What's Happening in West Virginia?

Trap Hill Middle School is piloting the 1:1 computers this year and we are loving it. Our teachers are spoiled now with all the activities we can use the laptops for in the classroom. We have almost 500 laptops in our school, and a lot of the classroom teachers use them at least 3 times a week. We can actually say that we have Digital Learning Day "daily". Here are just SOME of the activities our teachers are using:

WV Writes, Online tests and quizzes, Acuity, Movie Maker (Making Cyberbullying/Internet Safety Projects), KidBlog, Edmodo, Power Point, Glogster, Apangea Math, Plato, IXL Math (This is a favorite with our Math Teachers), Wordle, VOKI, biologycorner.com, jamstudio.com (Our Music Teachers use this), Creative Commons and much more. Some of the teachers have been our your site to add other activities such as our Library Media Specialist is doing with her class: www.inanimatealice.com. She LOVES it.

We all know that teaching has changed since I first started in the early 80's. I am so proud of our teachers that have decided to teach in the 21st Century to prepare our students for their future.

Gina Dye, Technology Integration Specialist, Trap Hill Middle School 

I teach Health Science at Randolph Tech Center. My juniors all have laptops and we have wireless Internet. My students take notes on their laptops. They will also be studying Medical abbreviations using on online site to make their own flashcards and practice tests.
I also plan to record students practicing for the skills competitions for HOSA. Some of the competitions include First Aid & CPR, Nursing Assisting and Home Health Aide.

Sallie Hamrick

North Middle School in Martinsburg got a jumpstart to Digital Learning Day! We researched countries then created PowerPoints to share in class highlighting certain criteria like GDP, religions and governments. The students are so creative and learning so much! 
Submitted by Mary Gail Updike

Lenore K-8 students practice their lessons for DLDay.
Alivia Sturgill

MMI classroom grades K through 4
Mrs.Susan Roeder, Special Education teacher, Brooke County, Jefferson Primary School, Follansbee,WV

If you want a chance to be highlighted on the WV-LMS website, submit your project/activity with photos to me and you may end up like Allison Fisher from GW High who is doing an AMAZING job with her digital library!

 In just TWO weeks and with only 188 titles, she has circulated 139 titles!!  To see her digital library, go to the WV-LMS site here:  https://sites.google.com/a/wvde.k12.wv.us/wv-lms/  and click on the image below that will show you her setup!

Graphic Design Students, Morgan Estep and Vivian Lee, learning to use Adobe Illustrator and Wacom Digital Drawing tablets.

Welcome to my classroom! We use technology in our classroom multiple times a day. My wonderful students at Mountaineer Middle School use technology as a whole class and individually. For example we use the website Starfall.com for calendar awareness and beginning reading as a whole class activity. We subscribe to ABCmouse.com for individual learning. The students really respond well to the audio/visual delivery methods that technology can provide.

Kara Bowles, Special Education Teacher, Harrison County

My name is Laura McMillin. I am an 8th grade Reading/LA teacher at Oak Glen Middle School in Hancock County, WV. I use technology everyday, but I thought these photo's of my students doing a WebDig were great! It crossed curriculums, Social Studies/LA-Writing and History! The students had a great time doing them, plus they were able to discover much more than they realized along the way!! Hope you enjoy the pictures! My students are proud of their work and accomplishments and I wanted to share their success!! Thank You, Laura McMillin, 8th grade LA, OGMS

I have attached four photos of students at Martinsburg High School utilizing digital learning in their classrooms. The first photo is of Media Specialist Mr. Steven Smith showing a student how to access the new OPAC –Online Public Access Catalog. Photo number 2 is of a student in Jodi Kissner’s biology class using Nova 5000 inspiration software to concept map the process of photosynthesis. Photo number 3 is of students in Jay Fields’s special education class using iPads for Acuity testing. Photo number 4 is of Alex Minnick’s math class attending a webinar demonstrating the online textbook and online homework help. Glad to participate in Digital Learning Day. Rosemary Lynch

Mountainview Elementary in Monongalia County issued a No Paper/Pencil Challenge to teachers in 2011. Teachers were asked to incorporate hands-on activities, mini project-based learning activities and technology into their classrooms for one special day. They also were asked not to use paper or pencils for any of the activities they did during that day. At the end of the day, teachers and students both said the event was positive. One student declared "It was the best day of my life," while one teacher said, "I think the challenge was a huge success and lots of fun for all involved." The school was featured on the national Digital Learning Day website as a model project for elementary schools. For more information, click here. http://media.all4ed.org/webinar-jan-18-2012 or http://www.digitallearningday.org/showcase/#Elem. .

McDowell County Schools will be kicking off a county-wide PBL tomorrow on Digital Learning Day. Each school will receive a topic in history of their local town via a School messenger call. They will be able to interview their parents and community members for their knowledge on the topic. Then starting on DLDay every student will research with their classmates and share their knowledge on their history topic. Each class/student will create a multi-media project and upload it to a county googlesite. All schools have to upload their projects by Feb 17. At that time students from River View High School will compile information from all media projects from the schools into a video- making McDowell county history come alive! We will share the video with community and parents as well! In essence all students at all schools and all the parents working together on one PBL!

