Mrs. Dziok - ComputerTeacher

Iditarod XXXVIII – Begins Saturday, March 6, 2010!

Yes, we will be following the Iditarod again in 4th and 5th grades. We have started to learn about the history of the race in Alaska through Discovery Education videos about Alaska, and through the Iditarod website, www.iditarod.com.  We will be choosing mushers to follow this week, and then tracking them in real time through their journey starting on March 6, 2010 when they depart from Anchorage, AK.  A couple of years ago we were able to participate in a conference call with one of the mushers from Ohio, who ran in the Iditarod race!  We have also received emails from other mushers that we wrote to learning about their experiences in the race.  Hopefully, we will again be able to have a first-hand account of what it is like to be in this historical event.

DiscoveryStreaming has allowed our students to learn about events that affect our history and our world with video, interactive experiments, speeches, and photos.  This wonderful tool is being used by many teachers to introduce lessons, conduct virtual experiments, and view photos and video to help our students absorb the content of their studies.  We are using DiscoveryStreaming in our computer class in Grade 7 to explore countries of our world through Discovery Atlas.  Students are creating a PowerPoint multimedia presentation about their country and will present their research to the class.  Grade 5 students are using Discovery Educations Planet Earth videos and website to create a Photostory project from their research and pictures, which they will narrate with their recorded voices.

Grade 6 students have created Excel spreadsheets to display their Math breakdown of various cultural divisions in certain countries.  They were able to display different formats of equations and graph these breakdowns in a pie chart to visually show these cultural divisions.

Grade 8 students have constructed amazing architectural buildings through a collaborative project with the Art teacher and myself using Google’s Sketch Up program.  They are now working on desktop publishing using Microsoft Word to create brochures explaining a scientific element and giving examples and outlining the properties of their element.

Kindergarten through Grade 2 have created wonderful snowmen using our Pixie program, as well as learning curriculum-enhancing skills using Internet-based lesson.  Students will be able to create multimedia projects using our new Frames program which will allow them to enhance their projects with animation and their recorded voices.

Grade 3 students are learning research skills using the Internet and websites such as www.enchantedlearning.com and www.factmonster.com to complete worksheets which require them to use keywords to help them to find the answers within the website.

Grades 3 through 8 have been sharpening their typing skills using our Type to Learn program.  All students in these grades should be bringing a folder with looseleaf paper and a pen or pencil to each computer class.  We will continue to have a variety of quizzes and tests to assess what they have learned, therefore, the students will still need to take notes and keep handouts for studying.  All grades are based upon a combination of class projects, quizzes and tests, and class participation and behavior.