Digital Literacy and Technology Highlights
Mrs. Gilday, M Ed. - Digital Literacy and Technology Specialist
May 2024
May is a whirlwind month - we are winding down! Please note that CHROMEBOOKS AND CHARGERS WILL BE COLLECTED toward the end of the year (June 3rd week, likely - stay tuned!), with the exception of 8th graders attending Philadelphia Public high schools. When the students return in August, they will receive their Chromebooks back, along with a charger (only if they returned one).
Many classes are working on Code.org units, and Mrs. Knight has been working with several grades on Career Exploration. 1st grade students are working on All About Me Google Slideshows. The pretzel day flyers have been on display around the building, and it's really incredible to see the work of 2nd grade-8th grade graphic designers!
April 2024
Welcome back from Spring Break!
Kindergarten kiddos have been immersed in Keyboard Zoo 2 and using the Shift key to make uppercase letters, as well as the space bar and punctuation keys to type words and sentences. 1st graders have been working on using the Shift key to type special symbols such as !@#$%^&*()_+-=. 2nd graders have been learning about using Adobe Express to create voiceover animations and digital art. 3rd & 4th graders have been working in Adobe Express to create Pretzel Day flyers. 5th-8th graders have also been working on digital graphic design skills in their choice of Adobe Express or Canva, to create Pretzel Day logos using just 2 colors (much like logos we see every day, including FedEx, Starbucks, Target, etc.).
Kindergarten
Keyboard Zoo 2
Typing Uppercase Letters
March 2024
March Madness! Classes competed in friendly keyboarding activities to see who were the fastest, most accurate typers in each class that day. We also held friendly robotics and logic challenges with teams of students, and celebrated the many accomplishments being made by women in technology!
March 22nd was the Philadelphia Regional Media and Technology Competition. We had 22 students from PAS competing at this fun, all day event. While judging projects was happening, all of our kiddos got to engage in hands-on Tech Workshops featuring Binary Code (and making bracelets!), Adobe Express Mad Libs and Animation, and using Apple Keynote and Photo Booth to create a magazine cover of themselves. We also had a fun after-party back at school, with our surprise guest, Mr. Endriss!
Please help me in congratulating ALL of our PAS kids in working so hard, and congrats to our 5 teams of students in the following categories:
1st Place Digital Art (elementary) - Asher A and Noah M-A
3rd Place Animation (elementary) - Orin S, Wily S-J
1st Place Web Design (middle school) - Allison M, Elizabeth S (**ADVANCING TO STATES!)
2nd Place Logo Design (middle school) - Eli M and Anya M
2nd Place Programming (middle school) - Khalid E
February 2024
February is such a great month! We will be learning about Black Tech Pioneers, and 2nd Grade will be working on Google Slides animation.
One of my favorite superheroes in Technology is Gerald (Gerry) Lawson. Check out this Google Doodle to learn more about Gerry and you can even play or even code your own game - just like Gerry!
doodles.google/doodle/gerald-jerry-lawsons-82nd-birthday/
Also - CONGRATS to our 22 students going on to represent PAS
in the 2024 Philly Regional Tech Fair in March:
Digital Art, Grades 3-5: Celia R.
Digital Art, Grades 3-5: Asher A., Noah M-A.
Digital Movie, Grades 3-5: Zivah R., Rafi R., Sivan M.
Digital Movie, Grades 3-5: Kieran N-B., Lily B.
Animation, Grades 3-5: Penelope N., Thea K., Oliva K.
Animation, Grades 3-5: Orin S., Wily S-J.
Digital Movie, Grades 6-8: Sophia K., Cylvia E., Bea H.
Animation, Grades 6-8: Ian E.
Programming, Grades 6-8: Khalid E.
Web Design, Grades 6-8: Allison M., Elizabeth S.
Logo Design, Grades 6-8: Eli M., Anya M.
December2023 / January 2024
We are still coding away in January, and middle school students are working on Vision Boards using Adobe Express. PAS Tech Fair winners will be announced soon - we are still waiting on judging at the middle school level. Stay warm and 1st grade - thank you for bringing the chargers back after our SNOW DAY!
DECEMBER IS ALL ABOUT HOUR OF CODE!!!! All grades will have been doing some Coding activities - including K-8 using our new robots, Sphero Indis! These are super cool and incredible. These Indi cars have a color sensor, and run on color-coded tiles, and each color programs the car to do something different. Green makes Indi go straight; Yellow makes Indi go slowly; Red - well, what do you think that will do? Ask your kiddos! Other colors turn Indi 45 or 90 degrees left/right; there is a color combination (2 Greens!) for a turbo boost....the kiddos have been making their own Indi codes and debugging their programs if they don't run correctly. Who doesn't love a cute little robot car? I have also cultivated a hearty collection of Coding activities and Choice Boards on our PAS Tech Site for all grades, K-8.
