Special Subjects

Media is a big, no scratch that… a HUGE part of our lives and it can seem overwhelming at times with DVD’s Cd’s, the Internet, online games, iPads, iPods, Kindles and of course the old fashioned television. Whilst it is important to grow up with knowledge of computers and all the new technology, it’s also important to have time away from it too and to limit our children’s time.

We teach Internet safety to Grades 2 and above but media nowadays is creeping in at an alarmingly young age. There are savvy 2 year olds on iPods and iPads and 3 year olds that know how to select a video on YouTube!

www.commonsensemedia.org is a site dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing trustworthy information and education, in order for kids to thrive in a world of media and technology.

The Family Media Agreement is a checklist you can use to guide conversations with your child about media use. It’s designed to help you establish guidelines and expectations around media use.  You can use it as a checklist to guide conversations or as a signed agreement. Either way, it’s a great way to help you and your kids get on the same page about media and technology use.

click here for the agreement.

Hope this makes you chuckle -

Life before the computer

Memory was something you lost with age

An application was for employment

A program was a T.V. show

A keyboard was a piano

A web was a spiders house

A virus was the flu

A hard drive was a long trip on the road

A mouse was a small furry rodent and of course…

…a mouse pad was somewhere a mouse lived!

Computer Classes Grade 4-6

Students in grades 4-6 have been focusing on two areas this term.  The first area that we have focused on is typing skills.  Typing (keyboarding) is an essential skill for students today!  Our students  have been working through a series of  lessons using a program called “Mavis Beacon”.   Several of our students are very close to finishing the advanced level!   We have about three weeks for them to work towards completing their typing goals this term.  Each grade level takes keyboarding skills every year!   

The second area that we have focused on this term is digital photography.   The objectives for this term were posted earlier.   Students have been taking a variety of photos and will be gathering photos for their digital portfolio, which is due at the end of January.  I have been very impressed with their creativity!  

Next term students will look at internet safety; how to use digital photos for a variety of projects; and using the internet effectively to conduct research, evaluate information, and use the information in projects.  

Our FBCS students love computers! It is a pleasure to teach to children who are so willing to learn and let’s face it, most children are facinated with our technology today. Having said that we need to know how to use a computer from a practical sense and also how to be safe when using it. Parents, click here for a great article on internet safety.

Kindergarten has come on in leaps and bounds recently. They are all confident turning on the computer, can all log on using thier username and password and can open and close programs and safely log off again. They are confident with mouse control and can double and single click with it, they also know how to use the scroll feature! We use a lot of educational based games to teach at this stage and are moving on to Microsoft Word to start to learn some keyboarding skills. All students know that an adult should be nearby and can ask if something unexpected occurs. This is a great skill to reinforce at home as well as no eating or drinking next to the computer. Also remember computer time counts as screen time and this should be limited at this age - here is a great article with some good advice.

Grade 1 are getting comfortable with Microsoft Word and can change font size and color. They can make capital letters and underline text too. Adding clip art and resizing it has been fun and we have been saving out work in our own folder. We continute to use educational games and are getting familar with where the keys are on our keyboard, so much that we are ready to start to learn our home keys and we use Tux Typing to play games to do this.

Grade 2are improving thier typing skills in PAWS TYPING and have been creating some fantastic work in Microsoft Word by underlining and aligning text and sentances. They can use bullet points and numbers and make it attractive with clipart. We have been continuing with Internet Safety and have been using Net Smartz Kids to learn all about how to stay safe, when to ask an adult and how to avoid spam mail too.

Grade 3have been producing some amazing work in Microsoft Word and have also learnt how to make a Power Point presentation. They excelled with this and presented their slideshow to the rest of the class. They have learnt to make bullet points, add pictures, sound clips, to make the transitions fun and to animate text too! We’ve also been adding to our online safety knowledge by learning all about the Wizziwigs on www.netsmartzkids.org 

Yes it’s true - Coach Claire likes computers. Both myself and the students are having lots of fun!

Kindergarten have been learning about the parts of the computer and rules in the lab, as well as mouse control and we just started Microsoft Word! We are learning to log on and how to open programs. Here are the things we are working on -

Grade 1 are building on the foundation from last term and are able to log on and open a program, they have great mouse control and have been creating some great drawings in Tux Paint. They are learning to insert clip art into a word document and are getting better at finding the right keys when typing.

