These are a few sites I have found to help students with their typing skills. We will use these periodically throughout the year.
Desert Typing Racer: Type the words and stay on the road! Avoid the crazy drivers!
Keyboard Revolution: Type the moving letter when it is in the circle.. keep up with the beat! Break it down...
Online Typing Games- Alphabet- HOW FAST CAN YOU GO???? Reply with your high score!
Finger Frenzy- type the alphabet as fast as you can!
Spacebar Invaders- I Loved Space Invaders as a kid!
Cup Stacking Game- As fast as you can!! type the letters as they turn black. Beat your high score!
Add a comment and let me know what your favorite game is and why!
We also have this awesome site for typing fun:
Dance Mat Typing
If you are just starting out, start with level 1, stage 1. Work your way up! Your fingers will be dancing across those keys in NO time!
Friday, August 31, 2012
Monday, August 27, 2012
State of Georgia Technology Standards
Many of you teachers, parents, family members may wonder what the technology standards are for the state of Georgia schools.
Georgia follows the ISTE NETS-S.
Per the ISTE website: "ISTE's NETS for Students (NETS•S) are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly global and digital world. "
Here is a link to these standards: NETS-S.
Here is a link on the GA Dept. of Education website to activities in each grade level and subject area correlated to the ISTE standards: NETS-S Performance Tasks.
Georgia follows the ISTE NETS-S.
Per the ISTE website: "ISTE's NETS for Students (NETS•S) are the standards for evaluating the skills and knowledge students need to learn effectively and live productively in an increasingly global and digital world. "
Here is a link to these standards: NETS-S.
Here is a link on the GA Dept. of Education website to activities in each grade level and subject area correlated to the ISTE standards: NETS-S Performance Tasks.
Saturday, August 25, 2012
Can I get a "Whoop Whoop"???
I HAVE to post on here the successes I had yesterday!
All classes went really well, to start.
My 6th graders, a handful of them, were much more productive working on the brainstorming for their presentations we are planning.
4th and 3rd went really great as well, with a student (I think it was my new friend "Who Dat!" Brandon- he had a fleur de lis necklace on and loves the Saints... instant friendship!) said I was the coolest teacher because I knew about The Incredibles.
Other than that, here are the fires I put out around the school:
All classes went really well, to start.
My 6th graders, a handful of them, were much more productive working on the brainstorming for their presentations we are planning.
4th and 3rd went really great as well, with a student (I think it was my new friend "Who Dat!" Brandon- he had a fleur de lis necklace on and loves the Saints... instant friendship!) said I was the coolest teacher because I knew about The Incredibles.
Other than that, here are the fires I put out around the school:
- A handful of teachers were having problems logging onto their pretty old computers. (IBMs with 3.5 disk slots and Windows 2000), One day they could, the next they couldn't. Many of these teachers had many documents on them that were super important... I am buying them a flash drive for Christmas! :) Anyway, my brain actually shifted into overdrive and thought a problem out backwards and I realized how to get them to log on... get them off of the network and then log on, and it worked! These teachers could retrieve their documents!!!! I think I will go send a friendly email reminder right now to all staff to back up their stuff just in case... you just never know!
- I am looking into a price for getting flash drives customized for all staff. Best present I think they could ever get!
- Another teacher was having issues getting on the wireless, her wireless device just would not connect. I downloaded an updated driver for her wireless device to my lovely little hot pink flash drive, and then installed it on her computer and TA DA! Success! This is something I totally would not have known how to do 2 weeks ago... Mrs. Moore had a similar problem and somehow I stumbled upon this way to fix it. As well as Mr. Page's issue with his video driver.
- One other teacher finally got a computer.. I hope she can get an HP charger for it this weekend and that it works well for her.
Thursday, August 23, 2012
Week 1 update
Quick little synopsis of what we have been doing in technology lab with each grade level.
6th- This class is comprised of 10 students, and we are forging ahead with a project I named "Teach the Younger Kids". Yesterday, the older students brainstormed ways in which we could use technology to help younger students. I asked them to focus on K-4, and most of them focused on K-1. This could be an idea to help them in any facet of life, not just school related. They came up with some great ideas, typed out on Microsoft Word, and today we are going to go a step further with that, brainstorming ways to create a presentation using speech, video, pictures, music, and text. This will be done via Google Docs.. I am excited to put this engaged learning project in action.