All classes are also working on Code.org, from algorithms, to loops, to more advanced concepts in middle school. I love this time of year! (Can you tell?). I also have some fun winter games for the kiddos of all grades for our week before Winter Break. Speaking of which - truly wishing you and yours a peaceful, joyous, and warm winter break. Oh - and Tech Fair projects are due January 5th when we get back!! :)
November 2023
Kindergarten students are learning how to log in to their Chromebooks using their Username and Passwords. The Chromebooks have been delivered to the classrooms, and they will stay at school unless there is a need for virtual learning.
Students in Grade 1 are learning how to type simple sentences using the Shift key for an uppercase letter, the Spacebar for one space between words, and we are learning how to format text (bold, underline, italic, font size, font color) using Google Docs, Sheets and Slides. These skills transfer over to life and most word processing applications. Grade 2 has also been working on word processing skills.
Students in Grades 3-5 have been working on animation features within Google Slides - this will add some pizzazz to any presentation, adding sound clips, and animating text features and other objects.
Middle school students are moving towards working on coding skills- 6th grade creating apps, 7th grade learning HTML and CSS, and 8th grade learning game design. We learned a lot about AI and machine learning, and we will dial back to this topic again. We are also learning how to be responsible digital citizens.
In all classes, we are gearing up for December and Coding! The first week of December is Hour of Code week, and we have some new robots to which most classes have been introduced! We have a set of 8 Sphero Indi cars and color tiles, as well as 15 Sphero Bolts! We will be doing a lot of coding activities between now and February!
September/October 2023
It's been such a great start to the school year! PAS was one of 24 schools in the city to receive a new computer lab. It's a really different design - no more 34 or so desktops in our space. Our new space has 12 new iMac desktops, a cart of 22 Macbook Air laptops, all new tables and chairs, furniture, new robots coming soon, and more space for student collaboration, robotics, and face-to-face learning! Most classes are bringing their Chromebooks to the Tech Lab, as well, and there are chargers at every student station.
Middle School students are learning about AI and Machine Learning, and learning how bias plays a role in this. Grades 1-5 have been working on Digital Drawing Tools with Google Drawings. And, Kindergarten students are practicing using a mouse and/or trackpad in selecting objects, clicking and dragging, and finding letters on the keyboard.
After-school clubs based in Technology will be starting in mid-October. Ms. Hibbs will be leading WHYY Media Labs this year, and I will also be onsite to collaborate with her and the kiddos, as I will be offering Tech Fair Support clubs on those days.
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TECH FAIR 2024
Philadelphia Regional Media and Design Competition (click link)
The Tech Fair is back again! This year, it is being held on March 22, 2024. Only 1 team per category can represent PAS. Stay tuned for more details, but to be considered for this competition, STUDENT PROJECTS MUST have a trifold board and be completed no later than January 5, 2024. This will give our judges time to review projects, choose those going on to represent PAS, register the advancing teams to the Philadelphia Regional Event, and help prepare advancing teams in case any finishing touches are needed. Teams can consist of 1-3 students per team - NO MORE than 3 students, and all teams must consist of students Grades 3-5 or Grades 6-8.
PAS judges will score entries, and the teams with the highest scores will go on to represent our school in the categories mentioned in the link below (Gr. 3-5 Animation, Gr. 3-5 Digital Art, Gr. 3-5 Digital Movie, Gr. 6-8 3D Design, Gr. 6-8 Animation, Gr. 6-8 Digital Movie, Gr. 6-8 Logo and Graphic Design, Gr. 6-8 Programming, and Gr. 6-8 Web Design). There are 3 categories for Grades 3-5, and 6 categories for Grades 6-8. There are MANY SPECIFIC REQUIREMENTS in each category (especially for Grades 6-8), so please work with your families on making sure these are met, if you choose to enter this competition.
VISION BOARDS!
HOUR OF CODE
Algorithms - Code.org
More algorithms!
Sphero Bolt Robots - Middle School
New Year, New Lab!
A Note about Chargers....
