Thursday, December 15, 2016

LRC Top Reader Awards 2016

En el LRC premiamos a los 10 mejores lectores desde el mes de septiembre hasta diciembre.

"Leer es siempre una buena idea"

Para reconocerles se le envió una invitación por correo electrónico convocando a una pequeña reunión para motivarlos e invitarlos a que continúen leyendo. Se realizó la premiación de los tres primeros lugares.

El primer lugar durante estos cuatro meses prestó 80 libros, el segundo lugar 30 y el tercer lugar 29 libros leídos.
Para nosotros es un placer entregar un incentivo a nuestros lectores.
















Les invitamos a que visiten el álbum LRC Top Reader Awards 2016


HAPPY HOLIDAYS


En el LRC, disfrutamos la época de navidad, hacemos que nuestro alumnos sientan que esta época es especial llena de mucho amor y paz.

Desarollamos diferentes actividades y display que nos permiten dar ese toque mágico.

Primero empezamos con la decoración de nuestra biblioteca para despertar el espiritu navideño. Tomamos inspiración de Pinterest donde pudimos encontrar decoraciones que eran posibles para nosotras realizar.
Luego celebramos la semana del Festival de luces donde incluimos los festivales siguientes:

Yee Peng: se celebra anualmente en la luna llena del duodécimo mes del calendario Lunar tradicional Tailandés y en él se fabrican linternas de papel que se elevan en el cielo como expresion de buenos augurios y liberacion.

Hannukah: Se celebra el 25 de Kislev del calendario Judio,es celebrada por el pueblo judío durante ocho días seguidos. En esta fiesta, familias y amigos se reúnen a compartir tradiciones, juegos, cantos, platos típicos y a encender cada noche una nueva vela en el candelabro de nueve brazos.

La festividad acontece el 25 noviembre y comienzos de diciembre del Kislev del calendario judío, fecha que acaece entre fines deL  calendario gregoriano.

Como parte de las actividades de Makerspace, los estudiantes hicieron estrellas de origami, bolitas de navidad con brillantina, copos de nieve de papel reciclado y vasos con decoraciones navideñas. 
Les invitamos a ver las fotografías

En el álbum de Flickr puede ver todo lo que hacemos en esta época del año.


Feliz Navidad en cada país, en cada corazón, en cada hogar y los mejores deseos para el año 2017.
LRC Team


Wednesday, December 7, 2016

Semana del Libro


Con el propósito de fomentar la lectura en nuestros estudiantes de secundaria, se realizó nuestra semana del libro con el lema "Alimenta tu necesidad de Leer" la cual se desarrolló del 28 de noviembre al 02 de diciembre.
Considerando la lectura como una actividad indispensable para el desarrollo de habilidades importantes para la vida, ya que esta facilita no solo el aprendizaje de nuevos conocimientos, si no también provee de herramientas que ayudaran a nuestros alumnos a enfrentar los nuevos retos que nuestra sociedad demanda.

Por este motivo dentro de nuestra semana se desarrollaron diferentes actividades:  

El día lunes comenzamos nuestra semana dando las palabras de inauguración con el profesor David Flores quien al mismo tiempo desarrolló un cuentacuentos con los alumnos de sexto grado el título del cuento Epaminondas. Al final del cuentacuentos realizó un crucigrama de los cuales resultaron tres ganadores en resolver el crucigrama sin ningún error al final los tres ganadores obtuvieron regalos sorpresas.

Conservatorio con Ricardo Hernández y Vladimir Amaya









Patrick Josselin
Editorial Bayard










Silvia Pira
Cuentacuentos










Josué A. Peña
Escritor










Ligia Salguero
Mediateca Embajada de España
Cuento congelado











Competencia de la trivia de libros.
En el área de los display interactivos del LRC se reunieron los estudiantes de diferentes tribus Mayas, Pipiles, Incas y Aztecas para competir en las trivias.
Los ganadores de cada trivia ganaron 20 puntos  quedando  como ganadores Mayas e Incas.


