“Computer science drives innovation throughout the US economy, but it remains marginalized throughout K-12 education.
Only 29 states allow students to count computer science courses toward high school graduation.
There are currently 607,708 open computing jobs nationwide.
Last year, only 42,969 computer science students graduated into the workforce.”
http://code.org/promote
This year marks the first year Centeno took part along with 2,121,577 others, in the Hour of Code.
When author Toni Buzzeo was looking for someone to create a video to go along with her book The Library Doors, I knew that was something our kids would love to do. I enlisted the help of our talented music teacher, Kim Keller and her choir. I then contacted our ITV department and Susan Carlson was excited to help. Everyone did a great job in making this project come to fruition and Toni put it up on her website just in time for National Library Week.
In 2011, Eddika Castaneda and I facilitated for her GT students at the annual GT Showcase. Using a variety of multimedia tools such as Glogster, Xtranormal, and Story Jumper to create their semester long biography projects, we took the students a step further into the 21st century with QR codes. There were no tri-folds for these students. Watch how they showcase their projects to attendees.
We’ve come to know people in the North tower and how they have started their day. We’ve talked about the 1993 bombings and the safety precautions that are in place and those that are absent. We’ve wondered about those who didn’t follow their normal routines and either perished or were save, and now we are in the midst of cataclysm as Flight 11 crashes through the North tower.
We aren’t too far into the book and it might take us quite awhile to get through, but every moment is worth spending with these kids when you see them so engrossed. I’m fascinated by how much they remember and the barrage of questions they ask, all the same questions that would be put forth by me.
Although we haven’t made much headway in pages read, we have certainly made headway in information learned; just enough to be able to follow author Jim Dwyer in the incredible video conference he presented this past Friday. The students were really able to make the connection with what we’ve read thus far with his spoken words.
I was quite touched when he spoke about the heroic gestures of the people in the towers and more so when he talked about his own personal experience that historic September 11th. He was no longer detached from the story, but a part of it and we were able to witness his emotional experience. Needless to say, it was an incredible experience for both myself and the students. I’m very grateful to Jim Dwyer for allowing our 5th graders to participate in the video conference, and to Raquel Ramon, librarian extraordinaire from LBJ high school, for inviting us to join in.
The beloved Dr. Seuss died in 1991 many years before Facebook was even an idea. In fact, the creator of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, was only 7 years old when Dr. Seuss died.
We wondered what Dr. Seuss’s Facebook page would have looked like if it had been around while he was still alive, so we gathered some of our most brilliant 5th grade minds and challenged them to make Dr. Seuss’s “Fakebook” page. See if you like this. Do these kiddos get the thumbs up? They are all very different so make sure you look at all of them.
DR.SEUSS_FAKEBOOK1_byPRISCILLA
Dr. Seuss & Clifton Fadiman. Photography. Encyclopædia Britannica Image Quest. Web. 8 May 2011.
Congratulations goes out to Mrs. Castaneda and Centeno’s gifted students who took home 1st place at this year’s Texas Library Media Awards held in Austin Texas on April 13th during the Texas Library Association conference. These kiddos rocked with their video production of Lady Liberty: a biography by Doreen Rapparport.
It was a great learning experience not only for our students but for us as well. In the process we all learned about videotaping, camera angles, microphones, green screens, and chroma key technology. It was such a great way to bring a book to life.
Click on the player to view the incredible job they did.
