TechTime Specialist Newsletter: March 2014 - End of Trimester 2
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TechTime Specialist Newsletter: December 2013 - End of Trimester 1
Grade 2
Students attend Tech Time for 33 minutes once every eight school days as part of our Library/Technology specialist rotation. The focus of Tech Time is to help students develop their technology and computer literacy skills.
During the first trimester second graders have worked to answer these focus questions: 1. What is collaboration? We learned that collaboration is similar to teamwork. It involves setting a goal and then working together with others to reach our goal. Our Daily Announcements have a closing statement this year that reminds us of the importance of setting goals and working toward them--"Let's set goals and face our challenges, Park Elementary!" 2. How do you stay safe when you are online? Second Graders learned about online safety through their new animated robot friend named Clicky. As I mentioned in the flyer sent home earlier this fall, NetSmartz.com provides many helpful resources for parents, teachers, teens, and kids on their websites. The online safety rules that students learned are: 1) I will tell my trusted adult if anything makes me feel sad, scared, or confused. 2) I will ask my trusted adult before sharing information like my name, address, and phone number. 3. What does “learn by doing” mean? We spent time discussing the idea that so many life skills (especially technology skills) are best learned by trying and learning from our mistakes. We practiced collaborative activities and then worked to improve our efficient mouse skills. 4. What is the purpose of a word processing computer program? By breaking down the compound word 'word processor' students learned about the basic functions of a word processor. Skills we focused on included, new document, cursor, Enter, keyboard/keyboarding, selecting, font (including size, bold, italic, underline, color). 5. How do word processor tools help us share our ideas? Continuing our learning about the word processor, students typed lists and practiced their skills of keyboarding, selecting, and using font tools. We learned about how fonts, sizes, and colors affect how people understand our words. 6. How do graphics help others better understand our ideas? Second graders learned about how to insert clipart (graphics) into a document to help people better understand our ideas. We learned about using graphics that fit the topic and not just something that's fun. As we move into the second trimester we are learning about using graphics to help us share our ideas as well as about how advertisers use technology and how to be a wise consumer of technology. Click here to visit the TechTime website. You can also find the site by going to our school website and choosing Park Elementary School. Then under the “For Students” menu you’ll find Tech Time. In addition to resources for each grade level, you’ll also find a page just for you--Tech Tips for Parents. This site has helpful information and tips for parents regarding your children’s technology use and more details about what students are learning in TechTime. You can also find it on the Park Elementary website under the For Parents tab. |
Grade 3
Students attend Tech Time for 33 minutes once every eight school days as part of our Library/Technology specialist rotation. The focus of Tech Time is to help students develop their technology and computer literacy skills.
During the first trimester third graders have worked to answer these focus questions: 1. What is collaboration? We learned that collaboration is similar to teamwork. It involves setting a goal and then working together with others to reach our goal. Our Daily Announcements have a closing statement this year that reminds us of the importance of setting goals and working toward them--"Let's set goals and face our challenges, Park Elementary!" 2. How do you stay safe when you are online? Third Graders learned more about online safety when Clicky the animated robot introduced them to Nettie and Websiter. As I mentioned in the flyer sent home earlier this fall, NetSmartz.com provides many helpful resources for parents, teachers, teens, and kids on their websites. We reviewed the online safety rules from second grade and added a third: 1) I will tell my trusted adult if anything makes me feel sad, scared, or confused. 2) I will ask my trusted adult before sharing information like my name, address, and phone number. 3) I won't meet face-to-face with anyone that I have only met online. 3. What does “learn by doing” mean? We spent time discussing the idea that so many life skills (especially technology skills) are best learned by trying and learning from our mistakes. We practiced collaborative activities and then worked to improve our efficient mouse skills. 4. What is the purpose of a word processing computer program? By breaking down the compound word 'word processor' students learned about the basic functions of a word processor. Skills we focused on included, new document, cursor, Enter, keyboard/keyboarding, selecting, font (including size, bold, italic, underline, color), and alignment. 5. How do word processor tools help us share our ideas? Third graders spent some time reviewing the basic word processing skills and then learned about inserting clipart (graphics) into a word processing document. 6. How do graphics help others better understand our ideas? To practice our newly learned word process skills, students used a poem template to edit the text and then replaced words in the poem with graphics (i.e. the word chair is replaced with a chair graphic). We then learned about using Print Preview and printing documents. As we move into the second trimester we are learning about how to safely use our online KerPoof accounts as well as how advertisers use technology and how to be a wise consumer of technology. Click here to visit the TechTime website. You can also find the site by going to our school website and choosing Park Elementary School. Then under the “For Students” menu you’ll find Tech Time. In addition to resources for each grade level, you’ll also find a page just for you--Tech Tips for Parents. This site has helpful information and tips for parents regarding your children’s technology use and more details about what students are learning in TechTime. You can also find it on the Park Elementary website under the For Parents tab. |
Grade 4
Students attend Tech Time for 33 minutes once every eight school days as part of our Library/Technology specialist rotation. The focus of Tech Time is to help students develop their technology and computer literacy skills.
