Technology+5



For the third quarter fifth grade had three scored assignments. The first was sharing the smoking poster in a blog post, and the last two were the research parts of the biome project for science. Those two parts were completed on the class wiki. Students researched information on their assigned aspect of the project (a certain biome and a certain biome feature such as environment, plants, animals - assigned by Mrs. Generose). I modeled how to use the resources in the list to read for information and then pull out specific facts to include in the information table. Students want to just copy and paste but it is important to read for understanding and re-state the information in their own words as much as possible. In Part 2 I modeled how to take the notes and develop an informational paragraph, with an introductory or topic sentence, supporting details, and a concluding sentence. Students also had to complete other items in the table such as listing resources, choosing an image from the Pics4Learning site, and demonstrating the difference between a page URL and an image URL, as well as including the provided citation for the image. Pics4Learning is a wonderful site because it keeps students in a safe environment and gives them all the necessary citation info.
 * April 2, 2013 **

In the 4th quarter students will put together their digital poster using not only their research but that of their teammates. It is important that everyone do their best because someone else will be relying on the quality of the work to contribute to their final projects. Also coming up in the last quarter of the year, we will be finishing our online safety/cyberbullying discussions, and developing a weather presentation. There is a lot to accomplish in the next 2 months!

There are just a few weeks left in the third quarter of the school year and I have recently posted scores for Creative Space 6 which was sharing the smoking poster with a wider audience via a blog post. Students once again embedded an image, something we have been working on all year, and also made the image a clickable link to the full sized view of the poster. Those students who have a less than satisfactory grade will be given the opportunity to improve upon some aspect of the post to make the score satisfactory. This will be optional and they must choose to come in and make the improvements.
 * March 10, 2013 **

We will spend the rest of the quarter (as well as some of the 4th quarter) discussing Internet safety, cyber bullying, and acceptable online behavior. Last week we spent time on choosing a screen name that does not reveal too much personal information, as well as passwords that are not easily guessed by people who may know you. There will be two other short scoring opportunities for this quarter. We have been limited in class time due to a Monday holiday as well as a Monday weather day. Students have a wiki page (accessible by password) on which they will gather facts for their group project on a biome for science. Part 1 will entail gathering facts on the assigned question, and adding the facts as well as the source of information to the table on the wiki page. Part 2 will be composing the facts into a sensible paragraph that answers the question (such as "What is the plant life of the desert?") The information they gather will be used by others on their project team to complete a digital poster (glog) on that biome. These two activities are very short and will need to be completed on time in order to be included in the third quarter score. Students have access to the wiki page outside of school and will have time on laptops in the classroom to find their information. Being able to gather information from reliable sources and collaborating with a team are very relevant skills.

**January 20, 2013** The second quarter has raced by and hopefully parents have been visiting the cougartech webmix to view the projects we have been working on in grade 5. Here is a re-cap. 1. ** Creative Space 3 ** - This came about after our week out of school due to Superstorm Sandy. Students had the opportunity to write about their personal experiences after this extraordinary weather event. We discussed the importance of opening the post with 3 facts about the storm from a reliable source (not personal observation) especially since our blog has visitors not only from across our country but also around the world. The second paragraph dealt with their personal experiences and a final short paragraph served as a wrap up to the post. We practiced embedding an image and as always, giving appropriate credit for the image and information resources. Students who scored poorly because of not following directions the first time had an opportunity to earn some additional points by correcting mistakes, though few did, and some who said they did published the same mistakes over again. I would encourage parents to read their students' posts and offer suggestions for improvement, even if the grading opportunity has passed, because the posts are a reflection of the student's work and we always want to publish our best work. Please also comment on any posts your child writes as it provides encouragement that someone is noticing what they do.


 * 2. Environment 1** - This was a recap of the energy conservation topic and use of the Think Energy kit from PPL. Students were asked to summarize what they had learned and how they and their families were putting that new knowledge into practice. Once again an image was embedded, because visuals attract readers. I also stress the importance of using non-copyrighted sources and giving proper credit. This score will be passed on to Mrs. Generose for use in either the 2nd or 3rd marking period.
 * 3. Creative Space 4 ** - We first had a class period where students learned about the various drawing tools available in MS Word by creating a cup of hot chocolate and a plate of cookies in a document. They then demonstrated their understanding of inserting shapes, grouping objects, altering fill and line properties, Word Art, etc. by following directions for the drawing tool sampler. This was to develop skills necessary to complete the health poster. Once again following directions carefully would have made this an easy assignment. Some students are still not convinced of the importance of checking the direction list before announcing that they are finished.


