Week of August 13, 2012

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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!











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