Keyboarding and Learning Keys
We have a new tool in the lab! Everybody is learning about our new microphone-enabled headsets, Labsonic LS-5750s. We selected these for durability and performance and in order to begin working some with voice and audio this year. The new rule in the lab is that the boom mic stays up "like a bug's antenna" when we're not actively using them for recording. Hopefully, that will minimize the germ-passing. We'll clean them before each use as well.
We're moving into serious work in the computer lab (although "serious work" may look different in here than in some other classrooms), with activities this week as follows, in order of appearance each day in the lab.
3--learning to turn on computers as they begin coming in early next week, and how to login to the computer correctly. Then continuing in Type to Learn 3, with a goal to make it as far into the program as we can before moving on to other tech tools and skills.
4--continuing with Keyboarding for Kids. Progress is good as students get completely comfortable with logging in, achieving 3 good scores in each line, then moving to the next line or lesson. In a few weeks, textbooks will be sent home and the students will be assigned daily keyboarding homework. More on that later, but let me make my first iteration of the most important thing about keyboarding homework: This must NOT add stress to your homework at home routine. It should be fun and a nice break from paperwork. The sooner this skill is learned, and learned well, the better served your child will be.
K--continue into and through the 200 activites at UpToTen.com Premium@Schools "lessons," really fun, gentle, Flash activities with a theme of kindness. There is nothing not to like about Boowa and Kwala, and I'm taking pics of the Kindergarteners hard at "work" to prove it. Look for those here as soon as I have all classes photographed :)
1--continuing the same as the K kids, only at a pace more brisk. They know what they're doing, and I believe we'll make it all the way through the 50 lessons within a very few class sessions. Above and beyond this being every child's chance to see every available activity (in the lessons, at least--uptoten.com currently boasts 1254 "games" and 7,289 teachers logging in to use them). USN was school number 1, by the way :)
2--finishing Type to Learn, Jr., all 3 keyboarding games at all 3 levels each. Those who get finished will visit bbc.com's excellent "Dance Mat Typing" to begin understanding what "home row key" typing is all about, with the help of the site's resident Scottish billy-goat. This also gets them into using the Webliographer for the first time this year. If you don't have that site bookmarked, do so now from the link in the sidebar. It's a wealth of resources for both you and your child, and for the world's children as well.
That's all for now. Here are the Kindergarten pics! I'm posting with only my first two classes, but I'll add the rest later this week, so check back!
Cheerio!
We're moving into serious work in the computer lab (although "serious work" may look different in here than in some other classrooms), with activities this week as follows, in order of appearance each day in the lab.
3--learning to turn on computers as they begin coming in early next week, and how to login to the computer correctly. Then continuing in Type to Learn 3, with a goal to make it as far into the program as we can before moving on to other tech tools and skills.
4--continuing with Keyboarding for Kids. Progress is good as students get completely comfortable with logging in, achieving 3 good scores in each line, then moving to the next line or lesson. In a few weeks, textbooks will be sent home and the students will be assigned daily keyboarding homework. More on that later, but let me make my first iteration of the most important thing about keyboarding homework: This must NOT add stress to your homework at home routine. It should be fun and a nice break from paperwork. The sooner this skill is learned, and learned well, the better served your child will be.
K--continue into and through the 200 activites at UpToTen.com Premium@Schools "lessons," really fun, gentle, Flash activities with a theme of kindness. There is nothing not to like about Boowa and Kwala, and I'm taking pics of the Kindergarteners hard at "work" to prove it. Look for those here as soon as I have all classes photographed :)
1--continuing the same as the K kids, only at a pace more brisk. They know what they're doing, and I believe we'll make it all the way through the 50 lessons within a very few class sessions. Above and beyond this being every child's chance to see every available activity (in the lessons, at least--uptoten.com currently boasts 1254 "games" and 7,289 teachers logging in to use them). USN was school number 1, by the way :)
2--finishing Type to Learn, Jr., all 3 keyboarding games at all 3 levels each. Those who get finished will visit bbc.com's excellent "Dance Mat Typing" to begin understanding what "home row key" typing is all about, with the help of the site's resident Scottish billy-goat. This also gets them into using the Webliographer for the first time this year. If you don't have that site bookmarked, do so now from the link in the sidebar. It's a wealth of resources for both you and your child, and for the world's children as well.
That's all for now. Here are the Kindergarten pics! I'm posting with only my first two classes, but I'll add the rest later this week, so check back!
Cheerio!
Labels: k-4, K12, Kindergarten, learning, lower school, teaching, USN
posted by Scott Merrick at
7:53 AM
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