 * [[image:no no.PNG width="137" height="149" align="right"]][|4. Creative Space 5 -]** This poster that emphasizes the harmful effects of smoking was a joint project for health and technology class. Students worked on this not only in the computer lab but also during health class. The tools they had practiced previously were employed in the project creation. Some spent more time creating a border than they did on the actual poster message. (I wish I could remove the "no" symbol from the list as that seemed to be the go-to symbol of choice. Kudos to the students who dared to be different.) I also had created several help videos, especially one that demonstrated how to create a border in just a few clicks. I showed it in class and then had it available in the directions. Despite my reminders most of the people who created a custom border ignored the strategy I put forth, even when I reminded them as I walked around the room, and continued to create NO symbols one by one around the page. For some their posters took much longer than they should have for this reason. Students have saved a screen shot of their finished poster and will be publishing that at the beginning of the third quarter and writing about what they learned from their study of that health topic.

**October 22, 2012** Today students were able to review their scores for the Creative Space 1 glog assignment. Some I am sure were disappointed, and others were surprised because **//they just weren't finished//.** I explained that the glog was actually due weeks ago, and that I had pulled up several who said they were finished (referenced in my last post) and pointed out some glaring errors so they could be fixed and serve as a reminder to others. I not only offered open lab time but students also could access the glog from home if they still needed to do things. We can only go so long and "not be finished" long after the due date because the quarter eventually comes to a close. Several students made corrections to their glog, because I pointed out that if there are misspelled words or other problems you certainly don't want those to be displayed publicly when it is embedded in your blog post. I will not go back and re-grade all those little fixes. Anyone looking at the checklist for each assignment can see the step by step process that needs to be followed, but unfortunately some students are still learning that they indeed need to refer to the directions in order to do things correctly. This will improve over time. By next weekend I will be checking the Creative Space 2 assignment and folder organization in Digital Space 2 Click on the student glog at the left to view an example of a student who has used both the hyperlink and the code correctly to showcase her glog in her blog. Many students have now gone on to brush up on keyboarding at the end of the quarter. The program we use can be downloaded at home free of charge. See the download information under @Keyboarding Skills and if you can make this available to them for review at home it would be very beneficial.

**October 15, 2012** We have been working through the projects on the class webmix and students are signing up on the progress chart on the Smart board as they complete each item. After reviewing a few glogs I pulled some up for everyone to view and we discovered many things incomplete on some glogs that had been signed off as complete, so some students had to "revisit" their glogs. We have also been working on the embedding of the glog into the blog page, talking about what is "behind the curtain" meaning the code that makes the web page work, in contrast to what we see when we visit a website. There are 2 places that some students are getting confused and we did go back over these again. When writing the sentence, "Click //here// to view the full size of my glog" the word "here" should be a hyperlink. A hyperlink starts with //http:// and will take the reader to a new location. The URL that is needed for this hyperlink is the URL that appears at the top of the page when they click "View my glog" and not when they are editing the glog. The embed code starts and ends with the "iframe" tag and is pasted into the TEXT editor, not the graphical editor, and causes the smaller version of the glog to be embedded into the blog article. This is the same procedure we followed at the end of 4th grade to share the state glog. If a student feels behind or still needs some assistance, there will be an open lab at recess for grades 5 and 6 on Thursday, Oct. 18. There should be plenty of time in the next 2 weeks to finish up the embedding and the last assignment which is organizing the network folder.

//The// Type to Learn Agents of Information// program that we use in school is available for home download. The students have a user name and password. See the information on Keyboarding Skills for access to this web-based program.

**September 11, 2012** It seems I missed a back to school message for fifth grade this year so here it is along with class updates.

Fifth grade had an unusual start to the year because there were no special subject classes on the first day of school and the following Monday was Labor Day. In order not to be 2 weeks behind, group A came for a class on Thursday of the first week and group B on Thursday of the second week.So everyone had their second technology class on Monday, September 10.

Our first assignment was Digital Space 1 found on the cougartech webmix. It would be helpful to have a desktop shortcut at home to this class webmix because it will provide an easy jumping off point to many sites that we use in class. One of the things we need to work on is actually referring to the list of steps provided for the project. I often encourage students to snap their windows to the side of the screen so they can have the directions on one side and their actual project on the other side. Instead many just simply wait for me to tell them what to do next rather than look at the checklist. I will keep stressing that this year.

