The overall scope of learning for the year in
the computer lab will include students learning to keyboard using
Mavis Beacon starting in the 2nd grade. They will learn
the skill of touch typing using "skins" to hide the
letters on the keys, which will require the students to memorize
the location of the keys. Students in K- 8th grade will come to
the lab on a weekly basis to learn Microsoft Office Suite.
They will use these skills plus Internet skills to produce products
for their core classes. Seventh and eighth grade students will
be offered the opportunity to work on the yearbook, both in class
and after school.
In the fall semester, the students are very involved
in a number of projects to develop their technology skills. At
the same time, they are integrating these computer skills in their
content lessons. Various skills such as following directions,
sequencing, and cause and effect are also developed as the students
work with the various software programs in the lab.
The kindergarten students are gaining further
understanding of their numbers while they create number books
by inserting pictures into PowerPoint slide shows. Each
screen shows the correct number of pictures to demonstrate that
particular number concept.
The first grade is involved in making a book
of the various sounds of the letters of the alphabet as they insert
pictures on each of the slide show screens in PowerPoint.
The second grade students are learning to use
MS Paint by first using the various tools to do scribble
scrabble, then they progress into the more difficult lessons of
making different shapes with the shape tools and drawing such
objects as houses.
In the third and fourth grade language classes,
the students use different font colors to identify sentences as
declarative or interrogative. One of their math projects involves
using the Graph Club software to show the results of a
class survey concerning what was their favorite apple color.
Fifth grade students are working with Timeliner
to understand when in history Prince Henry, the Navigator lived.
In science, they are demonstrating the stages of the water cycle
using MS Paint. In Latin class, the students have been
doing Internet research on the history of Pompeii and then incorporating
all their answers to specific questions and identifying locations
of various areas around Pompeii on a map along with pictures found
on the Internet to complete their project in PowerPoint.
They use MS Word to make their journal entries.
The upper grades will be doing many teacher-directed
Internet projects throughout the year. One of their recent projects
involved writing their own name as an acrostic poem with MS
Word. Skills such as using the correct font, choosing the
appropriate font size, color, animation, and adding a border were
incorporated.