Grades 2&3 have been learning about internet safety and did an online quiz on the cbbc website.

They created their own internet safety word document and have been improving thier typing on Paws Network and online in Dance Mat Typing at bbc.co.uk/schools.

Here’s to more computer fun in term 2!

Don’t tell anyone but I’m secretly thinking of teaching computer full time! The contrast to the noise of the gym and students actually staying mesmerised in their seats is very appealing. We’ve had a month transition as Mr Brent has been as busy as usual installing 22 new desktop computers and adding more laptops for our growing class numbers. Mr Brents last day is tomorrow (Sept 23) and he is going to be missed greatly. Mr Brent is one of those teaches that the kids adore because lets face it, he’s a big kids himself and loves to play soccer or shoot baskets at lunch, he plays just about every musical instrument, can sing, works the sound booth, helped with soccer club, ran a photography club and has done so much more in his 3 years at FBCS.

Thank you Mr Brent, you will be missed! But… we have your email and phone number for when those pesky technical questions arise!

(Check back soon for an update on computers and what our students have been working on.  Miss Janet is teaching grades 4-6 and I am teaching Grades K-3. )

Coach Claire

Here’s what we are working on in Computers these days:

Kindergarten

We are all experts now at logging in with a username and password. Some of us can log in using only the keyboard by pressing Tab to jump between text boxes and Enter to confirm. We are learning how to Maximize, Minimize and Restore our windows from the taskbar, and how to move windows around by grabbing the title bar with our mouse.

Grade 1

We’ve just been introduced to Paws the cat, who will help us learn how to position our fingers on the home row keys of a keyboard (ASDF and JKL;). We’re playing typing games that help us find the letters we’re looking for faster and faster.

Grade 2

We have been watching videos and playing games on the NetSmartzKids website, learning about online safety. We know that we should treat websites like strangers: unless an adult introduces a website to us, we should not trust it. We know not to chat with people online that we don’t know. We’ve talked a little bit about viruses and choosing good passwords. We’re becoming good citizens of the Internet.

Grade 3

Now that we’re all experts at using Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s time to focus again on keyboarding. In addition to building speed and accuracy using Paws and Mavis Beacon, we’re learning how to rely less on our slow and inaccurate mouse and more on using keyboard shortcuts. There’s a whole alphabet of shortcuts that use the Ctrl key, and we’re getting to know a number of them to speed up our work on the computer.

Grade 4

We’ve just taken a quiz on the basics of Microsoft Excel: rows, columns and cells; borders, colors and fonts; bar and pie charts and more. Now we’re taking a detour on the information superhighway. What is the Internet? Who created it? How does it work? Why do we type “http://fbcs.edu.ky” if we want to visit the school website? Is Google actually a source of information? Is the World Wide Web synonymous with the Internet as a whole, or is there a distinction?

Grade 5/6

We are learning a new language. It’s a strange one, pretty close to English, but oddly punctuated. It’s called HTML and it’s the language of the World Wide Web. We’re using it to create our own web pages. They’re pretty basic now, but once we start adding images and colors, it’s going to get fun.

It was a great start to the school year in Computers at FBCS, and we’re now getting into Term 2.  Here’s what we’re doing in ICT these days:

Kindergarten - Almost all of us can now type our username and password to log in with some help, and many can log in all by ourselves.  We’re working on coordination using a mouse by playing some games, such as those found at kindersite.org, and discovering what different keys on the keyboard are for.

Grade 1 - We’re learning how to manipulate windows on our screen.  We’ve discovered how to move a window by dragging its Title Bar, resize it by grabbing the resize handles, and Maximize, Minimize, Restore and Close our windows.

Grade 2 - We’ve learned about how files can be saved in folders, and even how folders can be put inside other folders.  Like the Grade 1s, we’ve reviewed how to Maximize, Minimize and Restore windows, and have been improving our keyboard through games like Tux Typing.

