Stay Safe and Healthy!Click on the "Mysteries of Life" image below to learn from Tim & Moby more about the Coronavirus.
Fun Things to Do at Home!
Check out this cool award-winning children’s literacy website! Storyline Online, allows you to stream videos created by famous actors who read children’s books!
4th & 5th Grade Typing Club
4th and 5th Graders! Click on the Typing Club icon to access your school typing account. Or go to: https://busdtyping.typingclub.com
Remember to sign in with your school Google Account: i.e. j.smith@brentwood.k12.ca.us. Then enter your school password! 
5th Grade - Keyboard Covers!
5th graders---I encourage you to make a keyboard cover at home by taking an unused box and cutting out the sides! This is a great way to build muscle memory!
Logging in to Your School Google Account at Home!
Our computer lab consist of computers called Chromeboxes. A Chromebox is a personal computer running Google's Chrome OS operating system. This device is a desktop version of the Chromebook laptop. Your student will have access to Chromebooks in their classrooms and Chromeboxes in the computer lab! Click the Google Apps button below to learn more and to find out how to log your student into their school Google Drive at home!
We use our Google Drives weekly! The best way to describe Google Drive is that it’s similar to an online file cabinet where you can store documents and other digital files. This “Drive” is the same concept as a hard drive on your computer, except it’s cloud-based. This means that it exists online! What is wonderful about Google drives is that students can upload a file into it and access the same file at home. It’s basically accessible from wherever you have Internet.
Inside the Google Drive, students have access to create many different files as well as a collection of tools to create them. Students can create: Google Docs - word processing similar to Microsoft Word. Google Slides - presentation tool comparable to PowerPoint. Google Sheets - spreadsheets such as Excel. So, our Drive is not just a place to store things; but also a place to make things. This means you and your students can use these tools to do any kind of writing assignment or report (such as slideshow presentations) right at home! Have your students show you how to log into their Google Drives from home and take a closer look! Click on the button below for steps on how to log into their Google Drive from home. Students should have their user names and passwords memorized! Important Applications!Click HERE to learn how to log in using Classlink.
Computer Lab Expectations
There are 4 classroom expectations to which all students must abide while visiting the computer lab. If any of these expectations are not followed the student's teacher will be notified.
1. Be Responsible To act in a manner that makes one worthy of trust and confidence. 2. Be Honest To be honest about things and feelings with oneself and others 3. Be Respectful To treat others the way you would like to be treated 4. Be Safe Follow all digital citizenship rules (see digital citizen tab above) |
Make sure you remember to wash your hands and practice social distancing!
Distance Learning Activities - Scholastic Story Starters
Use the amazing Scholastic Story Starters application to practice writing stories! Through Story Starters, you can choose topics from adventure, fantasy, sci-fi, and scrambler. Start by spinning a wheel to get a random selection. There is a wheel for type of writing, adjective, noun and adverb that will come up after each spin. Students can re-spin one wheel to change part of the selection. After choosing a story starter, type your story on the website. Formats include: notebook, letter, newspaper, postcard. They can even draw a picture to go along with it! Please be aware that there is not a way to save your work. When you are finished, ask a parent to help download your story or print! To access, click on the Storyline Online button below!
flipgrid.com/derita7263 
What is Hour of Code?
Students in grades K-5 will be exposed to computer science during the week of December 9 - 15th. It is an International program to promote computer science. Students will be introduced to how computer programmers solve problems and provide instructions to computers by participating in engaging activities online. While we will only have an introduction in the lab, there are many more tutorials online that your students can participate in beyond this event. Please click on the link above to learn more. Keyboarding!In today's digital age, it is so important to teach students to touch type. For that reason, in 4th and 5th grade we introduce "Typing Club" for weekly keyboarding lessons and practice. As students work through their activities, we continually focus on: • staying on home row • maintaining good posture • keeping our eyes on the screen • working on accuracy before speed. With 5th grader we discuss and work on building "muscle memory" with our keyboarding skill so students don't have to use mental energy while their keyboarding. Instead students will focus more on WHAT they are typing rather than thinking and looking for the next key to press. To help with this we introduce the keyboard covers! The keyboard covers will help us to:
1) Improved Speed and Accuracy - because they focus on how to type by touch - not sight! 2) Improved Key Recognition - because students have to remember where the keys are (muscle memory) instead of visually looking for the keys! 3) Promotes Good Posture - because it forces them to keep their hands, wrist, and fingers in the proper position! I encourage students to practice their keyboarding skills at home as well. Students can log into their typing accounts with their school Google accounts. If they'd like to make a keyboard cover at home, the image below shows how they can do so from a card board box! Our goal is to practice 1 hour a week! Students can add 10 minutes a night (M - F) to their nightly homework if they'd like to develop strong keyboarding skills! Our Class Beginning & Ending Routines!
What's Happening in the Computer Lab:
Week of Sept.2nd: Intro to Google Docs
Week of Sept. 9th - 27th: Google Docs/Formatting & MLA Formatting All About Me- Your Computer Teacher!
Hi, my name is Mrs. DeRita. I'm the 4th and 5th grade technology teacher at Garin and Mary Casey Black Elementary Schools in the Brentwood Union School District. This year I have many exciting things to teach you. Through my technology lessons, students will learn proper keyboarding techniques, digital citizenship, online research skills, and will create multiple cloud based documents using Google Doc, Google Slides, and Google Drawing applications. I can't wait to get started! If you have any questions or concern, click on the email link above and send me an email. I will be happy to respond! I am looking forward to another rewarding year!
4th and 5th Grade Only
What is Hour of Code?
Students in grades K-5 will be exposed to computer science during computer science week: December 4th - 10th. It is an International program to promote computer science. Students will be introduced to how computer programmers solve problems and provide instructions to computers by participating in engaging activities online. While we will only have an introduction in the lab, there are many more tutorials online that your students can participate in beyond this event. Please click on the link below to learn more. |
Watch the slide presentation below to learn more about our NEW Chromebox lab!
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