I teach in the Parkersburg High School ebusiness department and have four classes: Digital Media, Desktop Publishing, Web Publishing and Business computer applications

In these classes, my kids are in constant contact with digital devices and are actively participating in projects where the media is being used in a business type application. I have a  website under way where the kids put their work up on it and some of the techniques that they  use to facilitate the end products. I have included our new website still under construction with their work on it. http://www.wix.com/charliegphs/student_ebusiness_site

Mr. Charlie Gesell

Digital Learning Day Mrs. Prater’s 2nd grade, Altizer Elementary

• This is primarily a “paperless” day, however students may engage in creating notecards for an interactive bulletin board on famous African Americans for Black History Month from online research using laptops. They will also engage in creating power point presentations on three of these famous African Americans. • Students will research sea mammals and create power points for a science integrated story on sea mammals. • Students will use online resources like spellingcity.com for assistance in learning and practicing this weeks phonics lesson on /oo/ oo and ue vowel digraphs. • We will also initiate using the ipads in the classroom and be installing and using free educational apps and practicing using these. • This day’s math activities will entail using digital resources such as math facts in a flash, sumdog.com, and sheppardsoftware for telling time to 5 min. intervals, measuring elapsed time, and using input and output charts.

Cabell County Schools Marking Digital Learning Day with High-Tech Activities Students in Cabell County will be joining their peers nationwide as they celebrate Digital Learning Day, Wednesday, February 1, 2012. According to the Alliance for Excellent Education event website, “Digital Learning Day is a nationwide celebration of innovative teaching and learning through digital media and technology that engages students and provides them with a rich, personalized educational experience.” The goal of the activity is to encourage the innovative use of technology by trying something new, showcasing success, kicking off project-based learning, or focusing on how digital tools can help improve student outcomes. Students in Cabell County were encouraged to participate in the event by Bob Wise, president of the Alliance for Excellent Education and former governor of West Virginia, and Dr. Jorea Marple, State Superintendent of Schools. Here are just a few of the activities planned by schools in Cabell County:

Cox Landing Elementary
At Cox Landing Elementary, teachers will be working with different types of technology throughout the day. Teachers will be making intense use of SMART boards and SMART tables; and students will be working on research for a persuasive writing project about zoos, will be researching the branches of government, and will be gathering information for a week-long project on costs to go to the Super Bowl.

Davis Creek Elementary
At Davis Creek, second grade teachers will be talking about cyber safety with their classes and will follow up on their instruction with a responder lesson. In addition, two school-to-school collaborations have been planned between third graders and students at Geneva Kent Elementary. One class will be performing a Readers' Theater (rotating scenes between classes) and the other class will be sharing commercials about inventions they have created. Upper grade students at Davis Creek will be using iPads for multiplication practice and storytelling. Fifth graders will be trying their hands at digital clay animation and will be visiting some new websites.

Meadows Elementary
At Meadows, two third grade teachers, Dana Bailey and Martha Damron, will lead their classes in a Skype session with Senator Evan Jenkins, scheduled for 1:00 PM. The students are studying government, and the teachers thought it would be great opportunity for them to talk directly with one of their legislators in state government. Also at Meadows, first and second grade teachers are teaming up to use different technologies with their students, including Facetime.

Milton Elementary
Mrs. Brenda Parsons’ second grade class is going paperless. The day will begin with an interactive sentence editing activity using the Intelliboard. During math class, students will be reinforcing their graphing skills through interactive games via the internet and will practice their math fact skills utilizing the school iPad set. The students in reading will continue their work with the novel "Dear Mr. Henshaw" through use of Nook via iPad. Then they will have the opportunity to blog about the text through their class epal wiki site. In reading, the Milton students will participate in a read aloud session with Mrs. Lora Rice's Spanish class at Milton Middle School via Skype. One of the core reading stories in their book is "Abuela" and Mrs. Rice's students will help pre-teach Mrs. Parsons’ students Spanish vocabulary to help them understand the text as well as read the book. And to cap off the experience, Mrs. Parsons’ class will read a letter sent via email through the World Community Exchange Blog. Her students are partnered with a class in Canada and will have the opportunity to learn about their community as well as showcase Milton. Also at Milton, Mrs. Connie Alfrey and her classes will utilize Skype to contact a missionary in Africa. The fourth grade social studies classes have been studying missionaries and this one-on-one conversation should bring their studies to "life"!

Milton Middle School
In addition to “Skyping” with the Milton Elementary Students, Mrs. Lora Rice's Spanish class will be contacting Keiry Sanchez de Jones in Costa Rica via Skype. The session is part of an ongoing Costa Rica project-based learning unit and will give students more real world background about their subject.

Peyton Elementary
Peyton students and staff are taking on the challenge of using no pencil or paper. The students have also prepared a digital presentation on what they are learning in their classes to share with parents from 6:30 PM to 8:00 PM as part of their Student-Led Conferences. For more information about Digital Learning Day, you can visit the special event website at http://www.digitallearningday.org/.