Welcome Back!

Hello Everyone,

I hope you all enjoyed a well rested and much deserved summer break. I sure did! I spent loads of time with family and friends and went on many hikes with my family. I am ready to start a new school year! I hope you are too.

I'm excited to see all my students back at the Mouse Pad and meeting our new students who are joining this year. I have loads of fun programs to teach you and I hope you will enjoy them as much as I do. We have brand new computers in the lab. We've got the Windows 8 All-In-One Touchscreen desktops. You are going to love them!

As usual I welcome any suggestions and if you have any questions or concerns you can always come see me or pop me an email.

Please come back to this blog at the end of each month where you will find the latest in what's happening in the Mouse Pad.

Take care,
Rasha Sachdeva
rashas@ows.org

Have a Fabulous Summer!

Hello Everyone,

I want to take this time to wish you all a very wonderful summer ahead and get a much deserved rest with family and friends. Just a reminder that all TTL4 accounts will remain active unless you are not a returning family. In mid June I will move all active accounts up one grade level. If your child finds the need to type and logs on with a pre-test, it is because they are in the next grade level.

I will end the last post for the school year with one of my favorite quotes:

"Rest is not idleness, and to lie sometimes on the grass under trees on a summer's day, listening to the murmur of the water, or watching the clouds float across the sky, is by no means a waste of time."

See you next year!!!!!

Take care,
Rasha Sachdeva

Update from the Mouse Pad!

Hello All,
I can't believe this year is winding down. A reminder that I will keep all TTL4 accounts active if your child is a returning student. I will upgrade them to the next grade level so they will need to take that initial pre-test to see where the program places them. If your child finishes their grade level over the summer and wants the next grade level access, please just email me and I'll be able to bump them up.

Kindergartners this month got to explore the SmartBoard tools. They've seen it in action but this time they got to explore with the actual software. They created pages in a single document, used tools such as text, color, lines, fancy pens, shapes and their most favorite, the magic pen. Be sure to ask them about it. This was a great introduction to the tools as they will surely be using the SmartBoard in their homeroom classrooms in the future years.

First Graders got to explore with Pixie. It's a wonderful software where I like to describe it as an adult version of KidPix! Pixie lets them use their imagination and creativity to create slideshows. The kids all made an art show slideshow. They had numerous slides with such great art work with the help of elements such as symmetry, animations, clip art, mixers and transitions. These slides can definitely compete with Jackson Pollock's work!

Second Graders were introduced to PowerPoint. We will go in dept with a project of their choice in Third Grade but this year, they got to see how powerful presentations are made! They each chose any subject of interest and used many of the programs tools such as inserting pictures, text, animations, transistions, sound and voice recordings to create a wonderful and colorful presentation.

Third Graders were introduced to digital storytelling site called Little Bird Tales. Students wrote fiction, non-fiction, poems or how-to books and then had their stories digitized with a final result of a video. They illustrated their own drawings and incorporated their voice as narration. We have budding authors in the Third Grade for sure! They all love to see their stories made into a video. Please ask your child about and even show you as this can be accessed from home.

Fourth Graders are busy making animated videos using their account on GoAnimate. They love being able to log on from home as well to continue their videos. All students got a lesson on ground rules for videos before posting on our platform (note, only myself and OWS 4th Graders can view the videos). GoAnimate lets you create skits from their apps, create characters and make a full blown video using all the bells and whistles. Be sure to ask your child about it and log on using their ids. I will remove their access sometime over the summer to prepare for the new Fourth Graders.

As usual, if you have any questions, please just send me a quick email! Take care.

Rasha Sachdeva