Computers & Technology
Overview
Technology, and more specifically computers, is more than just a “special” class. It is a basic requirement for most students graduating from high school. Indeed, for a large portion of the population, technology is an integrated part of our lives. To that end, the Tech Program at St. Mary's is designed to give our students an extensive amount of experience utilizing popular technology—both hardware and software—used in our tech-savvy society. Our classes are structured to teach students how not only to use the computers and software that it is on them, but how to handle working with systems and applications they may have never encountered before.
Technology can be intimidating. One of the first things that we strive to instill in students is that they shouldn't be afraid to use the equipment. Every student, starting in Kindergarten, is given access to state-of-the-art Apple Macintosh laptops, iPods and even iPads. We have two carts full of laptops and another full of iPads along with a plethora of interesting equipment—including a digital hand-held microscope that wirelessly transmits the images—to compliment an array of programs and applications. The curriculum teaches the fundamentals of interfacing with computers, keyboarding skills, along with the essentials like Microsoft Office, which includes word processing, spreadsheets and presentation software (MS Word, Excel and PowerPoint.) There is so much that can be done with technology that we strive to make sure that all of our students are able to tap into the vast canvas of the digital experience. Students learn about making movies, editing pictures, recording audio, creating blogs and podcasts, basic digital animation, compositing, organizational skills like creating calendars and even desktop publishing.
Over the course of their studies at the school, students are given interesting and practical applications to showcase what they learned. With our new Mobile Discovery Cart, they are able to delve into and experience everything from a microscopic vista of the world to virtual tours of ancient civilizations and then share those experiences and their thoughts through a digital medium that is both expressive and creative.
Perhaps the best way to see just how effective our technology program is, is to talk to one of our students and ask them what they think of it. The excitement in their voice and the look in their eyes as they talk about what they did in class the other day is likely all the evidence you need to know that we're on the right track at St. Mary's.
Program Update 2nd Semester
Kindergarten: We recently learned all about those special keys on the keyboard. We got to practice using the "shift" "return" and "delete" keys along with all the ones that have letters and numbers.
First Grade: After spending a lot of time on computers, we've gotten some time using the iPads and seeing what the can do. We got to play games like "Adding Apples" "Subtracting Sardines" and some have even tried to tackle "Multiplying Acorns."
Second Grade: After many weeks working in Microsoft Word, we actually got to play some educational games and tried out finger painting on the iPad. Oh, and watch out—we learned how to modify the computer so it can talk, display different pictures and even take screenshots!
Third Grade: It wasn't easy, but we just used a new program named Microsoft Excel and learned how to graph survey results. We got to "play" and test our math skills on FunBrain and had a blast using Uzu on the iPad.
Fourth Grade: Besides reviewing the basics of computer navigation, we've been able to marvel at the fireworks we created in Uzu! This amazing app is one that we'd gladly play with for hours if we had the chance. Next up: Digital Photography on the computer. We'll be learning all about Red Eye Reduction, Airbrushing Touch-Ups, Cropping and even how to create video slideshows.
Fifth Grade: We've stepped back into history and are working on a research project involving the Lewis & Clark expedition. We're learning where to search for information online as well as how to present it in a formal slideshow.
Sixth Grade: We've been hard at work creating our very own interactive books that we're writing for our Kindergarten buddies! Once finished, we'll be taking them over and "reading" them to the Kindergarten class. These parables are a wonderfully creative outlet for writing and displaying artistic talents.
Seventh & Eighth Grade: We're working with the creative side of technology. We recently finished learning to draw portraits on the iPads and am getting ready for a new unit on compositing.
Program Update 1st Semester
The first quarter has ended and we've been able to check out a lot of new things. The highlight so far has been our new Mobile Discovery Cart—it has opened up a whole new world to students. The hand-held microscope magnifies imagery and wirelessly transmits those images to all the iPads simultaneously. We've used it in all the classes and students were able to see some very basic things in a totally different light. We looked at things like basic table sugar, salt and pepper, coins, dollar bills, flowers, leaves and even Sour Patch Kids candy. We plan on utilizing it again this winter to examine snowflakes and all the different patterns they come in!
Kindergarten: We continue to learn to use the computer keyboard and trackpad to "talk" to it and tell it what we want to do. The iPads have been a magical experience where we can play musical instruments, create art and even learn to identify words and spell.
First Grade: After learning things like how to make those special characters like an exclamation point and dollar sign on the keyboard, we've been learning a lot about Microsoft Word! We saw that we can always use the "Magic Undo" button and fix a mistake we might have made. There's also a really neat command that allows us COPY whatever text we want and move it (PASTE) to another place on the page. We now know how to add images to our documents and have spent a lot of time learning about the "Formatting Palette." We use it to make our text bigger, more colorful and even change the look of the letters by selecting a different font.
Second Grade: It's hard to top the excitement of Google Earth and PhotoBooth, but we've done a lot of neat things on the iPads including word searches, carving pumpkins and playing music. On the computers, we've reviewed Microsoft Word and tried putting pictures and shapes into our text. We've also got to play some different typing games and are starting to learn the keys on the computer.
Third Grade: We've been diving into Microsoft PowerPoint and put together an animated weather report. It was cool, but not quite as fun as going through some interactive textbooks on the iPads. We have some really amazing ones on the Rainforests, Egypt, Volcanos and others. They have a variety of activities in them like scratch-offs where we have to identify the picture that goes with the story we just read. A few weeks ago, we took our first typing test this quarter to see how fast we are and even got to play some typing games that help with our speed and accuracy.
Fourth Grade: It doesn't matter if we use a computer or iPad—we enjoy them both. We used the computer and created a comic book style biography about ourselves and learned how to make word clouds on Tagxedo.com. The iPads were used to show how life was in Ancient Rome and we even had one day where we used them to help us make paper airplanes and origami.
Fifth Grade: Most of this last quarter was spent creating a game show! We researched our topics—either Math, Science, Social Studies or Tech—on the internet and then created our questions/answers in PowerPoint. We then met up with the sixth grade to see if they were "smarter than a fifth grader!"
Sixth Grade: What they said above, only our questions and requirements were harder!
Seventh & Eighth Grade: We utilized Microsoft Word to create storyboards for our movie trailer project which we'll finish later in the year. We also are starting to prepare for the Spring Typing Bee by taking typing lessons and utilizing network typing games to compete against one another.
