Book Review: K-8 Keyboard Curriculum

A keyboard curriculum for K-8

K-8 Keyboard Curriculum: The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week

You may think it impossible to find an effective keyboarding curriculum for the skimpy forty-five minutes a week you can devote to keyboarding. You teach what you can, but it always seems to be the same lessons—hands on home row, good posture, eyes on the copy. You wonder if it’s making a difference, or if it matters.

Yes, it does and there is a way. It requires a plan, faithfully executed, with your eye relentlessly on the goal, but if you commit, it works. In this book, The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week: a K-8 Curriculum, I’ll share a unique keyboarding curriculum for K-8 that I’ve seen work on thousands of students. The book includes:

• A summary of the literature
• Answers to the most-asked questions like ‘Can youngers learn to keyboard—and should they?’
• The importance of the teacher to early keyboarders

The K-8 curriculum includes a lot more variety than keyboard exercises on installed software.  Here’s a rundown of the pieces used:

Book Review: K-8 Digital Citizenship Curriculum

Education has changed. No longer is it contained within four classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Students aren’t confined by the eight hours between the school bell’s chimes or the struggling budget of an underfunded program.

Now, education can be found anywhere, by collaborating with students in Kenya or Skyping with an author in Sweden or chatting with an astrophysicist on the International Space Station. Students can use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of a zoo or a blog to collaborate on a class project. Learning has no temporal or geographic borders, available 24/7 from wherever students and teachers find an internet connection.

This vast landscape of resources is available digitally, freely, and equitably, but before children begin the cerebral trek through the online world, they must learn to do it safely, securely, and responsibly. This conversation used to focus on limiting access to the internet, blocking websites, and layering rules upon rules hoping (vainly) that students would be discouraged from using this infinite and fascinating resource.

It didn’t work.

Best practices now suggest that instead of protecting students, we teach them to be good digital citizens, confident and competent in the use of the internet.

This 70-page text (click for a peek inside) is your guide to what our children must know at what age to thrive in the community called the internet. It’s a roadmap for blending all the pieces into a cohesive, effective student-directed cyber-learning experience that accomplishes ISTE’s general goals to:

• Advocate and practice safe, legal, and responsible use of information and technology
• Exhibit a positive attitude toward using technology that supports collaboration, learning, and productivity
• Demonstrate personal responsibility for lifelong learning
• Exhibit leadership for digital citizenship

Each grade level includes 3-8 lessons with a hands-on project for each lesson. That’s 46 lessons and 46 projects–a full year of instruction for K-6 in non-sequential order so it fits nicely into your school schedule or current technology curriculum, with a project for each topic. Here’s a schedule of what topics are covered at which grade level. Some start in kindergarten and are reinforced each year. Others, we wait until students have the maturity to understand the concepts:

You also get nine pages of digital citizenship links–over a hundred–as resources.

Can I see the Table of Contents?

Absolutely. Here’s a complete list of each lesson in each grade-level:

Price:

Print:    $29.99 + p&h

Digital: $21.99 + p&h

Combo: $46.99 + p&h

To order, click here.

Digital delivery within 24 hours. Print delivery–expect 4-7 days

Want more information? Check out the slideshow at the bottom. I have some of my favorite posters there.

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Jacqui Murray has been teaching K-8 technology for 15 years. She is the editor of a K-8 technology curriculum, K-8 keyboard curriculum, K-8 Digital Citizenship curriculum, and creator of technology training books for how to integrate technology in education. She is the author of the popular Building a Midshipman, the story of her daughter’s journey from high school to United States Naval Academy. She is webmaster for six blogs, an Amazon Vine Voice book reviewer, Editorial Review Board member for Journal for Computing Teachers, Cisco guest blogger, a columnist for Examiner.com, featured blogger for Technology in Education, IMS tech expert, and a monthly contributor to TeachHUB. Currently, she’s editing a techno-thriller that should be out to publishers next summer. Contact Jacqui at her writing office or her tech lab, Ask a Tech Teacher.

Perfect Gift for the Teacher in Your Life

Pre-order the upcoming Digital Citizenship Curriculum for K-6 (print or digital). Get the 16 Holiday Projects (ebook) free!

Why do teachers need to teach Digital Citizenship?

Education has changed. No longer is it contained within four classroom walls or the physical site of a school building. Students aren’t confined by the eight hours between the school bell’s chimes or the struggling budget of an underfunded program.

