St. John Fisher School Technology Center

The seventh graders are reviewing their knowledge of geometry while finding some practical applications of the math they are learning by working on a project called Geometric Design in Architecture (http://www.sjfschool.net/geo/index.htm).  Each student has a particular building or structure, and they must identify a variety of geometric shapes, lines, terms, etc. on that structure.  These are incorporated into an interactive powerpoint presentation. 

The eighth graders have just wrapped up their TIME Magazine covers and articles.  Parents won’t see these until Just Desserts, but for now, know that your children’s aspirations are quite impressive!  With the high school placement tests coming up in January, we have just begun an online review through the Evergreen Park Public Library (http://www.evergreenparklibrary.org/).   This is a wonderful resource where students can take online practice tests in math and language arts designed specifically for the Catholic High School Placement Test.  These tests are graded online and feedback is provided on incorrect responses.  Students are free to continue their review at home. 

The sixth graders are finishing their Can you guess my European country? PowerPoints and presentations. Once all presentations are completed, students will be given a blank map of Europe. Using their knowledge from the presentations and the website, www.yourchildlearns.com/europe_map.htm, students will “fill in the blanks”.

The fifth graders are researching famous explorers using a number of different websites.  The information that they find will be typed into a powerpoint presentation using pictures to enhance their presentation and finalizing it with animation for every bullet point and picture.  They will finish with typing up a speech to prepare to present to the class.

The fourth graders are busy typing papers for Miss Tovey’s class. Using their acquired typing skills from last year, students are using Microsoft Word to finish their superhero papers. Students will also watch a video on the history of Veteran’s Day, courtesy of United Streaming, and will make cards in Microsoft Publisher for a veteran in their lives.   

The third graders are learning to work with Microsoft Word 2007. They started by typing their spelling words, changing the size and type of font. We then moved into formatting clipart and using Word Art. Students will type a Thanksgiving prayer, add clipart, border and format font. Many are excited to read this prayer at a family meal! On Wednesdays, students are learning how to type numbers.

Grade Two: Students will learn a new software package called KidWorks, which allows them to type and draw.  We will begin typing a short poem and move into short stories.  This helps our little ones familiarize themselves more with the keyboard but keeps it fun because they can draw a picture of what they are writing about. 

Grade One: We will introduce Kid Works to our first graders.  This software helps them get familiar with the keyboard.  We will begin by typing a short poem and drawing a picture.  We will also create some fun pictures for Thanksgiving using Kid Pix.

Kindergarten: We will continue working with KidPixs by creating various Thanksgiving projects throughout the month.

Preschool: Our students will be using the Bailey’s Bookhouse Program, which allows students to focus on opposites, colors, and 3-letter words in a fun format. For Thanksgiving, students will draw turkeys using the Kid Pix program.

No Comments »
Filed under: Uncategorized

Tech Blog Intro:

SJF Faculty, Staff, Students and Parents will be pleased about the many improvements to the technology facilities at St. John Fisher this past summer.  All computer equipment in the O’Neil South Lab was replaced over the summer, and we now have brand new Dell Desktops with flat screen monitors.  We’ve transformed five additional classrooms into “Smart Classrooms” bringing our number of Smart Classrooms up to 12.  The Smart Classroom has a ceiling mounted projection unit wirelessly connected to either a tablet PC or a MAC laptop.  We plan to continue until all classrooms are equipped.  In addition to the new equipment in our classrooms, teachers have been participating in extensive professional development in educational technology, so look for many improvements in your child’s educational experience!

Students will come to the computer lab weekly and meet with Mrs. Maxwell, Mrs. Alfultis or Mrs. Reed depending on grade level.  Our three labs are also available to classroom teachers, so technology will be utilized to enrich and enhance the curriculum across all subject areas.

Seventh and Eighth Graders will begin the year with a unit on Internet Safety.  They will also be given time during computer class to work on various writing assignments given in English class.    We are transitioning to MS Office 2007, so they will become competent on the more recent versions of Word, Powerpoint and Excel over the course of the year.  It is important that every junior high student have a portable flash drive in their possession throughout the school day.  We are emphasizing the importance of backing up all documents, and using the flash drives to transport documents between home and school.  These can be purchased at school for $8.

Grade Six (Monday)

We will review the Acceptable Use Policy and focus on Internet Safety (Ways to Combat and Avoid Cyberbullying, Proper “netiquette” and Protecting Privacy Information). Students will start with a science unit on the Biomes of the World, using Microsoft Publisher.

Grade Five

We will review the Acceptable Use Policy and focus on Internet Safety (Private Information, Safety with Cyberpals, Safe Talking with Cyberpals, and Cyberbulling).