In June, we collected Chromebooks and chargers from students in all classes. 98% of Chromebooks were returned, and only approximately 70% of chargers were returned. Although the School District provides Chromebooks to students and replenishes our devices which malfunction, etc., THEY DO NOT PROVIDE US WITH CHARGERS. Therefore, only students who returned chargers at the end of the school year will be receiving one back. It may have someone else's name on it, and that's okay. At the end of the day, these devices are LOANED out to all students for school use. Keep your eye out on the ePonly to see a recommendation on where to purchase a reasonably priced replacement charger for approximately $10. Currently, I recommend this universal 65 Watt USB-C charger from Amazon:
Congratulations to Maha in 7th Grade for winning 1st Place at the PA State level for Web Design! Black Voices, Black Joy can be found here:
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CHROMEBOOK and CHARGER COLLECTION WILL BEGIN MONDAY, JUNE 5TH FOR ALL STUDENTS GRADES K-7, with the exception of students remaining in Philadelphia Public Schools (e.g., Masterman, Central HS, Palumbo HS, etc.
This year, most Chromebooks will be stored at PAS over the summer. When students come back to school in September, they will receive their Chromebooks and chargers back for the school year.
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May the 4th Be with You!!!
May the 4th be with you! 2nd Grade, Room 118 loves our classmate, Grogu (my baby Yoda). Since we are working in Scratch this month, we were able to make our own Baby Yoda sprites - and code them as well!
Thank you to Calvin for a quick drawing lesson on how to make this sprite, and Otis for some advanced level coding skills! We are going to build on this next week! :)
Scratch can be found on the PAS Tech Site (linked upper left corner). Click "Create" to get started!
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Need Chromebook Assistance? Many questions can be answered here: www.philasd.org/technology/chromebooks/
SO MANY PAS WINNERS!!! The Philly Tech Fair was a smashing success! Fun was had by all 17 participants, and we got to celebrate with a pizza and water ice party a few days after the big event. One of the BEST parts of this is the bonding that took place between our 3rd-8th graders. (New) friendships were formed, and everyone truly celebrated each other and their work. I could not possibly be prouder! Giant thank you to Helena Miller for assisting us on this trip!
Winners from PAS:
Middle School - Going to the States (1st Place Winners)
Web Page Design: Maha Abashera (Black Voices, Black Joy)
Animation: Lautaro Guzman, Irene Guzman (Before and After: School)
Middle School - 2nd Place Winners
Logo and Graphic Design: Molly Okrent (Shedding Light on the Modern World)
Programming: Alexander Okrent (Turty's Pond Cleanup)
Elementary School Winners
1st Place Digital Art: Asher Altman (The Dragon)
3rd Place Digital Art: Ida Safier, Celia Richman, Zolana Tulante (Sunset on a Beach)
3rd Place Animation: Benjamin Bosse, Ray Kearney, Eddie Benatov (Incident)
Here is a link to all of the Philly winning projects:
NEXT UP IS THE STATE COMPETITION on Wednesday, May 24th! Wish Maha, Lautaro and Irene all the best in Web Design and Animation! (State Competition is only open to middle school students.)
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End of the Year Projects: Adobe Express and Scratch
Every student, teacher and principal in the School District now has access to Adobe Express in Infinite Campus. Check this out with your kiddos - what a game changer this is! One thing that we are doing is learning how to make movies (video) using Adobe Express in Grades 3-8. I'm loving this because anyone with a Chromebook can make a movie!
In Grades K-2, we are using Scratch to learn about animation, coding, and game making. I am super excited about this because you do not even need a login or password to create something fun and cool (but if you want to save your project - you do - and I am working on logins for all of our kiddos to have in September). Scratch can be found on our PAS Tech Site.
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TECH FAIR UPDATE! The teams and projects that will go on to represent PAS at the Philadelphia Regional Competition were announced Monday, February 13th! Approximately 85 projects were entered for this event!
And.....upon registering students and their projects to the event, I received confirmation that we are able to send two teams of students, grades 3-5, to the Philly Tech Fair. Here is who will be representing PAS on March 24th:
Digital Art (Gr.3-5): Ida S., Celia R., Zolana T. (Sunset on a Beach)
Digital Art (Gr. 3-5): Asher A. (The Dragon)
Animation (Gr. 3-5): Charlie H. (Lemon Gets Glasses)
Animation (Gr. 3-5): Benjamin B., Ray K., Eddie B. (Incident)
Digital Movie (Gr. 3-5): Zivah R. (A Secret Hidden Treasure)
Digital Movie (Gr. 3-5): Cylvia E., Bea H., Sophia K. (12 People, 1 Small Bathroom)
Animation (Gr. 6-8): Lautaro G., Irene G. (Before and After: School)
Logo and Graphic Design (Gr. 6-8): Molly O. (Shedding Light on the Modern World)
Web Design (Gr. 6-8): Maha A. (Black Voices, Black Joy)
Programming (Gr. 6-8): Alex O. (Turty the Turtle: Pond Cleanup)
I will post some of the student's work this page ASAP - and I will wait until AFTER March 24th to post the student projects that are moving forward to represent PAS. Congratulations to all for hard work, fun, new learning, practice, and collaboration with peers! At the end of the day, if we are having fun in Tech Class, learning new things, and working with digital tools, then it's always a good day.