Now, education can be found anywhere, by collaborating with students in Kenya or Skyping with an author in Sweden or chatting with an astrophysicist on the International Space Station. Students can use Google Earth to take a virtual tour of a zoo or a blog to collaborate on a class project. Learning has no temporal or geographic borders, available 24/7 from wherever students and teachers find an internet connection.

This vast landscape of resources is available digitally, freely, and equitably, but before children begin the cerebral trek through the online world, they must learn to do it safely, securely, and responsibly. This conversation used to focus on limiting access to the internet, blocking websites, and layering rules upon rules hoping (vainly) that students would be discouraged from using this infinite and fascinating resource.

It didn’t work.

Best practices now suggest that instead of protecting students, we teach them to be good digital citizens, confident and competent in the use of the internet.

What’s included in K-6 Digital Citizenship Curriculum?

Book Review: Talking Back to Facebook

Talking Back to Facebook: The Common Sense Guide to Raising Kids in the Digital Age

by James P. Steyer

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

View all my reviews

James Steyer, acclaimed founder of Common Sense Media, has written often in articles and websites on the affect that social networks are having on our children. In his latest book, Talking Back to Facebook (Scribner 2012), Steyer discusses worries on every parent’s mind about the social media engulfing our children.

With so much of education and play time revolving around digital devices like iPads, computers, Wii, apps, and more, parents have a right to be concerned and should question whether this tsunamic trend is healthy for a child’s developing cognitive and psychological functions. Steyer’s premise is that the obsession with Facebook and its ilk, as it seeps into younger and younger age groups, can be dangerous and must be controlled. To support his hypothesis, he covers important topics such as:

Be Featured on Ask a Tech Teacher

I get thousands of visitors a day–three-quarters of a million since I started. The most common reason why you-all drop by is for resources. I have lots of them–leson plans, tips and tricks–but one area I have little of is tech ed book reviews. I thought we could build a community library, right here on Ask a Tech Teacher!

I’m looking for:

• reviews of technology-in-education books or ebooks
• essays on tech ed topics
• White papers on tech ed topics
• Education pedagogy

Here are a few examples:

• Disrupting Class
• Endangered Minds: Why Children Don’t Think And What We Can Do About It
• My Evernote
• Savvy Cyberkids at Home
• Second Grade Technology–32 Lessons –by Structured Learning
• Seven Habits of Highly Effective People

These will be collected and offered as a resource to readers on my blog under Great Books.

If you’ve written a review and posted it on your blog, please send the link to me.  I will provide a link back to your blog and we’ll develop a Book Group right here on Ask a Tech Teacher.

I look forward to hearing from you!

Book Review: 16 Holiday Projects

16 Year-round Holiday Projects for K-8

16 Holiday Projects (Structured Learning 2011) is a 45-page student-tested collection of sixteen year-round holiday-themed projects for kindergarten through eighth grade using Word, Excel, Publisher, KidPix, TuxPaint, Web 2.0 tools and more. They’re from the team of Ask a Tech Teacher technology teachers, designed to to be fun, festive, while teaching important tech skills.

Use them for any holiday. They’ll fill your year with pictures, calendars, wallpaper that kids will love making and want to give to family as gifts.

Want it free?

• Buy three books from Structured Learning (sorry, these must be new purchases–after October 18th, 2012)
• email Zeke Rowe at zeke.rowe@structuredlearning.net. Attach the receipt.
• Mention you saw the offer here on Ask a Tech Teacher
• Offer expires: November 1st, 2012

Where to purchase:

Book Review: 38 Web 2.0 Articles That Will Turn Your Class Around

Tech ed pedagogy

38 Web 2.0 Articles That Will Turn Your Class Around

by Structured Learning IT Team

Seventy-six pages of the 38 most requested articles from Ask A Tech Teacher©. They cover critical Web 2.0 topics like how blogging makes students better writers, the importance of social media to education, how to teach keyboarding the right way, top ten tips for teaching MS Word, why technology is important for all learners, what to include on the youngest child’s computer, using internet start pages in tech lab and more. Each article is quick (1-2 pages), pithy, and easy-to-understand. They’re written by a working tech teacher with fifteen years experience teaching technology to all age groups.

