Day 7

The reaches to the letters 'i' and 'r' were introduced today.  'K' strikes the 'i' and 'f' strikes the 'r'.

Some students are beginning to sigh heavily and show some frustation.  That is expected and o.k. at this point.  Once they do the hard work on homerow and learn the pattern of the keyboard for off-homerow letters, it becomes much easier.  They are in the thros right now; a new dawn is on the horizon.  They will be typing without looking at their fingers soon!  They will be very proud of themselves; as will I.

Day 6

Hopefully, all  was not lost over the weekend.  So, today we review proper keyboarding position with our body again.  And, we do a large amount of work on homerow.

The program that we use in Keyboarding is called Applied Microtype.  We are using version 3.0.  It is NOT a program that you can download at home; unfortunately.  The company only sells to schools.  It is around this time that students and parents will ask if there is something that the students can practice at home.  For now, I do not wish for your student to practice outside of class.  Too often they will pick up their bad habits and strike keys with two fingers while looking all the time at the keyboard.  Next week, I will post some websites I think are useful for them to use; but, first we have to get our technique down.

The reaches to the letters 'h' and 'e' were taught today.  It is very important that the student learn to reach off of homerow and immediately return to homerow.  We talked a lot about not letting the finger that leaves homerow to hover over that new letter; but, to snap that homerow finger right back to homerow after striking the other key.  Also, it is very important that they recognize that each letter has a correct finger to strike it.  They cannot make up their own fingering.  'J' strikes 'h' and that is the only finger that strikes 'h'; no other finger will work.

Day 5

It is a happy Friday; our first of the year!

Today we reviewed the keyboarding position and learned and practiced...a lot...homerow reaches.  Don't be surprised if your student tells you soon that they dreamed about keyboarding.  :-)

Homerow is the most important idea for them to learn.  We are breaking bad habits today.  There was no circling hands, no sliding hands, no floating hands today; only very quiet and very still hands that were stuck to homerow.

Day 3

Today was the day the students created their CPSD password.  This password will work on any CPSD computer on any campus.  It is written in their planner on their birth date so they will not forget it.

Day 4

We are off and running with Keyboarding!  Today your student learned the proper way to sit while at the computer in order to type with a balanced body so as not to get sore when typing for an entire class period.

I barely touched upon the actual keys on homerow today.  Tomorrow we hit them hard.

Day 2

We survived reading the entire CPSD Student Handbook and the entire CSMS Parent Guide today!  Tomorrow we begin "real school."

FIrst Day of School

We had a fantastic first day at Carl Stuart Middle School!!

My students came to Keyboarding finding that they are only in Keyboarding for about 40 days.  In previous years, Keyboarding was a semester class; but, no longer.  We are now "on the wheel."  In the 40 days of Keyboarding they will learn to type WITHOUT LOOKING at their fingers and gain some speed and some much needed accuracy.

First Period Parents:  These are the forms that must be sent back to school:

Registration
Field Trip Permission
Language Survey
Parent Volunteer
Document Verification
Fundraising
Discipline/Homework

I look forward to tomorrow!