StudyIsland Benchmarks for Reading and Math have been completed for Second Marking Period.

Class challenges for First in Math are improving the students math skills.

Edmodo has added a feature to merge Google Docs and Presentations with the group assignments.  Students love the immediate feedback, after projects are graded.  We will continue to work on our best practices of digital citizenship, while using Edmodo.

Students are maximizing the benefits of "working in the cloud" with Google Drive.  Projects they start in school can be saved and edited when they log in anywhere, anytime.

Black History Month Projects were due February 25th.  Students worked on note-taking and research, while using the RAPCS Google tools.  The show is February 28th at 6:00pm.

Students will continue working on their TypingWeb homework assignments for February:

5th - Beginners Course - Homerow and Beyond (13 exercises)
6th - Intermediate Course - Learn to Bust a Capital Word (11 exercises)
7th - Advanced Course - Accuracy Drills (25 exercises)
8th - Specialty Lessons - Babes in the Jungle (28 exercises)

This month we are working on word processing and internet research.  We will use
Google Drive to research and create a presentation on Young Entrepreneurs.  Every
student has an rapcsmail account to access the videos and documents for this project.
The link is on the Class Resources page, under January.

Students will continue working on their TypingWeb homework assignments for January:

5th - Beginners Course - The Bottom Row Keys (13 exercises)
6th - Intermediate Course - Learn to Bust a Capital Letter (8 exercises)
7th - Advanced Course - Symbols & Advanced Punctuation (9 exercises)
8th - Specialty Lessons - 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea (44 exercises)

All students have been given their RAPCS Google accounts.  The apps will be available and class projects can be accessed through email.

The classroom teachers will also have access for collaborative lessons.

Students are working on their keyboarding skills in TypingWeb. This will also be used for homework assignments:

5th - Beginners Course - The Top Row Keys (13 exercises)
6th - Intermediate Course - Alphabet Soup (N-Z) (13 exercises)
7th - Advanced Course - Skill Builder Drills (15 exercises)
8th - Specialty Lessons - The Children's Story (21 exercises)

All of the students and staff would like to thank Amber Waters-Porter, for the 8th grade reading of 
"Rachael's Auntie is Bald-Headed".  
This took place during the month of October to commemorate "breast cancer awareness month".

Students are working on their keyboarding skills in TypingWeb. This will also be used for homework assignments:

5th - Beginners Course - The Homerow Keys (13 exercises)
6th - Intermediate Course - Alphabet Soup (A-M) (13 exercises)
7th - Advanced Course - Keyboard Quadrants (16 exercises)
8th - Specialty Lessons - The Californians Tale (20 exercises)

We will continue to work on digital citizenship and character development, throughout the year in Edmodo.

The students have started using Google Apps for School with word processing, email collaboration, and web design.

Students are encouraged to continue progressing in FirstinMath and StudyIsland.

Report cards will be issued for the First Marking Period on Thursday,November 29 and 
Friday, November 30, 2012.

New students, returning students, teachers, and parents; the first two months are now behind us. 

We started off with the Tech Skills Survey, character development, setting goals, digital citizenship, and keyboarding.

All students now have their own usernames and passwords for Edmodo, our own educational social network for RAPCS.  Assignments will be posted every week, be sure to sign in and complete.

Map Testing for math, reading, and language have ended for the first marking period. 

StudyIsland and FirstinMath competitions have started.  Homework will be assigned in TypingWeb for the month of October.

The students are working with Google Chrome Apps for Education, by selecting and organizing web apps for their pages. They had to find digital tools they could use for each subject area.  Some of the most popular choices were:

BioDigital - 3D anatomy for science
ConnectedMind - mind mapping for projects and stories
Fractulator - mixed fractions for math
PicMonkey - photo editing and special effects

This was a great opportunity to discuss the advantages of web apps in the virtual cloud...anytime, anywhere, always connected.

This is the homework assignment for May in TypingWeb:

5th - Beginners Course - Beginner Wrap Up
6th - Intermediate Course - Learn to Bust a Capital Letter
7th - Advanced Course - Symbols and Advanced Punctuation
8th - Specialty Lessons - A Child's Story

The students are working on Unit 8 Online Learning-The PLN Project, learning the benefits of having their own personal learning network.  

Teachers have access to multiple groups of people and various digital tools, when gathering educational information. We know that students do this all of the time, when sharing fun things with their peers, but we want to show that it can be used for learning.

We started using Edmodo, as a social networking tool for learning. Its great for teachers and students to share and discuss the subject in a private and safe environment.  

The goals of this project are for all students to: 1. engage in positive communication with peers.
                                                                    2. use full sentences for commenting on assignments.
                                                                    3. post appropriate pictures on the profile page.

The most challenging goal is to work on positive communication with peers, so we are reviewing digital citizenship.
 A letter was sent home for parents to join our community, as well.

The PLN Project will be covered in the next four lessons with Edmodo and GoogleApps for Education. 
We will create a video production to finalize the project.

Students will continue working on the April homework assignments in TypingWeb.

Students have completed the third marking period assignment review.  Our two research projects were
Blood Diamonds and Black History, Art Inspires Change.  All final grades are in PowerSchool. 
Parents can log in for updates.

The Google Apps for Education Program is still in progress.  All 5th grade students now have
email accounts for RAPCS.

This is the homework assignment for April in TypingWeb:

5th - Beginners Course - Easy Bottom Row Words - 7 Exercises
6th - Intermediate Course - Alphabet Soup (N-Z) - 13 Exercises
7th - Advanced Course - Skill Builder Drills - 15 Exercises
8th - Specialty Lessons - The Californians Tale - 12 Exercises

Spring Break will be Monday, April 1st through Tuesday, April 10, 2012.