Resource and Technology

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.