A Monthly Newsletter for Midway and Vickery Creek Elementary Teachers
Volume II, Issue 10
May, 2000

Kathy D. Adkins
Instructional Technology Specialist

Warm weather is here and students are enjoying the outdoors on their favorite transportation vehicle.....their bikes.  Now is a great time to review bicycle safety rules.  There are nearly 800 bicycle related deaths each year.  Studies have shown that using bike helmets can reduce serious head injuries eighty-five percent.  There are many resources and interactive sites to increase bicycle safety awareness.  Vickery Creek will be celebrating Bike Safety Day, May 6, 2000.  Let's do our part to increase safety awareness.

and check out the sites below:

Red Cross Bicycle Safety - A few rules.
Ten Cycling Rules - Have students make a slide show depicting these rules!
Bicycle Safety Tips - Sixteen tips from the city of Austin, Texas
Kevin's Road Safety Page - A great kids site!
Cranium Canyon - Get in the helmet habit!

Try these online bicycle safety quizzes!

Bicycle Command Center Quiz - Five true-false and five multiple Choice
Kevin's Bicycle Quiz - Ten Questions
Bicycle Helmet Safety Institute- A page to print out for written assessment.

Learn more about the history of bicycles at these sites! 
Bicyclopedia
Bicycle Museum - Pedaling History Bicycle Museum
The Bicycle Museum of America

All Forsyth County Elementary Schools will be implementing SASI, a student information system.  SASI will be used for attendance this year and will expand next year with grade reporting as well as discipline documentation.  Teachers at Vickery and Midway will attend training on the following dates.

Midway - May 24 - During Planning Times
Midway will go live on May 25.

Vickery Creek - May 25 - During Planning Times.  Vickery will go live on May 30.

All teachers in Forsyth County will be administered the MTSC Evaluation in the coming months.  The purpose is to evaluate the technology skills of Forsyth educators in alignment with the district's expectations, the Professional Appraisal Cycle and the Governor's Reform Act.

Please sign up for the scheduled sessions at each school.  Assessments will be taking place over the next few weeks and at the beginning of the school year.

MTSC

Ed Emberly has written and illustrated many books for kids and adults on how to draw.   Using his step by step approach you can follow these easy steps to draw a bicycle.  Watch this slideshow on how to draw a bicycle created by one of the students.  Check out more information on Ed Emberly and learn how to draw Cowboy Calhoun at Funorama!

After drawing the bike let kids write more about bicycle safety!

A scanned image is a great way to customize a writing assignment to match your curriculum needs.  Use a photo, student drawing or graphic that matches the topic of study and have students write on or in a text box beside the image.  The t-shirt image to the right was scanned into PowerPoint.  Student drawings are a great motivator.  Scanned in self portraits would be a great way to begin the school year!  Students could then write a short paragraph about themselves.   This would be an excellent assignment for the end of the year as well!

This template for Midway and Vickery teachers can be located in the L: Drive inside the technology folder.  Look for the tshirt.ppt template.  Save to your drive.

Here is an example of an Excel template that can be used by your students.  You can make a similar template in Microsoft Word, KidPix, PowerPoint.   Click on the bike above to download the checksheet to see the Excel example!   This file takes a minute to download.  The example to the right is the checksheet without the bike graphic. 
There is an option to make a pie graph to see a percentage of checked items.   Students should have 100% checked to be totally safe!

Becky Lee - Media Specialist
Chris Brown - 2/3 Teacher

Collaboration with the Becky Lee, Midway's media specialist, is the avenue Chris Brown took recently to integrate technology with an author study.  Together, Chris and Becky selected Chris Van Allsburg for the author study. Collaborating with teachers is part of Becky's PAC.   Becky scanned in drawings  from Allsburgs famous book, The Mysteries of Harris Burdock and imported them into PowerPoint slides.  Chris and Becky are currently guiding the students in writing mysteries about the drawings.  As stated in the introduction of his book, Van Allsburg's intention in publishing this book is to inspire young readers to write about these wonderful drawings.  Becky's and Chis'  collaboration with technology makes it even more exciting!  We can't wait to see their wonderful slideshow!

How to Modify Bullets in Microsoft Word 95

1. Go to Format on the menu bar and select Bullets and Numbering.
2. Select the Modify button and then the Bullet button.
3. Scroll to select webdings for the symbol.  Select the bicycle on the third row. 
4. At Pt. Size you can make the bullet larger by typing in a higher number.
5. You may also change the Color of the bullet.

Hint: You can also use the keyboard to make a bicycle.  Select webdings as the font and type the letter b to see a bicycle!  Here is a Bike Safety Template!

IslandQuest from Classroom Connect
A Free Quest

IslandQuest will explore the mystery of why people in the southern islands of Japan, mainly Okinawa, enjoy greater longevity than people anywhere else in the world.  The team of experts will  investigate the main elements that are thought to lead to long life, including climate, genetics, diet, stress and usefulness into old age.  The quest will be from May 25 to June 2.  Visit Classroom Connect on May 23 to find out how to join the quest.

Enter ED's Oasis MasterSearch lesson plan contest, sponsored by Classroom Connect http://www.classroom.com and ISTE http://www.iste.org This contest aims to celebrate your creativity and ingenuity and to develop a collection of exemplary lessons that teachers everywhere can use.   Deadline is June 1, 2000!

1. Open up the yellow favorites folder.
2. Right click in an area beside the list.
3. Select Sort by Name by left clicking.
4. The list should now be in ABC order.

Kids Bib lists many books that integrate with Mother's Day.  Check out the list that you can use in your classroom to celebrate Mother's Day.  Also investigate the award certificates that can be printed!