You asked, we delivered…
We are always looking to improve your experience with Typing.com, so we sent a survey to all our hard-working teachers, asking what additional curriculum you would like to see added to the program. There were a lot of great suggestions, but two subjects were asked for again and again – 6th Grade Vocabulary, and MLA Citations.
It’s an inevitable fact of teaching that students will complete the work you assign them at different paces. Without fail, one student will finish before another student is even halfway through.
Every teacher learns pretty quickly that it’s imperative to have a game plan for what students will do when they finish their work early. It makes sense then, that one of the greatest advantages of an online program like Typing.com, is that students can work at their own pace.
Many of our teachers find that it’s useful to manage student progress by assigning specific lessons to their classes each week. Assigning lessons is a good way to keep students working on the specific content you’ve chosen, and to help you keep tabs on how a given class is doing across certain skills.
So what do you do if some students breeze through the day’s lessons while others are slowly chugging along?
One question we hear from teachers regularly, is “Do my students really need to learn how to type?”. With new technology like speech-to-text, how important is it to learn proper keyboarding skills?
Very important.
Typing is a foundational skill. Think of it like learning to tie your shoes. Of course there are slip on shoes and velcro shoes, but at some point, you will probably need to learn how to tie a shoe.
The foundational skill of typing is one that students will use in all aspects of their lives. Many students now take standardized tests online, which must be typed. The student who knows the keyboard will inevitably do better than the one who has to hunt and peck her answers out. Older students will be required to write papers, and knowing how to type will be instrumental in speeding up this process. Eventually, our students will be attempting to build a career – and it will not be easy for them to create their CV with speech-to-text technology.
The semester (and the year) is coming to an end and it’s likely that your class has successfully worked their way through the Typing.com curriculum. Now that they are done with their typing lessons, how can you continue to reinforce their new skill on a weekly basis?
Wouldn’t it be great to have a typing game that is fun, builds their speed and accuracy, reinforces what they learned, and keeps them coming back for more?
Are you ready to be excited? Then log in to your teacher portal and dig into the new and improved reports and easy-to-read charts and graphs, providing you with detailed information on student and class progress!
Attention Typing.com teachers! As you know, we have added an extensive digital literacy curriculum to Typing.com – including Coding, Career Skills, Computer Basics, Internet Safety, and more. And, now that we have all this great new content, we want to make sure that it’s easy for you to find and use!
Written by Beth Budinich – Typing.com Teacher Champion
Proficient keyboarding skills are an example of a background skill that may have quite an impact on test scores as students are doing more and more online testing.
While it can be hard to quantify the effect it may have, there are studies that show there is an effect. Also, teachers that are administering tests speak to the benefits of their students being efficient at keyboarding. Students proficient at keyboarding also notice their ease of focusing on their writing instead of on the mechanics of keyboarding.
From the South African Journal of Education Vol. 26(2)281-293 2006, is a keyboarding study by Elsie Lubbe, Jan Monteith and Elsa Mentz called “The Relationship Between keyboarding skills and self-regulated learning”.
This study defines keyboarding skills as: “The ability of learners to key in information into the memory of the computer with the minimum effort and energy use.”
Dear Ask a Teacher,
How can I create a positive and productive classroom environment for all my students? I want my students to feel comfortable sharing their thoughts and ideas without fear of ridicule or risk of censure.
Sincerely,
Positively In Charge
Hello, Positively in charge!
Teachers play an important role in setting the classroom environment. In fact, the way students interact with each other and the work in front of them is largely dictated by this it. And creating a positive class environment is invaluable for building trust and getting results.
When it comes to setting a positive classroom culture, a good place to start is with core values.
Which values, mindsets, and people skills do you want to encourage? If you can settle on three to four core values to consistently model and reinforce in your classroom, you’re likely to end up with the environment you want.
Below are four of the most popular core values along with ideas on how to make them part of your class culture.
October 14-19 is Digital Citizenship week!
Although we should help students understand how to be good digital citizens throughout the year, Digital Citizenship Week is great opportunity to reinforce the important behaviors and actions that make up good digital citizens.
But, what is a good digital citizen?
There are many definitions of a good digital citizen. Perhaps the most comprehensive definition is as follows:
A good digital citizen is a person with the skills and knowledge to effectively use digital technologies to participate in society, communicate with others, and create and consume digital content.
Below are some things to consider when educating your students on the important responsibilities digital citizenship.