Also this year, assignments will be graded right from the beginning of the year. Students will have several projects/activities in each quarter and will accumulate a number of points which will be converted to the letter grade. We are almost completely paperless in our technology projects, making use of the many digital spaces we have available and most of the projects will be online for parents to view the assignment requirements as well as the students' finished work. Occasionally, as at the beginning of this year, some documents will be saved to the network folder and not published online. I put a score in the document along with comments and the students save these in a "graded assignments" folder. With barely 40 minutes a week there is no time to print these (which would be wasteful) and then send them home for signatures to be collected the following week. If you ever have a concern about an assignment please let me know. I can send a pdf copy of the document home if it becomes necessary. I am a firm believer in having an authentic audience for projects and that is why most of the finished products will be available online in some form or another. Any assignment that is available in one of these online spaces is accessible to students to continue working on from home.

We will be spending the next classes completing a project based on The Dot by peter H. Reynolds which promotes confidence and creativity, and incorporating digital skills while doing that. We will also be working on file and folder organization within the students' network folders. We will begin to coordinate with other teachers in projects that have a technology component such as a health project on fire safety. You will hear more about these as time goes on. Finally, expect to see signature forms coming home soon regarding our acceptable use policy and electronic device policy. As soon as Mr. Reese approves these and the revisions are made online we will ask you to read those policies and confirm with your signature.

**April 28, 2012** The scores for the biome glogs have been entered into PowerSchool. This project was finished as the quarter ended so it went in as a 4th quarter score. I explained some issues that I found as I looked over the glogs and I asked students to read over their scoresheets. One area that a number of students lost points on was the Information Sources section. Some had a title but no resources listed, some skipped it altogether, others did not follow the directions. What I explained in class last Monday was that if a student wanted to resubmit the glog for scoring they could repair their resource section and fill out a form when they come into class this Monday. That will let me know which glogs I will revisit. The condition was that a re-submitted glog would lose the "on time" points, but the entire resource section was worth 10 points so it could definitely help some grades. Monday, April 30, I will give anyone a chance to fill out the form saying they wanted a re-score on the information sources. I will not re-score other parts of the glog, but students are welcomed and encouraged to make corrections. The corrections need to be completed outside of class, however, since we will be spending the first part of the class on April 30 going through the steps to embed the biome glog into the blog page. This will be scored but it pretty much a give away as I will do practically everything with them. They did the same with their 4th grade glogs last year. The rest of the class period will be working on the weather presentation slides. I do not have a due date listed on the checklist as Mrs. Generose has established that, but I will be checking with her and adding it to the page. I will also be holding some open lab sessions during lunch recess during May to allow students to make sure all projects are completed on time. There are only three or four classes left in this school year!

**April 16, 2012** **Looking back at quarter 3:**

During the third marking period students researched their assigned biome topic and created a glog to display their information. The research done on the wiki accounted for the first two scores of the quarter. The glog itself will be scored as the first grade of quarter 4. Students also completed a poster to promote an anti-smoking message which was a joint health/technology activity. After the posters were completed, they took a screen shot of their completed poster and we embedded the poster into a blog post to share it with the world. I uploaded each screen shot to Flickr and gave students two links, one to the image to be embedded in the post, and a larger image that visitors would see when clicking on the embedded image. All the checklists for these activities can be found on the grade 5 tab of the cougartech webmix. It would be great if parents have time to comment on student posts on the blog, either on the smoking poster project or any other post they have written. We have been visited by 94 countries, but comments are always a thrill. You can visit the main page of the class blog and look at the assignment list on the left, or click on a student's tile on the grade 5 tab of the webmix. All comments come to me before being published.

We also began a discussion of Internet Safety and Digital Citizenship, talking about bullying/cyberbullying, being safe online, and using email. We will continue our discussions into the 4th quarter.

**Looking ahead to quarter 4:** We have reached the last quarter of the school year and it will be a busy one. Today we reviewed the checklist for the Extreme Weather presentation for science class. Students are encouraged to delve into their topic and may use the designated wiki page to add notes or links as they choose. They will also be using the laptops during science class for their research. We reviewed features in PowerPoint and they started with a ready made file with the required slides already in place. **Please note** that students may **not** bring a completed slide show into school on a flash drive. They must do their own work in school, but research on the topic and gathering of necessary images may be done using the wiki page. In addition to wrapping up Internet safety topics we will also hopefully get to an activity in which they study the Constitution using Discovery Streaming resources.

