September, 2009

Technology Bill of Rights: Brainstorming

Here is the list that we made around the idea of creating a school-wide Technology Bill of Rights. You have some excellent ideas.

Norris School Technology Bill of Rights

  • Be respectful of equipment
  • Don’t change the settings (desktop, dock, etc)
  • Don’t be impatient (if computer is slow)
  • Put wires back in cart
  • Use appropriate websites
  • Make sure the laptops are plugged in when you are done
  • Use two hands to carry equipment
  • Make sure laptops are completely shut down before closing “the lid”
  • Be mature with things you find on the Internet
  • Don’t run with the computer
  • Technology focus on the upper grades
  • Don’t waste time (fooling around) on the computer
  • Don’t delete “history” on browser
  • Don’t look at (without permission) or delete files that are not yours
  • Don’t print without permission
  • Don’t buy anything on the Internet
  • Don’t email from school
  • Be grateful that we have technology at Norris
  • Be serious, but also be creative and have fun
  • Don’t have drinks or food when working computer
  • Keep the Cart in order (ie, laptop to charging area)
  • Don’t yank flashdrives/Mice/other out of USB plug
  • Try to avoid touching the screen
  • Don’t push and shove at the Cart
  • Be respectful of computer neighbors/environment
  • Try to save work on flashdrives
  • Don’t bang on the keyboard
  • Don’t take keys off the keyboard
  • Don’t download without permission from teacher
  • Be set up in a work space before you start working (no walking, standing, etc, while using laptops)


Dream Scene Collection: Block 1

Dream Scene Collection: Block 2

Dream Scene Collection: Block 3

Dream Scene Collection: Block 4

The Message of the President

Here is a Wordle from President Obama’s speech to students across the country:

What themes and messages did you hear?

– Mr. H

More Homeroom Name Movies

This is part 2 of our stopmotion name movies:

The Homeroom Names, part one

In Mr. H’s homeroom, one opening activity for the year was to create short stopmotion movies using a program called Pivot Stickfigure (another program for Macs and PCs is called Stykz). Students had to use the letters of their first names in their movies.

Here is part one of the movie collection:

What Worries and Excites You

As your teacher, I want to know about the things that you are excited about and the things that you worry about now that you are in sixth grade. This was a simple activity. I gave you a notecard — you drew a line down the center and on one side, you wrote what worries you and on the other, you wrote about what excites you.

I then took all of your notes and put them into Wordle, which creates a visual picture of text based on how words are being used.

Here are the things that excite you (I like that writing class was on many lists):

Here are the things that worry you: