St. John Fisher School Technology Center

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!

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