It's a Spelling Kind of Day!

Today six finalists competed to represent the district in the Regional Spelling Bee in February. Just look at those bright, happy faces. The two girls on the left will be the PESD representatives. The little gal in front is only in the 3rd grade! She has a future in spelling! As you can see, the district will be well represented.

Happy New Year!

The second grade students at Emerson Elementary School started the new year with some formal keyboarding lessons using the EasyTech program on the laptop computers. At the end of each lesson there is a reinforcement game for them to play. To quote one of the students, "I like racing the kangaroo. It was fun." The students must complete each lesson with 70% or better before they go on to the next lesson. Check out the video below to see them at work:

SMART Board Lesson Resources

Every now and then I search the web for resources that I think might be helpful for our teachers. The list below has the sites from this morning's search. Check out the last one on the list. It's an on-line generator for Jeopardy style classroom games.

• http://www.ecarter.k12.mo.us/dept/elementary/fourthgrade/ccrites/etipslesson1.html
• http://www1.center.k12.mo.us/edtech/SB/resources.htm
• http://www.gateschili.org/bbs/teachers.cfm?subpage=19898
• http://www.sblceastconn.org/smartboard.htm
• http://www2.scholastic.com/browse/collection.jsp?id=363
• http://www.kenton.k12.ky.us/SmartBoard/smartlarts.htm
• http://www.coderedsupport.com/jeopardy/

More Bloggers at PESD

Every now and then I check out the school web sites to see who the new bloggers are. Each time we do a blogging professional development activity, we hope to have teachers create classroom blogs and send us the URL's for posting. Since June we have done at least four professional development activies that include blogging. As you can see from the list below, the number of bloggers is growing.

PESD Blogs to check out:

http://whatsupmrroper.blogspot.com/
http://msshores.blogspot.com/
http://msalfaro.blogspot.com/
http://basnettsbusybees.blogspot.com/
http://tiffanigambino.blogspot.com/
http://msstewarts1stgrade.blogspot.com/
http://mrsjones20.blogspot.com/
http://guzzettasgems.blogspot.com/
http://www.mrquicksclass.blogspot.com/
http://faithnorthnews.blogspot.com/
http://violetpurplepink.blogspot.com/
http://pesdteacher.blogspot.com/
http://www.wrightmontessori.blogspot.com/
http://mracedosclass.blogspot.com/
http://mrscastro.blogspot.com/
http://mshillsroom.blogspot.com/
http://maestra-cole.blogspot.com/
http://herreradance.blogspot.com/
http://mrsgillamskenclasses.blogspot.com/
http://woodrumsroom.blogspot.com/
http://mrsbernalsclass.blogspot.com/
http://mrsprieto1grade.blogspot.com/
http://pesdalps.blogspot.com/
http://msrentzsclass.blogspot.com/
http://davidromanalps.blogspot.com/
http://pesdalps.blogspot.com/
http://prepcoyotetracks.blogspot.com/
http://coyotetalesfromtheprep.blogspot.com/
http://theroboticcoyote.blogspot.com/
http://msfranksclass.blogspot.com/
http://lacyslearners.blogspot.com/
http://mrsniederhauser.blogspot.com/
http://mrsnunezsclass.blogspot.com/
http://misspettitt.blogspot.com/
http://mrsramirez.weebly.com/
http://thomaswildcats.blogspot.com/
http://whittiermath.blogspot.com/
http://www.pesdsportsdesk.blogspot.com/
http://pesd-librariesalive.blogspot.com/
http://herreralibrary.blogspot.com/
http://lowellmediacenter.blogspot.com/
http://mtmediacenter.blogspot.com/
http://pesdtechnology.blogspot.com/
http://alpskids.blogspot.com/
http://techcamp08.blogspot.com/
http://pesdtechnostuff.blogspot.com/
http://pesdshawmediacenter.blogspot.com/

Olympics Research Project

The 3rd grade ALPS students at Monterey Park School have been using their research skills to learn all about the Olympic Games and Olympians. On Monday, they presented their Power Point Presentations and then participated in their own Olympic events. Enjoy the video of their activities below.

Newly Discovered Resources

Can you believe November is almost here and the first Trimester ends next week. While looking for a Microsoft Excel template recently, I stumbled on a really cool area for teachers on the Microsoft web site: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/school/FX102781641033.aspx. I also want to remind everyone that Microsoft provides many really helpful template downloads at this URL: http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/templates/FX100595491033.aspx?pid=CL100632981033.

Noreen found and passed along a web link that I find to be very interesting. The speaker talks about the "real" 21st Century skills that our children need to have. Here's the link: http://www.schoolchange.org/videos/the_global_achievement_gap_video.html. When you open the site, the video will begin. The video is fairly long and extremely interesting.

Final Mini Camp Day

At the request of members of the Mini Technology Camp group, I have compiled a list of blogs that are being maintained by PESD staff. Just click on the links below to see each blog.

http://whatsupmrroper.blogspot.com/
http://msshores.blogspot.com/
http://msstewarts1stgrade.blogspot.com/
http://msfranksclass.blogspot.com/
http://lacyslearners.blogspot.com/
http://mrscastro.blogspot.com/
http://herreradance.blogspot.com/
http://maestra-cole.blogspot.com/
http://mrsbernalsclass.blogspot.com/
http://pesdalps.blogspot.com/
http://coyotetalesfromtheprep.blogspot.com/
http://pesd-librariesalive.blogspot.com/
http://lowellmediacenter.blogspot.com
http://mtmediacenter.blogspot.com/
http://mrsnunezsclass.blogspot.com/
http://misspettitt.blogspot.com/
http://mrsramirez.weebly.com/
http://thomaswildcats.blogspot.com/
http://whittiermath.blogspot.com/
http://www.pesdsportsdesk.blogspot.com/
http://pesdtechnology.blogspot.com/

These blogs are all linked to the PESD web site.

PESD staff who wish to link blogs to the district web site can contact Noreen Strehlow. Those needing help with their blogs or who want to create a blog can contact John, Linda, or Noreen for assistance.