During the first trimester fourth graders have worked to answer these focus questions: 1. What is collaboration? We learned that collaboration is similar to teamwork. It involves setting a goal and then working together with others to reach our goal. Our Daily Announcements have a closing statement this year that reminds us of the importance of setting goals and working toward them--"Let's set goals and face our challenges, Park Elementary!" 2. How do you stay safe when you are online? Fourth Graders learned more about online safety By visiting the NetSmartz neighborhood to celebrate Router's birthday. The NetSmartz kids and Clicky taught us more about staying safe online as we prepared a surprise party for Router the robot dog. As I mentioned in the flyer sent home earlier this fall, NetSmartz.com provides many helpful resources for parents, teachers, teens, and kids on their websites. We reviewed the three online safety rules from previous years and added a new one about having good manners online: 1) I will tell my trusted adult if anything makes me feel sad, scared, or confused. 2) I will ask my trusted adult before sharing information like my name, address, and phone number. 3) I won't meet face-to-face with anyone that I have only met online. 4)I will always use good netiquette and not be rude or mean online. 3. What does “learn by doing” mean? We spent time discussing the idea that so many life skills (especially technology skills) are best learned by trying and learning from our mistakes. We practiced collaborative activities and then worked to improve our efficient mouse skills. 4. What is the purpose of a word processing computer program? Students reviewed basic word processor skills including filling in an online MadLib, selecting the text, copying the text, pasting the text into Word, and saving the document. 5. How do word processor tools help us share our ideas? We opened our saved Word MadLib file and worked to edit it including spelling/grammer, font, size, and alignment. 6. How do graphics help others better understand our ideas? Fourth graders added graphics (clipart) to their MadLib document and learned about the Wrap Text function which allowed them to move their graphics around the document and fit the words around them. Students then printed their final draft of the document. As we move into the second trimester we are learning the basics of keyboarding and about how advertisers use technology and how to be a wise consumer of technology. Fourth grade classes are taking turns having small groups of students work to record our Daily Announcements. Mr. Durheim works with small groups of students each day to record the audio along with prepared slides to create a video. The completed video is then shared and all classrooms at Park Elementary watch the Announcements each day. Click here to visit the TechTime website. You can also find the site by going to our school website and choosing Park Elementary School. Then under the “For Students” menu you’ll find Tech Time. In addition to resources for each grade level, you’ll also find a page just for you--Tech Tips for Parents. This site has helpful information and tips for parents regarding your children’s technology use and more details about what students are learning in TechTime. You can also find it on the Park Elementary website under the For Parents tab. |
Grade 5
Students attend Tech Time for 33 minutes once every
eight school days as part of our Library/Technology specialist rotation. The
focus of Tech Time is to help students develop their technology and computer
literacy skills.During the first trimester fifth graders have worked to answer these focus questions:
1. What is collaboration? We learned that collaboration is similar to teamwork. It involves setting a goal and then working together with others to reach our goal. Our Daily Announcements have a closing statement this year that reminds us of the importance of setting goals and working toward them--"Let's set goals and face our challenges, Park Elementary!" 2. How do you stay safe when you are online? Fifth graders spent some time hanging out with Garfield and his alter ego "Professor Garfield". They learned about how Nermal the cat was bullied online (cyberbullying) and they learned along with Nermal how to handle online bullies. As the flyer that was sent home with students earlier this fall stated, Garfield taught students "Don't be yap about your YAPPY online!" Y = Your name A = Address P = Phone number P = Password Y = Your plans Did your child come home and tell you that they learned not to "Yap about your yappy online"? 3. What does “learn by doing” mean? We spent time discussing the idea that so many life skills (especially technology skills) are best learned by trying and learning from our mistakes. We practiced collaborative activities and then worked to improve our efficient mouse skills. 4. Nermal just signed up for a new online account. What online safety advice would you give him? Students learned about their Google Apps for Education accounts. We reviewed how to stay safe online and the importance of keeping passwords secure. Students also learned the importance of signing out (logging off) of a website or computer when they finish working. 5. How do we create, edit, and organize in Google Drive? Students explored the four main types of files that can be created in their Google Drive. We practiced organizing, deleting, and restoring files. 6. How does our Google account help us collaborate? Students practice writing a friendly letter. Then they learned how to share the file with a classmate and collaborate on the same document. In the following class, students will practice creating a document for an assignment and turning it in by sharing with a teacher. As we move into the second trimester we are learning more about efficient use of our Google accounts as well as how advertisers use technology and how to be a wise consumer of technology. Fifth graders have also had the opportunity to work in small groups to record our Daily Announcements. Mr. Durheim works with small groups of students each day to record the audio along with prepared slides to create a video. The completed video is then shared and all classrooms at Park Elementary watch the Announcements each day. Click here to visit the TechTime website. You can also find the site by going to our school website and choosing Park Elementary School. Then under the “For Students” menu you’ll find Tech Time. In addition to resources for each grade level, you’ll also find a page just for you--Tech Tips for Parents. This site has helpful information and tips for parents regarding your children’s technology use and more details about what students are learning in TechTime. You can also find it on the Park Elementary website under the For Parents tab. |