Teachers sharing with other teachers to improve student achievement.

Six Buda Elementary teachers were invited to share their technology integration expertise with educators from around the state at the 2010 TCEA professional convention (Texas Computer Education Association). The three conferences focused on how technology is seamlessly integrated into their classrooms to help students achieve. Participants in the audience were engaged in a question and answer session in the well attended workshops.

Andi Bosar demonstrated effective interactive whiteboard use across the curriculum in “Making Your Curriculum SMART!”

Jamie Huston and Sarah Woolery presented ways to use the interactive whiteboard to enrich the learning experiences for students in “SMART Kids, SMART Conference”.

A cross curricular collaboration by the team of Raschel Wagstaff, Alyssa Isam and Kristyn Marek  shared  “Free and Inexpensive Technology in a K-2 Classroom”.  An article in eSchool News, a national technology newsletter, described this session:

“One session focused on how kindergarten through second-grade educators can incorporate technology into their classrooms and give young students a chance to experiment with technology. Alyssa Isam, Raschel Wagstaff, and Kristyn Marek, all teachers at Buda Elementary in Buda, Texas, led attendees through easy technology solutions for young children.”

According to Lauri Schroeder, principal at Buda Elementary,

“Presenting at this conference gave the teachers a look at their own expertise that they did not even realize they had.  By having immediate, hands-on access to a wide variety of technology tools, they have increased their confidence and learned how to integrate technology seamlessly into their instruction. ”

The extra time and effort by these teachers in sharing their knowledge has reached into many other classrooms in Texas.

Buda Elementary first grade students use technology to learn creatively.

What will you do when you are 100 years old?

Buda Elementary teacher Kelly Lowder posed this question to her first grade students during the 100th day of school in order to add meaning to the number skills they have been learning. Students created a drawing of themselves in the future using MaxPaint and inserted it into their own PowerPoint slide in order to analyze the problem and create an answer. They then presented this to their class.  Mrs. Lowder often integrates technology into her class to creatively help her students grasp concepts and learn new skills. A flash video of the final presentation is linked here:

http://www.hayscisd.net/BES/videos/100yearsold.swf

Roland Smith answers questions from Buda Elementary students.

Buda Elementary school librarian Jeanne Ditta continually looks for ways to enrich the reading experiences of Buda students. Recently she found that author Roland Smith (”Sasquatch; African Elephants; Sea Otter Rescue; I.Q.” and dozen’s more) was willing to visit with students over the Internet. Jeanne often uses technology as an integral part of her programs for students and wanted to offer this opportunity. Unfortunately, the only type of software Roland uses was incompatible with Hays CISD networks and software. Jean turned to campus technologist Richard Ingels and distance learning specialist Christie Rickert for help and a new way to connect was found that can be used for more conferences such as this. Thanks to Jeanne’s pioneering technology spirit Roland and several hundred Buda Elementary students were able to have a meaningful conversation about the writing process.

Author Roland Smith answered questions from students during two live sessions. He spoke about his experiences writing his many successful books and gave encouraging advice to the aspiring young authors at Buda Elementary.

Some examples of his comments:

“Every day there are problems in writing.  Writing is about problem solving.  But every day you have to show up and write, and work through those problems.”

“You need to write every single day.  You have to read and know what a story is about.  It doesn’t matter what it is.  If you want to keep a journal, keep a journal.  Find your own voice.”

“When I write, I write about what’s important to me. When you write, you need to write about what’s important to you.”

“If you want to be a football player, you have to practice.  If you want to be a singer, you have to practice.  If you want to be a piano player, you have to practice.  Every time you write, you get a little better at what you do. If you practice enough and write enough, you will become a writer. It’s as simple as that. You can all become authors if that is what you choose to do.”

A 5th grade history class at Buda Elementary school has written,  produced and created a series of videos to make history come alive! The series centers on the US Constitution and has 5 parts. The videos were planned and filmed in the classroom and edited by their teacher, Cynthia Farest. Students had to thoroughly prepare in creating the lessons in order to present them clearly. They are posted on the class website.

Videos teach about the history of the US Constitution.

Mrs. Sweet’s class at Buda Elementary learned about homophones in their Daily 5 lesson by using the Smart Board. The kids were able to do a hands-on interactive activity choosing the correct spelling of words that sound just alike. So we “know” that when we say “no” to a “hare“, that we are not talking about our “hair“.

Using the interactive SmartBoard in Mrs. Sweets Buda ES class.