Parenting in the Digital Age

Please join us for our first Tech Connect Event on the evening of Thursday, October 2^nd, from 5:00-7:00. Our staff has teamed up with Indiana University Kokomo to provide information about Parenting in the Digital Age.  Parents are invited to our informative sessions provided by each grade level. Come learn specific ways that your child's teacher is using technology in the classroom and how you can support learning at home in similar ways. Also come learn which teachers are "flipping" their instruction this year and how to prepare at home for this instructional strategy. IUK Staff will also offer learning activities for your children.

School T-Shirts for Sale!

We are placing another T-Shirt order at the end of this week! Our new T-Shirts come in two different designs and five colors. You can pick up an order form from the main office or email jhollingsworth@kokomoschools.com for a copy.

T-Shirts range from $10-$12 depending on the size ordered. All proceeds go towards our Technology Supplies Fund which is used to help provide technology supplies for our students. The last day to turn in your order is Friday, August 8th.

 

Open House TONIGHT

We hope to see you tonight at our OPEN HOUSE! Bon Air Elementary will host their Open House from 4:30-6:30. Come meet your teachers, catch up with old teachers, complete the PTO scavenger hunt for prizes, drop off your supplies and see your friends! We look forward to seeing all of our families tonight!

Registration Begins this Week!

Registration for the 2014-2015 school year begins at each building today! Please plan on signing up your child for class during one of the following dates and times.

Tuesday July 22nd from 8:00 am -4:00 pm

Wednesday July 23rd from 8:00 am -4:00 pm

Thursday July 24th from 11:00 am -7:00 pm

By signing your child up during registration our teachers and office staff can prepare in advance for their arrival on the first student day, August 5th.

Doodle for Google

Google hosts an online design competition every year when they ask students across the country to design a new Google logo pertaining to a topic. Before there was an airplane, there were doodles of cool flying machines. And before there was a submarine, there were doodles of magical underwater sea explorers. Since the beginning of time, ideas big and small, practical and playful, have started out as doodles. This year's theme was "If I could make the world a better place, I would invent..." Students (grades K-12)  across the nation competed for the ultimate prize...to see his or her artwork on the Google homepage, a $30,000 college scholarship, and $50,000 grant worth for technology for their school.  

The fifth grade students at the Tech Academy participated in this year's competition. Although our doodles were not selected as finalists we are very proud of the effort and time our fifth graders put into their submissions. We invite you to visit our gallery in the main office or online (link below) and vote for your favorite doodle. Voting closes on May 30th.

VISIT OUR STUDENTS' GALLERY ONLINE AT
https://www.flickr.com/photos/124817547@N06/sets/72157644781909344/

VOTE ONLINE AT THE LINK BELOW OR BY SCANNING THE QR CODE 
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/Y23PJKK

To view the national finalists click below.
http://www.google.com/doodle4google/vote.html

2011 National Winner

2012 National Winner

 

2013 National Winner

 

Researching and Access to Resources

One benefit of providing personal devices for all of our students is the opportunity the Internet provides them with as far as unlimited access to resources for reading and research. No longer are our students limited to the encyclopedias on their teacher's shelves or the books at our school library. The Internet opens up a world of options to our students when we do research in our classrooms.

Frequently students are asked to use their computer to complete research. Over time our students have worked on their digital literacy skills to improve their ability to research most effectively. This includes browsing for credible sources, sorting through expert information when compared to novice opinions, and using print, images, and videos to increase their depth of understanding.

In the photo below, Mr. Dill's sixth grade social studies class is conducting research online about the Olympics.

Turnaround Award Presented to Angelo Hardimon

Angelo Hardimon, 6^th grade student at the Technology Academy at Bon Air, recently received a very prestigious honor and was awarded the middle school Turnaround Award. Surrounded by his family, principal, and teachers he received this award Thursday morning May 8^th. A banquet ceremony was held at the Kokomo Country Club to honor the recipients of the Turnaround Award. Also in attendance were Mayor Greg Goodnight, Judge Menges, Judge Murray, members of the Mayor's Board, superintendents and principals from the Kokomo area.

