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Superheroes AmongUs

This year my classroomhas a superhero theme. I willbe trying very hard to letyour children know that theyare superheroes every timethey do something well orabove and beyond the normal

call of duty.

Look for specialcertificates to come home orask your child if they didanything special in computerclass.

The opposite is true aswell. If your student ishaving issuesbehaving in class,they will receive a

warning card andmeet with me eitherduring or after classto discuss what theproblem was andhow they canchange theirbehavior for nexttime.

Back-To-School TimesWelcome Back!The Year of the Computer Superhero

Great to see some of you againand new faces as well! Thisnewsletter will give you anoverview of what you can expectin my computer class this year.

Kindergarten through fifthgrade students will be learning viaunits by TechnoKids. These unitsare designed to teach studentsword processing, presentation, and

database skills. Third through fifthgrade students will be given thechoice to use Microsoft or Googleproducts to complete theirassignments.

There will be both homeworkassignments and extra creditassignments. The homework

assignments will be pencil andpaper tasks and will review thingstaught in class that day. These willcount as a grade. Students willhave one week to complete theseassignments.

Most of the extra creditassignments will require access toa computer to complete. I knowthat not every student has access

to a computer, which is why theseassignments are not required.Students will have one week tocomplete these assignments.

If you do not have access to acomputer, but want your studentto complete the extra creditassignment, they can make

arrangements tocome to thecomputer labduring theirrecess time, themorning beforethe bell rings, orat the end of theday before theirbus is called.

Sixth gradewill be workingon a PassionProject. This issomething newand differentand you can readmore about iton page 5.

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WHAT YOUR KINDERGARTEN STUDENTS WILL LEARN

Kindergarten students will belearning from the TechnoPC andTechnoArtist units. We will startout with TechnoPC where they

will learn about what the parts ofthe computer are, how to care forthe computer, how to turn thecomputer on and off, how toutilize the mouse, important keyson the keyboard, the differencebetween input and output devices.

This should take us through atleast the first half of the schoolyear. There might be occasionalhomework assignments, but allattempts to complete work inclass will be made.

The second half of the year wewill focus on developing bettermouse skills while studyinglearning about different forms ofart and artists.

TechnoArtist topics include:Picasso and his blue period,Pointillism, landscapes, and if timeallows pet portraits. If we are able

to get this far, a letter will be senthome asking for a picture of afamily pet or favorite stuffed petto use as a model to recreate onthe computer.

It is very important that yourstudent learns their four digitstudent identification number.They will use this at lunch time, atthe library, and in the computerlab. Not only should they knowhow to say they number, theyshould be able to identify thenumbers on the keyboard and typeit in. We use the numbers on thetop line of the keyboard since ournumber pads arent automaticallyon.

COMPUTER CLASS RULES

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WHAT YOUR FIRST GRADE STUDENT WILL LEARN

In first grade, we will be expanding your studentsmouse skills and keyboarding skills in theTechnoBook unit. They will learn more importantkeys and begin to start using the keyboard to enter

information.They will illustrate a story, learn how to format

their typing, proofread their writing, and publishtheir own book, All About Me.

There will be homework assignments as part ofthis unit. We are guesstimating that it will take abouthalf of the school year to complete this unit.

The second half of the unit we will becompleting the TechnoAnimal unit. In this unit,students will complete a presentation about ananimal of their choice.

They will learn how to search for and findimportant information, they will paint a picture oftheir animal, they will choose a design for theirslideshow, edit their spelling and learn to use thespellcheck option, add transitions to their

presentation, and find images of their animal to usein their presentation.

Your second grade student willstart the year by taking the

diagnostic tests in Study Island toform a baseline of their math andELA skills. The teachers will usethese results to guide activities forstudents to use at home and atschool.

Once testing is complete, theywill start learning to be

TechnoCops. They will be learningabout presentations and databases.

In PowerPoint, they will learnhow to format words, draw shapes,create their own cop badge, anddo some basic photo editing.

They will then learn to addrecords, find and print records,and filter records in a database in

excel. The culminating activity forTechnoCop is creating a MostWanted Poster for the criminalthey found while filtering records.

After we complete theTechnoCop unit, we will start onthe TechnoBiz unit. Here thestudents will dig deep into Excelstarting with a game of ExcelBingo.

They will conduct surveys,record their results, create graphs,and make comparisons. Theculmination of this project is a

report about what they learnedduring the candy research portion.

They will end the year byretaking the Study Island tests tosee how their math and ELA skillshave improved over the course ofthe school year.

