First
Grade Students
This quarter the students were introduced to the Stickybear Typing Program. They are learning about the keyboard, correct hand position, and how the typing program works. The Stickybear Typing program allows users to sharpen typing skills and achieve keyboard mastery. Stickybear Keypress, a program within Stickybear Typing, allows typing practice from the simplest drills in home key position to complex exercises that require the full keyboard. A good typing program provides immediate feedback for incorrect keypresses and allows a student to progress automatically through levels as each is mastered. Each of the program's 30 levels introduces the student to the keys covered in the lesson, and then offers practice using them. The lower half of the screen displays the keyboard; as keys are highlighted one at a time, the student must press the corresponding key on the computer's keyboard. A correct keypress prints the letter at the top of the screen. Incorrect keypresses make a low "bloop" sound, and the letter doesn't appear. At the end of each two screens of typing practice, the student gets a progress report which shows the starting level; current level, number of words typed per minute, and number of errors. The students will end the third quarter with some knowledge of the keyboard. As the fourth quarter is quickly approaching, they will be introduced to the i-Safe Program and Jump Start First Grade. In between both of these new programs they will still be working on improving their keyboarding skills.
Second
Grade
The students have been working in the KidWorks
Program. They know the components of the writing portion of the program and
know to how to access the Edit Menu and use the Copy and Paste buttons. They
know where the Home, End and Arrow Keys are on the keyboard. They have started
their Grade School Memories Journal. The journal will consist of three typed
sentences and a drawing to go along with the sentences. The sentences are
created by the students. They have to type about three current events that
happened each month at school and a drawing to go along with the sentences
using both drawing and sticker book tools. The journals will be printed in
booklet form and they will take them home at the end of the school year.
Third
Grade
The students continue to learn more about the tools
in Microsoft Word. The know where to find the Spelling and Grammar tool which
is now under the Review tab on the ribbon and how to use it when editing a
document. They know how to retrieve some documents from one drive and save them
in another drive. Students know how to change font, font size, font color, bold
and center. They have been working with inserting clipart and manipulating it
into their document by making choices of sending it behind or in front of text using
the wrap text tool. They have worked with the rotate button with their clipart
and color choosing washout backgrounds sent behind text. The students will be
tested for the next several weeks on the tools they have been introduced to in
Word by working independently on assigned weekly sentences and clipart. These assignments
will be done in class and graded. If any
student should finish their assigned work during class, the remainder of the
time will be spent practicing their keyboarding skills in the StickyBear Typing
Program.
Fifth
Grade
There are many tools being
introduced to the students this quarter in Microsoft Word. The students will
learn how to create a table, set margins, move and type within a cell, choose
effects, fonts and insert clipart. The students are presently working on
several assignments that involve putting sentences in numerical order by
clicking and dragging or cut and paste. They have been working with spell check
on the Review Tab and have learned how to insert and type within a header. By learning
how to use the various tools in word processing, these skills will enable the
students to be able to use the computer more efficiently in doing their
assignments and various projects throughout their classroom curriculum.
I-Safe
Bulletin Board outside Computer Lab
Please take a minute and read what is going on in
Cyberspace. There are so many things changing on a daily basis. Please talk to
your children about Facebook. There are 500 million registered users. There are
approximately 7.5 million kids under 13 on Facebook. Facebook isn't supposed to
be used by children under 13.
Common Sense Media
A great website to become familiar with is
commonsensemedia.org
“Their mission is dedicated to improving the lives
of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and
independent voice they need to thrive in a world of media and technology.”
Please take a minute to look at their site.
1. A technology teacher provides a structured
curriculum with complete and specific instructions in computer skills that are
taught in a lab environment. This enables the students to become more confident
in their technology skills and it improves technology use in the classroom. It
validates the importance of the subject being taught.
2. In a lab, students have the opportunity for hands
on experience to learn about new applications and review past lessons. This is
a great advantage to students so they can become more confident in their
technology skills.
3. Technology labs free classroom teachers so they
can focus on their goals and not loose valuable instruction time teaching
computer skills.
4. Structure, consistency, and repetition build
skills each year whether it is a new application, documents, presentations, or
understanding and increasing their time and accuracy in mastering keyboarding.
5. The importance of the technology lab offers
student support, skills, and the knowledge they need to use these skills beyond
the classroom.
Another great month of learning new computer skills!
