What Did You Do Over Vacation?

It is always a pleasure when a teacher and students come and share the wonderful tech integration happening every day in our schools.

Mrs. Murphy's class has a teddy bear, Murphster that students take on all types of journeys and write about it in his journal. During February vacation Lincoln took Murphster to Florida with his family. They had an incredible time. I was a little jealous.

While on vacation Lincoln created a google slide presentation and a kahoot game for his class and he couldn't wait to share them on the first day back.

Lincoln holds Murphster as he shares his work.

Click on the slide presentation below to learn more about Murphster and Lincoln's vacation in Florida. Be sure to click on the insert videos Lincoln took with a new pair of video glasses he was trying out. Very impressive work!


What did you do during your last vacation?

Introduction to Google Workshop

Topsfield Parent/Guardian Introduction to Google

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Do you want to learn more about how the google suite of apps is being used in school?

On Wednesday, March 15, 2017 Proctor School Help Desk students, along with Mrs. Klipfel, Curriculum Integration Specialist and Mr. Guditus, Director of Educational Technology for the Tri Town Schools will be presenting two informative sessions to introduce Google to all Topsfield parents and guardians.

We hope that you will be able to join us at one of these sessions as we discuss the integration of Google at Steward School and Proctor School. We will discuss digital safety, the use of google in school, and ways to support your child at home.

Two sessions will be offered, both on Wednesday, 3/15/17:

Proctor School 8:45 AM: all parents and guardians are welcome!

Steward School 6:30 PM: all parents and guardians are welcome!

(students in grades 2-6 may also attend the evening session with an adult)

Please register for this free workshop by clicking here:

Topsfield Parent/Guardian Google Workshop Registration 2/8/17

Questions? Please email Mrs. Klipfel pklipfel@topsfieldps.org

Original Colonies

Fifth grade students have been studying the original colonies. As a way to stretch their thinking Mrs. Ellis gave the assignment to use their text books and notes to create their own quiz. Boy were they excited!
Working in small groups, students added their own questions to a shared google document. Each group also needed to add not only the correct answer but 3 plausible wrong answers as well.

Here is the Shared Google Doc Questions and Answers:
Use the side scroll bar to view the entire document.

Using the google sheets add-on flippity, flashcards were created using students' questions. Click on the down arrow to check your answers. Try all the options at the top for more practice.

Try the test yourself! Good Luck. Did you read our notes? Use the side scroll bar to see all the questions. Thank you for learning with us.

Grade 2 Polar Animals

Second Grade has enjoyed their research on polar animals. Their nonfiction reading helped with their writing and then all this was turned into an iPad project using the app chatterkid.

Here are their final projects.
Click on each picture below. Did you know all those facts?

View on Flipagram

World Read Aloud Day 2017

"Every year World Read Aloud Day calls global attention to the importance of reading aloud and sharing stories."

Click on the picture below to learn more about WRAD17

Students at Steward School had the exciting opportunity to visit via skype with an author to help celebrate World Read Aloud Day 2017.

Kindergarten students enjoyed the stories of Sue Fliess from North Carolina. Sue read her new and funny rhyming book titled How to Trap a Leprechaun. The students enjoyed listening for the rhymes. Sue told the boys and girls that she got the idea for this book from when her own children were small and loved to build traps. The boys and girls asked very thoughtful questions and learned that Sue has written over 20 books.

First Graders visited with Michelle Edwards in Iowa who read her book, A Hat For Mrs. Goldman. We had a wonderful time talking about the characters. Michelle shared her writing room with the students and told them about her love of knitting. She even put on one of her own hats that she made for this book.

Second Graders had the pleasure of listening to author Denis Markell. After signing Hush, Little Baby to his son for years he decided to write Hush, Little Monster. He even sang this book to the students. Denis shared the fact that his wife Melissa is the illustrator for his book. she works upstairs and he works downstairs.

Third Grade students had a visit with Lauren Magaziner from Brooklyn, New York.  Lauren enthusiastically read chapter 2 from her newest book Pilfer Academy.  She explained to the students about the writing process and even shared the story of having to remove a character from her book after the publisher read the draft of the story. One student asked her how she found her funny words. Lauren answered that she pays attention to new words and even writes them down in a notebook. Her favorite funny word is "collywobble".

Thank you all the authors who shared their time with students for World Read Aloud Day. 

You have inspired us all!

Tour the Midwest

How familiar with the Midwest region of the United States are you? Students in Mrs. Murphy's fourth grade would like to share their knowledge with you. Using the app explain everything students created an engaging final product after their research was completed.

Click on the video below to learn more. How many of the locations have you visited? The Mall of America is definitely on my To Do List. Tech Tip: Each student used their own iPad and the app explain everything to create their individual slide. Once completed the slides were exported to google drive in a project format. On the teacher's iPad explain everything was opened and all the individual slides were imported to the final project. The final project was then saved as a video and again exported to google drive.

Google Read&Write

Mrs. DeFrank has been introducing all Proctor students to the wonders of Google Read&Write during library class. Using Google classroom she created an assignment to have students explore the tools available in this Google extension.

Students watched this short video before they explored all the features. Click below to view the video.

The students were given the task of reflecting in a google doc on each feature in Google Read&Write as they became familiar with the various features. Using a Read&Write Guide students were overheard saying, "This is so cool!", "I love the speech to text feature.", "My computer can read to me!", "Mrs. DeFrank my computer typed what you just said."

Sample Student Reflections:

"In this new update, Read and Write, I do look forward to using it more to help me with my vocabulary, speech, facts, and when I come across interesting words that I need to highlight or that I don’t understand yet. Read and Write is a tremendous new way to help you with your school work, reading a book, and writing a paper. I absolutely do look forward to using this new update with my work to help me focus, and learn more."


"I think that Read & Write is a great idea and is a very useful Google Application. I am probably going to use it often when typing my Reading Journal and other class work."


"This would be something that help me work faster and better than before so I would love to have this at Proctor School. This would be a great help."