Grade Four (Wednesday)

Students will cover the topic of Internet Safety (Privacy Information, Preventing spam and viruses, Proper “netiquette”, etc.) I’m very excited to teach these students again this year! We started learning Microsoft PowerPoint at the end of last year. So we can begin our next project with ease. We’ll start the “All About Me” PowerPoint Project. Students will make their own slides which will include animation and personalized clipart and text.

Grade Three (Monday/Wednesday)

Mondays: Students will begin with a science lesson, focusing on insects.

Wednesdays: Students will have Keyboarding Instruction and Practice. Students will identify “Home Base Position” on the computer keyboard.  They will then have practice and lessons on the letters A, S, D, F, G, H, J, K, L, ; and spacebar.  After students feel confident finding the keys, they will have practice tests and complete “Adventure Challenges”.

Grades One and Two

We will review “Rules of the Computer Lab” and the use of computers.  Internet Safety will be a main focus for the month of September, “Going Places Safely, Private Information, Who’s Property is this” and many other topics.  We will continue with Internet Scavenger Hunts using a number of different websites.  This will teach our students how to locate information using the internet.

Kindergarten

We will begin the year discussing the rules of the computer lab and the use of computers at great lengths.  StarFall and Enchanted Learning are two different websites that will be used throughout the school year.  I will introduce the two in the month of September which will strengthen your child’s letter recognition and will help them maneuver around using the mouse.

Preschool

Students will become familiar with the parts of the computer, rules of the lab and begin with the Starfall website. This website helps children with letter recognition, sounds and learning how to read!

No Comments »
Filed under: Uncategorized

Preschool: Students will continue with the Sesame Street programs, as well as some from PBSkids.com.  As St. Patrick’s Day gets closer, students will designing their “shamrocks” using the KidPix program.  Look for those soon!

Kindergarten:  It’s another busy month to celebrate many festive events we have on our calendars.  We’ll start the month discussing our Lenten promises and drawing a picture of what we can do for others during Lent.  We’ll work on a St. Patrick’s Day project by typing a short St. Patrick’s Day poem using the typing feature in Kid Pix and then finishing up the project by drawing a picture that relates to that poem.

Grade One:  We will start the month introducing the Jumpstart Spanish Program and have the students identify different Spanish word.  With St. Patrick’s Day upon us, we will type a St. Patrick’s Day poem using the typing feature in Kid Pix and draw a picture relating to their poem. 

Grade Two:  Students have done such a great job over the past two months working with Microsoft Word. We will continue our lesson through the month of March.  We will type up a St. Patrick’s Day poem, draw a picture in Kid Pix and bring the two together.  Adding onto our typing skills, we will learn to change the font size, use the Bold and Italics functions and much more.  We will also touch on Women’s History Month by researching some of our famous women using the Enchanted Learning Encyclopedia.

Grade Three: As we enter the final trimester of the year, students will be taking their third keyboarding test of the year (the others were in September and December).  I will mini-conference with the students about their progress in Words per Minute and Accuracy Percentage.  Students have been steadily improving all year long!

For library class, students will be typing their “Strega Nona” papers in Microsoft Word, inserting and formatting clipart designs. 

Grade Four: For Women’s History Month, students will also use the Enchanted Learning website to research women who changed history. Famous entrepreneurs, astronauts, inventors and first ladies will be some of the featured women in history.  Students will use their information for an activity with Mrs. Sullivan in Social Studies.

Grade Five:  Our students continue to use computer time to work on finalizing their Science Fair Projects.  We have introduced Microsoft Excel to show how graphing is done.  Students will graph their results of their experiments.  You will be so proud to see their final products.

Grade Six: Students are still working hard on their science fair projects.  Students are given time to complete their “works sited” and “proposal” portion of the project. In honor of Women’s History Month, sixth graders will be busy researching women who changed history, using a variety of websites, including www.scholastic.com.

 Junior High:  The 7^th and 8^th grade students are learning a little bit about “multitasking” as they are currently involved in two projects.  They are midway through the Holocaust project, and will begin their research papers soon.  Two weeks ago, they began participation in the Stock Market Game.  Students have selected their own groups of three or four students, and each group started with $100,000 cash in their portfolio.  They have established online accounts, learned what a stock is, and the types of events that can affect the price of shares.  They have learned how to use the finance section of google (http://finance.google.com) to research companies, find the ticker symbol and the current price and track the price history over time using graphs.  This is certainly a challenging and turbulent time to be investing in stocks!  Each week, students will have the opportunity to buy and sell shares, and along the way learn a little bit about how the market works.  This week, the students will learn about “Socially Responsible Investing” (SRI), or investing in companies whose goals and primary business practices work toward the benefit of society.    This is often called “green investing,” and might be quite profitable in the coming months because of Obama’s recent pledge to provide more money for conservation and renewable energy.  If you have any stock tips for your son or daughter, be sure to share them!