Recomendación de libros en hojas.


Los estudiantes escribieron sus recomendaciones de libros en hojas para ponerlas en el árbol de lectura que estaba en el centro de la biblioteca. 
También obtuvieron puntos de tribus siendo los ganadores
Paul Davis 
Eva Harris 
Salvador Zaldívar



El Mejor diseño de portadas de libros.

Los estudiantes demostraron su creatividad a través de la creación de portadas de libros. Para la elección del ganador estuvo de los profesores Jennifer Garcia y Adrian Hall, siendo la ganadora del primer lugar K.Z. de 6to Grado.






Mejor disfraz.


El mejor disfraz ganaba 20 puntos tribales 
La elección de los ganadores dependía de la creatividad de los concursantes y siendo jurados las bibliotecarias









Tuesday, November 29, 2016

Book Week 2016

It is Book Week this week in the Secondary School.
Do have a look at the variety activities available and take part in the many tribal competitions.

We will post photos in our Flickr album, as they come in.


Friday, September 23, 2016

Input Devices 2

This week we have continued our study of Input Devices in 11th ITGS. The students randomly selected one input method to focus on and then scripted a short In Plain English Style video.

Some opted for paper cutouts, other whiteboards, and pens. The resulting videos were varied not only in content but in method. The students not only consolidated their understanding of these input methods but also found creative ways to teach others about them.

Here is a short mash-up of those that were turned in today.

Tuesday, September 20, 2016

VR and AR in LRC

With the arrival of our new Leap Motion devices, and our existing Google Cardboard we have had the opportunities to really explore with our students. These coupled with our existing iPads and QR code Apps, have lead to a series of exciting activities so far, this school year.

Leap Motion in 11th Grade ITGS 

We have been  looking at input devices in 11th grade ITGS. This was a prime opportunity to test out with the leaps and have the kids prepare their own activities. During the session, we worked with both the Leap Motions and MakeyMakey input devices, both of which are powerful learning tools, however, this post is about AR and VR, so we will leave the MakeyMakey discussion for another time.

In order to prepare for the lesson, I provided students with a link to the Leap Motion Gallery and asked them to choose and download a couple of modules they were interested in trying out. It is important to note that there are a great variety of activities to choose from, unfortunately, some are not available for Mac users. It was easy to share the information with students, as we are using Google Classroom to run our lessons and communicate with each other. The kids had a wonderful time exploring different modules. You can view some of the work they did in this mashup video from the input lesson.

*We did find,  that we had to really work initially to get used to the range that the Leap Motion would detect. Students persisted and did get the hang of it rather quickly in the end.





Google Cardboard in 12th Grade ITGS

In 12th grade, we have been looking at wearable technology, what better time to bring out the Cell phones and Google Cardboard.

The kids downloaded the appropriate app to their cell phones for homework and after a brief introduction they partnered up and we took the tech outside. It is important to have kids working in pairs with VR as it is easy for them to trip and bump into things. Our students spotted each other in partners and took turns with the viewers.

The excitement quickly crescendoed,  as students explored using these simple cardboard devices. They were immersed in what they were doing,  actively exploring, evaluating the technology and having a great deal of fun doing so. All we needed to accomplish this was the cheapest of cardboard viewers,  their own cell phones, and the free apps. You can even download templates to help you build your own cardboard viewers.

Here are a few options for doing this:
Instructables
Pocketlint
Google Cardboard Production Kit

Please see the previous post for a short video and further details on this activity.


QR Code Scavenger Hunt-6th Grade LRC Orientation



Each year we host an orientation session in the Learning Resources Centre for the 6th grade students moving up to Secondary.

This year we decided to take advantage of the popularity that has grown around Pokemon Go and use it as our hook. We used our Pokemon theme, along with our existing iPads, a QR Code reader (We prefer i-nigma),  paired with physical QR Codes to build a massive (I kid you not-over 100 students strong!) scavenger hunt.

