Week of August 13, 2012

-
Welcome to Technology Lab! This is our first week of school! Things will be different for you in the lab this year.

 If you are a student in 3, 6, or 8th grade part of your time will still be spent working in KidBiz3000/TeenBiz3000. If you forget the steps of the program or forget your password please see me.

What will be new for you this year will be learning about new technology skills. Sometimes we'll work to integrate technology projects your teachers have started. Other times we'll work on Web 2.0 applications or word processing documents. If there is something you'd like me to focus on this year please let me know.

Grades K-3
Kindergarten, 1st & 2nd grade are new to lab! This week we focused on learning the parts of the computer. In lab we learned:
-the proper names of computer parts (CPU, monitor, keyboard, mouse & LCD projector)
-how to turn the monitor on and off
-the three parts of the mouse:  the left side we use our pointer finger on, the middle wheel that moves the webpage up or down, and the right side that we keep our middle finger on
-what an internet browser is and how to launch the internet
-when we double click (to open a program) and when to click one time (to go to a website on the Internet)
-how to enter a URL and get to a website
-how to close the internet

For kindergarten and 1st grade students we focused on practicing using the mouse by playing games.  Our site this week was ABCya.com.  The 2nd & 3rd grade classrooms enjoyed this too!

Second grade students had a chance to visit ABCya as well but they also learned how to begin typing using Microsoft Word!  We typed basic sentences about our names, our families, and what kinds of things we liked.  Students focused on typing sentences using capital letters and periods.  We even learned how to change font and color!

The ISTE standard covered for this lesson was:
6A: Understand and use technology systems

5th-8th Grade
While the 5th-8th grade students can use some help with typing I decided to make this first week an introduction to Web 2.0.  We did this by creating Wordles.
Wordles are visual graphics called "word clouds".  Students had a chance to create Wordles on any topic of their choice.  Many made Wordles about themselves.  The second and third graders got into the action as well!   ABCya has a word cloud application for little ones and they used that application.

The ISTE standards covered for this lesson were:
1A:  apply existing knowledge to generate new ideas, products or processes
2B: communicate information and ideas effectively to multiple audiences using a variety of media and formats

Here's some samples!











Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Water the Flowers, Not the Rocks: Tips from 10 Years of Instructional Coaching

-
This June I wrapped up ten years of instructional technology coaching. Soon (tomorrow, in fact) I will begin a new journey in my career where I will still utilize my coaching skills but in a different capacity. This new opportunity has caused me to reflect on lessons learned throughout my time as a school-based coach. If you are a coach or aspire to be one following are ten tips I've learned during my ten years in the role. Be a model . Practice what you preach! If you want your teachers to join Twitter make sure you are already there. If they would like to try a new tool or lesson familiarize yourself with it first in order to lend additional support. Be honest . If you don't know something, say so. As a coach, your faculty will look to you as an expert. There have been several times throughout my career that I've said, "I don't know that tool/concept/strategy but let me see what I can find out about it." If you are a former classroom teacher, remind peo
Read more

Understanding Plagiarism

-
Image
Our middle school is 1:1 with Chromebooks so students spend a fair amount of time researching topics online.  A teacher noticed there is a lot of copying and pasting of information by students and asked me to come in and have a conversation about plagiarism.  I developed a Prezi with an accompanying notes guide for the students to complete as I presented the content to them.  The Prezi and notes guide are below.  As we wrapped up the students were able to use their Chromebooks for a bit of fun (with a topic that isn't so fun).  We played a Kahoot game where they reviewed concepts about plagiarism from their guide.  They loved it!  What I loved is that Kahoot also provides a summary of student responses to the game- I can see which students missed specific questions which allows me to follow up if needed. Resources used in the presentation (good for teachers and students): http://www.plagiarism.org http://en.writecheck.com (this has a plagiarism checker available) https://o
Read more

ChatGPT for Educators

-
 In February 2023 I authored a blog post for ISTE . Below is the piece.  In my three decades in education, I’ve come to learn many things. One is that change moves at a snail’s pace until something steps in to challenge the status quo.  Enter ChatGPT.  As you’ve no doubt heard, since this artificial intelligence program became freely available to the public, ChatGPT has made educators nervous, excited and curious about the impact it will have on our field.  Once resources became available, I curated a list of the pieces I felt educators should engage with to gain an understanding of ChatGPT. I shared this list with a small professional learning network I belong to. One of the members of the PLN took the resources and created an  easy-to-read detailed slide deck , which was then publicly shared throughout our networks, including the ISTE community forum  ISTE Connect . While I encourage you to look through our guide in its entirety, here are five recommendations that are a great place t
Read more