JI Studio Chanukah Posters

During the week of Chanukah, Grade 2 students reviewed key vocabulary related to the story and traditions of the holiday.  They used Jewish Interactive's JI Studio app to design a poster using graphics and words.  Here are some of their creations:

Creating Interactive Blessing Books with JI Studio

Students in Grade 1 were excited to use Jewish Interactive's JI Studio program to create interactive Brachot Books using the different brachot for food.   Here are samples of what students in Morah Haya's class created:

Order of Operations Explained with Doceri

Students in 6G worked collaboratively to solve word problems with multiple operations. Using their knowledge of the BEDMAS format, the girls used a mathematical expression to represent the facts in the problem, work out a solution to the problem and provide an explanation of the steps they took to solve the problem. They recorded their solutions on the iPad using the Doceri whiteboard app.

2 Digit Multiplication with Educreations

Students in Mrs. Miller's 5B class are working on two-digit multiplication in math.  They used the Educreations app to explain how they solved multiplication problems using the steps they learned.

Here is a sample:

Mindmup Chrome Extension

Students in Rabbi Kadoch's 8G Talmud class are analyzing Rabbi Yirmiya's four questions about scattered fruit.  Using the Mindmup Chrome extension, students are able to show different ways that the questions can be analyzed.

Here is some of their work in progress:

Click on images to enlarge

Brainstorming with Lino

Students in Morah Ariella's Kitah Gimmel class were excited to use the Lino App on the iPad to generate a shared canvas on what they know about Chanukah.  Students chose categories for which to contribute known facts about Chanukah - customs, foods, history and symbols.

Here is what their finished canvas looked like:

Click on the image to enlarge 

Grade 3 Guided Research with Google

Mrs. Schwartz's Grade 3 students are learning about living and working in Ontario in their Social Studies class.  As a component of this unit, they are getting to know famous landmarks in Ontario. Using key search words, students were excited to discover how they can use a Google search engine to identify some famous landmarks such as Algonquin Park, CN Tower and Niagara Falls.

Bring IT Together Conference

This week, I had the opportunity to present an “innovation station” at the Bring IT Together Educational Technology Conference held in Niagara Falls.  The conference, geared towards educators ,administrators and IT professional across Ontario, focuses on best practices in the adoption and integration of technology as well as provides a forum for sharing ideas and discussing best practices in the classroom.  At my station titled “Digital Storytelling in the Second/Foreign Language Classroom”, I shared Netivot’s experience with digital storytelling with the iPad as a component of Hebrew language learning - including the challenges and benefits.  I showed several samples of student work completed on the iPad in various grades and for various purposes.  Apps I demonstrated included: Educreations, Doceri, iMovie, Adobe Voice, Voicethread and Buddy Poke.  A special thank you goes to Morah Ariella Goldstein, Morah Ilana Hollander and Morah Liora Weitzner who provided student work samples.  Educators that stopped by the station were impressed with how Netivot teachers use these applications in their classroom.  Check out student samples in the presentation below:

Internet Safety Tips from Grade 5

As part of their digital citizenship unit, students in Grade 5 worked on researching ways that kids can use the internet safely.  Each student picked his/her top 10 tips for being safe online and used these to design a flyer on Google Drawings.  These are strategically posted on the second floor bulletin board outside the grade 5 classes so that students in the younger grades can see these and learn from them as they walk down to lunch.  Check out some samples of these fabulous flyers below.

 

Robotics After School Program

Grades 1-5 students were excited to participate in this year's Robotics Club.   For the next three weeks students will be building their robot and then programming it for the robot battle which will take place at the end of  session. 

iPad use in Grade 7 Language Arts

In Mr. Savage's Language Arts class, Grade 7 boys have been benefiting from the use of technology in the classroom.   Students accessed a World War I song of remembrance called ,'The Green Fields of France' - a powerful song about a Canadian soldier that had his life cut short on the battlefield of WWI.   They listened intently on headphones and pinpointed key lyrics that helped to shape their original response writing and poetry.   Their writing will be showcased in the Middle School Remembrance Day Ceremony.

