Keyboarding

   Accuracy Adjusted Words Per Minute (The total words typed in 1 minute-less errors made)

1st Grade 80% 3 
2nd Grade 80% 5
3rd Grade 85% 7
4th Grade 85% 10
5th Grade 90% 15
6th Grade 90% 20
7th Grade 95% 25
8th Grade 95% 30

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Research
The Internet and the use of computers for research is becoming well known. It is clear that all educators and parents must become informed Internet consumers. Teachers and parents can learn to evaluate web sites by considering the following five criteria:

   Navigation and usability
 
   Authorship
 
   Content validity
 
   Audience engagement
 
   Using the strengths of web technology.

An excellent source for Web Site Rubrics can be found at Kathy Schrock's Guide
 

Keep in mind that Nadaburg Elementary School's goal is allow the students to explore in a safe way the many research opportunities available on the Internet. Every web site does not need to meet every one of the criteria discussed above to be useful, but the more of them a site does meet, the more likely it is to be a worthwhile place for student, teachers and parents to spend time.

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Learning
When it comes to using educational technology in the classroom, it is important to ask the right questions...something that may have not been done in the past. Many schools have wanted technology to be a magic potion or a wand that could be waved over students to make them have perfect test scores.

We have to ask two difficult questions:

   What do we know about appropriate ways to enhance student learning with technology?
 
   How can technology change the nature of teaching and learning?
 

Read in my AERA Paper  some outcomes of using technology on Nadaburg's campus.

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Students Learn to Ask their Own Questions
To use educational technology effectively, teachers must create the vehicle that will encourage students to think about what they need to learn and to ask their own questions. This sounds like such an easy thing to change, but it is really very difficult.

A number of teachers say they would really like to be able to change the way they teach; they would like to do project-based, multi-disciplinary lessons because the real world is not broken down into academic disciplines.

But these same teachers say they and their students are held accountable for getting through the curriculum before May. They have to cover and incredibly broad pool of material, and that limits learning to facts and formulas and tests. Faced with these conflicting pressures, how can teachers encourage students to ask -- and investigate -- their own questions.

The parents and staff of Nadaburg Elementary School know that technology lends itself to exploration. But before it can be used effectively, we need to value exploration as real teaching and real learning. One of the things that we know is when students have technology available, students tend to move faster than we expect. The possibilities are endless.

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Teachers: Life-Long Learners
To use technology,  teachers need to be educated on specific uses of technology in the classroom and in their personal lives. Nadaburg School District has made substantial commitments to that education by providing thousands of dollars in training.

Each teacher at Nadaburg Elementary School has a computer on their desk. This tool allows teachers to access the Internet at school to enhance their in-class curriculums with the best that the Internet has to offer. The role of the technology coordinator is to assist the classroom teachers to find valuable information for classroom use.

Teachers at Nadaburg Elementary School are very creative, and quickly see the power of technology. As they use it for their own professional lives -- for keeping records, for typing lesson plans, and for their own learning -- they come up with all kinds of ways that technology can enhance what they are doing with students.

Nadaburg School District knows that it is not enough to bring in technology, it also requires the cooperation of all staff to learn how to use it as a tool in the daily instruction of our students. The eagerness of administration, teachers, and classified staff is what has made the technology program at Nadaburg Elementary School so successful in the preparation of our students to be technologically prepared for high school.
 

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