The PTA Fall Festival was a huge success this year! During the event the PTA held a raffle to win pumpkins decorated by the staff. Watch the video below to see all the creative pumpkins. A special thank you to Mrs. Fedderly for taking the pictures, Mrs. Quinn for making the video, and all the staff who helped created the pumpkins.
Many students love using Pixie 2 in technology class. Pixie 2 makes it easy for students to combine drawing, photos, audio recordings and text into video files as well as printed files with layouts such as comic books, trading cards, and greeting cards.
With support from Tech4Learning, Bellows Spring is able to offer Pixie 2 for students to use at home. Parents can purchase a home license for $35 (plus tax). This is a huge discount over the regular price of $54.95. Plus, the Bellows Spring technology department gets $10 for every license purchased! The funds our school receives will be used to enhance the educational software and hardware for teachers and students.
Look for the Pixie 2 ordering form in September 18’s Friday folder or download the form by clicking here. Orders are due no later than October 15.
Last week, ABC News profiled the nationwide Watch D.O.G.S. program. Did you know that Bellows Spring was the first school in Maryland to become a Watch D.O.G.S. school?
Click here to watch the segment that aired on ABC World News with Charles Gibson.
Click here to read the Watch Dogs article on abcnews.com.
Wow, time flies! The third week of school is coming to an end. It seems like it went by so fast. Since my last post there have some technology related updates for our school and, more specifically, for the ed tech program:
1. Staff Pictures
The staff pictures are now on the Bellows Spring website. Although the themes have changed, the personalities of each team still shine in the photos.
2. Green School
Bellows Spring is going green! This year our school is starting a two year process to become certified as a “Green School.” We will be documenting progress our school makes on the Green School page on the school website.
3. Interactive Whiteboard
The ed tech program has received an interactive whiteboard! This board lets the user control the computer from the front of the classroom. Over the last three days I’ve been learning some of the features of the whiteboard. I’m looking forward to exploring some of the other features and learning how to use it as an effective teaching tool.
Some students got an opportunity to try it out:
If you’ve gone to Bellows Spring’s website recently you’ve probably noticed it has changed. The school system is in the process of giving a uniform look to all the elementary school websites. This transition has also brought about a change for the PTA. The PTA now hosts their own website at http://sites.google.com/site/bellowspringspta/Home.
Keep an eye on Bellows new website in the next month as this year’s staff pictures and other updates are rolled out. If you have any suggestions for what you’d like to see on the new website, please leave a comment.
There are several exciting changes this year for technology class:
1. Mrs. Quinn will be the new .6 technology teacher. She will be at Bellows on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays.
2. Technology class will no longer be on wheels! (I’m very happy about this as the computer cart was very heavy to push around the school.) Technology class will be located in the portable that Mrs. Hughes occupied last year.
3. A new version of Pixie, Pixie 2, has been installed on all the laptops.
4. Although the order has not arrived, we will be receiving an interactive whiteboard. An interactive whiteboard connects the computer to the projector and will allow the teacher and the students to control the computer from the projection on the whiteboard using a special pen. This will make demonstrations and student presentations more interactive. I can’t wait for it to arrive.
Whiteboard Image Source:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Image:Interactive_whiteboard_at_CeBIT_2007.jpg
I want to welcome Mrs. Quinn to Bellows Spring as the new part time technology teacher. Mrs. Quinn comes to us from Mount View Middle School.
I will let Mrs. Quinn introduce herself as she is also going to be a new contributor to The Techno Cheetah. Look for her posts in the near future!
