St. Justin School, Santa Clara, California, Catholic Education for Preschool, Kindergarten through Eighth Grade in Silicon Valley, Bay Area

Grades 1 – 8  use Type To Learn each week for a portion of their computer class time – to build and improve their typing skills since this is the foundation of all their other computer user skills development.

As we have built on this program for the last several years, this year, we are proud to announce that we have more children typing at a higher level of accuracy and words-per-minute than most any other school in the Diocese of San Jose. Our graduates are frequently able to test-out of mandatory remedial keyboarding computer classes at the freshman level in area Catholic High Schools.

We provide our students with access to our current Windows XP Computer Lab with one HP Compaq Laptop for each student’s use during class and PK, 1, 2 grades utilize Apple iMacs  in their classrooms for student use to provide the benefits and proficiency development in using both type of computers. In our classrooms students use the iMac computers for practice and drill activities and Internet research and specific curriculum project based-activities.

Why is cross-platform computer education important?

It is very easy for children to learn these skills if they start out this way, rather than trying to adapt after years of computing only one way. Since it is so important that students form correct typing habits, and hand placement on the home row keys, we use a full-sized external keyboard and optical mouse with each laptop in the Computer Lab.

Real World Relevance

In the high schools, and later in college and beyond, they will need to know how to function well, smoothly and easily no matter what type of computer is available for their work projects. In addition to each grade level’s Type To Learn curriculum:

Kindergarten

Beginning with introducing the parts of the computer, the keyboard, and the mouse.

Once our Kindergartners are acclimated to the these basics, using MS Word, our Kindergarten students are beginning to type their name at the top of their weekly spelling list. For the first half of the year we have been concentrating developing better number and letter recognition skills. We use the Scott Foresman: Reading Street Phonics program which is keyed to their phonics curriculum used in the classroom. We will continue with the Phonics activities and some online math, pre-reading and spelling activities through the rest of the year.

We are also using Letterbetter in each of the primary grades as a supplemental activity when they have finished the assignments for the day.  Our Kindergartners  work on these skills all year long to prepare them for beginning using Type To Learn in first grade.

Grades 1-2…

focus on their Type To Learn curriculum and Math activities using the Rainforest Maths site online  and Starfall Phonics, Reading and Math activities online.  We practice learning to print our spelling word lists and beginning use of age-appropriate internet sites which correspond to our classroom curriculum subjects.

Grade 2…

is learning to Login and Logout, they are using MS Word to open a new document and type simple phrases and sentences, at the beginning of the year. They also spend time learning how to properly save the documents they create in class. As we become more familiar with using the internet, we add more Webquest activities in Math, Religion, Science and Social Studies on the internet.

Grade 3…

We begin the year reviewing Using the MLA Format Heading which is a standard computer class requirement in our Grades 3 through 8, in addition to weekly use of Type to Learn. After the first 9 weeks in Grade 3, we’ve moved on to using MS Word: learning how to insert and re-size clip-art.   We are working up to creating poems and book reports with inserted clip-art and graphics in the Spring.  We use the internet to view age and content appropriate websites that pertain to our other Grade 3 subject areas such as Social Studies, Science, Reading and Math practice and drills.

Grade 4…

We continue learning to use MS Word functions, tool-bars and menus, continuing to refine our knowledge about using the computer, troubleshooting basic workstation problems,  how to properly name and save our files to their own grade level network storage folder.

We begin teaching Grade 4 The 8 Step Procedure For Word Processing, this rubric will be used in all subjects from Grade 4 through 8 when completing computer assignments in the Computer Lab. Continuing our Internet skills development, we are learning proper search techniques  and how to find images and clip-art on age appropriate search engines.

Grade 5…

continues using MS Word advanced functions and begins simple activities in MS Publisher, MS Excel and using the internet as a research tool. This prepares them for creating their “State Reports” for Social Studies.   Grade 5 computer classes prepare students with a study skills foundation-year to familiarize them with all the computer tools we use in the Junior High computer curriculum and other classes.

We work at improving our typing speed and accuracy using Type To Learn in Grades 5 through 8,  but a substantial portion of our class time is spent on integrating curriculum  projects in our other subject areas.

Grades 6-7-8

Our Junior High computer curriculum is based on using all the modules of 
MS Office Professional.  Each chapter in our text covers between 7 and 11 lessons.  Each chapter unit includes activities which covers use of, and skills development including:

• Vocabulary

• Commands and Buttons

• Review Questions

• Review Question Answers

We also make extensive use of internet research sites and tools, learning to cite proper information sources when using the internet, how to discern reliable and accurate sources of information and how to document these in term paper style reports.