Digital Citizenship and My Media Life were our two topics for the week.  We
concluded that a digital citizen is someone who is responsible, respectful, and
safely prepared, when using digital media.

The question of the week: How much time do you spend using different forms
of digital media? 

Our top five areas of discussion were the following:
1. cell phones
2. TV/ Cable
3. internet
4. iPod/mp3 music players
5. video games

Students watched a video, completed a five question survey, then created a bar graph from the results.
Some students were surprised to see the 16+ hours per week, they were using certain forms of digital media.

With this power, comes the responsibility of being a good digital citizen. The students were encouraged to
continue this discussion with their parents.

Homework - Continue working on TypingWeb exercises.

TypingWeb Keyboarding Test was the focus for this week.  Students worked on increasing their words per minute (WPM), while maintaining an accuracy score of 90-100%.  The Grading Scale is listed here.

After careful review of the Tech Skills Assessment, our top three areas for needed improvement are keyboarding, digital citizenship, and internet research.  We will continue to focus on these skills throughout the entire school year.

We started the Study Island Blue Ribbon Challenge.  Each grade group has a specific number of blue ribbons to acheive by January 2012.  Students are given time in the computer lab to work on Study Island.  They can also work
on this at home.

All classes created an acrostic poem on a shoe print.  Self descriptive adjectives were used to fill in the page, then the students used colored pencils to decorate their shoe print.  Internet resource suggestions were listed for students to find adjectives.  The poem "What Does Your Shoe Say About You" was read in class.

If you could step out of those shoes for a day,
and look at yourself in a different way.
You might have another point of view.
Discovering things you don’t know about you.

If you could step out of those shoes for a while,
and witness the way that you can make people smile.
You’d be quite amazed at what we all see.
You’d let all of those bad feelings, finally be free.

If you could step out of those shoes to relax.
You would see how a giving person reacts.
You might understand how other people feel.
You’d no longer hide behind a mask, but allow us to see the real deal.

If you could step out of those shoes and reflect.
You would learn how to look back and make changes, for a better effect.
Your personality would shine and finally show,
The incredible real person, we all need to know.
The Poet

Students continued the StudyIsland Benchmarks and TypingWeb exercises for their grade group.

Students worked on the Tech Skills Pre-Test.  The results will allow us to make adjustments to the lessons, according to student needs.

Keyboarding Skills with TypingWeb was the first project.  Each student has a username and password
to their own accounts.  Each grade had a different assignment to work on:

5th - Beginners Course - Home Row Keys
6th - Beginners Course - Venturing Out
7th - Intermediate Course - Basic Punctuation
8th - Advanced Course - Keyboard Quadrants

StudyIsland Benchamark 1 in Reading and Math started this week.

Homework - Work on TypingWeb assignments.