Welcome Back, students and families!

Here we are with another school year ahead of us and so many opportunities to learn and grow.

It was great to see many familiar, and new, faces at the Open House. It always amazes me at how much the students change over the summer. But, now that lazy days of sleeping in and hangin' at the beach are behind us, we must jump into great things that await!!

NEW IN THE LAB is KidPix which was purchased with the $5 technology fee that each student paid before the year started. THANK YOU! This fun software program can be used from kingergarten all the way through eigth grade. We have the ability to reconstruct habitats learned in science, places around the world studied in social studies, make fun and silly movies and much, much more. We also purchased Trudy's Time and Place and Bailey's Bookhouse, both excellent k-2 software to compliment Trudy's Time and Place and Sammy's Science House. We will be purchasing software for 3 -5 grades with our next rotation.

Another new feature is the way that the students will be accessing the computers. Each student will be logging in to their own customized desk top. Here is where they will find all of the projects and documents that they have worked on in class. No more dealing with the folders that we had plastered all over the desk top last year. To log in, they will look for their name and picture and type in a log in code that only they know. This will allow the students to protect their work and the teachers, Mrs. Bettenberg and I, to enable to Parental Controls on each computer limiting access to programs and changes that we don't want the students to make.

MARATHON - You all know about the Marathon and how important this fundraising is for our school. For the 2009 Marathon, I am happy to announce that we will even further the technology intergration into our classrooms with the addition of (hopefully) 2 Smart Boards. These Smart Boards allow teachers and students to take each subject to the next level. Depending on how many pledges we receive and the actual money that comes in, we are hoping to get a Smart Board in one third grade classroom and fourth or fifth grade classroom before the school year is over. Please check out the Smart Technologies website at http://smarttech.com/ for more information and a tutorial on their products.

GOING GREEN - I encourage each family to check out all blogs posted by teachers as a GREEN way of knowing what is happening in your child's classroom. With money being tight just about everywhere, this is a free and easy option for both teachers and parents. CHECK OUT YOUR TEACHER'S BLOG TODAY! I also encourage you to get your email addresses to your child's teacher. Communication via email is an easy sollution to the, " I lost it" problem when you are expecting a paper to come home. Plus, IT'S FREE!

Again, welcome back. I am looking forward to another great year at St Francis Xavier!