SMORE is so cool!

Lots of exciting things have been going on in GATE!  I am always on the lookout for new tech gadgets and ideas for my students to use to share their research and information.  I have found a new digital tool called SMORE to create beautiful digital flyers.  Our latest GATE Newsletter has been created using the SMORE website.  Please check out our latest adventures in GATE as well as this new digital tool that some of our General Applications projects will be using in class!

Click here to view the GATE News from 11/1/16

In this newsletter you will see info and pictures from...

*AES International Dot Day

*Tech projects

*Self-portraits

*Dash and Dot Robots

Welcome back to a great new school year where CREATIVITY is not an option...it's essential!  I am so excited to open my classroom door next week to see my bright, excited, creative, fun students arrive!  I've enjoyed seeing all of the GATE kiddos in the hallway and now it's TIME TO GET STARTED!  GATE classes will begin on Monday!  

What are you most excited about this year in GATE?  Our essential concept will be SELFIES!  Who doesn't like to take a SELFIE!?  We will be looking at selfies by creating self-portraits, deciding which learning style each of us prefers, finding our personality style, filling in interest inventories, selfie-expression through art and writing, selfie-selected topics for research using the Independent Investigation Method (IIM), selfie/groupie-selected technology categories for TECHNOLOGY COMPETITION PROJECTS (WOOOOO HOOOOO!), and more!

And....one more thing I think you'll be excited about....

DASH AND DOT ARE HERE!  Miss Rogers and I were awarded a grant through the Albertville City Schools Foundation (THANK YOU, FOUNDATION!!!) to purchase 2 sets of Dash and Dot along with all the accessories!  We can't wait to dive into computer programming with these fun robots!  (We actually didn't wait....we opened the boxes and started to play/program with them yesterday!  So fun!)  

This begins year 26 as a school teacher for me...and I still love coming to school each day and I love what I can experience and learn with my students!  After 12 years of teaching GATE in room 408, I have moved to room 323.  This was a picture of my room in July...

...however, now it looks a little different and I am ready for students!

My ladder of TALENTS UNLIMITED thinking skills is ready to go!  Who will be a great PRODUCTIVE THINKER this year!?  (YOU!)

Science, math, social studies, writing, and art interest centers are ready....as well as the MacBooks in the cart!

Next week these pictures will be a little more "alive"....with STUDENTS!  Yea!  I'm looking forward to a great school year with my GREAT GATE kids!

Be sure to check back on this blog from time to time as well as follow us on Instagram:  aesgate

Coming soon.....Global Cardboard Challenge, International Dot Day, origami crane making class, art, research, technology.....and more!

AES Tech Team Rocks at State Competition

The State Technology Competition was held on Saturday, April 30th at the Montgomery Performing Arts Center.  Ten AES 4th grade GATE students competed!  All of these students won 1st or 2nd place at the regional technology competition and were able to advance to the state level.  We had a BLAST in Montgomery!  On Friday night, many of the families ate dinner together at Red Robin (an AES Tech Team tradition for 8 years now!), we celebrated Alexander's birthday, and we spent the day Saturday as an AES family at the competition.

Each project was presented on the stage at the Montgomery Performing Arts Center.  After a long day of presenting projects, the awards were announced.  ALL of our students presented their high quality projects and did a great job!  I am super proud of each!

State winners were......

Jaxon Cooper and Will Paschal - 1st place for their website about the Dominican Republic

Melvin Benitez won 3rd place for his website about Volcanoes

Emma Buck won 3rd place for her website about the Titanic

Gracyn Spicer, Kailyn Boman, and Ava Owens won 2nd place for their video production about Ancient Egypt

It was a great weekend with great kids, great families, and lots of fun!  Congratulations to all!

INSPIRE Art Contest 2016

Each year The Foundation for Marshall Medical Centers sponsors an Inspire Art Contest celebrating Youth Art Month.  All 3rd and 4th grade GATE students participated in this contest by creating an inspiring piece of art.  AES had 1st - 4th place winners as well as the Foundation Choice Award!

Fourth grade GATE winners were......

2nd place - Yukina Hamai for her pastel art entitled, "Flower Bouquet."

4th place - Michele Cerrillo for her acrylic painting "The Happy Meal"

Foundation Choice Award - Melvin Benitez for his colored pencil drawing "Fruit in a Horn"

Congratulations to these artists!

Don't Litter!