Available for next-day digital delivery from:

Teachers Pay Teachers, Scribd.com, Publisher’s website

Book Review: K-8 Keyboard Curriculum

A keyboard curriculum for K-8

K-8 Keyboard Curriculum: The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week

You may think it impossible to find an effective keyboarding curriculum for the skimpy forty-five minutes a week you can devote to keyboarding. You teach what you can, but it always seems to be the same lessons—hands on home row, good posture, eyes on the copy. You wonder if it’s making a difference, or if it matters.

Yes, it does and there is a way. It requires a plan, faithfully executed, with your eye relentlessly on the goal, but if you commit, it works. In this book, The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week: a K-8 Curriculum, I’ll share a unique keyboarding curriculum for K-8 that I’ve seen work on thousands of students. The book includes:

• A summary of the literature
• Answers to the most-asked questions like ‘Can youngers learn to keyboard—and should they?’
• The importance of the teacher to early keyboarders

The K-8 curriculum includes a lot more variety than keyboard exercises on installed software.  Here’s a rundown of the pieces used:

Book Review: 98 Tech Tips

98 Tech Problems from the Classroom:

and How Students Can Solve Them

Running a tech lab can be frightening. What if there’s a problem you don’t know how to answer? What if the computers break? What if they all break at once?

Several years ago, in an effort to create a practical strategy for technology success, I started tracking how often I got the same tech questions from students. Soon, I extended it to parents who, in a well-intentioned effort to help with school work, often got stuck on a techie issue. Some spent hours on a problem that could have been solved in minutes–if only they knew how to do that.

Turns out, 70% of the time, it was the same 98 problems.

Book Review: How Technology Can Jumpstart Your Classroom

You may be the Technology Specialist, the Coordinator for Instructional Technology, IT Coordinator, Technology Director or the technology teacher for your school–tasked with finding the right computer project for each K-6 classroom unit. You have a limited budget, less software, and the drive to do it right no matter the roadblocks. How do you accomplish your job?

You are just as likely to be the classroom teacher, tech enthusiast, with a goal this year—and this time you mean it—to integrate the wonders of technology into classroom lessons. You’ve seen it work. Other teachers in your PLN are doing it. And significantly, you are trying to comply with the requirements of Common Core State Standards and/or IB guidelines that weave technology consistently into the fabric of all units of inquiry as a method of delivering quality education. How do you reach your goal?

Try this book:

How Technology Can Jump-Start the Inquiry-based Classroom:

35 Projects That Align with National Standards

There are thirty-five lessons, broken down by grade level as follows:

• Kindergarten—7 lessons
• First Grade—10 lessons
• Second Grade—10 lessons
• Third Grade—12 lessons
• Fourth Grade—16 lessons
• Fifth Grade—17 lessons
• Sixth Grade—12 lessons

Now Available: K-8 Keyboard Curriculum

A keyboard curriculum for K-8

K-8 Keyboard Curriculum:

The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week

You may think it impossible to find an effective keyboarding curriculum for the skimpy forty-five minutes a week you can devote to keyboarding. You teach what you can, but it always seems to be the same lessons—hands on home row, good posture, eyes on the copy. You wonder if it’s making a difference, or if it matters.

Yes, it does and there is a way. It requires a plan, faithfully executed, with your eye relentlessly on the goal, but if you commit, it works. In this book, The Essential Guide to Teaching Keyboarding in 45 Minutes a Week: a K-8 Curriculum, I’ll share a unique keyboarding curriculum for K-8 that I’ve seen work on thousands of students. The book includes:

• A summary of the literature
• Answers to the most-asked questions like ‘Can youngers learn to keyboard—and should they?’
• The importance of the teacher to early keyboarders

The K-8 curriculum includes a lot more variety than keyboard exercises on installed software.  Here’s a rundown of the pieces used:

• Keyboarding software (yes, you do need repetition)
• Online keyboarding websites
• Age-appropriate use of hand covers
• Quarterly speed/accuracy quizzes
• Quarterly blank keyboarding quizzes
• Monthly homework
• Wall charts to support learning and display evidence of success
• Grading based on student improvement, not conformity to class norms

You’ll learn practical strategies on how to blend these pieces, each added at the right time, to teach the keyboarding skills required for today’s classroom.

Book Review: Common Core SS K-5 Lesson Plans

Projects aligned with CCSS

THE KEY TO ALIGNING YOUR K-5 CLASS WITH COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS:

30 Projects that integrate technology into core lesson plans

Click this link.

What are Common Core State Standards and why do I need this book?

