Curriculum Committee Proceedings
Tech Curriculum Review Committee Minutes
04-25-06 - MCSS Library
Attendees: Joyce Foley, Claudia Foley, Jean Walker, Steve Chiasson
Steve shared final copies of the “Technology Guidelines Review Summary,” which he has been distributing at staff meetings. The group decided it would be appropriate to distribute them to the schools right away so that teachers and administrators would have a chance to preview the material in advance of the staff meetings.
The group discussed strategies for building a library of content-based grade-specific activities tied to the Tech Skills guidelines. Claudia noted that there already exists a substantial library of templates online. The group will spend some time reviewing those, and Steve will compose a letter asking teachers for examples of activities they have used successfully at their grade level. These will help reconstitute our repertoire of “ready-to-use” computer activities and provide jumping off points for teachers to develop their own new activities.
Steve will begin developing an online lesson format which will include a lesson description, an example of a completed project, a downloadable template, and instructions on how to create such templates.
The next meeting of the group was set for May 25.
submitted by Steve Chiasson
Tech Curriculum Review Committee Minutes
04-25-06 - MCSS Library
Attendees: Joyce Foley, Jean Walker, Steve Chiasson
The group approved an outline, based on last meeting’s discussions, for changes to the software packages and hardware distribution for next year. Specifics are outlined in the document “The Tentative Plan,” which was distributed at the meeting and is now posted on the blog.
We also added keyboarding components to the Tech Guidelines (again, an updated copy of the Guidelines is posted on the blog). These include an introduction to the keyboard in grade K, use of “right hand - left hand” at grade 1, introduction to using the home row at grade 2, and formal keyboarding (touch typing) instruction beginning at grade three. Keyboarding practice would continue in subsequent years, with mastery expected by the end of grade 6. These recommendations were guided by the survey results.
Steve mentioned that he had seen students using home row techniques in Cathy Winship’s third grade in Mercer, and Jean suggested that we solicit teacher’s expertise with regard to strategies both for teaching keyboarding and finding time to practice. Steve will follow up on this.
submitted by Steve Chiasson
Curriculum Review Committee Agenda for 04-25-06
- Review the minutes of the last meeting
- Review “Tentative Plan” for 2006-07
- Begin consideration of keyboarding
- Begin development of Tech Skills implementation frameworks
- As usual, any items left unfinished will be continued next time