Fourth and Fifth Grade

Now we start getting into the business end of things.  We still only meet once a week for 30 minutes, but we start covering a great deal of material.

We will start learning how to type without looking at the keyboard.  The program we are using is at the website typing.com.  The students have their own username and passwords that they will use during class.  I don’t want them signing in at home because we are using blanked out keyboards to discourage them from looking down.  Also, I want to make sure it is actually them doing their own work.

At some point, the students will receive a @rosaryschool.com Gmail address.  What this means is that they will have an email account that is under the protective bubble of Rosary School.  The students can only send and receive emails from within the @rosaryschool.com domain.  That’s a fancy way of saying that they will only be able to send and receive emails from students and staff members at Rosary School.  Another safeguard is that every email that a student receives is automatically copied and forwarded to the email security account that I monitor.  Anything inappropriate will be found and dealt with immediately.

Another benefit to the Gmail account is that the students can connect to the google classroom.  This is a big deal in middle school and will be huge to them in high school.  It allows students to connect to their assignments and do them anywhere they have an internet connection.  They can start typing an assignment in the computer lab, update it later on a classroom iPad, then finish it at home.  Once it’s finished, they can turn it in electronically.  We are saving a bunch of trees with this system.