Occoquan ITRT

Happy Holidays and Best Wishes for the coming year! As the New Year begins Occoquan students and teachers have found many new exciting ways to integrate technology seamlessly into the content area. Driven by the positive climate for technology and the students increased desire to learn using the latest in educational tools, new hardware and cutting edge resources are now being made available. Study Island now joins our inventory of subscription based websites being used to increase student SOL scores and to engage learning. Occoquan looks forward to working with the second thru fifth grade SOL targeted and data driven program and sharing its capabilities with staff and parents. This will join our current inventory of Sol Pass, Brain Pop and Brain Pop Jr., United Streaming, Kid Biz and of course our very own Occoquan Porta Portal.  While students create products in Word, Power Point and Excel, their teachers and the Occouqan staff will soon be involved in training themselves. Group Wise 7 training will begin in January. This new system of PWCS electronic mail will provide many opportunities to have teachers customize their desktops and communication systems to ways that they feel will work most effectively for them. They will also continue to have staff development on SMART Boards, student responders and a host of other topics that provide a new prospective on student learning. 

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Can it be we are heading into November? Hats and jackets are keeping our students warm as they enter for the day. Its been a great year at Occoquan Elementary. This is especially true when it comes to Technology use which continues to increase. Making integration  seamless across the content areas remains one of our greatest goals. “Are You Smarter Than” posters listing technology grade level competencies have been placed in the hall ways to remind students and parents of PWCS requirements.. The Occoquan computer lab has been  filled with students learning how to write descriptive paragraphs, make Excel time-lines, Kidspiration and Inspiration webs, as well as, rounding their decimals. Teachers have also been busy. They have been  attending on site classes to learn more about software applications, available resources and using their SMART Boards. New equipment continues to arrive.The student responders are here and will soon be in the classrooms. After a strong beginning, we are well underway to providing our children with the skills they need to become successful learners in the global world of the 21st century. 

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The leaves are changing and Fall is in the air. Occoquan has gotten off to one of its very best starts!The Occoquan ITRT Blog is now updated to include the October technology integration recommendations for grades Kindergarten to fifth pacing guides.SMART Boards and LCD’s  are providing the students at Occoquan quality lessons with  tech-savy teachers. Whether the lesson is a fifth grade study of Inuit Indians or counting coins in the second grade, the students are engaged and motivated.Teachers have been attending many technology training sessions offered this year. Basic Excel, New Teacher Resources, EEPR, 25 Things to do with a Student Computer, Boardmaker and several others have been on the calender. Information on future training events can be found in the Monitor, Occoquan’s technology newsletter, all ready in its second edition.Here at Occoquan, our technology vision supports the philosophy of the 21^st Century student. We have a vested interest in providing tools and reviewing data assessments of all grades and their content areas. This supports the newly adopted Baldridge theory, that emphasizes improvement through data-driven decision-making and fine-tuning, to meet goals. It also partners with the theories of Lucy Caukins, which motivates students to write in different genres while encouraging self direction.Technology lives and thrives at Occoquan! 

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