Scholastic Keys is actually a suite of programs that interface with Microsoft Office, but the programs are designed to be used by young children. The software is installed in the computer labs as well as on all of the laptops on the mobile carts, and I highly encourage you to check it out if you have not already done so. When you click on one of the Keys icons, you will notice that the Office program opens up first, and then the Keys program. Here’s a very brief description of the 3 components:
MaxWrite
MaxWrite is the kids’ version of Word. Students can type, add pictures or borders, work with tables, and do almost anything you might normally have them do with a word processor. They can add images of Clifford or Ms. Frizzle, or they can draw their own pictures right within the program. They can also search for images from the regular Word images search. The documents are saved as a Word format, so they can be opened later on any computer that already has Office installed.
MaxShow
This part of Scholastic Keys is the interface to PowerPoint, and it’s probably my favorite to use with kids in the classroom. This is a wonderful program to use as a culminating event for almost any unit or story. We’ve had third graders create slideshows on their favorite animals, second graders create slideshows of their color poems, fourth graders create word problems shows….you get the idea. The possibilities are endless! After the children enter their information and images into their slides, they enjoy exploring other options such as colors, fonts, and animations to truly personalize their shows.
MaxCount
MaxCount is a spreadsheet program similar to Excel. There are several activities already built into MaxCount that can be used with the very young children. Older kids might enjoy creating multiplication tables or entering data and converting it to graphs. They love the “magic” of filling the columns with fomulas so the computer does the math for them! This is a great program for working with any type of data including practice with mean, median, and mode. It’s also excellent for showing various types of graphs using the same data.
There is a handout for Scholastic Keys in the blue box in the sidebar. Just click on the name of the handout and select download. I’ll be happy to come in and help you any time you want to use this awesome software!
I believe that we would all agree that the Internet is an exciting and invaluable resource for both information and communication, but we need to make our students aware that it can also be a dangerous environment if they forget to follow some simple rules.
In 2006, the Virginia General Assembly passed legislation requiring the integration of internet safety into the instructional program. They have created an online booklet entitled Guidelines and Resources for Internet Safety in Schools with a wealth of information as well as internet resources. The document is divided into sections for administrators, teachers, parents, and students and is worth spending a few minutes exploring. This post is divided into the five major sections found in the pages for teachers.
1. The Internet is exciting, rewarding, and challenging.
Our intent is certainly not to discourage the use of the Internet for research or for chatting with friends. There is great value in these activities, and this is the future for our students. We also want to be cautious that we do not frighten the children.
2. Monitoring is Crucial
I’ve heard it said that children are only one click away from an inappropriate site. Although I don’t necessarily agree with that statement, I do know how easy it would be for a student to accidentally stumble upon something that they probably should not be seeing. Any time we have students working on the Internet, we need to be constantly aware of what they are doing and what sites they are exploring. We have an excellent firewall in our school division, but firewalls and filters are not fool proof.
For example, Google Images is used often by teachers for picture searches, and it defaults to a Moderate Safe Search setting. However, it is very difficult for firewalls to filter images, and it is very easy to search for something that seems quite innocent and find inappropriate images. It’s fine for teachers to use Google images and other image storage sites (assuming the images are not copyrighted and you cite your sources) but please do not send students online to find images.
If you suspect that students have been surfing inappropriate sites, go into the browser history and check out what sites they have visited. Unfortunately, a particularly clever student will know how to delete the site from the history. That’s why monitoring is crucial.
3. Interactions in the Virtual World Can Be Negative
Cyberbullying is alive and well. Adults as well as students tend to say things in email messages and chat rooms that they would never consider saying in person. Students need to be reminded that anything they write on the computer can be copied and pasted multiple times and can get them in serious trouble as well as hurting feelings. They should not write anything online that they would not say in person. Here is an example:
spacer
People Are Not Always Who They Claim to Be
It is all too easy for an adult to pretend to be a much younger person in order to win the confidence of a child over time. As students express interest in social networking sites such as Club Penguin and Whyville, they will most likely move on to MySpace or Facebook as they grow older. They need to have an acute awareness that even though chatting with strangers can be fun, they have no way of knowing who that person really is.
iKeepSafe.org has a fabulous video and book posted on their site that deals with this very topic. Watch Faux Pas, the Techno Cat with your class. We also have copies of these books and DVDs in the school libraries.
4. Dangers of Exchanging Information
Remind students that they should never share personal information online. This includes name, age, phone number, school friends’ names, family names, and anything that could be used for identification. When choosing screen names or email usernames, avoid using real first or last name, zip code, age, or any other personal information.
We never know who is reading what is being posted, as this video demonstrates:
spacer
Students need to also be reminded that they should never post pictures that can be used to identify them or that they would be embarrassed for their grandparents to see. Once a picture is posted, it can be copied and recopied and never really goes away.
spacer
In addition to the simplicity of copying pictures and text from the internet, there are archives of internet sites that keep copies of old web pages for research and historical reasons. Probably, the best known of these sites is the WayBack Machine.
