PEPSICO K-12 Technology Mentor Program

Fun with Claymation

Dottie Black — Wed, 07 May 2008 13:49:20 +0000

I have been working with Ms. Kelly’s 3rd graders on a claymation project. They are creating short animations about fractions. William and Hannah are one of the teams.

Hannah and William decided what their Movie would be about.

Then they drew a storyboard.

They created a set and chose the characters.

They worked together as a team to shoot each individual frame for the movie.Here is their final product.

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Save the Lakewood Y did just that!

Dottie Black — Mon, 05 May 2008 17:01:21 +0000

Back in September, I met with one of my new teachers,Libby Montagne from Lakewood Elementary. She told me she was working with a group of her students to help save the Lakewood YMCA. The YMCA board was trying to sell the building and Durham would lose a fantastic community resource. I suggested that her students use a WIKI to document what they were doing.

Last week it was announced that the building will be shared by a new Durham Public Schools Montessori middle school and the YMCA. A win-win-win situation for the YMCA,Durham Public Schools and the Lakewood community.

Congratulations to Ms. Montagne and her students for helping be a part of the process.

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Ms. Franklin’s 2nd Graders Learn About Sound

Dottie Black — Wed, 09 Apr 2008 14:38:27 +0000

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Kindergarten isn’t what it used to be.

Dottie Black — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 22:44:09 +0000

Ms. Sander’s Kindergartner’s created multimedia alphabet books using Pixie 2 from Tech4learning.

Anna’s Project

Isaac’s project

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2008 Technology Showcase

Dottie Black — Mon, 24 Mar 2008 17:14:44 +0000

All I can say is WOW! We had a great turnout for the second annual Durham Public Schools Technology Showcase. All the reviews have been very positive and we are so proud of all the teachers and students who worked hard on projects to present.

| View | Upload your own

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On a Quest to solve problems

Dottie Black — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 20:04:52 +0000

Quest Atlantis (QA) is an international learning and teaching project that uses a 3D multi-user environment to immerse children, ages 9-15, in educational tasks. QA combines strategies used in the commercial gaming environment with lessons from educational research on learning and motivation. It allows users to travel to virtual places to perform educational activities (known as Quests), talk with other users and mentors, and build virtual personae. Explore our site and learn more about this exciting project. To learn more about this program click here.

Hear Gavin (A Rogers-Herr Middle School Student) talk about his Quest Atlantis Missions:

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WIKI WIKI

Dottie Black — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:40:49 +0000

What the heck is a wiki anyway? Simply put, a wiki is a webpage that can be authored by as many people who want to add to it. For example, a teacher can set up a wiki and have all of the students in the class be authors. There are ways to track who adds to the wiki and the administrator decides who can author and who can view the site. Here is an example of a wiki done by a fifth grade class about the book Turn Homeward, Hannalee.

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Activeboards part 2

Dottie Black — Mon, 10 Dec 2007 18:30:45 +0000

I happened to stop into Ms. Steven’s 7th grade social studies class while she was using her new activeboard. I shot a short video of her teaching.

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Activeboards Rock

Dottie Black — Mon, 05 Nov 2007 19:55:00 +0000

I met with Robin Franklin, the technology mentor from Lakewood elementary school last week. She has a new activeboard in her classroom. She talked about the way this wonderful tool has challenged her teaching techniques. She told me how she had used it to show her students how to search for books from the Durham Public Library.

As she was teaching the lesson, she wasn’t sure how to do something so she picked up her personal communication device (cell phone) and called a librarian. As the librarian explained the process to her over the phone, she was relaying that to the class and showing them how to do it with the Activeboard. When they were finished, the kids applauded and she held the phone up so the librarian could hear them.

The students learned about databases, they learned how to search and reserve books. They also learned who to talk to when they need help at the library. Ms. Franklin’s next project for her students is to find out where the bookmobile stops and then have them write letters to request stops in their neighborhoods.

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Road Trip to South Carolina

Dottie Black — Thu, 01 Nov 2007 15:40:31 +0000

The Rogers-Herr middle school mentor and mentees attended the South Carolina Association for Educational Technology Conference in Myrtle Beach last week. The theme of the conference was Back to the Future. (Yes, that is a DeLorean)

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