**February 24, 2012**

We seem to be having some problems in fifth grade regarding following directions and using time well. During this third quarter I have missed having the fifth grade on Feb. 13 due to attendance at a tech conference and Feb. 20 because of Presidents Day. That is not to say, however, that students have not been given plenty of working time. If you check the cougartech webmix you will see the assignment directions left for them for Feb. 13 when Mr. Hammerstone took them to the computer lab. This week Mrs. Generose had laptops twice in the classroom for an extended time, Feb. 21 and Feb. 22. Students were to be working on the biome project, and the beginning of that was completing Environment #2 on the webmix in order to be able to develop a paragraph which would be turned in to Mrs. Generose and then provide the basis for the team biome glog. The due date for part 1 of the research was Feb. 8. The due date for part 2 where the paragraph was developed was originally listed as "to be decided" due to Mrs. G's absence, but was then changed to Feb. 25.

One of the nice things about the wiki is that it is possible to see what was added or deleted on any given date. If you click on the button on the top right of a student's page, the button that looks like a clock, it indicates the dates of any revisions made to the page. Even though there were laptops signed out for students on Feb. 21 and 22, there are a number of students who have not one thing completed on Feb. 22, and even very little completed on Feb. 21. Yet, Mrs. G said students went on to First in Math because "they were all caught up." The first two technology grades entered will be Part 1 and Part 2 for Environment #2. I have even provided a video explaining how to find an image to use from the Pics4Learning site. The sample format is also shown on the Environment #2 checklist.

Anyone who did not complete Parts 1 and 2 on the wiki should have them completed **for Monday.** I will be reviewing image issues during class and also students will be labeling parts of their completed smoking poster to prove they have all required parts before it is published. There is no excuse to have had Part 2 still blank but no evidence of any work completed on Feb. 22. I realize this does not apply to everyone, but it does to many. I also had initially gone through Part 1 for those students who had done it right away and pointed out to them in writing, and to the whole class, that the URL listed in Part 1 should go to the exact source of facts and not just the website homepage. This will allow a teammate to access the source in the event they need to clarify facts before adding them to the glog. Information for the glog, which some students have started, is listed in Environment #3.

Students have been shown on numerous occasions how to put the checklist on the left of the screen and their project on the right in order to go item by item and check to be sure everything has been completed. The consequence for not looking at the checklist and not following directions will be a low score. In addition to that, students who have no Part 2 completed on the wiki page are holding up their teammates in the completion of the biome glog.

** Additional info received in email: EDU Glogster will be down for maintenance on Saturday, Feb. 25. **

**January 29. 2012** A little late, but I would like to summarize our second quarter activities.

As I mentioned in the previous post, the last project of the first quarter ended up becoming the first project of the second quarter. This assignment, known as DigiSpace Assignment 4, proved to be a hurdle for some. I don't believe it had anything to do with the technology skills, as we not only went over them several times in class but I also created videos going step by step through the process. I believe it may have to do with the ability to work independently on a project and selecting the tools need for a particular task from the toolbox of skills at hand. Every step was spelled out on a direction sheet, and yet it was all I could do to get some students to actually consult the sheet to see what they needed to do next. It was easier to ask, "What do I do now?" rather than be self-motivated and take responsibility for accomplishing the task. The students are at various levels of independence in this regard. For some, it was a very methodical process, and for others, chaos reigned. This is something we will continue to work on and over time, this ability to look at a list and say, "yes, that's done; what's next on the list?" will be a matter of routine.

The Digital Space 5 assignment was simply organizing the personal network folder. Some students wanted to keep assignments from fourth grade and so the object was to create a folder containing their 3 favorite 4th grade projects, another folder containing any assignments that had been graded by me this year, and a third folder for Work in Progress. This way when they open their folders they are not faced with a confusing mess. Careful reading could have helped everyone ace this activity. When it says, "Save three projects from 4th grade and delete all others" but there are 5 saved in the folder and another half dozen still lingering outside the folder, I have to assume the directions were not read.

