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Monday, April 3, 2017

March Technology Mania

Phew! March was a busy time spent honing our technology skills and practicing good computer posture habits at all grade levels. Their library media specialist turned into Coach Posture who dispensed personalized posture tips and ergonomic advice. In the earlier part of the month, Grades 3-5 got savvy with the technology tools and features used in the online test module of MCAS. K-2 began the month using their ABC knowledge to hunt in NASA's online picture dictionary. All around, our super sleuthing skills were in sharp focus! 

Grades 3-5
Our MCAS technology scavenger hunt opened the month's lessons and got everyone figuring out all the buttons and test elements that are built in to the site. Instead of working to solve the problem at hand or read the selected passages to answer the question, students were on a mission to understand how to use the features built in to the online test. Working in small groups to locate the parts of the test where certain tools are useful and why they are important, the students reported back on their findings at the end of the class.

Later on in March, we highlighted the importance of posture and emphasized good hand position on the keyboard  to improve our typing. We watched a video to open a conversation about our posture


and students learned about bad habits we adapt while sitting at the computer (these include sitting like a turtle, diving into the computer, and using zombie arms - or chicken wings - to type). But we learned some simple tips to immediately improve our posture (putting both feet flat on the floor, sitting up flat against our chair, keeping neutral wrists, and adjusting our computer screens).

We practiced our good posture while using typingclub.com and took stretching breaks to check in with our bodies and readjust our posture.




Grades K-2

It's never too early to start learning good posture habits - that's what our youngest computer sleuths learned and practiced throughout the month. Our youngest classes got practice in correcting bad computer postures in this video before turning their attention to how they were sitting in front of their computers.



In our earlier library lesson, our students created their own picture dictionary entries after navigating through the NASA's Online Picture Dictionary. From Asteroids to Zarya, they showed they could look up a word from the site to draw their own visual definition.





Later in the month, we had loads of fun playing Alphamunchies, a game designed to help us learn to locate letters on the keyboard. Alpha Critters fall from the sky and kids must stop the Critters from hitting the ground and eating their food by typing the correct letters.


Your posture coaches are hoping you'll keep up your good posture habits by practicing more at home and at school. Over and out, library detectives!

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