The  QR codes were used to place scannable text clues within Pokeballs which were distributed around the school, along with Pokemon characters. We used Google Maps to create a perimeter map for the work and determined different routes for each team.

Teams started off with a small Ziploc bag containing their first QR Pokeball clue and a copy of the map. Each team was given an iPad.  It was delightful to watch the students tearing across the field, verifying their positions on the map, discovering their clues and rushing to see which would be the first group to finish. Some of them even ended up in the shrubs outside the headmaster's office. Upon arrival at the LRC(They all ended up here), they had a book related clue to resolve and activity to complete upon finding the right location and identifying the book. They were then given some time to browse the resources on offer.

Here are is a link to the photo gallery for the event.

We have plenty of other activities planned for the school year involving our modest collection of AR and VR devices and applications and are looking forward to discovering, even more applications to use in our regular lessons and special events. The next step is to have t-shirts made for our annual book week, covered in interesting codes and having students scan us as we move about the school.

*One last note, we used to create VR pop-up books using Zooburst, which was a great application, however, the site has since closed.  They do offer an App however that seems to still be available. It is an app worth investigating.

Saturday, September 3, 2016

Google Cardboard in ITGS




Last week we spent half an hour testing out and evaluating Google Cardboard in our HL ITGS class. This was  part of our preliminary work on wearable tech. The students viewed a video overview, learned how to use the headsets and the Cardboard App (which runs 360 degree videos), then assembled the devices. Next, we headed outdoors to the grassy area in front of the LRC. Luckily, there was a respite in the rainy weather and the grass was also dry, enabling us to purposefully wander around the grounds, whilst immersed in different VR environments.


It was fascinating to observe the kids as they took tours, spotted their partners and shared their locations and findings, all without leaving the lawn in front of the LRC. This work was punctuate by excited exclamations, location call outs and the regular directions of the spotters.


The next step is to continue the debrief, and record their findings on their response sheets. Interestingly enough, the students were very impressed by these cheap cardboard constructions built for cell phones, despite their awareness of the range of alternative high tech VR devices currently available. It will certainly be interesting to read their written responses to the this experience.

Friday, June 10, 2016

PBL, Sustainable Farming and Salad Day


This involved research and recording, learning how to use spreadsheets for orders and plant growth, planting vertical gardens and caring for them as well as creating vertical gardens in Minecraft Edu.
Click here to view the lessons.

The unit came to an end last week with what we have named Salad Day. It isn't actually a day, but about two hours of harvesting, washing and sharing the produce that grew. 


Our cucumbers were still flowering as were the tomatoes, but the basil, radishes, cilantro lettuce and even some of the carrots were ready for eating. 

The kids had a lovely time as did the teachers and everyone really enjoyed the fruits of their labour. 

Click here to view more images from this event. 

Thursday, May 19, 2016

ABC DVA 2016


Inline images 2

The 6th Annual DVA was a Fantastic success. This was a gala event in which students, teachers and parents came from across the school in celebration of ABC student digital video work.  A wonderful audience was in attendance to witness the numerous awards that were given out during the evening. 

We would like to offer an additional word of congratulations to Victor Hugo Salazar in 11th grade, who this year became a member of the DVA Committee and produced the final video production for the show. 


Do have a look at our Flickr Album, The LRC Facebook page additional for photos and details about this event.

Here is the list of winning videos:

2nd Grade Animation

Ariella Schaeuffler for The Hungry Shark

3rd Grade Animation
Gerardo Cuellar Scratch Toy Design

4th Grade Animation

5th Grade Animation
Adriana Menjívar for Agario Animation

KS3 Animation
Eliza Giammattei, Pablo Hernández,Daniel Figueroa, Adriela Grijalva for Snowflakes on Track

KS2 Educational
Diego Salguero for How to Make a 2x2 Piston Door

KS3 Educational
Maria Paulina Garrido for Huge Volcano Eruption

Star Wars Parody
Airi Shibata, Ivana Salomé, Montserat Gagliardo Monge for Star Wars A Capella

