Green Valley 3rd Grade

I had the opportunity to travel back to Green Valley to work with Dr. Laurie Gill's 3rd grade class.  I spent the day showing the 3rd grade students all of the places I have traveled, helping them with their writing, and participating with them in a science project that involved the iPads.  I had such a great time working with the students!

Press Release from Watauga County Schools is copied below:

NC Teacher of the Year, Lilies, and iPads Come Together at Green Valley

Laurie Gill’s third grade classroom at Green Valley School has probably never been more special than during a recent lesson that featured the triple treat enhancements of beautiful lilies, new iPads, and NC Teacher of the Year Darcy Grimes.

The beauty of the lilies was short lived as Gill’s third graders got to work dissecting them as part of their study of flowers and plants, an element of the science curriculum. The iPads enabled students to use an application called Educreations that helps students prepare an electronic presentation to document their knowledge of the anatomy of flowers while reinforcing their learning in a swift and engaging manner. Working in teams of two and three students, they used the iPads to photograph the flowers and then - directly on the screen - drew arrows to the parts of the flower and labeled each one, writing in free hand or typing in the name of each part as they chose. Each presentation included an introductory slide with photos of the team members, taken with the iPad, and most included a handwritten “The End” slide as well.

Gill, the 2012-13 Teacher of the Year at Green Valley, provided directions at the outset and the student teams then began largely self-directed work to complete the project. Gill, along with Grimes and Green Valley Instructional Technology Facilitator Sarah Cardwell, roamed the room to answer questions and encourage students’ efforts.

Grimes was an appropriate choice to help out on this lesson not just for her star power as the NC Teacher of the Year but also because she has been a skilled and regular user of instructional technology in her own third grade classroom at Bethel. In her role as NC Teacher of the Year, she frequently offers tips on the appropriate use of instructional technology during her visits to other school systems and she extols the value of these tools during presentations to educational and civic groups across the state.

Green Valley’s 20 iPads were purchased using a portion of the school’s Title I funds. Title I funds are provided by the U.S. Department of Education for schools where a majority of students are eligible for free or reduced price school meals as a way to provide enhanced resources for less advantaged students. Title I budgets and services are among those that may be reduced in the wake of the recent implementation of the budget “sequestration” by the federal government.

Separately from Green Valley’s use of iPads shared among its classrooms, pilot projects that provide an iPad for each student are getting underway this spring in several classrooms at Mabel Elementary and Watauga High School. These projects will help local educators identify best practices in the use of individually assigned tablet-type devices as well as the most effective and economical apps available for classroom use.
Students at the high school are already furnished with individual laptop computers under a 1-to-1 initiative that began shortly after the new high school opened in August of 2010 but other options such as tablet devices will be considered when the time comes to replace their existing computers.

Green Valley School has an enrollment of 395 students in pre-kindergarten through eighth grade and is rated a School of Distinction and a school of high academic growth on the NC ABCs accountability model.

Me working with 3rd grade students.

The flower the students are disecting. 

 

 

Dr. Gill  and her students.