Students' tech grades from me will now be Pass/Fail. Pass/Fail grades will be determined by correct completion of assignments, showing that they have learned the skill being taught. I am very happy that the focus will be on LEARNING, rather than getting a good grade.

Third grade is sharing a cart of Chromebooks this year between the two classes. That is very exciting, for the students and for their teachers. They will be learning a lot this year!

We focus more on keyboarding in third grade, but are changing the way we do it this year! Reading the Back to School letter (link above) will fill you in on the changes. They will learn about correct finger placement, and posture. We will talk about how important it is to not stare at a screen, any screen, for too long. Did you know that on average we blink 12-15 times a minute, but when staring at a screen, we tend to only blink 3-4 times a minute? This causes dry eye syndrome, and eye strain. It's important for everyone to take frequent, short breaks from staring at a screen, be it computer, phone, TV, or tablet. 

2/14/19
This week the students in third grade practiced their 3rd grade Math skills on the new and improved Starfall.com, and on abcya.com. They did a really great job! Next week, they will practice their keyboarding skills again.

2/8/19
Our third grade students learned to enter data in a spreadsheet, and use it create a bar graph. They then were able to change the color of each bar to match the candy color it represted. Oh, their data was Valentine conversation hearts!

Next week, those who still need to complete their Grace Before Meals will do so. The others will practice math skills on abcya.com.

2/1/19
I'm so sad I didn't get to see 3B this week due to an internet outage. But, they will make up the class on Monday. 3A typed up Grace Before Meals. This involved them changing font formatting, centering the document, using punctuation and correct spacing. Spelling and capitalization were very important! This gave me the opportunity to assess how they are using the skills we have already learned pertaining to typing with all fingers, and formatting for word processing. About half the class finished today. The rest will have time to finish at the beginning of class next week.

1/24/19
Our third grade students practiced keyboarding again this week. 3B has finished the entire alphabet, and practiced instead on Dance Mat Typing. 3A is a week behind, and will finish the alphabet this week.

Next week, we will move on to typing a real paper in Google docs, using the correct fingers.

1/17/19
This week the 3rd grade students will continue learning to Touch Type, using the ABC method. By the end of this week, they should all be able to type the entire alphabet without looking, with some mistakes. 

Next week, we will play the Call Out game, but with entire sentences!!

1/10/19
Our 3rd graders are learning about "Rings of Responsibility" this week, through a lesson from Common Sense Media. They are learning that they have responsibilities to themselves, their community, and the world when online, just as they do in real life. 

Next week, they will return to cross-training on their keyboarding skills. I know they can't wait to play the Callout Game!

1/3/19
Happy New Year!
This week the 3rd graders are "cross-training" on their keyboarding skills. We are learning to type the letters in alphabetical order. Then we will play "The Callout Game", which is always popular with the students!

11/8/18
The students continue to show improvement in their keyboarding skills! The majority of them are now automatically using their fingers on the correct home row keys. We will continue on this for the rest of November. Then December will start a month of coding!

10/26/18
This week our 3rd graders again learned about the keyboard while typing on Typetastic for 15 minutes. For the rest of the class, they once again opened Google Drawings, and followed directions to make a more complicated jack-o-lantern, this time with an entire scene instead of in isolation. These kids are very creative!

Next week, we will move beyond the game stage of Typetastic, and begin learning the home row keys!

10/12/18
The 3rd grade students are doing a great job on Typetastic. So far, using this game-based approach, they have learned where all the keys are on the keyboard. They move more into touch typing as the year progresses.

This week, we did one of our Cyber Safety and Citizenship lessons. The 10 lessons are spread out throughout the year. The one they did this week focuses on altering digital photos and videos, and why people do so. They learned that sometimes people do this for fame and fortune, and sometimes it is  just to restore an older photo that has become damaged. I was really impressed with how much they already knew!

Next week, the students will spend 10-15 minutes on typetastic, and then will use an app called Easy Draw to show their creativity regarding Halloween.