 

 

Grade 3 Mystery Skype

Students in Mrs. Naiman's Grade 3 class were excited to participate in their first Mystery Skype session of the year.  We were lucky to have met Mr. Carpenter and his Grade 3 students from the Martin J. Gottlieb Jewish Day School in Jacksonville, Florida.  Using geography questions, maps and a Google search engine, students in both classes gathered clues about the mystery location of the other class.  We are excited to have made new friends in Jacksonville and are looking forward to extended collaboration with them throughout the year.

Here are some snapshots of our session today:

This year, we are offering students in Grades 3-6 the opportunity to learn to touch type with Qwertinomics.  Typing is one of the most valuable skills for all children today, with computers present everywhere in all areas of academic, professional and personal life.  

With our introduction to Qwertinomics this week, students are learning how to increase their productivity while using the computer to complete their academic work. In addition to this, we will examine healthy habits such as keeping the keyboard clean, aligning the keyboard,  mouse and monitor as well as the proper sitting position when using a computer or lap

Here are some pictures of our Grade 6 classes, actively engaged with Qwertinomics. 

SK Students Lab Visit

This week, students in our SK classes started their weekly visits to the computer lab. 

The students were eager and excited to learn about the different parts of the computer and the importance of each one.  As we get to know how the pieces work together, we will use a variety of online tools and software to hone our technical skills while incorporating elements of the SK curriculum.  We started with mouse clicking and navigation using the MS Paint program.  Students practiced using the drawing tools to create a picture, write letters and type their names in both Hebrew and English.

Tinkering with Tinkerplay

Tech club students are exploring different applications and tools for designing 3D digital figures. Students are enjoying applying their creative skills to the task of putting together and customizing shapes, colours and textures for their 3D characters.  

Here are some designs they created this week using the Tinkeplay app on the iPad.

Meet the Members of our Grade 4 Tech Club

Meet the newest members of our Tech Club!  Grade 4 Tech club students used Buddy Poke to create avatars in order to introduce themselves.

Characterization Wordles

Mrs. Spiegel’s 6B Language Arts class learned about different traits that make up a character in a literary piece. Using the characters in their novel “Freak the Mighty”, students wrote a bio poem on a character of their choice. They used Worditout to create a visual display of the characteristics they identified. Check out some of their word clouds below:

Procedural "Talking" with Voicethread

Students in Grade 5 created Voicethread presentations using a combination of text, images and voice on a procedure of their choice. Check out some interesting procedures below:


 

Using Piccollage to Demonstrate a Process

Grade 1 students in Mrs. Indech's class worked together to depict the stages of a process (such as getting ready for recess) on a collage. Using the Piccollage app on the iPad, students acted out the various steps in the procedure, photgraphed the steps, arranged them in a collage, and labelled the steps in order using key vocabulary.

Animated Graphics with MakeGIF

Students in our Middle School Tech Club are using makegif.com to create animated graphics of a variety of objects.  Check out some of the cool graphics they have put together!.

"Hanging Out" with Mark Rutledge

In Social Studies, the students in Mrs. Miller’s class are learning about First Nations and their contributions to Canadian history.  In order to gain a better understanding of the First Nations culture, students conducted a virtual interview on Google Hangout with Mark Rutledge, a member of the Ojibway community.  Mark showed the students pieces of his ceremonial dress and explained the significance of each piece.  Students enjoyed learning some fascinating historical and current facts about the various First Nations communities here in Canada.  Thank you Mark for an informative and engaging session!

