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Tech class blog

Nov. 18 - Students used the link regarding ecosystems on Mrs. Smith's page to read about field studies relating to Mexican Wildcats. I recorded my voice reading the segments so that they could listen and follow along with the text. This will be in preparation for creating a food web.

Nov. 11 - Because of National Young Readers' Day our time was a little shorter. Students worked on keyboarding skills. Be sure to use the link to online keyboarding practice at the bottom of this page to continue working on keyboarding at home. *** There were no first quarter graded assignments. All activities were done in conjunction with projects in the fourth grade curriculum and Mrs. Smith. Students received a G for effort and participation.

Nov. 4 - Students used already collected images or saved images if they had not done so for the Guinea Pig booklet. We inserted the images and learned about text wrapping for images.

Oct. 28 - We created a folder within the network folder in which to save images to be used in the Guinea Pig project.  We also practiced copy the image link to a document so as to give credit to our sources.

Oct. 21 - We reviewed how to bookmark sites and add shortcuts to the desktop so that students could apply that skill to their laptops. We practiced on the Rand McNally site as that would be one frequently visited in class.

Oct. 7 - 14 - Students worked on entering information into their blog pages. Avatars were created to represent themselves and 5 sentences were entered in the "About Me" section of the sidebar.

Sept. 30 - We had technology in the classroom today because of the mile run activity. Students received a signature form that needs to be returned. Please be sure to sign both sides. The form is general and indicates some activities that 4th graders may not have experienced yet. We discussed Internet safety issues and will continue to do so.

In their assignment books I asked the students to copy the website classblogmeister.com, but there is also a direct link to the class blog site at the top of this page. In addition they wrote down their usernames and passwords so they would be able to access from home when necessary. I have asked them to compose 5 sentences for the About the Blogger section on their page. They may view what other students have done so far in grades 5 through 8. They need to bring these sentences, already proofread, to class next Wednesday so they can be typed into the correct box on the Control Panel.

We also looked at 2 online typing programs. The links are at the bottom of this page. We will soon be doing some keyboarding skills but with a once a week 45 minute time slot this skill cannot be mastered in school. Please allow them as much time as possible to work on keyboarding skills at home. We discussed speed skins and free alternatives to cover the keyboard so positions can be memorized.

Sept. 23 - Students learned how to create desktop shortcuts on their lab PCs to the previously bookmarked blog and schoolnotes pages. They also had time to practice the review games set up by Mrs. Smith on her schoolnotes site.

Sept. 16 - We used the Google Chrome browser and navigated to the technology class schoolnotes page and bookmarked the page. We also bookmarked the tech class blog page and students were introduce to the idea of blogging and the blogging challenge. We will do our best to participate in some way but progress is slow because we also need to work on listening skills and the idea that you cannot talk while directions or demonstrations are being given and still understand what to do.

I asked students to access the tech class blog and click on the avatar link to be able to have an idea of what avatar design they would like on their pages and to read what some of the other students have currently written in their About Me section so they would be prepared to fill it in next week. The same password will be used for the network and for the blog site to eliminate confusion.