Independent Trailer
Víctor Hugo Salazar and Natalia Castaneda for Buble gum

IB Promo

Víctor Hugo Salazar and Andrés López for Introduction to IB Film

11th Grade Short
Víctor Hugo Salazar, Gabriela Zedán and Mauricio Velásquez for Time to Move

IB Short
Javier Miguel for Letters to Heaven

Movie of the Year
Victor Hugo Salazar, Gabriela Zedan and Mauricio Velasquez for Time to Move





    Tuesday, May 10, 2016

    DVA16




    The 6th Annual ABC Digital Video Awards is almost upon us.  Thursday May 19th is the date for this this gala event, the purpose of which is to highlight excellence in student video work, done throughout the school year.

    This year we have 52 student filmmakers, from 2nd to 12th grade, involved as nominees in the following categories, (some within several subcategories):

    Best Animation
    Best Educational Video
    Best Star Wars Parody
    Best Advertisement
    Best Short Film
    Movie of the Year

    The theme is Star Wars, and at 7:30pm on the 19th of May, those people lucky enough to be in the PAC, will be transported to a galaxy far far away.

    Community voting opened on Monday and will be closed as of 3:00 this Thursday, in time to tally the votes and prepare the awards.

    We would like to thank all of the parents in advance, whose children have been nominated for an award,  for their support the evening of the event. Please ensure that you fill in the RSVP you were sent.


    Do mark your calendars as this is an event you will not want to miss.


    Filmmaker Visit to Telus



    During STEAM Fest Telus International El Salvador extended an invitation to tour their installations. The ideas was to enable our IB Film students to search out cool venues and opportunities for film making, within the Telus building. We took them up on their offer and on Friday 6th of May, we took a small group of students to the Telus installations in Plaza Merliot.

    During the tour, the students were given a video orientation in the movie theatre, complete with popcorn. They then took a physical tour of the installations, which allowed them to check out the themed conference rooms and investigate the onsite gaming and gym facilities.

    The installations do hold quite a bit of promise for our students' future film work. We expect to set up a followup visit in the near future,  to get the ball rolling on a few special projects.

    We would like to thank Telus for making this short visit so dynamic for our students.

    Please visit our Flickr album to view all of our snaps from this trip and more.

    Saturday, March 19, 2016

    STEAM Fest 2016

    Our first ever STEAM Fest was a great success. 




    The ABC and local community came together in a full scale celebration of STEAM. The projects were wonderful, and the energy crackled as the whole school, whole day event took centre stage across 3 different venues. The level of engagement and excitement was paramount, as student and staff presenters, and creative centre leaders from our school, as well as from around El Salvador, worked and interacted with students, staff, visitors and local dignitaries.

    Here are some of the preliminary photos from the event. The organisers of the event issue a huge thank you to the hundreds of people that made it all possible! 
    We now look forward to STEAM Fest 2017.

    https://www.flickr.com/photos/48254552@N04/albums/72157662253275704

    Thursday, March 10, 2016

    WAAM-We Are All Makers!


    Next week promises to be spectacular. Not only will Brain Awareness Week and Science Week come together, but this year they do so along with our community of makers, which will trigger an explosion of Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics initiatives. The event is STEAM Fest and it promises to captivate, compel and inspire the community through creativity and innovation.

    This is the first ever STEAM Focused event to take place at the ABC, which brings together the whole school, schools from the community, as well as local educational and STEAM based organisations.
    Over 240 ABC Staff and students are directly involved, as are several local schools, international organisations and businesses.

    The Fest or Faire opens on March 16th at 8:00, with a keynote delivered by the British Ambassador on the topic of British Science Week. The Ambassador will then award the prizes for the winning Primary and Secondary Science Faire projects. The event will run all day and end at 2:00, with the final Keynote delivered by via video, by one of our very own STEAM pioneers, Exabrit Roberto Melendez.