Here are two articles that will help you to understand the education standard now adopted by 46 states:

• How to Adapt Lessons to Common Core State Standards
• How to Align Technology with Common Core State Standards

What is this book?

The Key to Aligning Your K-5 Class with Common Core State Standards  is for classroom teachers, technology integration specialists and lab professionals, as a resource for aligning your technology program with the Common Core State Standards now implemented in forty-six states. You will find it a foundational tool for scaffolding technology into the areas of math, language, reading, writing, speaking and listening as is required in CCSS. Overall, they are authentic approaches to student-centered learning, asking the student to be a risk-taker in his/her educational goals and the teacher to act as guide. The essential questions are open-ended and conversations organic and inquiry-driven, ultimately asking students to take responsibility for the process of their own learning.

Book Review: 19 Posters to Decorate Your Technology Lab

19 posters to Decorate Your Technology Lab is for new and experienced tech teachers to remind students of the basics of computer use. It includes keyboard tips, website usage, mouse control, how to solve common problems, parts of the computer, email netiquette, how to search, volunteer guidelines and more. As a Bonus: There’s a sample structure for a 45-minute tech class.

This is a must-have for new teachers, a time-saver for everyone.

Thumbnails of each poster

Book Review: My Evernote

Every Friday, I share a website (or app) that I’ve heard about, checked into, been excited to use. This one is a math app. Since ‘math’ is by far the most popular search term of readers who seek out my blog, I know you’re going to enjoy this review.

Share websites across classes

Book Review: 55 Tech Projects for the Digital Classroom

With the school year almost back, I want to share some of the tech books I use in my classroom. I think you’ll enjoy them also. This one is a two-volume all-in-one for grades K-8. It includes a mixture of lessons that cover different skills, different subjects. Hope you like it!

55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom: Everything you need to integrate computers into K-8 classes

by Jacqui Murray

Volume I is 219 pages and Volume II 235 pages, making this series an all-in-one K-8 toolkit for the lab specialist, classroom teacher and homeschooler, with a years-worth of simple-to-follow projects for K-8. Integrate technology into language arts, geography, history, problem solving, research skills, and science lesson plans and units of inquiry using teacher resources that meet NETS-S national guidelines and many state standards. The fifty-five projects are categorized by subject, program (software), and skill (grade) level. Each project includes standards met in three areas (higher-order thinking, technology-specific, and NETS-S), software required, time involved, suggested experience level, subject area supported, tech jargon, step-by-step lessons, extensions for deeper exploration, troubleshooting tips and project examples including reproducibles. Tech programs used are KidPix, all MS productivity software, Google Earth, typing software and online sites, email, Web 2.0 tools (blogs, wikis, internet start pages, social bookmarking and photo storage), Photoshop and Celestia. Also included is an Appendix of over 200 age-appropriate child-friendly websites. Skills taught include collaboration, communication, critical thinking, problem solving, decision making, creativity, digital citizenship, information fluency, presentation, and technology concepts. In short, it’s everything you’d need to successfully integrate technology into the twenty-first century classroom.

If you send a proof of purchase for the print textbook to the publisher at sales@structuredlearning.net, you can buy a discounted pdf of the book here.

Book Review: Sixth Grade Technology Textbook

Sixth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Sixth Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer
by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The seventh in the series, the 170-page Sixth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Sixth Grader Can Do (Structured Learning 2012), available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It includes many age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

Book Review: Fifth Grade Technology Textbook

Fifth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Fifth Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The sixth in the series, the 134-page Fifth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Any Fifth Grader Can Do, is the Fourth Edition (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It includes many age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

Use the SL K-6 Technology Curriculum? Want More Lessons? I Can Do That

You may be the Technology Specialist, the Coordinator for Instructional Technology, IT Coordinator, Technology Director or the technology teacher for your school–tasked with finding the right computer project for each K-6 classroom unit. You have a limited budget, less software, and the drive to do it right no matter the roadblocks. How do you accomplish your job?

You are just as likely to be the classroom teacher, tech enthusiast, with a goal this year—and this time you mean it—to integrate the wonders of technology into classroom lessons. You’ve seen it work. Other teachers in your PLN are doing it. And significantly, you are trying to comply with the requirements of Common Core State Standards and/or IB guidelines that weave technology consistently into the fabric of all units of inquiry as a method of delivering quality education. How do you reach your goal?