Grade 3 - We’re just starting our major unit for this year: Microsoft PowerPoint.  We’ve learned how to insert, format and delete slides in our presentations.  We’re adding text and clipart, and some of us have added cool transitions between our slides.

Grade 4 - We’re carrying on with Microsoft Excel, while always going back to keyboarding, making sure we’re using our home keys (ASDF and JKL;) when we type.  Those who have ‘graduated’ from Paws in Typing Town are now using Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing to improve accuracy and speed.

Grade 5/6 - Now that we’ve finished reviewing PowerPoint, we’re into everybody’s favorite program: Scratch.  Scratch is a programming environment created at MIT that allows students to “create and share” their own “interactive stories, games, music and art”.  We’ll be learning the basics of computer programming: algorithms, control structures, variables, and so on.  Scratch is free to download at home as well, and is a great way for students to put their brains to use when on the computer.  Of course, we’re also carrying on with keyboarding, working at improving our accuracy and speed while touch typing.

We’ve been busy in computer classes!  Every class from Grade 2 up to Grade 6 is working on keyboarding, and a number of other skills as well.  Here’s what we’re learning:

Kindergarten:

We’re getting used to logging in using a user name and password.  After that, double-clicking the icon for our favorite games is next challenge before we’re off having fun!

Grade 1:

We’re learning to find the letters on our keyboard more quickly using the fun (and free!) game Tux Typing.

Grade 2:

We’ve learned how to save our work in a folder with our name, then find and open that file again later.  We’ve also learned our home row keys: we know where to put our fingers when we’re typing on a keyboard.  Our friend Paws is teaching us how to type.

Grade 3:

We’ve been rapidly improving our touch typing technique.  Paws and Mavis Beacon help us find our home keys and reach for the right keys with the right fingers.  When we’re not typing, we’re learning to define files and folders, and navigate through a filesystem using Windows Explorer.

Grade 4:

We’ve just finished reviewing Microsoft PowerPoint by giving presentations about our summer holidays.  Now we’re getting the basics of Microsoft Excel under our belt by creating a word search.  We’re working on resizing columns and rows, entering data and formatting cells.  We’ve seen a bit of what Excel can do with numbers, but we’ll stick to the easy stuff for now.

Grade 5/6:

We’re also reviewing Microsoft PowerPoint, though we’re tackling a bigger topic.  Each student is presenting on the pros and cons of doing research using the Internet or the library.  We’re taking note of the shortcomings of the Internet, learning how to identify trustworthy sources, and practicing citing our sources in our work.

Welcome to a new year of Computers at FBCS!  Most of us are starting the year by making sure we remember what we learned last year.

In Grades 2 and 3, we are writing about our summer holidays in Microsoft Word, adding clip art to illustrate our short stories, and saving the document to our My Documents folder.

In Grade 4, we are telling the same story using Microsoft PowerPoint.  We should know by now how to add new slides, choose a design, animate our text entrances and add transitions between slides.  We’ll soon see if we also remember correct presentation manners, such as facing our audience and not reading aloud from the screen.

In Grade 5/6, we’re quickly reviewing Microsoft Excel: where to put column headings, how to average a column of numbers, and how to format our cells.

Once we’ve caught up to where we should all be now, we’ll press on with an exciting new year of learning and discovery in Computers!

For the last month of school, here’s what we’ll be doing in computer classes:

Kindergarten - We’ve spent nine months working on the basics of using a computer.  It’s time to have some fun!

Grade 1 - We’re getting to be experts at touch typing.  We should all know by now exactly where to place our fingers on the keyboard, even though it’s a long stretch for some of us.  We’ve also just learned how to save our work into a folder, and open it again later.

Grade 2 - We’re learning how to organize our files and folders.  We know how to navigate through folders to find specific files.  Next up, creating our own folders.

Grade 3 - We’re focusing now on typing without looking down at our hands.  It’s often hard and frustrating, but we’re improving with practice, and will be even better if we always type properly at home, too!

Grade 4-6 - We know what it means to “Photoshop” a picture, now we’re learning how to manipulate digital images.  We’re learning the same skills and concepts you need to use Adobe Photoshop (layers, cropping, transparency, selections, and color adjustments) but doing it with software you can use at home too.  Just download Paint.NET from here!