Ever wonder what your child is working on in Technology classes?  I hope to be constantly updating this article to include what the class is working on and when the assignments are due.  Again, any time a student feels they need extra time to work on their project for my class or any other class, the computer lab will be open on Tuesday mornings starting at 7:30 a.m.

We are getting down to the wire! Most classes only have 4-5 computer class times left of the year.  The computer lab will close on May 19th for regular classes.  The lab will be open for students to work on projects for other classes.

3rd Grade- most of the students are on the last "page" of getting their short stories published. Look for them on the Picture Gallery page.

4th Grade - We recently had our breakfast with the scientists and now are going over a few things we missed at the beginning of the year on just general computer terms and tasks.  We will also be working very hard on keyboarding the last few class periods.

5th Grade - they are finishing up on the general tasks for their weather project.  The students will start on writing their scripts next week and preparing to give their weather report.

6th Grade -

7th Grade - this class is learning a little bit about travel and interesting sites in the USA.  They had to pick a direction, money to spend, and the vehicle to take on their trip.  They are keeping a spreadsheet of the miles driven, how much fuel and the fuel costs involved in their trip.  At the end they will give a presentation of their trip with information about the places they visited and include an interactive map to show the route they took.  They are using Google Maps to help plan their trip and a lot of math and analysis in figuring when they need to refuel their vehicle. The final presentations are due Tuesday, April 6th.

8th Grade - They will be taking a Technology Assessment test on May 4th and 7th.  Other classes will be keyboarding and getting materials ready for 8th grade promotion.

As students wade through the billions of websites on the Internet, they often fall for myths or use incorrect information in their reports.  The 4th-8th grades have been investigated different websites using a list of 5 different criteria to analyze on how good a web source is.  I know this is an area that can sometimes fool the best of us, but we really need to validate the information we are citing or using in our teaching and school projects/reports.

Click here to watch a study done by a school in Great Britian.

Every class has finished their unit concerning online safety and cyberbullying.  These are becoming more and more important with all the technology advancements and social networking used today.  In the last book I read, this was the focus and main conflict in the story line (It was a murder mystery).

In the next few weeks, please check out the documents on my web page.  I will be posting some of the 7th & 8th grade projects.  Also please remember to stay involved in your child's online activity.  Jesus's command of "Do unto others as you would have them do unto you" should be carried through in the online communication as well.  Words can and do hurt.

The students continue to practice their keyboarding skills. All grades from 2nd grade up work on specific lessons the first several minutes of class.  The middle school have assessment tests after every few lessons.  We focus on a pair of keys and keep adding more each time. Several of the students are trying out the typing games on a special website link that I put together filled with free typing games. This link can be found under the Links section of my teacher page.  Have them try them at home.  Better yet - challenge each other! Extra practice never hurts!