Try this book:

How Technology Can Jump-Start the Inquiry-based Classroom:

35 Projects That Align with National Standards

There are thirty-five lessons, broken down by grade level as follows:

• Kindergarten—7 lessons
• First Grade—10 lessons
• Second Grade—10 lessons
• Third Grade—12 lessons
• Fourth Grade—16 lessons
• Fifth Grade—17 lessons
• Sixth Grade—12 lessons

Book Review: Fourth Grade Technology Textbook

Fourth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Fourth  Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The fifth in the series, the 127-page Fourth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Any Fourth Grader Can Do (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It includes many age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

• PDF version is in full color
• PDF version has active links so you can click through to enrichments when required for student-centered learning
• each lesson summarizes a 45-minute class period–usually 2-3 activities, arranged temporally throughout the year for ease of understanding by students. For example, a lesson is likely to include 2-3 activities from among typing practice, student presentations, project that ties into core class activity, problem-solving that assists with 1:1 initiatives
• each lesson is aligned with NETS standards
• each lesson includes required vocabulary
• each lesson provides integrations to core classroom units and topics
• each lesson includes trouble-shooting solutions to the problems most likely to come up in the classroom
• each lesson includes enrichments for those precocious students who finish the lesson and want more
• includes a list of websites (PDF has active links, print version goes to Ask a Tech Teacher Great Websites). Both print and PDF can access a webpage on Ask a Tech Teacher that is updated yearly with new websites by grade level and category
• there’s a help link (to this blog) to a teacher using the curriculum who will help you through the prickly parts of a lesson plan. This is FREE–no charge.
• Where lessons center around purchased software, the authors made an effort to offer free alternatives. For example, instead of KidPix, teachers can use TuxPaint. Instead of Type to Learn, teachers can use a list of online keyboarding websites like Dance Mat Typing and Typing Web
• If you buy the print book, the PDF is discounted
• includes pedagogy articles to help think through critical issues like keyboarding, use of the internet, how to use wikis in classrooms, and more
• includes wall posters covering critical technology issues (like mouse skills)

Book Review: Third Grade Technology Textbook

Third grade technology curriculum textbook

Third Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Third Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The fourth in the series, the 119-page Third Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Any Third Grader Can Do, is the Fourth Edition (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It includes many age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

Book Review: Second Grade Technology Textbook

Second Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Second Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The third in the series, the 72-page Second Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Any Second Grader Can Do, is the Fourth Edition (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It includes many age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

• PDF version is in full color
• PDF version has active links so you can click through to enrichments when required for student-centered learning
• each lesson summarizes a 45-minute class period–usually 2-3 activities, arranged temporally throughout the year for ease of understanding by students. For example, a lesson is likely to include 2-3 activities from among typing practice, student presentations, project that ties into core class activity, problem-solving that assists with 1:1 initiatives
• each lesson is aligned with NETS standards
• each lesson includes required vocabulary
• each lesson provides integrations to core classroom units and topics
• each lesson includes trouble-shooting solutions to the problems most likely to come up in the classroom
• each lesson includes enrichments for those precocious students who finish the lesson and want more
• includes a list of websites (PDF has active links, print version goes to Ask a Tech Teacher Great Websites). Both print and PDF can access a webpage on Ask a Tech Teacher that is updated yearly with new websites by grade level and category
• there’s a help link (to this blog) to a teacher using the curriculum who will help you through the prickly parts of a lesson plan. This is FREE–no charge.
• Where lessons center around purchased software, the authors made an effort to offer free alternatives. For example, instead of KidPix, teachers can use TuxPaint. Instead of Type to Learn, teachers can use a list of online keyboarding websites like Dance Mat Typing and Typing Web
• If you buy the print book, the PDF is discounted
• includes pedagogy articles to help think through critical issues like keyboarding, use of the internet, how to use wikis in classrooms, and more
• includes wall posters covering critical technology issues (like mouse skills)

Pre-Order: KEY TO ALIGNING K-5 CLASS WITH COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

30 Projects that align with CCSS

If you would like to pre-order

THE KEY TO ALIGNING YOUR K-5 CLASS WITH COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS:

30 Projects that integrate technology into core lesson plans

…click this link.

What is this book?

30 Technology Projects Aligned With Common Core State Standards  is for classroom teachers, technology integration specialists and lab professionals, as a resource for aligning their technology program with the Common Core State Standards now implemented in forty-six states. You will find it a foundational tool for scaffolding technology into the areas of math, language, reading, writing, speaking and listening as is required in CCSS. Overall, they are authentic approaches to student-centered learning, asking the student to be a risk-taker in his/her educational goals and the teacher to act as guide. The essential questions are open-ended and conversations organic and inquiry-driven, ultimately asking students to take responsibility for the process of their own learning.

