2014-15 School Year is Off to a Great Start!

The 2014-15 school year started off a little slow for computers.  We spent the first week just going over basics of the class like routines, the syllabus, class fees, etc.  During weeks 2 and 3 and even into week 4 we were administering the MAP tests (Measures of Academic Progress) that is used by the district to help monitor growth of students throughout the year in the areas of Reading and Math.  We then finished off week 4 by doing the course pre-assessment and introducing the students to keyboarding though various activities.  They began by working a paper keyboard as they finished MAP testing and were waiting for others to finish.  The paper keyboard is a tool that they can use while they work on their keyboarding lessons.  Since they will have keyboard covers on while doing their lessons, the paper keyboard serves several functions:

1. It allow the students to become familiar with the layout of the keyboard as they write in the letter, number and symbols on the black keys.
2. It helps them learn what finger to key the letters with by color coding the keyboard and the fingers on the hands pictured at the bottom of the paper.
3. It can be used to locate letters on the keyboard while the keyboard covers are on.
4. It helps train the students not to look down at their keyboards while they are typing.

Students will work on about two keyboarding lessons a week while doing mini lessons on other parts of our curriculum.  Some topics we have covered so far include:

• Using Moodle
• Coding and the skills it will help them develop
• Creating Avatars and why we use them
• Updating Profiles and creating tags to search for other user with similar interests

The students seem to be enjoying most of the class work so far.  Okay, so they don't all enjoy keyboarding, but that's pretty common when starting off.  Remember your keyboarding classes in high school, most people will say they were pretty boring and how they dreaded them, but now they are glad that they learned it. There are some fun keyboarding games that I will be introducing them to soon to help keep them motivated.

So, that's the update for now!

Have a great day!

Mrs. Meany