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Welcome to Summer!
Did you know that many students lose more than 2 months of
knowledge over the summer and all children experience some
learning loss if they do not engage in educational activities
during the summer? So, while summer is a time for fun, there should also be time for educational activities.
Here are
some suggestions of things you could do with your child this
summer for both fun and learning:
- Visit the library and read - not just what is
required for the summer reading but other books that interest
your child. Learn about something new with your child.
- Visit museums, aquariums or other attractions that educate
as well as entertain.
- Spend some time visiting some of our What
Can I Do When I'm Done Sites - these are all sites
that have educational value as well as fun activities. Please
make sure that your children are supervised if they are using
the Internet!
I would highly encourage consistent typing practice (10-15
minutes at least every other day) for any St. Martin's Middle
School student who is not typing at least 25 words per minute and
it never hurts for younger students to practice typing too.
Knowing the keyboard and being able to touch type is a skill that
will help both in Middle School and beyond. This should be
supervised to insure that your child is using correct posture,
hand positioning and is trying to type without looking at the
keys.
How can you practice typing over the summer? You can purchase
and install a typing program such as Mavis Beacon which costs
about $20 but there are free online typing lessons available. Many
of these sites do have ads though some of these sites have a
premium option which you can purchase that will remove the ads.
Here are some free typing sites with lessons:
- TypingWeb.com
- Lessons, Graphs to track progress, typing games.
This site requires registration and can be ad free for a $5
one-time donation. You can customize the look of your
background and some other features.
- GoodTyping.com
- 27 lessons. This site requires registration.
- Learn
2 Type - This site has various excercises, preformance
charts, typing speed tests and more. Lots of ads and it's a
little difficult to know exactly where you are. Registration
is required. There is a pay option to get rid of ads.
- FreeTypingGame.net
- This site has lessons, games & speed tests. You can use
this site to see what speed you are currently typing at. I
recommend using at least a 2-minute speed test and any of the
following lessons: 9, 11, 13, 26-30.
- PowerTyping
- Simple typing lessons where you can type to music to
encourage rhythmic typing. Records your WPM on each lesson and
assigns a grade.
- Sense-Lang
- A simple site with lessons starting with the home row. This
site also allows you to paste text from anywhere and practice
typing using that text. This is a nice feature since it
practices real typing rather than just random words or letter
combinations.
- Custom
Typing Training - This is a subscription site for
$7/month but you can sign up for a free 4 week trial - you
must have a credit or debit card for this free trial. This
site is unique because it does not use the traditional homerow
approach to teach typing. For students that seem to be having
a hard time with typing, this could be a solution since it
approaches typing from a different way.
- NimbleFingers
- This site has online typing tests and a typing program
you can download called Word Wacker. This is a free to try
program. Read the Tent
Trick here for information on how to make a cover for your
child's hands and for information on when your child should
move on from the Home Row. And, check out the Healthy
Typing section for some exercises to prevent carpal
tunnel.
- E-Learning
For Kids - May be a little young for most middle
schoolers but this is a fun animated course.
- Dance
Mat Typing - Fun Characters and songs to introduce
Touch Typing for children 7-11 years old from the BBC. This
might be a little young for most middle schoolers but it has
fun characters. No speed feedback until all lessons are
completed.
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2007-2008 Computers
Here's What We Did!
September: Let's Start From The Beginning
(Computer Basics & Computer History)
October: QWERTY?
(Keyboarding & Word)
November: Playing It Safe
(Cyber Safety
& Using the Internet)
December: Psst – Wanna Buy A Bridge?
(Ethics, Internet Advertising & Ad Campaigns)
January: Spreading Excellence
(Excel)
February/March: We've Got The Power
(Powerpoint)
March/April: The Artist In Me (Paint, KidPix
& more)
April-June: Catching Up & Winding Down (Finishing up projects, Keyboarding & Ending
out the Year)
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