WHAT YOUR SECOND GRADE STUDENT WILL LEARN

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WHAT YOUR THIRD GRADE STUDENTS WILL LEARN

! Third gradestudents will alsobegin the year bytaking Study Island

baseline tests in mathand ELA. Teacherscan then use theseresults to createlearning groups andactivities.

! Once theyhave completed testing, we will move on to theirTechnoKid unit. We will spend most of the yearworking through the TechnoJourney unit. Inaddition to the TechnoJourney unit materials, wewill be adding additional information.

The TechnoJourney unit is all about theInternet. We will begin by learning about InternetExplorer and other available Internet browsers.From there, our journey will move us to learningabout how to correctly do a search on the Internetusing queries, filters, and operators.

Our next skill will be collecting bookmarksusing our Internet browser as well as a special onlinetool called Diigo. Diigo is a social bookmarking toolthat allows students to share bookmarks and have

access to them wherever they are. They can also tagthem to find them easily when they need themagain.

We will then learning about examininginformation sources and finding copyright friendlyimages, videos, and sounds. Once weve found mediawed like to use, we will learn how to cite our sourcesto give proper credit.

Next, we will learn about Digital Citizenship viaedmodo, a social networking tool similar toFacebook but created for schools. We will discuss

cyberbullying, social tools, and terms of service. Iftime allows, we might learn about using e-mailappropriately.

We will finish the year by redoing the StudyIsland tests to see how the students improved inmath and ELA.

WHAT YOUR FOURTH GRADE STUDENT WILL LEARN

As with second and third grade, fourth grade will begin the year by taking the Study Island tests in

math, ELA, and science. Then we will move on to the TechnoHero unit, a personalfavorite.

Through this project, the students will be able to choose between usingMicrosoft Office products or Google Docs. Students will choose a hero, butnot a superhero, that they will complete a number of projects about. The firststep will be researching about the hero they chose and finding an appropriateimage. We will be using Discovery Education for Students for part of the researchdue to the quality of information and assistance in citing the sources.

Students will create a video pretending to be their hero, choose an online timelinecreation tool to create a timeline, a comparison chart, a blog entry, and in the end apresentation using Discoverys Board Builder tool.

Once their hero project is complete, students will begin working on theTechnoCorrespondent unit. The first step is to learn about the parts of a newspaper article. They will thenlearn how to edit their work. They will then have to complete some research, find pictures, and a map.

We will also be taking digital photos and learning to remove the existing background and then addinganother image. They will write an article based on their research and learn to make it sound good. The finalsteps are to format a page and publish their newspaper.

! In May, they will retake the Study Island baseline tests to see their areas of improvement.

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WHAT YOUR FIFTH GRADE STUDENT WILL LEARN

Fifth grade students will start the year withbaseline Study Island tests in math and ELA. Oncecomplete, students will begin to work on theTechnoInvestor unit.

They will learn more advanced spreadsheet skillswhile learning about the Stock Market. They willlearn to format the appearance of cells and entertransactions. They will calculate the financialinformation using formulas.

As they continue through the process, they willlearn to graph the rise and fall of their stocks.Eventually they will graph their earning history andprint their spreadsheet.

Once theyve done all of the spreadsheet work,they will write an investment report and add their

graph to the report.Students will have the opportunity to choose

whether they want to use Microsoft Office or GoogleDocs.

After they have completed this unit, they willbegin the TechnoBook unit where they will create avideo book trailer for their favorite book.

The last month of school will be spent retaking

the Study Island tests to show progress in testedskills.

We will begin the year bytaking the diagnostic Study Islandtests in math, ELA, and socialstudies. Once these are complete,we will begin working on ourPassion Projects.

The idea is that the studentswill choose something that theyare interested in to work onthroughout the year instead of metelling them what they will learn.

First we will discuss whattypes of things they are interestedin and what sort of projects they

may want to complete. We will doas much brainstorming as neededuntil they are able to write aproject proposal.

Students will document theirprogress by blogging once a

month. In the month of April,students will be expected todeliver a presentation explainingtheir project.

Id like each student to find aproject mentor. This might besomeone in the school, in thecommunity, or someone they dont

know personally. Skype chats willbe set-up for mentors outside ofthe immediate school community.

Some of the skills thatstudents will learn through thisproject are research skills,planning skills, recording,evaluating, reflecting, andpresenting.

Students will receive grades ontheir blogs entries, their finalpresentation, and their work effortduring classes.

This will be a learningexperience for all of us and theproject will be adapted as needed.

In May, we will retake theStudy Island tests to showprogress in math, ELA, and socialstudies skills.

SIXTH GRADE PASSION PROJECTS