropped into the template as the “star” of the strip. Students then respond to the situation by finishing the comic strip with dialogue, new characters, or special effects. Different activities might cast students’ avatars in the role of bystander, victim, or even a bully who has to face the consequences.

Finished comics can be published in an online gallery, giving students a wide audience for their work. At the end of the challenge, the best strips will be compiled in a downloadable anthology.

This year, instead of simply asking students what their goals for the year are, I qualified the question.  In the past, most of the responses have been about “getting good grades”. Although it is something that I am sure all the students, and their parents wish to happen, it really doesn’t help just to wish for good grades.  I asked students to try to be more specific, to talk about how they want to achieve their goals, make a plan. I was impressed with the way many students responded with more realistic goals and their plans to achieve them.  There are still a few students who haven’t had time to finish this up, or had some technical difficulties when recording, but I hope to have the last few added before the weekend.

Please note*: there are several “pages” of comments to this voicethread, so you will need to click on “more” down below the comment button to see all of the comments.

Parents are more than welcome to respond directly on the voicethread. Ask your student to help you. You can use their account and add an “identity” by clicking the little arrow to the right of the login name.

Dear Parents,
At the end of this booklet of information about the web sites which will be used in the computer lab is a link to the digital form which must be signed in order for your student to access these tools. It is also embedded in the blog post below..

All students in grades 4-8 will receive a sheet with all their usernames and passwords to bring home. If you would also like a copy to be emailed to you for your records, please email me.

This song and video were made for the Bridges of Peace and Hope Project in the spring of 2011. 6th graders (then), Emily Y., Cam S. and Alec G. wrote short narratives to describe BCD and where we live for their own version of the John Farrell song “Where We Live”, with assistance from Dr. Lederman. The class chose the images to add, from both our own media library and cc sources online. They worked in music class to create the drum track, learn and perform the song. Andrea V. was the assistant video editor. Thanks to John Farrell, Mrs. Hilliard, Mr. Lindenmaier, and Dr.Lederman for their work on this collaborative project.

Welcome back to a new school year. This year we will be beginning some new global collaboration projects in Middle School computer classes. The 4th and 5th grade will try a new project. “A Week in the Life”- part of the award-winning global FlatClassroom series of projects.  Fourth grade will begin this project later in the month and if all goes well I will sign the 5th grade up to do a similar project beginning just before March break and continuing for the rest of the year.  The 6th grade will work with a school in El Salvador on a yet to be determined project, continuing a connection with the Academia Britanica Cuscatleca that the 6th graders made last year. I got to meet the teacher from El Salvador at a conference over the summer and it’s exciting to be able to collaborate again with her 6th grade students from Central America.

This is a description of the “Week in the Life” project:

‘A Week in the Life…’ is a Flat Classroom® Project for Elementary School students of approximately ages 8-10. The curriculum focus is Interdisciplinary, how we live, how we communicate, cultural understanding and awareness. The aim of the project is to join Elementary School classrooms globally with a view to exploring what life is like in each country through discussion, sharing and collecting multimedia to create final products together.

Essential Questions Which Will Be Answered:

• What are the similarities and differences among children around the world?
• How can we connect with each other through our commonalities?
• How does your geography where you live impact your topic?

Students in mixed global classroom teams will:

1. Do some research on a week in the life of children in their school around these topics:

• School time
• Languages & Clothing
• Housing & Transportation
• Leisure time
• Food & Celebrations
• Environment

2. Complete a team project demonstrating found information to the rest of the group.

3. Upload their multimedia to the project wiki.

4. View all the group projects and compare and contrast the results.

Tools used:

• Edmodo
• Wikispaces
• Other multimedia online tools for sharing and creating artifacts

Many middle school students enjoy online games. A currently popular game, Transformice, is an example. It’s an online Flash based game, requires a very simple signup and you’re in. It’s actually a fun game, the object being to collect the cheese and bring it back to the mouse hole the fastest. There are lots of obstacles and strategies, and it even involves physics and cooperation. What could be better? It’s fun, a little bit educational and the kids enjoy it. Unfortunately, there is a chat room attached… and the language used is casually sprinkled with profanity.
Kids can join teams with strangers and form an online relationship with them. Now this can be fine, as long the parents are aware of what the children are doing. Are they allowed to chat in the chat room? Are they allowed to play on a laptop in their own room? Do you limit their screen time? Have you visited the websites and played these games? Are there parental controls on the games that you can activate?

These are some of the questions that parents need to be asking before allowing a middle school age child access to the online world. It can be full of fun, entertainment and learning. But, just as you probably don’t drop your child off at an amusement park to wander by themselves, the online world has its own caveats. We spend time in class talking about online safety. The kids know the drill, but they are kids. They simply don’t have the maturity to make decisions without your help and guidance. What they learned in class may not seem to apply to that nice gamer they play with on Transformice. The others playing the game may be 10 year old boys or unsavory characters trolling for vulnerable kids who are playing a popular online game.

What are your rules for your kids? Do you talk with them and help them make the connection between what they learn at school about online safety and the games and sites they play and visit at home? As teachers we can teach, preach, about online safety, but the school environment is used primarily for sites that we have researched and vetted and we can see the students’ screens at all times. The games your children play online can be great fun, and educational. They can teach them to strategize, connect them with amazing people, and allow them to explore the world. Just make sure that you are there to help guide them along the way.