March

Happy St. Patrick’s Day!

First Grade Students

The students were introduced to the Stickybear Typing Program several weeks ago. They have been 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 be concentrating on the home row keys until Easter break.  I encourage the students to practice these keyboarding skills at home using any type of program or any of the free programs that are available on-line. I have placed a link on my blog to the typing club which is a free on-line program.  http://www.kidztype.com/

Second Grade

The students have been working in the Kid Works 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. Students have just 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 students have completed their journal entries through November.  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 about the tools in Microsoft Word. They know where to find the Spelling and Grammar tool and how to spell check 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. The students have worked with the rotate button, re-coloring, and positioning of images. They have been introduced to WordArt which is a decorative text that can be added to a Word document. On the ribbon, they will be working in the font, paragraph and styles groupings. Each week they will be given an assignment to format using some of these commands.  They have been working with the many tabs, ribbons and menus in Microsoft Word and some of the same word processing tools are used in Power Point. I will be introducing the students to Power Point at the end of the month.

Fourth Grade

The students are still working on developing their keyboarding skills with continued practice in Ultra Key Typing. Ultra Key builds good typing skills, speed and accuracy through structured lessons. The students will learn about record keeping and will be recording their typing scores. I also have a free typing program listed on my blog that students can use at home for extra practice.  The students will be working in Microsoft Word reviewing the ribbons, inserting images and spell checking documents.  They will take those documents and download them into Google Docs and apply some of the same processing skills using the Google Docs toolbar.

  

Fifth Grade

The students are working in Microsoft Word.  They have been working independently on several assignments that involve putting sentences in numerical order, by the clicking and dragging method or cut, copy, and paste. They know how to set up a header and how to insert clipart and pictures into a document and work with resizing, color correction and the different choices of color tone. They have been working with Spelling and Grammar in various documents and now realize how important it is to reread a document after spell check.  Around Easter, they will be assigned a state for their class state project. In order to prepare for their state brochure and to go along with the state project they will be learning about columns and tables, how to create a custom table, and insert a quick table. They will be creating a two page, three column brochure. 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.

The students are working in the UltraKey typing program and will continue working with this program to improve their typing skills until the end of the school year. They are encouraged to spend some time at home practicing their typing skills so in preparation of their daily use next year with the Chromebooks. I have placed a link on my blog to the typing club which is a free on-line program.

Catholic GEM (Going the Extra Mile)

This month's Christian quality is    March’s Christian quality: DISCERNMENT

Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.

~2 Timothy 2:15

This month's Christian quality is DISCERNMENT, which means knowing the difference between right and wrong, and also knowing the very subtle difference between right and “almost right.” It also means to be able to distinguish the difference between fact and opinion.

Please talk with your children about what it means to exhibit discernment.

You can show DISCERNMENT by:

·      Striving to make good decisions in small matters as well as important matters

·      Basing your decisions and actions on what you learn in Mass, and by studying the Holy Scriptures

·      Following the example set by Christian leaders in your community who display good judgment

·      Praying before making decisions

·      Learning from your past mistakes and not making the same ones again

               

Common Sense Media Bulletin Board outside the 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 1.71 billion monthly active users on Facebook. There are approximately 7.5 million kids under the age of 13 on Facebook. Facebook isn't supposed to be used by children under 13. 

Common Sense Media
A great website - 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.

                            

Why Do We Need A Technology Lab?

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.