As we begin the 2013-2014 school year I want to give everyone an overview of the approach for this year and the new platforms we will be using.
In the past everything was centered around the "mrcasal" name. There was mrcasal.com, mrcasal.blogspot.com, @mr_casal, and so on. This year I wanted to try something new. I wanted to center everything not around me but around what we do in the PS 10 computer lab, starting with the focal point of the year, this site.
ps10tech.blogspot.com is the new hub for everything we do in the computer lab (with Mr. Casal). Instead of one site for curriculum (mrcasal.com) and a different site for blog work (mrcasal.blogspot.com) I have put it all here, at ps10tech.blogspot.com
For the 2013-2014 school year everything we do will be based off of this site. There will be blog assignment homework for students in grades 3-5 just as there has been in previous years. Those assignments will be on this site, ps10tech.blogspot.com.
In addition to posting student blog assignments & curriculum on this site, I will also be updating it periodically with happenings of the lab. I'll post information about assignments, activities, portions of student work products, and general artifacts of the lab.
As always, I am a huge fan of Twitter. @PS10Tech is still active and will still serve as primarily a live student in-lab publishing tool but I will also be using it to post news & information about the lab.
A quick overview of what students will be doing:
(for more in depth curriculum outlines use the grade-by-grade tabs at the top of the page)
- 2nd grade - Microsoft Word to support the writing process - creating & saving, typing, editing, revising, formatting, inserting pictures - by the end of the year 2nd graders should be able to create, from a blank page, a fully edited & revised publishable piece of original writing.
- 3rd grade - Microsoft Word - a review of all things covered in Grade 2 + longer form writing assignments, Microsoft Powerpoint as an alternative publishing tool, proper internet reseraching techniques and blog commenting
- 4th grade - Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and internet research review. 1 research-based presentation. Blog commenting. Student blog post creation on a shared class blog
- 5th grade - Microsoft Word, PowerPoint, and internet research review. 1 research-based presentation. Blog commenting. Independent student blog creation
The goal is to support the writing & publishing process across the grades by giving students exposure to a few of the most common content creating products. In addition, each grade builds upon the previous, ensure the core skills are reinforced while also moving more and more rapidly as the years progress to cover more and more ground.
Do we get to every aspect of technology in a year? No. Each class gets 50 minutes a week in the lab, no where near enough time to cover a fraction of what's possible. The goal, however, is to give each student the core skills to present & publish their ideas in the most possible ways. Ideally, they'll leave me & walk in to middle school with skill ahead of the expectation curve.
The biggest new thing for 2013-2014 is that every student in grades 2-5 will have unique @ps10.org Google Apps accounts. They will not have email access, but they will be able to use Google Drive to create projects & have access to their work beyond the computer lab, and beyond the walls of PS 10. The student are of the @ps10.org Google Apps domain is restrictive & customizable so some classes and/or grades might have more or less access than others. The full details will be outlined in a future blog post.
If you have any questions; student, staff or parent, feel free to post a comment here or email me.
Looking forward to a great year!
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