Many of our recent newsletter articles have addressed our one-to-one laptop program. This program is being implemented this year in the 7th and 8th grades and will be extended to the entire middle school (school owned computers) and high school (family owned computers) next year. One may ask, “What about elementary school?” This article will address our current technology program for our younger students, highlighting ways we prepare them with 21st century skills.
Elementary school students work both in the lab and in the classroom on integrated projects as well as acquiring and reinforcing basic skills, sometimes through whole class instruction with the use of Smartboards and projectors and other times individually or in small groups on computers.
The kindergarten, first and second graders have a weekly time in the computer lab and third, fourth and fifth graders visit the lab according to projects they are working on. There are times when weeks may pass between projects but there are other times when these students may work in the lab twice or three times a day!
K-2 children’s weekly classes alternate between using educational software and online activities that reinforce topics covered in class and doing integrated audio, video and graphics projects. Some of the programs used include:
• Kidpix - Graphics (Grades K, 1 and 2)
• Mango Plumo Space and Weather (Grade 2)
• Fun with Architecture (Grades K and 1)
• Millie’s Math House, Sammy’s Science House and Trudy’s Time (Grades K, 1 and 2)
• Map Machine (Grade 1)
• Scholastic Keys (Grades 1-2)
Lower elementary students’ activities and work can be viewed by logging in to the class’ Blackboard site. Here’s how you do this:
1. Go to Blackboard by clicking on “Blackboard” on the right hand side of our school site or by going there directly at http://nesa.blackboard.com
2. Log in with the username “esfamily.wbais.il” and password “ShalomK-5”
3. Click on your child’s grade
4. Click on “Computer Projects”
An integral part of our third and fourth grade program is keyboarding. All third and new fourth graders have basic keyboarding classes and returning fourth graders work on improving their skills. Students in these grades also work with images to create presentations (i.e. the third grade rock project) and they do some guided research through selected sites (i.e. fourth grade sea mammals work). Fourth graders are introduced to Inspiration to brainstorm and learn formatting as they word process various projects throughout the year. This year third and fourth graders are also invited to contribute to our library’s WBAIS Book Review Blog, preparing them for future digital collaboration projects.
Our oldest elementary school students jump fully into the world of the Internet and Web 2.0 tools. Participating in the NE/SA Virtual Science Fair for 5th Graders (NVSF5th), these kids contribute to group blogs and wikis, produce multimedia projects and collaborate with high school mentors in another school. In addition, fifth graders learn research skills through various social studies and science projects, produce various types of digital projects, and they participate in grade level Blackboard blogs about literature and more.
Getting school email accounts, independently researching via the Internet and using Web 2.0 tools may be new to many fifth graders. As a result, digital citizenship is emphasized with them and lessons are taught in web etiquette, advanced searching and Internet safety. It is our hope that these skills, along with all technology skills covered in elementary school, will serve as a solid base for our students as they enter our one-to-one program and throughout their lives.
Happy Holidays from the entire tech team! See you next year!
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