The other night we held our first ever Tech Night for sixth grade parents at Dennett Elementary. We’ve been using so many different types of technology for so many different assignments, we thought it’d be great to share what we’re doing with the parents!
During our Tech Night, we shared how we are able to use our AverPens from our seats. We showed parents how to leave a comment on our blog. We received some wonderful comments that night! After, we visited our class wiki to learn how we’re using screencasts during centers and how students and parents alike are able to review what we’re learning about in class at any point during the year.
Our final visit was to one of our favorite sites, Storybird. Parents and students worked on creating a story together. Unfortunately, in the limited time we had, nobody was able to finish their story. As soon as somebody does from home though, we’ll get it up on the blog. While you’re waiting, I highly recommend you check out some great examples of Storybirds by 2KM and 2KJ in Australia!
Just when everyone was about to leave, we let the parents know that we had a little surprise for them. As it turns out, one of our most popular recent posts was our time-lapse video of our day. Unbeknownst to the parents, we had been creating a time-lapse video of Tech Night! Our document camera had been sitting in the corner taking a picture every 10 seconds throughout the entire event! We shared the video with the parents to cap off our night.
It was a great night with an amazing turnout. We were so glad that everyone was able to join us. We hope we’re able to expand Tech Night to the entire school next year so we’re able to share all the amazing things that are happening with technology in our building!
*What was your favorite part about Tech Night?*
*What would you like to see covered if we have another Tech Night?*
*We had 15 families at Tech Night. We have 33 students in 6th grade. That means our fraction representing our turn out is 15/33. Can that fraction be simplified?*
HI, I am Alex and I liked your class’s blog. That was a good idea to write the the keyboard short cuts on a book mark. You must have a great class! If you want to check out our class’s blog go to http://kidblog.org/MrsVilas/.
Hi Alex,
Thank you for the compliment! I’m sure you have a great class too. I’ll be sure to check it out!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
That video was amazing! It was so cool to see everything in fast motion. You’re so good with technology. I wish I could do that. It must have taken years to figure out how to do all that stuff.
Also, writing comments is fun. My sister got to stay after school today because she got to help with the feast. I would have but too many people signed up. I thought I had no chance but she said she would have picked me! I’m so frustrated at myself.
From,
Ariel
Hi Mr. Avery,
My name is Autumn and I am currently attending the University of South Alabama in Mobile. I am majoring in Elementary Education. I am in a course called EDM 310 and I was assigned to view your blog post. I loved the idea of Tech Night. I would like to incorporate this into my classroom when I become a teacher. I like that it not only allows the parents to see the work their children have been doing, but also, to try it out for themselves. Thank you for sharing your ideas.
Autumn Bowling
Dear Mr. Avery’s Class,
Your video was so cool! We liked how it went really fast and how you did it without anyone knowing! We did the samething in our our Math class. You should check it out when you get a chance.
4WS has never had a Tech Night at our school, but some of us think that it would be a nice idea. We would get to teach our parents about the blog and show them what we can do in school.
Did the students know you were making the video or did you just keep it a secret from the parents?
From,
The students of 4WS
-The Classroom Connection-
Hello Mr. Avery’s Classroom,
Great idea! It’s really good to involve parents in these kind of activities. Students are surrounded by technology and they are learning very fast to use it and it is good to see that parents can experience a little bit of what their children are working with. Technology is there to be used and Mr. Avery, you are doing a great job having students and parents come together and exploring the wonders of technology. By the way, nice video, I’m guessing everyone in tech night was really excited to see the video at the end of the night.
Great job class!
Miss Paola (student-teacher)
Miss B’s Block
Hi Mr. Avery and class,
The Tech Time Lapse video was very cool! I would like to try it sometime with my family and friends when we have a party. I bet the parents were very impressed and are learning some tech fancy tips from their children. I checked out story bird as well. I would love to show this to my friend who has a son. They would have a blast making a story together. Thanks for your post!
Sincerely,
Mary (An edm 310 student at the University of South Alabama)
My blog
Dear Mr. Avery,
What a FANTASTIC blog post. Tech Night seemed like it was a great success. 4WS is going to be having their first ever “Family Blogging Night” later in the term and I can only hope that it goes off as well as yours.
The Time-Lapse video was a very creative and fun way to show the night to others. I really like how you added Music to it. It really makes the video come to life. 4WS just finished making our first Time-Lapse video in our classroom. We made it using a program called FLIX. It turned out pretty cool. The kids loved it and we used it as a way to review for appropriate behaviors and look for areas of improvement.Thank you for giving us the idea! You truly are leading the way for other bloggers.
Keep up the great work!
Your blogging buddy,
Mrs. Webb-Scheers
Dear Mr. Avery,
I enjoyed reading about your Tech Night for parents! The time lapse video was a creative way to showcase the evening! What kind of document camera do you use for this? I would like to try this sometime.
I plan on having a Tech Night at our school for our Bulldog Reader parents! They will have a chance to learn how to comment and use the student netbooks!
Do you have any advice for me?
From,
Mrs. Hembree
Dear Mrs. Hembree,
We use an Elmo document camera. All the classrooms got one this year and they’ve been great. We use it all the time. We’ve especially enjoyed the way it creates the time-lapse videos for us!