5. Students Need to Hear the Rules Often
Use teachable moments to review rules for using computers with the students. A previous post on this blog reviewed the most basic information that students need to remember whenever they are online.
Helpful Web Links
NetSmartz Kids
Lots of games and activities that remind kids of internet safety rules
**This would be a great site to use during your computer lab time!
Surf Swell Island
Disney’s internet safety site with lots of fun quizzes and games
iKeepSafe
Activities and videos produced by iKeepSafe and D.A.R.E.
SafeKids
Lots of tips and tools for parents and kids
iSafe
Set up an account here for a wealth of information that will be helpful to all adults who work with children.
iLearn Online
This is actually part of iSafe. It includes excellent video modules, and after completing the modules, you will be able to download free materials to use as appropriate.
If you do a search for internet safety, you will discover numerous additional sites with more helpful information for students, parents, and educators. Stay informed, keep you students informed, and stay safe!
Several of you have created podcasts with your classes over the past couple of years, and I hope that you’re thinking about more ways you can use this exciting and relatively new technology. If you’ve never created a podcast, it’s much simpler than you may think. All you need to do is prepare the students by having them practice reading their scripts aloud. Then let me know when you’re ready to record. I’ll take care of all of the technical details for you! However, I’ll be happy to teach you how to edit using Audacity if you’d like to learn to do the editing yourself.
Why not have your students create “Did you know?” podcasts using facts from any of their SOL related units? Mr. Barbour had his third graders record several factual podcasts from their SOL units. For an example of this, click below to listen to Mr. Barbour’s third graders as they share facts they learned about Ancient Rome.
Mrs. Routt’s third graders enjoy creating their own newscasts at the end of each school year in which they review almost everything they have covered during the year. When students have the opportunity to listen to themselves or to their classmates, they are more eager to listen to the podcasts as they review for their SOL tests.
Podcasting is also an excellent way for students to share their original stories and poems. Mrs. Buchholz had her third graders write stories about the adventures of their class pet who escaped.
It’s great to use readers theaters for podcasts as it helps students who may have difficulty with oral reading skills and fluency. The more fluent readers can practice speaking with expression and using creative voices. Mrs. Bowles had her fourth graders read several tall tales, and the children appeared to really enjoy using the imaginary voices of their characters.
Here are a few more ideas for podcasts that you might want to consider for your own students:
Interviews - Have students write questions and interview another person in the school, either adults or other students. You could also use interviews to have students answer questions as if they are a famous American or a character from a favorite story.
Announcements - Let students practice their broadcast skills as they present announcements for your class, your grade level, or for the entire school. Here is an example. Download
Riddles - Have students create “Who am I?” or “What am I?” riddles to review people from social studies units, book characters, famous places, or vocabulary words.
Songs - Make up new lyrics to familiar melodies, such as multiplication facts.
Book Commercials - Instead of written book reports, why not let students talk about their favorite books? Have them share a little about the book and why they recommend it.
For the Little Ones - Let them talk about something special in their classroom or something new that they have learned if they’re too young to read or to write their script.
So, give some thought into creating your own podcast this year, and let me know when you’re ready to record! To listen to more podcasts from your school, click on one of the following links:
Happy New Year! Like most folks, I am thinking about setting new goals for the coming year, or at least for the remainder of this school year. First and foremost, I plan to post articles here more regularly. The time between Thanksgiving and Christmas was filled with exciting things happening in classrooms at both schools, and I just didn’t have any extra time! However, I promise to do better. So, here are a few goals I have set for myself:
Post an article here at least once each week, hopefully even more often.
Create a database of activities that will assist classroom teachers in planning lessons using the laptops and the computer lab with the software that we have available in both schools.
Strive to ensure that every student has the opportunity to use the laptops in their classroom at least once before the end of the school year. (This includes kindergarten!)
So, what are your goals for using technology in 2008? I’ll list a few suggestions to help you get started:
Bring the laptop cart into your classroom. Invite me in to assist you and the students the first time or two, until you are comfortable with them. You will be amazed at how quickly the students learn to use the touchpad!
Learn to use a piece of software in the computer lab that you haven’t used before, such as TimeLiner, Scholastic Keys, or Kidspiration. I have handouts for most the the programs we own, and I’ll be happy to send one your way.
Have your students create something of their very own on the computers and save their projects to the K drive. That way, we can plan a way to combine and share their projects on the school web site.
Be adventurous! Begin your own blog, or set up student blogs using ClassBlogmeister.
Take lots of digital pictures. Upload them to a photo sharing site, and send the site address to folks with whom you would like to share the pictures. You can also share your pictures through a class website or blog.
Have students write their own newscasts and record them to use as podcasts.
I hope you see something here that is of interest to you! Please let me know how I can help you use technology as we work together to prepare the children for their future.