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Kindergarten students are working in Google Slides right now, learning how to use the color fill tool and shape drawing tool. 1st graders are working on Animal Research, 2nd Graders are working on creating "All About Me" Slideshows, 6th Graders are working on creating Apps in Code.org App Lab, 7th Grade is working on learning elements of HTML and CSS, 8th Grade is working on Animation and Game Design -and, in ALL CLASSES, we are also learning about Black Tech Pioneers! So many technology contributions and innovations have been (and will continue to be!) made by African American, and Black and Brown people - and we are taking some time to recognize, honor and elevate these important people and their contributions to technology! :)
PAS Tech Fair: Finalists and Nominees for Honorable Mention
The City - by Maxwell, Oliver W, and Colin (3rd Grade/Digital Art)
Destination App -
by Eli and Anna
(5th Grade/Animation)
Spy Cat - by Beatrix, Owen and Jane
(4th Grade/Digital Movie)
A Moon's Life - by Zoe (7th Grade/Animation)
Cats vs. Dogs - by Eva
(6th Grade/Web Design)
sites.google.com/philasd.org/philly-mdc
Some exciting news for students in Grades 3-8! The Philly Regional Tech Competition expanded its group to grades 3-5!! (Despite how this link is worded, this was NOT communicated to us until 1/3/23!) I have passed this information to our kiddos - if you have students who are interested in digital art, animation, and/or digital movie - those are the categories for this age group. Definitely check out the link above and look for more information in Google Classroom. We will have a tight turn-around time for completing projects by the end of January (hard deadline 2/3/23). Up to 3 teams of students in Grades 3-5 (3-9 students total) will go on to represent Penn Alexander on March 24th.
***Please note: The MOST important aspect of submitting work is that it needs to be student's original work. Using Google images (or even an image of Peppa Pig, for example) is not accepted per copyright. The wording in the student registration packet is:
Cite ALL sources of information, audio, video, images, etc. used in your project, including your
own work. For any element that is not your own original work and/or owned by someone
else, written permission from the copyright owner is REQUIRED and should be attached.
Acceptable sources for images is Creative Commons or Pixabay - and this also needs to be cited with a credit to the creator. (And, of course, students can include images that they own - e.g., family/pet photos, etc.)
Hope you and yours had a delightful Winter Break! We are back to school on January 4th.
It's 2023! 🖥 ❤️
Hour of Code
Check out this Google Doodle (and game!!) celebrating the incredible work of Gerald Lawson. He is one of my all-time favorite tech heroes. One of our 6th grade students, Sarina, created this game (linked here). You can also code your own game!
We will be doing LOTS of coding in December and January, especially. The Hour of Code is celebrated December 5-11, 2022. There are many resources for Coding which can be found in Google Classroom.
PAS Middle School Media and Design Competition
Each year, there is a Philly regional computer fair for Grades 6-8. This year's fair will be held on March 24, 2023 at the School District Headquarters at 440 N. Broad Street. We will have the opportunity to send ONE team of students (1-3 students max per team) to represent EACH category; Animation, Web Design, Logo and Graphic Design, Digital Movie, 3D Design, and Programming. If we have PAS winners at the Philly regional fair, they go on to the State Competition (linked to the left) to represent Philadelphia.
Information for all middle school students is located in their Tech Google Classrooms. Projects will need to be complete in late January to determine which students will move on to the Philly regional fair. If you are interested in supporting your students who may be interested, check the PA Media and Design website for all rules (there are many!) per category. We will follow the State rubrics to determine which teams advance to the Philly regionals.
Computing and Society: Internet Safety, Media Balance, and More!
We cover internet safety every year - early and often! Kids know a lot about this and we share stories, reminders, and learn new things about media balance, personal and private information, phishing scams, digital footprint, and more.
One of my favorite "new" stories (2014, but I'm late to the party) which I have been sharing with our younger kiddos is "If You Give a Mouse an iPhone". It is really fantastically illustrated and written, leaving this reader with a reminder from Ferris Bueller: "Life moves pretty fast. If you don't stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it." Hardcover available at all fine book stores (and Amazon!), and YouTube also offers a terrific, Fred Armisen-narrated video version as well.
Common Sense Media
Common Sense Media is an impressive resource for parents, educators, and advocates. It's got movie reviews, Parents' Ultimate Guide to Tik Tok, Snapchat, Roblox, Fortnite, Minecraft, Discord, and more (see Parent Tips and FAQs page within the Common Sense site).