Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Tired of seeing your students peck away at a keyboard?

Seeing my students this year "type" almost made me cry (a bit of exaggeration here):) At the end of my wits in trying to stem the tide of two-finger typing, I turned to www.classroom20.com to ask my colleagues for kid-friendly typing sites and received many great suggestions which I am including below:


www.typingweb.com -- This involved registration so only 2 wanted that one (those two have computers and internet at home).

http://www.davis.k12.ut.us/cjh/appliedtech/Business/Keyboarding/ -- This one was the most traditional and that was effective with those with high literacy skills.

http://www.learninggamesforkids.com/keyboarding_games.html -- This was the most popular and though geared to kids, my teenage ELLs loved the site. The moving spelling targets hit a chord with them.

http://learn2type.com
-- Only my TA went here. This makes sense since he is off to college next year and needs to improve his typing skills.

Let me also add here that I am beginning to send more assignments via the email addresses I gave them last week. It makes lab time SO MUCH MORE productive:)

Now, I will be looking for more activities to deliver not only English, but typing skills. I realize that the kids feel as though I am tying their hands behind their backs since they can't type as quickly, but I did assure them that in 6 months they will thank me....I hope:)

Denise

1 comment:

  1. Students worked today on creating an editorial in which they either take the side of the North or South during the American Civil War. Of course, no one wanted to take the South (I can understand...but...). I explained that if they were assigned the South, they didn't have to talk that much about slavery since most Southerners didn't own any. Long story short, they wrapped up their handwritten ones and are now ready to collaborate with their group partners in the computer lab using Google Docs (students are beginning to like this site as much as I do). I can not wait to see the finished products. Oh, I forgot. They will be on shared Google Docs so I WILL be able to see the fruits of their labor:)

    Denise

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