Welcome back!

Hello, all!  I hope everyone had a relaxing, fun Winter Break!  I certainly enjoyed mine!  (It included a trip to Orlando, Florida!)

Now that we're back, here's some of what we're doing in the computer lab this week:

• Middle school classes are starting the new year with a "how-to" review.  We are going over how to create and format documents for assignments, save files, and use certain most-used aspects of our Gaggle accounts (digital locker, dropbox, and email).  We are also learning about Twitter, and planning a new way to communicate our school activities and ideas to you! 
• Upper elementary students will be doing two different activities.  Students in Betsy's class will be completing their prototype activities and drawings in Google Sketch-up, while students in Kim's class will be creating an animated GIF file that depicts something they've learned about in their Social Studies classes. 
• Middle elementary students are starting on Power Point presentations this week.  Students in Emily's class are working on a presentation about their favorite birds, while students in Keri's class will create a presentation about their favorite dinosaurs.  Students will be able to add pictures, text, sounds and movement to their presentations! 
• Students in Lower Elementary classes did fun, educational activities in the lab on Monday afternoon, including playing games from PBSKids and NickJr, and reading books using the Tag Readers.  Next week we will be using kid-friendly drawing software, Pixie, to create our very own bear pictures!