No Comments »
Filed under: Uncategorized

Preschool: Students will get the opportunity to play Christmas themed games at chosen websites. Students will also play on the Literacy Center Education Network Site, which highlights Letters (both Upper and Lowercase), Colors, Numbers and Shapes.  Finally, students will also create and print their own Christmas pictures using the Kid Pix program. 

Kindergarten:  The month of December, the Theme for Computers is Christmas.   We will visit Jan Brett’s website and read the “Gingerbread Baby” Story.  There are a number of activities available on that website, such as, creating our own Christmas Card.

First Grade:  We will begin the month with an activity discussing the Similarities and Differences between a Farm and a City.  Then move into our Christmas Theme by visiting Jan Brett’s website; reading the “Gingerbread Friend” Story, creating our own Christmas Card and visiting the other activities that are available to us on that website.

Second Grade:  We will begin the month by completing a Scavenger Hunt about Spiders.  The Second Graders have spent a number of weeks learning how to search for answers using the Internet.  We will move onto brushing up on our Map Skills and tracking Santa’s steps through the United States.  We will finish up the month creating our own Christmas Cards. 

Third Grade: This month Christmas is the theme in computers. Activities will include “Christmas around the world”, Reindeer Trivia and Pictures of Christmas. As a treat this month, some of our keyboarding lessons (Wednesdays) will be done using a variety of typing games online. 

Fourth Grade: Students’ activities will center on Advent.  After writing their own Advent Cinquain, a five-lined poem about this special time of year, they will type it in Microsoft Word.  Students will be able to choose their own font, add color and clipart from selected sites.

Fifth Grade:  In coordination with Miss Grabowski’s science class, students will use computer class time to find and develop plans for their science fair projects.   The students will also create their own Christmas Cards using Microsoft Publisher.

Sixth Grade: Students will write an Advent Cinquain to put on a holiday card, that they will design using Microsoft Publisher.  Also, in coordination with Miss Grabowski’s science class, students will use computer class time to find and develop plans for their science fair projects. 

Merry Christmas to All!

No Comments »
Filed under: Uncategorized

Junior High

Students are well into their study of the upcoming election through their participation in the 2008 National Cyberconvention Project.  They have learned about the presidential, vice presidential and congressional candidates, how the electoral college works, and the difference between popular vote and electoral vote. Most recently, the students explored women’s suffrage and the importance of all citizens exercising their right to vote.  In the coming weeks, we will explore media literacy, defense and the economy.  After hearing the stands of the various candidates on these and other issues, the students will decide which candidate best supports his/her own personal interests.  We will vote and compare our vote to the national results on November 4th.

Sixth Grade

Students will be responsible to research a randomly selected biome, compile their research and create a three-panel brochure in Microsoft Publisher, using text, pictures and graphs/charts.  Students will then display their brochures outside the computer room. Check out the World Biomes WebQuest link found at the SJF website for more information.

Fifth Grade

Students are studying Native Americans in Social Studies and we will be working on various Native American Projects.  Students will be learning the paint program and drawing an Indian Pottery piece.  We will then move into Microsoft Project and creating a post card from their exciting visit to an Indian reservation.  Finishing the lesson with a PowerPoint presentation of their knowledge of the Native Americans. 

Fourth Grade

The fourth graders are excited about finishing up their “All About Me” PowerPoint presentations.  They learned how to copy and paste pictures, animate slides and change slide speed. Students will begin to present projects by mid-October. The last class of the month will be spent playing Halloween-themed math games.

Third Grade

Students are busy learning to type papers using Microsoft Word; learning to change size and type of font, as well as how to double space their papers. We will use these skills for a Halloween project. Also, we will be working on a Christopher Columbus assignment before Columbus Day.  On Wednesdays, students continue to improve their typing skills.  We are moving from “home base row” to the top row on the keyboard.

Second Grade

We will begin the month by working on an assignment about Christopher Columbus.  Move into learning new software that will enhance their Math Skills.  Finally, we move to Halloween, where we will explore great Halloween websites, draw pictures using Kid Pix and Kid Works, type a scary Halloween poem and play a lot of fun games.

First Grade

We will also begin the month by working on an assignment about Christopher Columbus.  And move right into celebrating Halloween drawing fun pictures using Kid Pix, exploring great Halloween websites and learning to insert text into our Kid Pix creations

Kindergarten

We will start off the month working with our Kid Pix program, learning how to use the stamps and stamping out our names and numbers 1-10.  We will move into working on a project to celebrate Columbus Day.  We will end the month with some exciting Halloween projects using Kid Pix. 

Preschool

What fun the preschoolers are having! Students are still becoming familiar with how to use the mouse with confidence.  The Starfall website has the kids enthralled.  I have let the students explore the ABC and Pumpkin icons at that site.

No Comments »
Filed under: Uncategorized