TypingWeb is a free online typing tutor & keyboarding tutorial for typists of all skill levels.
Create a teacher portal, add students and track their progress. There are lessons from homerow keys to speed drills. TypingWeb also has games for students to increase their skills, just note not all of the games can be accessed in the district.
Here is an Education World article about keyboarding - when to teach, suggestions for teaching keyboarding. You'll need to scroll down the page a bit to see the article.
Anyone using a keyboarding activity in the classroom?
Monday, August 30, 2010
Sunday, August 29, 2010
Ready for Class Blogging?
I can't believe that two weeks of school have already passed. This year I have the largest class I've had yet with 29 third graders. I am ready to teach them how to blog. That is my goal this week. I posted a video on my blog about drought in the Philippines. Students will need to watch the video and then answer some questions about what they watched. I hope it will encourage my students to become more invested in the topic of natural disasters that we are currently studying. Has anyone else started blogging with students yet? Any suggestions about how to make it go smoothly with so many students? Visit our class blog at: http://rmtwentyone.blogspot.com/
Classroom Website Feedback
After a ton of time and many revisions, I finally think my classroom website if good to go. I am really after creating a useful tool for students and parents, so with that in mind I would love any and all feedback. I don't want something that just looks nice, but something that will truly contribute to the success of my students.
I am trying to integrate a classroom blog into the site so does the way I did this work. I have a separate blog site, but wanted to pull it into the google site so that students/parents only need one link.
So here it is acms6gradescience ... take a look and please give me some serious critical feedback. Am I missing anything? Overdoing it? etc
Thanks, Jim Haynes
I am trying to integrate a classroom blog into the site so does the way I did this work. I have a separate blog site, but wanted to pull it into the google site so that students/parents only need one link.
So here it is acms6gradescience ... take a look and please give me some serious critical feedback. Am I missing anything? Overdoing it? etc
Thanks, Jim Haynes
Getting My Feet Wet
I have been so motivated for school this year knowing that it will be a year of risk taking and learning. I have started a wiki on the Themes in Storytown so each child will be able to post an essay while researching. I also have been using the Smartboard everyday. I have created a weekly notebook of plans for the first story in Storytown,and tonight...will get started on story 2.
Creating a daily notebook for the 90 minute reading sequence takes some time, but day to day, I am able to walk in and be prepared. I have incorporated some fun interactive, supplemental and enrichment activities that makes learning fun. The student's engagement is huge. I am still using the whiteboards, signals, etc, but the smartboard lessons make it so much more interesting for my students, and honestly me too!
I created the same for the new Weekly Writing sequence. I am able to capture the storytown graphic organizers and practice pages with the camera from the website. It is so convenient.
Math is where I find it to be the most helpful. There are some great resources out there that follow McGraw Hill math concepts,and I also created some of my own. I use the Smartboard lessons as a review of the day before.
I have read how other teachers are using the Smartboard for attendance and other parts of the day. I have created a spinner for how the children will read the core story,(ie:choral read, boys only,girls only,echo read etc) and a spinner to line up by tables. It is so simple, yet the children love it.
My next endeavor will be trying to incorporate the clickers more, and getting to work on the Wiki.
Creating a daily notebook for the 90 minute reading sequence takes some time, but day to day, I am able to walk in and be prepared. I have incorporated some fun interactive, supplemental and enrichment activities that makes learning fun. The student's engagement is huge. I am still using the whiteboards, signals, etc, but the smartboard lessons make it so much more interesting for my students, and honestly me too!
I created the same for the new Weekly Writing sequence. I am able to capture the storytown graphic organizers and practice pages with the camera from the website. It is so convenient.
Math is where I find it to be the most helpful. There are some great resources out there that follow McGraw Hill math concepts,and I also created some of my own. I use the Smartboard lessons as a review of the day before.
I have read how other teachers are using the Smartboard for attendance and other parts of the day. I have created a spinner for how the children will read the core story,(ie:choral read, boys only,girls only,echo read etc) and a spinner to line up by tables. It is so simple, yet the children love it.
