Technology from SCS Elementary

ISTE 2017 Presentations

June 14, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

ISTE_Badge_Presenter_2017

I am very excited to be attending and presenting at the ISTE conference at the end of June! ISTE is the International Society for Technology in Education. This conference draws over 15,000 educators from around the world. I am so blessed to be able to share the amazing work of the students at Southfield Christian School at this conference!

Here is a list of the sessions that I will be presenting/participating in during the conference:

Digital Sketchnotes for Visualizing Learning – 3 hour workshop, 216AB

Saturday, June 24, 12:30–3:30 pm

Link to Resource Page

No More Flat Stanley: Learning in 3D – 217BC

Monday, June 26, 3:00–4:00 pm

Link to Resource Page

I See What You Mean: Strategies to Engage the Visual Learner – with Jenny Grabiec, 221C

Monday, June 26, 10:00–11:00 am

Tuesday, June 27, 4:15–5:15 pm

Wednesday, June 28, 1:00–2:00 pm

Link to Resource Page

Apple Distinguished Educator iPlayground: Rethinking Book Reports with iPad and iBooks Author, Hemisfair Ballroom Foyer

Tuesday, June 27, 2:30 – 3:00

Link to Book Shelfies 2017

Link to Book Shelfies 2015

ADEchat Live – I will be one of the participants in the live Twitter Chat!

Tuesday, June 27, 6:00 pm

Follow the #ADEchat hashtag

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Category: 3D Printing, Sketchnotes /

Field Day 2017

June 8, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Yesterday, I had a lot of fun taking photos during Field Day. I thought I’d post a gallery of some of my favorite photos from the event. You can see how much fun the students had during this annual event! Thanks again to Mrs. LaFata for all her efforts to make a memorable day for our students!

Category: Uncategorized /

Fifth Grade Technology Reflection 2017

May 24, 2017 / Karen Bosch / 43 comments

Think back over all things you have done with computers or iPads during the time you have been at SCS Elementary School. Please leave a comment of at least 3 sentences reflecting on the following questions:

What is one thing using technology that you learned or improved this year?

What was your favorite project or activity in technology class (either this year or any year in elementary school)?

What is one thing you would like to learn to do using technology in the future?

Thanks for all your hard work this year! Miss Bosch

Category: Fifth Grade, Lesson Reflections /

Mother’s Day 3D Printed Cookie Cutters

May 12, 2017 / Karen Bosch / 2 comments

cookie caster graphic

The fourth graders have been keeping a big secret! Over a month ago they used the free Cookiecaster website to custom draw and design a cookie cutter to give as a gift on Mother’s Day! The students came up a with wide variety of design ideas that would be perfect for mom including animals, shoes, states, and a Wonder Woman symbol. One lucky mom is even going to get a Death Star cookie cutter!

death start cookie cutter

The website is very easy to use – simply draw or trace a shape and it will convert it into a 3D cookie cutter file which can be downloaded and printed.

Here is a video that was featured by Dremel that shares our process of designing and making the cookie cutters:

Our Dremel Ideabuilder printers were very busy printing out all the cookie cutters to get them ready for Mother’s Day. Check out this U of M cookie cutter being printed!

Mrs. Swanson also came into the computer lab and had the students type poems that could be given to the moms along with the cookie cutters. The poems are very clever and creative! Here’s a couple of examples of their poems.

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And here are all the poems and cookie cutters, packaged and ready for delivery!

Mother's Day Gifts

We hope mom enjoys her new cookie cutter! (Note: the plastic used to print the cookie cutters may not be food safe, so it is suggested that you wrap the cookie cutter in foil or plastic wrap when using.)

cookie cutters1

Disclosure: As a part of the Dremel 3D Idea Builder Ambassadors program, our school is receiving the use of the 3D40 printer for one year. If you are interested in learning more about the Dremel Idea Builder 3D40 printer, you may contact https://3dprinter.dremel.com/education-request. I’d appreciate it if you noted Karen Bosch/this blog post as a referral in the comments/questions section at the bottom of the form. Thanks!

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Category: 3D Printing, Fourth Grade /

First Grade Portrait Stories

April 21, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

The first graders used KidPix to type simple stories about themselves and draw a self portrait to go with the stories. Here are some of the stories. Click on the picture to see the full view. (Note: a few pictures may be missing due to some issues with printing or with students being absent.)

Category: Fifth Grade, KidPix /

Kindergarten KidPix Flowers

April 21, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Today the kindergarten students worked in KidPix to draw flowers using a variety of textured 3D paintbrushes. In order to succeed at this task, they needed to be able to switch independently between colors and brushes. As you can see in the video above, they are developing good skills at controlling their mouse while drawing.

When students were done, they had an chance to explore some other “wacky paintbrushes” including ones that make rainbows, pinwheels, and 3D objects that move! We also learned how to start and quit KidPix on our own!

Category: KidPix, Kindergarten /

Fourth Grade Biography Word Cloud Poems

April 20, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

biography word clouds

This week Mrs. Swanson had her students create Word Cloud Poems about themselves on our iPads. We used the Word Cloud app by ABCYa (which is currently free on the US iTunes store). Their word clouds look amazing and I wanted to show them off here!

Category: Fourth Grade, iPad /

Collaborative President Wiki Webpages

April 20, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

Recently, the fifth graders have been doing research about a U.S. president. After lessons on evaluating websites and web search strategies, the students began using Worldbook Encyclopedia Online and other websites to gather information about their president.

Once they had some good information on their president, they began building a webpage using Wikispaces. Each student was partnered with a student in the other 5th grade class and they are collaborating virtually instead of working face to face. After each work session, they use discussion tools to reflect their progress and make suggestions for what to do next. They are proofreading each other’s typing and are finding it helpful to not have to do everything in this project on their own!

Our next step for this project will be to use the formatting tools to make the webpage more attractive and easier to read. Students will also be learning to make citation hyperlinks to the websites where they got their information.

Here is a link where you can view their president wiki pages in progress:

Presidents Wiki 2017 (Click on the sidebar to view additional pages.)

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Category: Fifth Grade /

Third Grade Minecraft Animal Environments

April 18, 2017 / Karen Bosch / No comments

minecraft habitats

Recently, the third graders have been doing internet research about an animal during technology class. They used the information they learned to type a 3 or 4 paragraph report in Word about their animal. This series of lessons helped students practice online research strategies. They also utilized the keyboarding skills that we worked on earlier in the school year and practiced some basic word processing and editing skills.

Now the students are using what they learned about their animal to build a habitat/environment for the animal in Minecraft!

I know that many of my students know MUCH more about Minecraft than I do! So we identified the “experts” in the room and I empowered them to help their classmates if they didn’t know how to do something.

It was interesting to listen to students’ conversation and ideas about how they were building their habitats. They definitely were using what they learned through their research as they designed and worked.