dlnw

Posted on 5/16/09

I teach computer technology in 6th, 7th, and 8th grades. If there are
no state standards for technology, you can check the NET-S standards.
However, when I took this job, I found out that the lower grades
weren't covering what the standards stated so I had to back track to
cover what they should've already learned. We also have limited
software available, so I use a lot of free and open source software.

We articulate with the high school once a year and they told me one of
the most important skills I could teach my students is proper
keyboarding since they don't require students to take it, even though
they see keyboarding skills as a deficit for many of them. Another
thing they asked us to emphasis was speech, so anything that would
require them to do a classroom presentation would be a benefit.

I try to tie in projects with what they are doing in other classes as
much as possible. When they were reading Anne Frank in language arts I
had them create a digital book report in PowerPoint. When they were
doing their poetry projects I had them pick one of their poems and we
used iMovie (Mac version of Movie Maker) and added photos and music to
their poem to make a movie.

Some other random ideas:

The 8th graders created a 'countdown to graduation' spreadsheet that
would calculate the number of days until graduation and would update
every time they opened the document. I had them us cell shading,
graphics, etc. to make it look nice. They thought it was cool to be
able to keep track of this.

They also enjoy the M and Ms spreadsheet that I have them do. We use it
to compare the percentage of different colors in the M and Ms that we
have with what the Mars company says the percentages of colors should
be. Of course, anything that involves treats is a big plus for this
age group. We have some shorter spreadsheet assignments leading up to
this where they learn about entering data, how formulas work, using
autosum, fill down, formatting cells, etc.

Eighth graders learn how to create and enter data into a database. I
have them create a database of CDs. They go to Amazon.com or a similar
site and have to record certain information about the CDs they choose
and enter it into a database. Then they learn how to do sorts and
queries of this data.

They also use Word to do document merges with a datasource. The typical
assignment for doing this is a form letter, but these kids don't
relate to that. We do mad libs. I have them visit a site where they
can play a mad lib to see how it works. Them I give everyone a
worksheet that prompts them for their words (i.e. an adjective, a verb
ending in -ing, a friend's name, kind of food). Then we all set up a
data source in Word and enter everyone's responses to these word
prompts. I give them a merge document (the story) that they have to
insert merge fields (the word prompts) into. When they do the document
merge, they end up with a goofy story for everyone in class.
Evidently, they've been talking about it because I've had seventh
graders asking if they are going to get to do this assignment.

Sixth graders use Google Earth (free version) to create a 'virtual
tour'. I have a list of about 30 notable locations and each student
has three locations that they need to research using the Internet.
Whenever students do this kind of research, I have them use Inspiration
to organize their facts. Then they create their tour in GE where they
show us the satellite image and add to GE a photo of what the site
looks like on the ground, and their facts. They present this to the
class. We have a short discussion about each location. For example, one
location is the USS Arizona Memorial. They can see in the satellite
image that there is a ship underwater. We have a discussion about the
attack on Pearl Harbor and the significance of this memorial. Most
seem very interested in this type of information and ask a lot of
questions. Google Earth has added a Google Sky option to GE. I will be
looking into the possibilities of using that in class since our sixth
graders study the solar system in science.

My seventh graders love the Google Sketchup (free version) project that
we do. They have been coming in after school and at lunch to work on
it. When we had parent-teacher conferences, at least a dozen of them
asked if they could go to the lab to show their parents their project.
I have them build their dream house where they can pretty much do
whatever they want so they can learn to use the tools. Then they build
our school where they need to be more specific. We go through the
steps to create the basic structure as a group and then they finish up
all the details (windows, doors, architectural details, landscaping
details, etc.) on their own.

Students seem to enjoy creating computer art. We don't have Photoshop,
but we use an open source program called GIMP that has quite a few
features. We start out with simple projects like 'Faux Photography'
where they edit their images to make it look like they are being
chased by a dinosaur or something similar. Then we progress to using
different effects and filters, etc.

We are changing our curriculum for next year. We are going to give the
8th graders some electives to choose from so I picked some things we
haven't done before like web design, desktop publishing, animation,
and computer programming. I'm researching open source software for
these topics, so if you are familiar with any, please share? There's
not as much out there for Macs as there is for Windows. I've found Nvu
for web design but haven't tried using the Mac version yet. I also
found RobotProg, Alice, and Scratch for computer programming. I'm
looking into Scribus for desktop publishing. Haven't found an animation
program yet.

Share This Post | Report This Post

Next Post >>

Posts on this thread, including this one