Technology@Coonley
A Glance at Technology for Q1 of the 2015-2016 School Year
First Quarter Highlights
Coonley Parents,
This flyer is a snapshot of several technology-related projects and events that have taken place during the first quarter of the 2015-2016 school year. Judging by the great work this 1st quarter this should be a wonderful year!
Mrs. Zumpano, Coonley Technology Coach
Coonley's New Website
Coonley's website received a face-lift this summer. See upcoming events, all e-blast bulletins, archives of all announcements and brand-new teacher created websites! Visit it often at coonley.cps.edu
Twitter is Going Strong!
While visiting our website you should have noticed our Twitter feed is now embedded right on the homepage. Many teachers are contributing by sharing what's happening in their classrooms. Be sure to also check out our new hashtag #CoonleyCares. Please follow us @CoonleyES!
Coonley Technology Road Trip
During the summer teachers had the opportunity to participate in self-guided formative assessment professional development. The PD was designed around free apps and web-based tools that can assist with instruction and are available for Coonley teachers free. Read more about the project here.
Coonley Goes Global
This year several Coonley classrooms participated in the Global Read Aloud. This world-wide initiative (created by a teacher) focuses on an author study and four additional books. Teachers decided which book they wanted to read and I (Mrs. Zumpano) helped find classrooms across the United States and Canada that were reading the same book and were willing to connect with us. Classes shared information in various ways: many video-conferenced using Skype, Google Hangouts, and Appear.in. Other classrooms wrote pen pal letters or communicated on Twitter. The picture above shows our connections across the country (a bulletin board outside the computer lab), Ms. Barrett's students Skyping with Kitty Hawk, North Carolina, and one of Ms. Vega's many tweets about her book. This was a great project!
QR Codes All Around
QR codes are small black and white squares that link to additional content. Following are some fantastic ways Coonley Teachers incorporated QR codes the first quarter! Be sure to download a QR reader such as i-nigma to your smartphone in order to view the QR code content.
QR Goals
Several classrooms throughout 2-4th grade had students write and record goals for the year. These goals were shared with parents during open house and were a huge hit!
QR Code Book Reviews
Please check out the hard work of Ms. Vega and Ms. Crews' 3rd grade classrooms on the second floor bulletin board. Students recorded book reviews for their favorite reads!
QR Bat Reflections
While studying bats, Ms. Bertucci's 2nd grade students shared what they learned through these QR audio clips. They did a great job!
Google Expeditions Visits Coonley
Coonley students were very fortunate to participate in virtual field trips on November 12th via Google Expeditions. Google is traveling to classrooms throughout the world to give students and teachers a peek into their next big educational project: Expeditions. Students use a "21st century viewfinder" to see locations all over the world (including the moon and under the ocean). As they are viewing teachers are able to direct their attention to various places using an app, and are able to read facts about those locations. Students loved the experience!
Additional Highlights from 1st Quarter
Exploring Themes
Ms. Butala's students acted as advertising agencies promoting the theme of "Wonder" by R.J. Palacio using the iPad app PicCollage.
Halloween Fun
More great uses of the PicCollage app! Ms. Barrett's class had fun inserting themselves into Halloween scenes.
Back to Springfield
Last May Ms. Malhiot took two 4th graders to Springfield to present on technology use with project based learning. This fall Ms. Malhiot was invited to present the same content at the IETC conference in Springfield. Her student representatives traveled to help her present and did an outstanding job!
Keep in Touch
This quarter Ms. Parson's 5th grade class had a student that was participating in a project that took him away from the class for an extended period of time. During that time a blog was set up for the students to keep in touch and talk about what was happening both in the classroom and off campus. Everyone involved did a fantastic job and demonstrated excellent digital citizenship!
Plagiarism Presentation
This quarter a teacher reached out to me and asked me to speak the her class about plagiarism. This turned into a lesson that was presented to all classrooms in grades 5-8. You can see the presentation and learn more about the activities here: http://zumpanotechlab.blogspot.com/2015/10/understanding-plagiarism.html
Parent Communication with Remind
Remind is a tool that allows teachers to communicate with parents regarding updates to websites, classroom events and more. Several Coonley teachers are using this to alert parents to updates on their websites. If your child's teacher uses this means of communication please be sure to sign up for their alerts.
Nicole Zumpano, Technology Coach
Email: nmzumpano@cps.edu
Website: http://zumpanotechlab.blogspot.com
Location: 4046 N Leavitt St, Chicago, IL, United States
Phone: 773-534-5140
Twitter: @nmzumpano