It can be used as a resource book, to provide exciting new lessons that seamlessly blend technology with lesson plans and involve students in the many new tools available to enrich their educational experiences, or a road map, plotting the vertical planning and differentiated instruction fundamental to CCSS goals.

There are thirty lessons, five per grade level. Each includes:

Book Review: First Grade Technology Textbook

1st Grade technology curriculum

First Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every First Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The second in the series, the 63-page First Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Any First Grader Can Do, is the Fourth Edition (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It  includes many  age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to the classroom:

Book Review: Kindergarten Technology Textbook

Kindergarten Technology: 32 Lessons Every Kindergartner Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I’m often asked what books I’d recommend for teaching technology in the classroom. Each year about this time, I do a series of reviews on my favorite tech ed books. If you’re already looking ahead to next year’s technology curriculum and want to fix some of this year’s problems, I suggest you consider the seven-volume K-6 technology curriculum series that’s used in hundreds of school districts across the country (and a few internationally). It’s skills-based, project-based, aligned with NETS national standards and fully integratable into state core classroom standards.

The first in the series, the 58-page Kindergarten Technology: 32 Lesson Any Kindergartner Can Do, is the Fourth Edition (Structured Learning 2011), updated to MS Office 2007/10, available in print or digital, and perfect for Smartscreens, iPads, laptops. It  includes many  age-appropriate samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections, thematic websites, and how-to’s. Because I edited this book, I made sure it includes pieces that I as a teacher knew to be critical to teachers:

• PDF version is in full color
• PDF version has active links so you can click through to enrichments when required for student-centered learning
• each lesson summarizes a 45-minute class period–usually 2-3 activities, arranged temporally throughout the year for ease of understanding by students. For example, a lesson is likely to include 2-3 activities from among typing practice, student presentations, project that ties into core class activity, problem-solving that assists with 1:1 initiatives
• each lesson is aligned with NETS standards
• each lesson includes required vocabulary
• each lesson provides integrations to core classroom units and topics
• each lesson includes trouble-shooting solutions to the problems most likely to come up in the classroom
• each lesson includes enrichments for those precocious students who finish the lesson and want more
• includes a list of websites (PDF has active links, print version goes to Ask a Tech Teacher Great Websites). Both print and PDF can access a webpage on Ask a Tech Teacher that is updated yearly with new websites by grade level and category
• there’s a help link (to this blog) to a teacher using the curriculum will help you through the prickly parts of a lesson plan. This is FREE–no charge.
• Where lessons center around purchased software, the authors made an effort to offer free alternatives. For example, instead of KidPix, teachers can use TuxPaint. Instead of Type to Learn, teachers can use a list of online keyboarding websites like Dance Mat Typing and Typing Web
• If you buy the print book, the PDF is discounted
• includes pedagogy articles to help think through critical issues like keyboarding, use of the internet, how to use wikis in classrooms, and more

Weekend Website #95: AIRR Math

Every Friday, I share a website (or app) that I’ve heard about, checked into, gotten excited to use. This one is a math book and app. Since ‘math’ is by far the most popular search term of readers who seek out my blog, I know you’re going to enjoy this review.

AIRR Math–a math workbook with an app for iPads, iPhones.

Book Review: Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes

Sams Teach Yourself Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes

by Bud Smith

My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Note to Readers: This is part of my Amazon Vine Voice reviews.

I was very excited when Bud Smith’s Facebook for Business in 10 Minutes (SAMS Teach Yourself, 2011) became available through my Amazon Vine gig. I’ve wanted to get my business Facebook account going and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to do that while reviewing his book. I’ve been putting that task off because I expected it to take hours, but if I could really do it in ten minutes, all the better. So, book in hand, I sat down at my computer and started.

Free Ebook Anyone? Can I Ask a Favor?

It’s that time of year again. Even as the newly-updated 4th Edition of the technology textbooks is being rolled out, my publisher is planning on next year’s 5th edition. They would like to feature a few endorsements from those of you in the trenches. If you’re interested in providing 3-4 sentences that will share with readers how much you have gotten out of any of these books, please email them to my colleague Kali at kali.delamagente@structuredlearning.net. If yours is chosen, you will be sent a digital copy of any of the textbooks you’d like.