The assignment called Creative Spaces 1 was a way to learn to use some of the drawing tools in MS Word and how to manipulate and format shapes. Again, following directions was key. If the directions are to create a lightning bolt shape with a shadow to the lower left, but the student either creates a shadow on the right or no shadow at all, it is again a following directions issue. Manipulating these objects would be required in the current health project which requires students to design a poster with an anti-smoking message. We will be uploading those posters as images in a blog post to share them publicly, and students will be writing about what they have learned about the dangers of smoking, but that finished poster and explanation will be part of the third quarter grade.

The fourth activity of quarter two was to summarize the effects of learning about energy conservation and using the PPL Energy Kit. The Environment 1 activity had a specific list of sentences to be included and the insertion of a Creative Commons licensed image. The image insertion is still a fairly new skill so we did that early on together in class, step by step. In order to help them see how the image was being placed in relation to the text, I had them insert some paragraphs of "dummy text" I made available to them. They were told that this text would be replaced by their own writing. Alas, in many cases their own sentences were tacked onto the dummy paragraphs, or in some cases, they submitted only the dummy paragraphs as their assignment. This is a perfect example of clicking the "publish" button before actually reading what it is you are about to send. If students would read what they have written aloud before hitting "publish" there were be a lot fewer deductions on their posts.

Looking ahead: During the third quarter they will finish the health project and wrap up the biome project for science which is a team effort to create a diorama in science class but also add information to the wiki about their area of the biome. Each member of the team is providing research that will be used by the other members of the team so it is important to give a quality explanation. The notes will be taken in the class wiki. Each student has their own workspace accessible at home and at school. These notes and the notes shared by the others in the group will help the student to create a glog on that particular biome. Look for the posted assignment sheets on the webmix this week for the third quarter projects.

**October 31, 2011** Well it has been about a month since I have posted any class news so let me recap.

We have been going paperless in our computer lab classes so far. What this means is that the assignments are all posted on a Google Doc found on the class webmix, and then after the digital assignment is completed, the score sheets are returned "digitally", meaning placed in a Word doc directly into the student network folder. New on the webmix is a link to chapter reviews for the Loyola religion textbook.

I had planned on 4 digital space activities for the first quarter but a final wrench was thrown into the plan with our unexpected "snow" day, or in the case of my backyard, "falling down trees" day. Because October 31 would have been the last day to complete assignment 4, which was the blog commenting assignment, and because it is not easily completed at home, I have decided that we must push that activity into the second quarter. (The first quarter ends on Friday, November 4.) This means that in PowerSchool you will have 3 graded assignments, all of which were pretty easy, so expect the grades to be high for the first quarter. There are 4 students who are missing something in the third assignment and I will be sending for them during the week at recess to get that completed. However, since it is the glog assignment, it also can easily be completed at home. How do you know if you are one of those students? Click on your letter grade for Computer (It really should be called "Technology Class") and see if you have a score for all three digital space assignments. If the third one is missing, please go ahead and check the assignment description and see what needs to be completed.

If you are still working on assignment 4, remember that I have created 2 videos (see DigiSpace Assignment 4) to help with the process. You could go ahead and search for the students for whom you wish to leave a comment, and plan what you will say so that you can wrap everything up on November 7.

Please remember that if you miss a technology class, you will definitely be behind in your work. Check to see what we have been working on. It may be something you can complete outside of school. If not, please see me about a make up time. Don't let it go until the end of the quarter.

Do you know that today, October 31, 2011, the 7 billionth person was born on the planet? Check out a new post about that on our class blog. And speaking of blogging...remember that parents and other relatives are welcome to post on student blog entries. We have a Random Facts post done so far this year, and will be using our blog pages to showcase other projects and topics across the curriculum. Relatives leaving comments should be sure to sign as Mom, Dad, PopPop, Aunt Mary, etc. rather that with a last name that matches the student's. This will safeguard the student's privacy. Students are always eager for comments, and have recently been writing comments for other classes on the random facts topic. This gives them a chance to make global connections and develop communication skills.