5th- We have been mostly working on, as with all grades, procedures for computer lab since every student is new to them, as am I. I have been showing 5th, 4th, and 3rd a presentation on Prezi with a little intro on me, since I am new to this school as well. For 5th, we continue on to discussing the desktop picture on their screen currently, which is the first personal computer ever sold, an IBM release in August 1981. We talk about the use of this computer in the 80's, what it could do and what it couldn't, as well as the price. Then we go through the steps of logging onto our teachers' blogs, as very important information is on these blogs that the 5th graders need daily.
4th and 3rd grades are very similar to 5th grade. 4th graders are actually covering supply and demand, scarcity, and other topics of economics in Mr. Page's Social Studies class, so they have awesome comments concerning our discussion of the older computer from the 80's/the price guessing, etc. Today, with the 4th and 3rd grade classes I had, we went to Microsoft Word or Paint, just to determine some basic skill levels as I floated around the room.
2nd grade- Second grade was very similar to 3rd and 4th, with the exception of Word and Paint. We had enough time for intros, sitting at computers, procedures for when they need help and when I need their attention, and turning the computers on and shutting them down.
K & 1st grades- Kindergarten and 1st grades met Google the giraffe, our technology lab mascot, through a story constructed on Prezi. (Google the giraffe writes to a friend in Israel, and I actually had a student today who's name is Israel! That was a neat surprise.) We then discussed my signal for attention as well as getting to sit at a computer after I called roll. Next class we will turn the computers on!
6th- This class is comprised of 10 students, and we are forging ahead with a project I named "Teach the Younger Kids". Yesterday, the older students brainstormed ways in which we could use technology to help younger students. I asked them to focus on K-4, and most of them focused on K-1. This could be an idea to help them in any facet of life, not just school related. They came up with some great ideas, typed out on Microsoft Word, and today we are going to go a step further with that, brainstorming ways to create a presentation using speech, video, pictures, music, and text. This will be done via Google Docs.. I am excited to put this engaged learning project in action.
5th- We have been mostly working on, as with all grades, procedures for computer lab since every student is new to them, as am I. I have been showing 5th, 4th, and 3rd a presentation on Prezi with a little intro on me, since I am new to this school as well. For 5th, we continue on to discussing the desktop picture on their screen currently, which is the first personal computer ever sold, an IBM release in August 1981. We talk about the use of this computer in the 80's, what it could do and what it couldn't, as well as the price. Then we go through the steps of logging onto our teachers' blogs, as very important information is on these blogs that the 5th graders need daily.
4th and 3rd grades are very similar to 5th grade. 4th graders are actually covering supply and demand, scarcity, and other topics of economics in Mr. Page's Social Studies class, so they have awesome comments concerning our discussion of the older computer from the 80's/the price guessing, etc. Today, with the 4th and 3rd grade classes I had, we went to Microsoft Word or Paint, just to determine some basic skill levels as I floated around the room.
2nd grade- Second grade was very similar to 3rd and 4th, with the exception of Word and Paint. We had enough time for intros, sitting at computers, procedures for when they need help and when I need their attention, and turning the computers on and shutting them down.
K & 1st grades- Kindergarten and 1st grades met Google the giraffe, our technology lab mascot, through a story constructed on Prezi. (Google the giraffe writes to a friend in Israel, and I actually had a student today who's name is Israel! That was a neat surprise.) We then discussed my signal for attention as well as getting to sit at a computer after I called roll. Next class we will turn the computers on!
Tuesday, August 21, 2012
Busy busy busy
That is all I can say about the last 2 weeks.. and this week, of course, is surpassing last week's business due to the fact that specials started yesterday=I started teaching classes. Today is my first full day.. and I say full meaning in 30 minutes or so, I will have my first class, will not stop until my lunch at 12-ish and will continue through until almost 2.. with afternoon car pool starting at 2:10-3:45.
Classes are basic right now, just getting in the introductions, learning names, etc. We will kick it off at a faster pace soon with 5th and 6th, and possibly 3rd and 4th. Kindergarten was INTERESTING to say the least yesterday- about what I expected, for sure, but I still don't know how to sit all of them at a computer anytime soon and get anything accomplished. Classroom management is the key, I surely know that. I will have to research it IN MY SPARE TIME (HA!).
Grad school assignments are due tomorrow.. yes that is in full swing once again. I am hoping that, somehow, my brain will react like my muscles... the more I use it, the more endurance I can wring out of it. No one send me anything contradicting that fact.... I surely can just fool myself into believing it.