Marshall County P.A.L.S. (People Against a Littered State) held a poster contest featuring their slogan, "Litter is..."  All 4th grade GATE students created a poster using this slogan.  There were many great entries and great conversations about why people litter, why they shouldn't, and what we can do about it.

GATE at AES had 2 winners!  Harrison McCreless and Michele Cerrillo both won Honorable Mention and will be presented with a certificate next week from the Marshall County P.A.L.S. group. Congratulations to these students!

Technology Competition 2016

The Albertville Elementary School Technology Team competed at our regional competition on Friday, April 8th at the Agri-Business Center in Rainsville.  Northeast Alabama Community College did a fabulous job of sponsoring this event.  Hundreds of students from our NorthEast Alabama Region competed in various categories:  General Applications, MultiMedia, Website Design, Video Production, and Computer Programming.

Each of the AES kids presented their projects very well!  All were professional, polite, and confident in their presentations.  All of the projects are winners to me!  Everyone worked diligently with their research, organization, and creatively produced a high quality project!  YEA for AES TECH TEAM! They made this teacher very proud!

Our winners from Friday's competition were.....

1st place website design individual -Melvin Benitez

1st place website design group - Jaxon Cooper and Will Paschal

1st place video production group - Roxie Witherow and Jennifer Tzul

2nd place video production group - Gracyn Spicer, Ava Owens, Kailyn Boman

2nd place website design individual - Emma Buck

2nd place computer programming - Alexander Figueroa

3rd place multimedia group - Levi Hester, Roxie Witherow, Jennifer Tzul

All 1st place and 2nd place winners are eligible to advance to the state competition if they choose.  This will be held in Montgomery on April 30th.  Congratulations to everyone!

Japanese Shodo Class

GATE students had some special guests visit our class on Wednesday, February 17th.  Makiko Jones, Nami Hamai, Sanae Mikawa, and Kayoko Yamanouchi returned to teach us more about Japan.  The class they prepared this year was about Japanese Calligraphy, Shodo.  The ladies explained that Japanese characters came from the Chinese form of writing which has over 50,000 characters!  Hiragana and Katakana are different forms of Japanese characters.

The ladies brought textbooks used in Japan.  Some books were Western style which means the books are read left to right and top to bottom like we do where other books read from back to front and the characters are read in lines top to bottom.  In Japan, people list their last names first then their first names.  They even told us that to call for an emergency (911 here) would be 119 in Japan!

To use Shodo, there are certain tools you need:  an ink stick (made from soot and animal bones and muscles), an ink stone, special paper, a paper weight, a cloth for underneath the paper, and a brush.

All of our students were able to write their name and at least one Japanese word/character.  I even tried it myself!  We are so thankful to have Newman Technologies and TS Tech in our area which have brought so many wonderful families to Albertville!   These ladies are so gracious to volunteer their time and prepare fantastic lessons for our students.  I enjoy them as much as the students!

Please enjoy this video of 4th grade GATE students creating Shodo!

Got Milk?

AES GATE students have been busily investigating a mystery!  WHY do so many students throw away full, unopened milk cartons at lunch?  Do they know about the health benefits of milk?  Do they not like the taste?  Inquiring minds wanted to know...so we have been investigating!

AES GATE 4th graders created a "Survey Monkey" survey for any AES student to take.  The questions were generated by the students and answered by the students.  Please see our results below in a story of pictures.

Isn't it interesting that KIDS said the most probable reason other kids are wasting milk is because they are PLAYING at lunch!?

Our students calculated the cost of buying milk in plastic bottles rather than cartons.  It's only 5 cents more per bottle.  Does that REALLY add up?  We were amazed!  Our estimate for substituting plastic bottles instead of cartons for breakfast and lunch each day would result in approximately spending $93,600 more each year for Albertville City Schools' students!  WOW!  In our survey, we found that more students said it really didn't matter to them if they had a bottle or carton.  Good to know!  That shows us there is no real need to spend that extra money on bottles.

Our students DID say they would rather have a straw with their milk.  We wonder how much THAT would cost?  Would it be worth it?  Stay tuned...we will do some more calculations and update again.

Some of our students created short puppet shows that were videoed on the iPads while others used the app "Puppet Pals" to create a show sharing with viewers why they should drink milk.

3rd grade GATE students are busy creating sets, scripts, and movies to encourage other kids to consider drinking their milk instead of wasting it!

We just might have a few more surprises in store before our Milk Mystery is solved!  Check back often to see if we have learned anything new that would help kids get healthy, cause our trash to weigh less, and know that we are making a difference at AES!