Thread: Hey all you Elem. Tech. Teachers out there!

My tech teacher uses the same materials you do. Oh, wait...you are my tech teacher. Sorry I can't assist you more. Have a super day!

Reba!!!! I was so excited to see someone posted to this thread, and than saw your little joke!

Now you owe me a new lesson I can teach in the lab - you stinker! Ha Ha

Hi,
I taught in our computer lab for a little over year. I took almost five years off to be home with my daughter. I will be returning at the beginning of the next school year. I am very interested in what new software is out there. I'll be teaching K3-6th grade.

I can't remember all that I was using, but here is some of what I remember.
PAWS for keyboarding
HyperStudio for slide shows
Microsoft Word
Explorer for the Internet

I used a word proccessing program that I cannot remember the name. I know it had "Kid" in it, but it wasn't Kids Pix.

I had planned on teaching Logo to the sixth graders but left before it was time to teach it. I don't know if the new teacher taught it.

For the youngest students, I used shareware. Programs that developed mouse skill and program navigation.

I started our program, so we were still experimenting with what would work best. I haven't had contact with the teacher that replaced me so I don't know where the program stand at this point. I'll be meeting with her before she leaves. (She doesn't want to teach at this school anymore.)

I am thrilled to have found this site and look forward to communicating with other "computer teachers."

I teach K-5 computer classes. I use mostly Microsoft Word and Kidpix. Are you able to have video conferencing? I would love to get our kids together. I don't need anything formal at first, just a get together to get them adapted to the idea. Send me an email and please visit our website

[url]http://www.mississippi.net/~lamarelm[/url]

Click on the Computer Lab and come on in!

I teach keyboarding/computer applications to 6th, 7th, and 8th graders on 12-week cycles. With my sixth graders, we used Ainsworth Keyboard Trainer and Mavis Beacon for keyboarding. We used Microsoft Word to teach them the formatting of documents.

With the 7th graders, we did Ainsworth, Mavis Beacon, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Powerpoint.

My 8th graders are getting all of those, plus a little bit of web page design -- not sure yet which program I'll use here.

We also have Kidspiration/Inspiration, KidPix, Hyperstudio, and Ainsworth Keypad trainer (for the number pad).

Our high school computer applications teacher does our webpage and she has students who do the work on it -- check it out at

[url=http://www.northwest.k12.oh.us]www.northwest.k12.oh.us[/url]

I hope that worked.

We use the Hertzog method of teaching keyboarding in abc order. I start that in 3rd grade and review in 4th and 5th.

I bet the word processing program you are talking about is KidWorks. It is a very good program but you can't do slideshows with it. I use KidPix for slideshows and picture graphs and draw and label.

I am going to try and add 2 units using Pasco materials - robotics to teach programing and probes to add to my graphing unit

This is my second year and I am just now getting into the "swing" of teaching units that go along with what the teachers are teaching in the classrooms Our goal is to integrate tech into the classrooms too.

Though I use a lot of subject-specifc software from a variety of sources, I look to use the Microsoft Office suite at every opportunity. In addition to Word (arguably the most ubiquitous program in the world at the moment), I integrate Excel into math and science curricula and Powerpoint into student presentations and outlining skill lessons. I figure that if we are preparing kids to use the tools of technology out in the world, we should be focusing on the tools that 80%-90% of the world uses.

On a loosely related note: If any of you do units on gardens or plants, there is a great piece of software called Flowerscape that allows students to design their own flower gardens while seeing what they will look like each month of the year in various soil and climate types. It is available at [url]http://www.flowerscape.net/.[/url]

Best,
David

David, you made some really good points.

Our district philosophy is that we will use computers as tools to integrate tech into what we already teach, so we do not buy subject specific software. We use the programs that the computers came with to make webs, spreadsheets that generate graphs, word process, draw and label etc.

What we have found is that if you teach students on more than one format, they are better at troubleshooting when they come to an unfamiliar one. You are right that most kids have word, but we use Claris at school.