Back to Work

Now that the students have familiarized themselves with their Type To Learn accounts, we have finally been able to get back to doing other stuff.

In addition to typing, this week 1st-3rd graders explored Google Earth.  We talked about the basic navigation features, and students tried to find their house, their school, and other landmarks.

And in 4th and 5th grades, in preparation for the return to our PowerPoint project, we watched a BrainPOP video about online sources.  While the library is an invaluable tool for research, as they get older our students will find themselves doing more and more research online.  It is important for them to start to think about reputable vs. non-reputable sources of information on the web.

In kindergarten we continued to play math games on the iPads, and we added one more game to our arsenal: Hungry Fish, by Motion Math.  This app is much more versatile than Hungry Guppy in that it has a wide range in levels of difficulty, and also has a subtraction option.

Happy (almost) Thanksgiving!

I can't believe it's already (almost) Thanksgiving!  I've been trying to cram as much as I possible into this week because I won't see the students again until December!

The 1st graders are taking a break from math practice and are getting creative on the computer!  This week we are making art with Doozla, an easy to use drawing program designed specifically for kids.  It allows students to use a variety of simple tools to create fun art on screen.  In addition to their pictures, the 1st graders wrote a sentence about their work, doing their best to use their typing skills outside of a typing program!

2nd grade continued to work on our MS Word formatting activity, and 3rd graders have been having a great time working with our 30 day free trial of Type To Learn 4.  Each student has their own account, which enables them to work at their own pace on the lesson and games for each level.  If we end up adopting this program school-wide, students will also be able to access their accounts from home!

In addition to their ongoing work familiarizing themselves with their LAUSD online student accounts, the 4th and 5th graders were given their first real PowerPoint project this week: Unsolved Mysteries.  Each student will choose a "mystery" to research -- I have given them a list -- and will create a presentation based on what they find.  This should be a lot of fun, and will really allow them to become comfortable using the many features of PowerPoint.  (Although they may do research at home, they will be given time to research in class.)

I'm getting excited about Computer Science Education Week -- December 9th-15th -- and have already pledged to participate in the Hour of Code with our students!  More details soon.  :-)



Happy Thanksgiving!

We've Been Busy!

Hello again!  Here’s a bit of what we’ve been working on so far:

      Typing:  As LAUSD moves closer to the goal of conducting all testing on electronic devices, the teachers felt it was imperative that our students learn to type.  To that end, all Community students in 1^st through 5^th grades are working on typing!  And by “type” I mean proper, two-handed typing --  no more “hunting and pecking”!   Until the teachers decide on a comprehensive typing program they all like, we are using Dance Mat Typing – a free, online program.  *Since the kids only come to the lab once a week, it would be great if they could practice at home as well.*

  Microsoft PowerPoint:  For the past couple of weeks 2^nd through 5^th graders have been working with Microsoft PowerPoint.   Using subject matter they are studying in their classrooms, students have been experimenting with creating PowerPoint presentations.   (Eventually, we will experiment with Keynote as well.)

   Letter School:  Kindergarteners use iPads during their Technology time.  The kindergarten teachers expressed an interest in having students work on handwriting, so we have been working with a great app called “Letter School”.  It helps kids not only to recognize the letters and their sounds, but to learn the proper way to write them.  It forces users to write letters correctly – starting from the top! The kids love it because it has lots of cool sounds and fun graphics.  :-)