    During the day students, staff and visiting teams will run exhibits, creative centres and in some cases, competitions. A total of 57 exhibitions and creative centres and 34 Science Fair finalist projects,  will fill the Auditorium and PAC, and spill over into the Auditorium Mezzanine and Drama Studio.

    Classes from every year group will visit STEAM Fest during the course of the day and be able to engage in creative, active experimentation and learning. STEAM Fest promises to stimulate all the senses and build cognitive and community connections for everyone who involved.

    Parents are invited to drop in during the day and visit the various STEAM Fest venues, which will be open all day, but close briefly at Secondary lunch and break times. Parking for the event will be on the basketball courts, which can be accessed through the Administration parking lot. 


    We do hope to see you there and  invite you watch our latest teaser , which will give you a good idea of the sorts of activities that are taking place, in preparation for STEAM Fest 2016.

    Finally we would like to thank our wonderful STEAM Fest sponsors, who play an important role in  STEAM Fest 2016.

    Screen Shot 2016-03-10 at 9.09.24 AM.png


    Thursday, March 3, 2016

    Book Week 2016

    ABC Book Week 2016


    The ABC annual Book Week event wound up today. Book Week is a whole school event, which takes place around World book Day, and is a  celebration of books, a love of reading and and a love of writing.


    Many activities took place during the week, in different sections of the school.
    Secondary school students arrived on Monday to encounter a large reading tree, which had sprouted at the centre of the LRC. This tree was quickly embellish by students who prepared and hung their very own book reviews on its branches. The annual Book Week Fair took place from Wednesday to Friday and hosted a variety of  local book shops and artisans. A good number of students and other members of the community seized the opportunity to visit the stalls in lessons and during break times.


    The LRC Librarians organised several visits by acclaimed local authors, who lead workshops and talks for many of the students during their Spanish and French lessons. Amongst these authors were Carlos Colindres from the American Embassy and Susana Reyes, each of whom spoke to the 11th grade students. Ligia Salguero Mediateca from the Spanish Embassy, Isabel Barrientos from the Colegio Liceo Francés, Lucia la Guacalcía, and Josué Peña, all local authors, ran reading and writing workshops for the 6th grade students.


    A book donation centre was placed at the front of the LRC for members of the community to deposit new and used books in. This will remain in place for the following week. The donations, which are destined for the Centro Escolar Católico Virgen de la Paz, Tamanique, La Libertad are greatly appreciated.


    The week’s activities culminated in the annual Character Day, in which students demonstrated their love of books by dressing up for the day as their favourite book characters.  Alternatively, students had the option to show their support of school charities, by wearing charity focused  t-shirts.


    This was a high energy Book Week, full of activity and special events, which focussed on the joy to be found in reading and writing. I would personally like to thank Hilda Gomez and Eugenia Rivas for their hard work in organising Book Week in the Secondary.


    Jennifer Garcia
    LRC Coordinator


    Here are a few photos from the week. They entire collection can be accessed from the LRC Flickr Page.
    Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 6.01.20 PM.png


    Screen Shot 2016-03-03 at 6.00.28 PM.png

    Tuesday, January 26, 2016

    STEAM Fest 2016

    This year has been a year of transition for the LRC. Not only have we created a 3 tier maker system of drop ins, an extra curricular club, and making in our ICT PBL units, but we are about to launch our ver first STEAM Fest on Wednesday 16th of March.

    This whole school event will be partnered with both Primary and Secondary Science Fairs, as well as Brain Awareness Week. It will provide a venue, not only for our school community, but for other schools and organisations around the country, at which to promote educational development and student innovation through STEAM (Science, Technology, Engineering, The Arts and Mathematics) projects.


    STEAM as an educational approach, focuses on the whole child, through inquiry, problem solving, creativity, critical thinking and collaboration using Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Maths. STEAM focuses on the learning process and provides students with learning opportunities to investigate, plan, and develop meaningful open ended projects.


    STEAM Fest will provide opportunities throughout the day for students to participate in creative activity centres, view expositions and interact with presenters. Please visit our STEAM Fest Site to learn more.