Soon I will post the pictures of all of the gear we collected from Cobb County School warehouse. Mr. Matos has 50 of the desktops ready to go to classrooms! OK, I need to inventory them..um.. WHEN??? :)
OK, off to teach my first class of the day. Wish me luck....
Classes are basic right now, just getting in the introductions, learning names, etc. We will kick it off at a faster pace soon with 5th and 6th, and possibly 3rd and 4th. Kindergarten was INTERESTING to say the least yesterday- about what I expected, for sure, but I still don't know how to sit all of them at a computer anytime soon and get anything accomplished. Classroom management is the key, I surely know that. I will have to research it IN MY SPARE TIME (HA!).
Grad school assignments are due tomorrow.. yes that is in full swing once again. I am hoping that, somehow, my brain will react like my muscles... the more I use it, the more endurance I can wring out of it. No one send me anything contradicting that fact.... I surely can just fool myself into believing it.
Soon I will post the pictures of all of the gear we collected from Cobb County School warehouse. Mr. Matos has 50 of the desktops ready to go to classrooms! OK, I need to inventory them..um.. WHEN??? :)
OK, off to teach my first class of the day. Wish me luck....
Saturday, August 11, 2012
Beginning Again
And so I begin another journey in the realm of education....
My last excursion with teaching was almost 10 years ago, with first graders at Acadian Elementary.
The family of Kennesaw Charter has graciously accepted me, and I have enjoyed getting to know many people this week through the trials and tribulations of technology problems. In between all of the meetings of preplanning, I was engaged in assisting teachers with laptop screens, monitors, Internet connection, with the icing of the week to be driving to Cobb School's warehouse and picking up hundreds of computers, boxes of printers, and miscellaneous other furniture.
I truly saw the excitement as a team at the Cobb warehouse, even in the eyes of Mrs. Davis's husband who knows how valuable all of this equipment is to the teachers of KCSMA. I felt like we had just rounded the corner at a thrift store to spot the most awesome find ever, and that feeling was amplified in the eyes of the teachers that were there. The possibilities of utilizing this technology for student learning... hoping, hoping that all of it works, or at least some of it works. Wondering if those desktop computers with no CD-Rom drive could be used for parts...picking through a pile of "to be dumped" furniture for useful items, including a drawer full of tangrams that I, as a former first grade teacher, could NOT leave there!
And so, the dawn of a new school year is almost here....
As I write this, ginormous boxes of wires and keyboards and monitors are being delivered to the school.
As I write this, I have search windows open, researching ways to clear out computers easily, hoping something will work to get these computers distributed as quickly as possible in the school.
Hoping that I can figure it out to do it quickly without having to wait for assistance..
knowing I will need assistance and wanting to drag Todd over there before the weekend is up.
And so on to the next chapter of this excitement..
My last excursion with teaching was almost 10 years ago, with first graders at Acadian Elementary.
The family of Kennesaw Charter has graciously accepted me, and I have enjoyed getting to know many people this week through the trials and tribulations of technology problems. In between all of the meetings of preplanning, I was engaged in assisting teachers with laptop screens, monitors, Internet connection, with the icing of the week to be driving to Cobb School's warehouse and picking up hundreds of computers, boxes of printers, and miscellaneous other furniture.
I truly saw the excitement as a team at the Cobb warehouse, even in the eyes of Mrs. Davis's husband who knows how valuable all of this equipment is to the teachers of KCSMA. I felt like we had just rounded the corner at a thrift store to spot the most awesome find ever, and that feeling was amplified in the eyes of the teachers that were there. The possibilities of utilizing this technology for student learning... hoping, hoping that all of it works, or at least some of it works. Wondering if those desktop computers with no CD-Rom drive could be used for parts...picking through a pile of "to be dumped" furniture for useful items, including a drawer full of tangrams that I, as a former first grade teacher, could NOT leave there!
And so, the dawn of a new school year is almost here....
As I write this, ginormous boxes of wires and keyboards and monitors are being delivered to the school.
As I write this, I have search windows open, researching ways to clear out computers easily, hoping something will work to get these computers distributed as quickly as possible in the school.
Hoping that I can figure it out to do it quickly without having to wait for assistance..
knowing I will need assistance and wanting to drag Todd over there before the weekend is up.
And so on to the next chapter of this excitement..
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