Hi Shelia,
>A few more reactions:
>->              Spreadsheets
>For the spreadsheets, I'd suggest you coordinate with the math and/or
>science teacher and do some sort of interdisciplinary unit/project to
>make use of the spreadsheet more meaningful.
       Yes, being self contained, this is the easy part, being new to
       spreadsheets makes it harder at this point. The other 6th grade
       teacher is colaborative too. See I'm going to be not only new to
       spreadsheets but newish to the 6th grade curriculm too. It's been
       15 years sence I last taught at that level.
>->              Graphics
>Given the length of your list, I'd probably scratch this one. You're
>already thinking of pursuing graphs with the spreadsheet, right? I mean,
>the most I might do is include the use of the (I think it's called)
>Paintbrush utility in the Accessories menu under Windows. This might be
>fun for a bit of cut&paste practice with the Word Processor.
  Good idea, I do figure to keep it light, perhaps using print shop as
  well.
>->             Electronic Communications
>->
>->          Students should know what a modem is and be familiar with
>->    simple communication programs.
>->
>->     1 - Knowing what a baud rate is,
>->
>->     2 - What ascii files ,and, binary files are
>->
>->     3 - How to upload and download files
>->
>->     4 - be familiar with  basic  networking commands
>->              ( login , logout, password )
>->
>->     5 -
>->
>->     Note - The concept of a school community BBS run by the sixth
>->            grade is worth exploring.
>The concept of a 6th grade BBS run by the students is definitely worth
>pursuing, and the kids would learn a lot from it. But, personally, I
>think it would change the entire focus of your class and you'd have to
>get rid of a lot of your ideas about Keyboarding, Wordprocessing, etc...
>simply due to lack of time. Maybe doing it as an after school or lunch
>time club would be more feasible for those kids who are interested?
     I'd been tossing around that idea, you are right, it would change
     the focus and time is a problem. I'm thinking that it's something
     that I'll keep on the back burner for awhile untill I get a sence of
     how things are going.
>->                       The Internet
>You have internet access for your students and the school isn't afraid
>of what the kids might see on-line? I salute your admin. They are much
>more progressive and forward thinking than mine.
     I'm blessed with a good administrator I think. There is concern, of
     course, about being able to protect children from adult material,
     so we do plan to use some kind of censorship software. It does
     require some faith that I can keep on top of security. It is
     something I will be watching for. I don't know what software to use
     yet.
>->        7 - Produce HTML documents ( online project pages,
>->            home pages ect)
>This alone, under that category of Internet, sounds like a semester
>course in itself. All the topics you have listed under Internet could
>probably keep you and your kids busy for the whole year.
     This is also one I'm going to put on the back burner, though
     there is considerable parental interest in it.
>Sounds like you need to prioritize what you really want to cover, get
>out a calendar and think realistically about what you have time to do.
     I'm almost ready to do just that, I'm hoping to get a sence of what
     each piece will be like and what use they will be to the children,
     before I begin. and all imput I get is helpful. Thanks for the list
     you sent earlier.
>I think that if you take a projects-based, interdisciplinary approach,
>you could lightly touch on many of these ideas without covering them in
>total mastery-of-concept depth. For instance, participate in a Math
>forum project. The kids could learn how to connect to that Website, read
>the problem, etc... don't make them learn all the technicalities about
>baud rate, etc... let the discipline/content area be the focus and the
>computer be the tool.
  You make a great deal of sence. I want to do it just that way, funny
  how things seem to slip in.
  As they work on the math project, let them use the
>word processor and spreadsheet to do their work and then upload it back
>to the Internet.
   Yes, I need some ideas for math, or science where the use of a
   spreadsheet is called for.
>Well, just my thoughts. Hope they are helpful.
  Very helpful.
Peace
Bob
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