Welcome Back!

Hello, Community Families!

It's been so good to see all of your lovely children back at school this week!

Enrichment classes will commence the 3rd week of school this year.  Starting the 25th, all classrooms will visit the computer lab at least once a week.

During that first week, we will be sending home the LAUSD Acceptable Use Policy for you and your child(ren) to go over and sign.  This is necessary so that students are able to use the LAUSD network during the school day.  (Students will need to go online to do research, and to have access to learning sites like BrainPop, Everyday Math Online, and Dance Mat Typing.)

We will be starting the year in technology with a heavy emphasis on typing skills.  During our field test of the Smarter Balanced Assessment last year, we noted that the students who were proficient typists were able to more clearly and easily communicate what they knew.  We don't waste brain power thinking about how to hold a pencil, but when students have to stop to locate a letter on the keyboard or to think about how to capitalize, their focus is diverted from whatever question they are actually being asked.

We have lots of other great stuff planned for the year, so be sure to check back in here periodically to see what we're up to!

New Headphones And Other Stuff

I'm very excited about our new headphones in the Technology Lab!  They are much more durable than the old plastic ones, and will also be easier to clean.

This week, in addition to typing practice, 2nd-5th graders continued to discuss internet safety.  We wrapped it all up by watching the BrainPOP video, "Online Safety".  It's a great one to watch and review with your kids at home.

In 1st grade, we've been practicing typing as well, but have also been making use of the online components to the Treasures (Language Arts) and Everyday Math curricula.  Everyday Math has some really fun two-player math games!

The kindergarten teachers have been interested in having students work on "beginning sounds" and "end sounds", so this week students have explored the Letter Muncher, Word Magic and Reading Raven apps. Word Magic is especially useful with regards to the skills that the K teachers wanted to target, because you can go into the settings and tell it to focus on "beginning sounds", "middle sounds" or "end sounds".  I anticipate using all three apps throughout the year to help the students practice their reading skills.