Not a bad deal, hunh?

Book Review: 55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom

55 Technology Projects for the Digital Classroom: Everything you need to integrate computers into K-8 classes

by Jacqui Murray

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Volume I is 219 pages and Volume II 235 pages, making this series an all-in-one K-8 toolkit for the lab specialist, classroom teacher and homeschooler, with a years-worth of simple-to-follow projects for K-8. Integrate technology into language arts, geography, history, problem solving, research skills, and science lesson plans and units of inquiry using teacher resources that meet NETS-S national guidelines and many state standards. The fifty-five projects are categorized by subject, program (software), and skill (grade) level.

Book Review: Fifth GradeTechnology

Fifth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Fifth Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning Technology Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10. It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 133 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

Book Review: Third Grade Technology–32 Lessons

Third Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Third Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10. It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 126 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

For a limited time, if you send a proof of purchase for the print textbook to the publisher at sales@structuredlearning.net, you can buy a discounted pdf of the book.

Book Review: Kindergarten Technology–32 Lessons

Kindergarten Technology: 32 Lessons Every Kindergartner Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10. It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 58 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

For a limited time, if you send a proof of purchase for the print textbook to the publisher at sales@structuredlearning.net, you can buy a discounted pdf of the book.

Book Review: 1st Grade Technology–32 Lessons

This is another in a series of workbooks designed for K-8. I think you’ll find them useful in your classroom Web 2.0 integration:

First Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every First Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10. It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 63 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

Book Review: Fourth Grade Technology–32 Lessons

Fourth Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Fourth Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10 (currently available only as pdf). It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 126 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

Book Review: Second Grade Technology–32 Lessons

Second Grade Technology: 32 Lessons Every Second Grader Can Accomplish on a Computer

by Structured Learning IT Teaching Team

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This is the Fourth Edition, updated to MS Office 2007/10. It  includes many more samples, reproducibles, Web 2.0 connections and how-to’s that are age-appropriate for a second grader. At 72 pages, it’s much more like a tech lab-in-a-binder than a mere 32 projects. The Amazon blurb says it all:

The six-volume Structured Learning Technology Curriculum (Fourth Edition, 2011) is the all-in-one solution to running an effective, efficient, and fun technology program  whether you’re the lab specialist, IT coordinator, classroom teacher, or homeschooler, and is the current choice of hundreds of school districts across the country. Newly updated and expanded, each volume now includes step-by-step directions for a year’s worth of projects, samples, grading rubrics, reproducibles, wall posters, teaching ideas and hundreds of online connections to access enrichment material and updates from a working technology lab. Aligned with ISTE national technology standards, the curriculum follows a tested timeline of which skill to introduce when, starting with mouse skills, keyboarding, computer basics, and internet/Web 2.0 tools in Kindergarten/First; MS Word, Publisher, Excel, PowerPoint, Google Earth, internet research, email and Photoshop in Second-Fifth. Each activity is integrated with classroom units in history, science, math, literature, reading, writing, critical thinking and more. Whether you’re an experienced tech teacher or brand new to the job, you’ll appreciate the hundreds of embedded links that enable you to stay on top of current technology thinking and get help from active technology teachers using the program. Additional items included in each volume are wall posters to explain basic concepts, suggestions for keyboarding standards, discussion of how to integrate Web 2.0 tools into the classroom curriculum and the dozens of online websites to support classroom subjects.

Book Review: Digital Forensics With Open Source Tools

Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools

by Cory Altheide

Note: This review written as part of my Amazon Vine Voice series

My rating: 5 of 5 stars

I write techno-thrillers, so I’m always looking for new ways to crack the tangled online lives of popular fictional characters, a blueprint for the next Digital Fortress. In the case of Altheide and Carvey’s Digital Forensics with Open Source Tools (Elsevier, 2011), I’ll have to keep looking, but I wasn’t disappointed. It delves into the equally obfuscated world of computer malfunctions. In plain English (as opposed to the acronyms more rampant in the geek world than the government), it details how to investigate a variety of problems on a variety of systems to find out what went wrong and how to fix it–using open source tools. The ‘fix it’ part is the digital forensics which the authors define as “the use of scientifically derived and proven methods toward the preservation, collection, validation, identification, analysis, interpretation, documentation and presentation of digital evidence derived from digital sources for the purpose of …reconstruction of events found to be criminal…”