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6th
Grade Keyboarding
Good
keyboarding skills
are essential for today's work force. What was once typing class has
now evolved into a computerized keyboarding class. 6th grade students
take 12 weeks of keyboarding, rotating with P.E. the other 24
weeks. Does our keyboarding curriculum make a difference at Zachry?
From our teachers and staff, a resounding "yes". Students
type out their assignments and do research much faster than those who
have
not
had keyboarding.
The keyboarding
program we use is called All the Right Type v.3.7. Students
begin with
posture and finger placement in the Learning Lab.
All
the Right Type
Campus
This includes the Leaning Lab, Practice Pavillion, Skill
Building, Testing Center and Records Library
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Students
learn correct finger
placement on the keys |
Students
start out on home row keys. More
keys are
added as they progress. |
After
learning new keys, they then learn how to type the keys accurately
and increae their speed in
the Practice Pavilion. In Skill Building, lessons use the keys
they have just learned in words, sentences and paragraphs, which
progressively challenge students. The Testing Center allows students
to take timed tests to see how many words per minute (WPM) they
can type and how accurate they are.
Another
program we use is Mavis
Beacon Teaches Typing v. 5. This
allows students to play challenging keyboarding games
built into the program, for a change of pace. |
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Students have to type a set number of
lines
shown on the screen. |
At the end of the lesson, students are shown
how fast and how accurate they typed. |
Our first
generation Keyboarding computers - Macintosh LCs
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Zachry Middle
School has taken a slightly different approach to equipping this
lab. We have chosen to utilize our older computers. From the Fall of
2002 until March 2006, our lab consisted of 30 Macintosh LC computers.
These
computers have been on our campus since 1990, for a total of 16 years
of use! Nearly all other campuses had these computers removed years
ago. For our 2nd generation (current) computers, we're using Dell GX110s.
Although these computers were purchased in 2000,
they are workhorses and do a great job in a keyboarding setting. All
the Right Type 3.7 and Mavis Beacon v. 5 do
not require much hard drive space or RAM. The
program works well and maintenance on these computers is minimal.
Our
philosophy behind this decision is to maximize taxpayer dollars, leaving
the newer computers in the classrooms for student use of
more memory intensive applications, including Internet research and
multimedia
presentations.
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Our
2nd Generation of Keyboarding Computers - Dell GX110s...Low
Cost and Working Great for Keyboarding!
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Note
our keyboard covers. This helps students learn to touch type. |
Proper
posture are stressed to prevent fatigue. |
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Our C.I.T.,
John Petersen, got special permission to use
these computers in the lab and he has spare hardware to keep
the keyboarding lab running smoothly. Although
we have 4 different teachers in this lab, the teachers are happy
with the current setup and we hope to continue using this approach
as long as we have the parts to keep
them
going!
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