Kelly Elementary SchoolKelly Computer Technology
Quarter 1 Technology Summary
Parents and Guardians,
In order to keep you informed about what your child is learning in technology I will be sending out an update at the end of each quarter with curriculum content and suggestions. All the programs we have used so far in class may be downloaded or accessed on your home computers for free – see the section below under Kindness Portaportal for details.
Introduction
I have taught almost 30 years in a variety of subjects from grades kindergarten through college. I have been using computers since the 70’s and teaching computer classes since 1983. One of my college degrees is in Computer Information Systems so with all this background and experience I have a depth and breadth of knowledge and skills I can draw upon to meet your child’s 21st century technology needs.
The Kelly Schedule
I see second through fifth graders each week for a 30 minute lesson.
Kelly Curriculum
2nd Grade
Students started out the year studying basic Object Oriented Programming using software developed by MIT called “Scratch”. It is predicted that computer programming knowledge will be required in many jobs in the future as technology steams ahead. These programming exercises reinforce math theory, analytic thinking, creativity, media skills and systems thinking as well as teaching basic computer science. This is a free program you can download at home
| Some of the general tech skills students learned were: specialized keys, toolbars and menus, windows and controls, logging on and off skills, names of computer components, and other basic intro skills. On Learning.com students started with a graphics unit. They then applied this learning to projects in Tux Paint, a free graphics program for kids that you can download at home. |  |
3rd – 5th Grade -
 |
These classes generally covered the same material as the 2nd grade but at a faster pace so it included more projects/depth. In addition, for graphics work students had an introduction to Sumo Paint which is like a high end graphics program. This is a free resource on the Internet that students can use at home. Student did one lesson on spatial intelligence with a practice application from the Internet. A few class who have me twice a week also learned how to use some of the aspects in Google Earth and Google Maps. |
Learning.com is like an online textbook that students have access to both at school and at home. Students can just go to Learning.com and log in with their user name and password.
| The Kindness Portaportal is a web page I organized and manage that is a safe way for students to access academic links. You might want to bookmark it at home for easy student access. It is best to view the portaportal on Google Chrome, Firefox or Safari (not Explorer). Some versions of Internet Explorer will show a blank screen and requires you to scroll down quite a bit to get to the contents. The Category named “Computer Tech Resources” has a sub folder entitled ‘Free Software” – this is where you will find quality software that I’ve mentioned in this summary plus a few addition ones that students will be exploring later in the year. |
Let me know if you have questions
Emma Dugan
bdugan@pps.net