Read about some of the interesting things we learned from Mark below:

Adina:

Mark Rutledge was born in Red Lake, Ontario. He has a twin brother and a younger sister. The three of them were adopted.  When Mark was younger he didn’t know about his background or where he came from. He said that it was hard living that way, not really knowing who you were & where you came from. Four years ago Mark moved to Whitehorse, Yukon. Mark is married, and has three children- two boys and one girl. Over the years Mark has learnt more about his background and found out that his ancestors were First Nations. He explained to us some important facts about the first nations including where they live, what they wear, and what their way of living is. Mark is an Anishinaabe. The people of Anishinaabe (the good people) take care of the environment and make sure that nothing gets wasted. Mark speaks Ojibway, which is the language of Anishinaabe. Mark is part of the wolf clan. A clan is like a symbol, which represents the culture. There are over six hundred first nations communities in Canada, as Mark explains. The first nations could eat only food that they were able to hunt, such as deer, moose, and bear. The first nations wear special costumes/clothes called Regalia. They beautifully beaded bands that wrap around your hand. One band Mark showed us, had a carefully beaded wolf on it, and it was very colourful. There’s also another thing that wraps around your hand, also very beautiful.  It has a blue star right in the middle. Mark said that this represents the males. On either sides of the blue star, there are two red things, which look sort of like bows. These represent the females. In other parts of their costumes there are wolf skins, and eagle feathers. The eagle feathers are there because the anishinaabe people  believe that the eagle can get closest to the lord, which they believe in.  Mark Rutledge was a very interesting person to learn about, and I am very grateful to Mrs. Miller and Mrs.Rachamim, who took the time to help us Skype Mark, and arranged it for us, and most of all, I am grateful to Mark Rutledge who woke up early to take the time to Skype us and tell us a lot about himself, his past, and the first nations.

Ariella

Our class recently interviewed a member of the First Nation community named Mark Rutledge. We found out some very interesting information about the First Nation culture and heritage. We first asked Mark to tell us a little bit about himself and his background. Mark Rutledge currently lives in Whitehorse,Yukon with his wife and three children.  Mark and his siblings were born in Red Lake, Ontario and were adopted by a family from Toronto. Mark did not know much about his heritage when he was growing up but later he discovered he was part of a tribe called Anishinaabe which means the good people. Long ago, the First Nation peoples did not have access to grocery markets and pick up ready meat for food so they had to make their own food by hunting. Some common  foods were deer,moose, and bears. They used every part of the animal for food and then for clothing and weapons. Mark told us that there are schools in Toronto that teach young children about First nations culture and languages. The best part of the interview was when Mark showed us pieces of the Regalia (clothing) and it was awesome. Every part tells a story about the person wearing it. Mark wear the regalia during pow-wows (special ceremonies) where First Nations communities get together to sing and dance. I really enjoyed interviewing him. It was awesome and fun - I wish we had more time to ask him other questions.

Collaboration and Creativity with Google Drive

Collaboration and Creativity

Tech club students are continuing to explore different chrome applications that can be used as productivity and creating tools.  This month, we used the Wevideo extension to collaborate on a video about learning and technology at Netivot.  Students gathered video content and edited the video to give us an informative look into how they enjoy learning with technology.  Check out their video here.  

Tu Bishvat Riddles with BuddyPoke

In honour of Tu Bishvat, students in Morah Ariella’s Kitah Alef and Kitah Gimmel classes wrote riddles about trees.  They then used the Buddy Poke app to create an avatar and record their video riddles. Check out their riddles and see you if can figure out the answer to each one.

Grade 5 Human Body Glogs

Students in Grade 5 are continuing to hone their research skills through guided research projects.  They recently conducted a Human Body Webquest through which they gather relevant information on different human body systems.  Each student created a Glog, an online poster containing facts, pictures and videos about the system researched.  Check out some of their amazing Glogs here.  

Grade 2 Mystery Skype

Mrs. Naiman's Grade 2 class participated in their first Mystery Skype of the year with Ms. Samuelson's 2nd grade class in Bartlett, Tennessee.  The students gathered clues and used atlases and ipads to look at a world map, map of North America, and a map of the United States.  They were excited to discover the mystery location of Ms. Samuelson's class.  We hope to continue written correspondence with our new friends and learn more interesting facts about Tennessee.