I don’t think you need any advice from me for a Tech Night! I think you’ll be great in having a Tech Night. We did enjoy having a project to complete together like writing Storybirds together!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I notice I already commented but I saw your rap video on vimeo like 2 seconds after you uploaded and it was AMAZING! I’ve watched the rap video at least 100 times already!
Sincerely,
Kirstyn M.:mrgreen:
Dear Mr Avery,
This turned out to be an amazing video! I CAN’T wait to see your rap video! I couldn’t see my family is this video much but I could definitely see Kristen. I can’t wait to get 2,000 comments and have a party!
Sincerely,
Kirstyn M.
Dear Mr. Avery,
The new post is great. 🙂 At some point in time we are going to find out that you are taking pictures of us during a project. I am 😡 that i could not make it to tech night. I had football. I was wondering, when we were going to have another mystery skype? It was so fun being in front of the camera.
Sincerely,
Phillip
Dear Mr. Avery,
I love the new post. It is really interesting how you can set the ELMO to take pictures every number of seconds that you set. I am sad 🙁 I couldn’t make it, football practice. I hope we get to do more of these videos in the future :smile:.
Your Student,
Fra♔kie
Dear Frankie,
I think it’s really cool that the Elmo can take pictures like that based upon a set time. I love the way it puts it into the video for me!
Hopefully we’ll be able to have another Tech Night so you can join us next time!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
I love the new video from Tech Night. I like the music you used. 🙂
From,
Yana
Dear Yana,
Thank you! I enjoyed making the video with the music. I think it definitely adds a little something extra to the video!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr Avery,
What an inspiring idea, I love your Tech Night idea! Earlier this year 2KM and 2KJ had a “Family Blogging Afternoon” where each student invited a family member to teach them about blogging. Nearly every student had a special visitor for the session, which was wonderful.
This post has got Mrs Morris and I thinking that we should have another family tech session this term. We might borrow some of your ideas! I love the idea of having the students showcase a variety of technological tools to their families. And having students and their families creating a Storybird sounds like lots of fun!
Great work, Mr Avery. I love your ideas! 🙂
Best wishes,
Miss Jordan
Dear Miss Jordan,
Thanks for your great comments as always. It’s always great to be able to share ideas with one another. I know I’ve learned a lot from yourself and Mrs. Morris! I’d love to see what you two come up with if you have another “Family Blogging Afternoon!”
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Hi there, what a great post. I found the time lapse video very interesting. What document camera are you using?
Louisa, Adelaide, Australia
Hi Louisa,
We were using an Elmo document camera. The software that goes along with it allows for video recording, which we used in our Doctor Decimal video. It also allows for the time-lapse videos. We’ve really enjoyed having it in our classroom!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr Avery and class,
Your Tech Night looked like so much fun! I wish I could have been there but thanks to your time lapse video I felt like I was there!
It looked like your night was full of fun and learning. Thank you for mentioning our Storybirds. We’d love to do some more later this term.
Your night reminded me of the Family Blogging Afternoon we had in 2KM and 2KJ earlier in the year. Perhaps 2KM and 2KJ should have another family tech event this term. It is great to involve parents!
Your friend in Australia,
Mrs M☀rris
Dear Mrs. Morris,
We had a blast at Tech Night! I’m sure the families would love for you to have another one at some point. I know you don’t have a lot of time left in the year though!
We’d definitely love to work on Storybirds with you. I think it’d be great to have two different grade levels working together on a collaborative project!
Thanks for the great comment as always!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery and class,
My students loved your 55 second time lapse video, so it makes sense it was a popular post. Some kids watched it in our class and over and over at home! Tonight, their homework was to visit your blog post about 10,000 visitors, so I’m hoping you have some 49’er quality comments.
Tech night is a fabulous idea. The parents were probably “Wow’d” with the integration.
I need to visit with Mr. Avery about Aver Pens. I have a set and am a little stumped about their use. I’m trying to “bind” them and let students write with them, but I need a bit of mentoring. Mr. Avery to the rescue?!
Great job, Dennett Elementary, for leading the technology way!
SIncerely,
Mrs. Kistler
A 49’er
Dear Mrs. Kistler,
Thanks for having your students visit our blog! We really enjoyed our 55 second video as well! It was so interesting to see our entire day in such a short amount of time.
I’d be more than happy to help with the AverPens! I had a bit of trouble originally as well but finally got them figured out.
So glad to be blogging buddies with you!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery’s class,
I really liked the video. It was neat to see how fast the time lapse went. How did you make it so fast?
Sincerely,
Melody
A 49’er
Hi Melody,
Thanks for commenting on our blog! We really enjoy making the time-lapse videos! We have a camera that takes a ton of pictures and then puts it all together to create a video!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery
Dear Mr. Avery,
The video is really funny 😆
I’m kind of upset I couldn’t go because my mom had to go to work. I’ll live though. I think 🙁 Just kidding! Instead I got to play Rummy 500 with my dad (so far I’m beating him)
Hope we get to our goal for comments I can’t wait to party 😛
~Hannah K.
Dear Hannah,
I’m glad you got to play Rummy with your dad! I love that game. Hopefully we’ll be able to have another Tech Night and you’ll be able to join us!
Sincerely,
Mr. Avery