 

Angelo was nominated for his desire to improve his work ethic, effort, and overall attitude while at school. He has improved his grades to all A’s and B’s and has quit being a behavior problem in his classrooms. Congratulations Angelo!

Follow us on Twitter!

Are you following the Technology Academy on Twitter? You should be!

Reasons you should follow us:
1. Check out the exciting things happening daily at the Technology Academy @ Bon Air.
2. Perhaps your child will be the star of the Twitter feed that day!
3. Keep in touch with upcoming events.
4. Easily get updates to your smartphone.
5. Tweet to US when you catch your Tech student doing something wonderful outside of school like reading, doing homework, studying, practicing using an app or website online, helping a neighbor, being a good citizen, etc.

Start following us today!

@academy_ba

Living History Museum

Our fifth grade classrooms staged a Living History Museum for our school and many visitors from the community. Among the Living Museum you could find Neil Armstrong, Anne Frank, King Tut, Dr. Seuss, Helen Keller, and many, many more!

Students took on the role of their famous person by dressing up in costumes, using makeup, and even talking like that person during their presentations. They shared an online timeline of their life, a digital 3D popup book with information, and many other props with their visitors.

These links will lead you to examples of our Zooburst 3D popup books.

http://www.zooburst.com/book/zb01_5333078581ea7 -Albert Einstein by Destiny

http://www.zooburst.com/book/zb01_5333086a78884- Jim Henson by Coleman

 

http://www.zooburst.com/book/zb01_53397a66d4458-Ben Franklin by Jonah    

Trend Alert: 6 Messaging Apps That Let Teens Share (Iffy) Secrets-From Common Sense Media

This article was recently published on the Common Sense Media website. Parents should be aware there are more ways of sharing information online besides Facebook and Instagram. New messaging and chat apps are constantly popping up all the time. Parents should be aware what apps their child is using and most importantly what they are sharing with others.

(Excerpt from article)
Snapchat: A messaging app that lets users put a time limit on the pictures and videos they send before they disappear.
Burn Note: A texting-only app that erases messages after a set period of time. Messages are stored until first view and then deleted.
Whisper: A social "confessional" app that allows users to post whatever's on their mind. Users type a confession, add a background image, and share it with the Whisper community. It’s intended for users age 17 and older.
Secret - Speak Freely: A social-media app that's designed to let people voice whatever's on their minds anonymously.
Ask.fm: A social site that lets kids ask questions and answer those posted by other users -- sometimes anonymously.
Omegle: An anonymous chat client through which users discuss anything they'd like. Its conversations are filled with lewd language and references to sexual content, drugs and alcohol, and violence.


Check out this article from Common Sense Media to learn more about what you should be cautious of your child is using one of these apps.
http://www.commonsensemedia.org/blog/trend-alert-6-messaging-apps-that-let-teens-share-iffy-secrets?utm_source=2014_04_08_Educator_Newsletter_1&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=weekly

MyOn Reader March Challenge

Our elementary students have been hard at work, reading their digital libraries on My On Reader. My On Reader is a new program at Bon Air this year that allows our students to access high-interest books digitally on their device. Teachers can also suggest books for students based on their appropriate reading level. Students see which books their friends are reading and the top-ranked books in the school. My On Reader includes books on a variety of topics and genres including graphic novels, science and math topics, sports, health and fiction and nonfiction texts. Students can listen to all the books in audio version or choose to read the book silently on their own.

You can access My On Reader at www.myon.com and enter your child's username and password. Books are available for any student who has WiFi access.

During the month of March the elementary students challenged each other to spend the most time reading on My On. Students in the class who read the most overall time earned a popcorn party and a Bon Air bumper sticker. The top 5 readers in grades K-5 earned a set of Bon Air earbuds. Congratulations to the top classes and readers below!

Top Classes

WINNER!! Mrs. Enoch's class with over 61 hours spent reading!  

First Runner Up- Ms. Woodring's class with over 48 hours  spent reading! 

Second Runner Up- Mrs. Keck's class with over 35 hours spent reading!  

 

Top 5 Students

Greyson W. 11 hours and 31 minutes!

