Hello Everyone:
This year the Littleton Middle School is offering Computer class to all three grades. During the first four weeks of school, we have spent much ofthis time keyboarding. The Massachusetts Frameworks states that students shoulddemonstrate 25-30 wpm with fewer than five errors before leaving middle school.While many of the kids are not quite there yet, most of the students demonstrate thecorrect techniques. Practice, practice, practice and the students should reachthis goal!

Each day, we take a typing test at www.typingtest.com and record our scores inan Excel file. We will use this data later in the year to plot our progress. Weuse www.typingweb.com for our daily lessons. I've noticed the kids that keeptheir fingers on the home row improve the most. At the end of some of our classes,the students are allowed to play different typing games found atwww.freetypinggame.net and www.play.typeracer.net.These "games" reinforce the skills they need to acquire.

The 6^thgraders are creating their Cooltoad email accounts and will soon start designing their receiptsfor Enterprising People. We will be using tables in Microsoft Word for thisproject.

The 7^thgraders will be reviewing Microsoft Excel. We will then work on a project usingsort, graphs and functions.

The 8^thgraders are working on computer terms and definitions that will help themtroubleshoot potential computer issues they might face. They will be giventhree different scenarios to research and will work in groups to develop a solution.