My next endeavor will be trying to incorporate the clickers more, and getting to work on the Wiki.
Smart Response System
So far I have loved using the Smart Response System (clickers)! I have used them for some "getting to know you" activities for the first days of school, and on Friday we used them for the weekly reading test and a math test. The best part is, the tests were instantly graded and the students and I could review their answers together. They love that it shows if they are right or wring right on their own clicker. I think I am ready to move to more advanced uses, if anyone has any suggestions. For now, I will just keep experimenting :)
Saturday, August 28, 2010
Smartboard Saves My Life!!
Pardon the dramatic title but I honestly am blown away by all the possibilities of using a Smartboard in the classroom and the HUGE increase in student engagment and the HUGE decrease in the amount of planning time I am doing on the weekends. (wait a minute, its saturday and i am writing this....hmmmm, oh well :) ).
So I am using the Smartboard from the minute my students come in and take their own attendance on it, through every subject, and through every busy minute where I reward positive class behavior with marbles they can move into our marble "jar"!
I have downloaded a ton of lessons and have actually really enjoyed making some of my own. I created a Science Notebook lesson that I felt went well. We had not started our FOSS kits yet so we did an experiment with GAK to start learning about how scientists ask questions, make predictions, and observations. The students made a prediction about what we would use to make GAK and dragged the item into a table on the Smartboard. Then I linked a youtube of other kids making GAK for the procedure. Last I took video of them making GAK and sharing observations and inserted one onto the Notebook file. It was pretty successful though I still have a LOT to learn about dealing with video files!!! I wanted to attach this lesson to my wetpaint site but the file was too big. Any advice?
Just to show a bit of what is on the Notebook lesson, here is a video of two kiddos describing their gak.....super amateur video on my part but its a start!
Thanks!
Jenny
So I am using the Smartboard from the minute my students come in and take their own attendance on it, through every subject, and through every busy minute where I reward positive class behavior with marbles they can move into our marble "jar"!
I have downloaded a ton of lessons and have actually really enjoyed making some of my own. I created a Science Notebook lesson that I felt went well. We had not started our FOSS kits yet so we did an experiment with GAK to start learning about how scientists ask questions, make predictions, and observations. The students made a prediction about what we would use to make GAK and dragged the item into a table on the Smartboard. Then I linked a youtube of other kids making GAK for the procedure. Last I took video of them making GAK and sharing observations and inserted one onto the Notebook file. It was pretty successful though I still have a LOT to learn about dealing with video files!!! I wanted to attach this lesson to my wetpaint site but the file was too big. Any advice?
Just to show a bit of what is on the Notebook lesson, here is a video of two kiddos describing their gak.....super amateur video on my part but its a start!
Thanks!
Jenny
Friday, August 27, 2010
Smartboard and Attendance
I hope everyone's school year is off to a good start!
I found a really cool smartboard slide for morning attendance that I would like to share. It is very simple, but helps a lot and the kids love it!
It is only 1 slide, and consists of balloons with each child's name on one.
Every morning my students come in and pop the balloon with their name on it.
It is a quick and easy way to take attendance, and helps because it seems that the kids are a little more mobile and not in their desks since we are now serving breakfast in the classroom.
The only down fall to this is that I don't find it very user friendly. I had to adjust the names to be in a bigger font and that was a little difficult. I found that I had to go to the "fonts/letters" and type it in that way. If anyone else knows an easier way to do this, please, please let me know.
Sara
I found a really cool smartboard slide for morning attendance that I would like to share. It is very simple, but helps a lot and the kids love it!
It is only 1 slide, and consists of balloons with each child's name on one.
Every morning my students come in and pop the balloon with their name on it.
It is a quick and easy way to take attendance, and helps because it seems that the kids are a little more mobile and not in their desks since we are now serving breakfast in the classroom.
The only down fall to this is that I don't find it very user friendly. I had to adjust the names to be in a bigger font and that was a little difficult. I found that I had to go to the "fonts/letters" and type it in that way. If anyone else knows an easier way to do this, please, please let me know.
Sara
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