October 3, 2[[image:http://www.weddingclipart.com/images/templates/fall/bg_fall_leaves.gif width="241" height="144" align="left"]]011
**Today the entire class was in the computer lab together due to running the mile for gym class. Our new lab is big enough for all of us with extra tables and chairs added, but half of the class needed to use our new laptops, which I had just set up. Signing on the laptop for the first time slowed some people down, but it was an unavoidable situation. I told students that their first assignment on saving a document to their network folder was scored right on that document in their folder. If the score is not yet showing in PowerSchool it means that the document is not complete. The second assignment, which should have been finished by the end of class today, was using our second digital space, the blog. Some students received a score sheet in their network folders and some were just finishing up today. I will be asking students who appeared to need some additional help with the Seven Random Facts activity to come to the lab at recess tomorrow so they can work on whatever is a problem. One issue for some students is following directions. The steps are spelled out line by line, but I am working on convincing some that you must LOOK at the directions in order to know what to do. That is a stumbling block it seems. Some people would prefer that I just stand next to them and say, "Ok, do this. Now do this." It's time to take responsibility for working independently after everything has been explained.**

**Many students began the third assignment using our digital space on edu.glogster.com. The students log in (nickname) is 2015olph followed by their initials. Mine would be 2015olphpr. The password is the same one they have been using for their blog, a word and a number. The glog activity is very simple and there is a sample to view. This is something that students can easily complete on their own at home. We will not have class next Monday, Oct. 10, because we are not in school. The following Monday I will be out of town, but students will still be able to use the computer lab. They will need to have their DigiSpace 3 assignment finished and start working on the 4th assignment which deals with commenting on other students' random facts assignments. I have posted my sample of this activity and will likely create an instructional video to help them with this as well. People who are caught up can spend a few minutes browsing the posts of the students from other schools and deciding for whom they may wish to leave a comment. (See the CougarTech Webmix tab CBM Connections.)**

**September 26, 2011**
**Today we continued the assignment begun on September 19, which was demonstrating use of our first digital space, the school network. Students worked on the DigiSpace 1 assignment posted on the Cougartech webmix. I will be checking those saved documents as the first graded assignment of the quarter.**

**We also reviewed the concept of posting an article to the blog, which is Digispace assignment #2. All of these online sites where we share our work are part of our digital classroom and we need to be able to manage all of the tools on each site. Students will have until the end of class on October 3 to post their Seven Random Facts assignment. From there we will practice leaving comments for other students in the classblogmeister digital learning space. These are students from Texas, New York, Canada, New Zealand, Pennsylvania, and Lebanon, to name a few.**

**If students wish to complete the random facts assignment at home and be ready to move on or tackle some "free space" activities, they are welcomed, and encouraged, to do so. If a password has been forgotten they can email me via schoolnotes and I will pass on their information. They should be sure to use the posted assignments if they are ever absent and this way they will not fall behind. One additional note: just because a student checks the "Request Publishing" box does not mean the post will be published. Sometimes there are too many mistakes, and in the case of this first assignment, even though I listed spelling and punctuation as things that would be evaluated, we have some students who have ignored all punctuation. This post entitle Get Published t that I wrote last year will help students to understand why they may not see their work published and where to look for my comments. If I have left a comment on this first assignment in the teacher comment box, the student may make corrections up until October 10. I will give another reminder next Monday.**

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**Welcome to Fifth Grade Technology Class!**
Our **first class was Monday, September 12**. We are starting a week late due to extra time needed for the set up of the new computer lab with all new equipment! During this class we made sure our log ins are working correctly for the network, and we had to save other log ins for next week (blog, wikispaces, and EDUglogster). I explained the use of this site to replace schoolnotes, though schoolnotes can still be the "jumping off point" and we also too a look at the Cougartech webmix. Students received a form to be signed indicating parental permission for use of Internet resources at school, as well as another the revers side regarding use of Web2.0 tools (such as Discovery Streaming, wikispaces, blogs, etc.) I apologize that the side of the form was too close to the edge and didn't copy well. Here is a Google Doc version for easier viewing. Both sides have places for signatures by parents and students and should be returned to the homeroom teacher. All forms must be in before our next class on Monday, Sept. 19. PLEASE don't forget to check your permission for Internet access. I get so many forms back with neither option checked and then must return them.

**Looking back at 2010-2011**
During the 2010-11 school year fifth grade students used a variety of tools within Microsoft Word, including drawing tools and creating a health poster on the dangers of smoking. They established their blog page as a location to showcase writing and projects, and practiced inserting and crediting images. We spent time discussing Internet safety issues, learning to use the class wiki as an individual and collaborative workspace, created glogs for science on biomes and PowerPoint slide shows on extreme weather. We closed the year by using a teacher-created glog to learn about the U.S. Constitution and write summaries of key topics as blog posts. Best of luck to you all as you move on to sixth grade!