Abbigail C. 10 hours and 8 minutes

Isaac P. 9 hours and 54 minutes

Jonah F. 9 hours and 33 minutes

Tristen R. 8 hours and 13 minutes

 

Top Class-Time Spent Reading

Mrs. Enoch's Second Grade Class

 

Working With Words

Students in Mrs. Wiley's language arts class used their vocabulary skills to create word clouds online. Using the programs Tagxedo or Wordle students brainstormed words pertaining to their current topic of study. In this example, they used words from their Olympics Unit. They placed these words in customizable word cloud where they could control the font, color, size, and shape of their design. These projects were used for a culminating project to measure their acquisition of new vocabulary terms after their unit was complete. Make your own word cloud here:
Tagxedo
Wordle

Michelle Nelson Schmidt Visit

In October, we were visited by children's author and illustrator, Michelle Nelson Schmidt. Miss Michelle shared with us many of her books and paintings, all of which represented a character and message we can use throughout our lives. Miss Michelle shared her story of striving to become an author and illustrator of children's books and the many hardships she had to overcome. She taught us to never give up and always strive for things you are passionate for. She showed us how to DREAM BIG and made us do her traditional "pinky promise" that we will never give up and  always try to make our dreams come true.

Miss Michelle also introduced us to the What If Monster, from her book Jonathan James and the Whatif Monster. In this story a young boy named Jonathan is constantly asking himself questions when he thinks he might possibly fail. His WhatIf Monster helps him to see the positive side of things and how if you never try then you will never know what could happen! Throughout this heartwarming story, Jonathan learns good things come to those who try!

To celebrate Michelle's visit and everything we learned about asking ourselves positive "What If...."questions, teachers across the building wore our "What If Monster" shirts for ISTEP last week. The shirts include a picture of our favorite little green monster and questions to remind us to always DREAM BIG!

"What if you do your best?"

"What if you succeed?"

Social Studies Comic Strips

Mrs. Fritz's seventh and eighth graders used Bit Strips to create comic strips illustrating important topics in history they have studied thus far this year. One group focused on their study of Ghandi and used their comic strip to document his many important life events. Another group used their discussions of the 22nd and 23rd Amendment's to guide their creations.

This project focused on our digital learning skill of creativity and allowing our students to demonstrate their knowledge in a variety of ways. Students were given the ability to design the comic strip starring the famous character or use a cartoon version of themselves to explain the scenario. Other than the requirement to include important events pertaining to their topic, they were given the freedom to include whatever style of art they wished.

The BitStrips Comic Creator offers students a variety of storyboard layouts, allowing even our youngest students to create one-scene images. The site also includes many characters, famous people, and even a customization area to create the perfect leading roles for their masterpiece. Add in backgrounds, accessories, props, furniture, effects, and speech bubbles to finalize the comic strip.

This would be a great way for students in may grade levels to brush up on their creativity skill and be given an opportunity to display their learning in a new way. For more comic strip sites scroll down in this blog post.

Some ideas for your classroom

• Summarize a story
• Book Report Alternative
• Sequencing of Events
• Problem and Solution
• Conflict Resolution
• Autobiographies
• Vocabulary Word Review
• Creative Writing

Other comic strip creator websites:
Comic Creator from Read Write Think
Pixton
ToonDoo
BeFunky
BitStrips

For over 100 tips, resources, and ideas for using comics in your classrooms (lessons for elementary to high school) click on the link below.
Using Comics in the Classroom

Spelling Bee Winners

Congratulations to our Elementary and Middle School Spelling Bee Winners! Good luck representing us in the district competitions! In the days of spell check and autocorrect we are thrilled you have continued to understand the importance of proper spelling skills!

We are proud to call you a Tech Academy Student!

Elementary Winners Mandy Avery (also won in 2013!) and Stephen Garren

Middle School Winner Jacob Roberts

Visit by Olympic Gold Medal Winner Greg Bell

Former Olympian and gold medalist, Greg Bell, visited Bon Air and shared his story with our students. Bell was an athlete in the 1956 Summer Olympics in Melbourne, Australia. He won his gold medal with a 7.83 long jump length during the track and field event. Mr. Bell shared his story with our students and let us see his gold medal and plaque from the Games. Our students posted questions online prior to Mr. Bell's visit. He showed pictures of his track and field career and measured out his gold-medal winning jump on the gym floor for the students to visualize.