Middle School Technology Curriculum

Our Middle School technology teacher would like to update her curriculum. She has the students for 50 minutes, every day for only 9 weeks. Suggestions or documents that would assist her? What do you feel is MOST important to cover?

0 members like this

▶ Reply to This

Replies to This Discussion

Permalink Reply by Jack Hutchinson on August 22, 2009 at 6:20am

sorry hyperlink did not load

http://www.freewebs.com/itlevine2008/

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Francine Safdeye on February 23, 2010 at 1:35pm

Hi Jack,

I am a technology integration specialist for three Jewish day schools in Boca Raton. I have been doing some research on creating technology standards for one of the schools and I came across your posting and your website. For one of the schools that I work for we are going to develop technology standards for the school (K-8) and hopefully the computer teacher together with the other teachers will be able to create a curriculum based on these standards.

I would like to know how you came about creating the standards for your school.

Thanks!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Sue Andrews on February 23, 2010 at 2:28pm

I am a technology coordinator for a K - 12 school in Missouri. I have been doing research on curriculum for K - 8. I wrote curriculum for K - 6 but I am still working on 7 - 8. I surveyed several other schools in our area and came to the conclusion that most of them are requiring an “Applications Class” in 7th and/or 8th grade. The apps are primarily the Office Apps but we are considering including Inspiration, SMART notebook, Adobe Elements Premier 8 and Photoshop. After examining the NETS we have concluded we need to know what the teachers are doing with project based learning which integrates technology. AS of now we have keyboarding and video production. We are toying with making keyboarding an optional summer course and adding the APPS course.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on August 26, 2011 at 6:30pm

I would encourage the smart notebook and inspiriation.

Try gearing your tech classes to reinforce the classroom instruction.

I teach in North Missouri

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Katy Scott on February 23, 2010 at 6:06pm

If she hasn't read it already, David Warlick's Redefining Literacy for the 21st Century provides a good starting point for teaching technology skills that our students will need, no matter how the technology changes.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by David Dean on August 25, 2011 at 11:55am

I teach 6th Grade Computer and Technology Integration. I have the students on a block schedule, and I get about 170 students one day, and 170 different students the next. So my class is the equivalence of an 18 week course. I am in my 8th Year of teaching this class and I have my complete curriculum aligned to the NETs Standards which have been adopted in Indiana. Here is a link to the NETs Standards for Students!

In 18 Weeks, here is a very basic overview of what we do and what we cover:

Touch Typing
Microsoft Word Basics (We do several creative writing Journals, we write Diamantes and dress them up, and type several research papers for Language Arts and Social Studies).
PowerPoint Basics (We create Historical Figure Presentations and Internet Browsing Vocab Presentations)
Excel Basics (We create a Solar System Discovery Spreadsheet with 3 graphs showing the Planets' Distance From the Sun, Our Weight on Each Planet (Excel Formulas do the math for us), and our Age on each planet (again, with Excel Formulas doing our math).
Then we create our Docs, Spreadsheets, and Presentations in Google Docs so they can do them in Google Docs and Microsoft Office.
Internet Safety (We create Anti Cyberbullying Comic Books and Internet Safety Posters on GlogsterEDU, we devote half of a class, one day a week, to Internet Safety Discussions).
Internet Searching and Boolean Searching Discussions and Strategies (to help my students learn how to be effective researches of online information).
We create Podcasts in Audacity in small groups of 5 covering a variety of topics students can choose from.
We write school related Rap Songs and Record them in Audacity as part of a Rap It Up project where the students create fictional rap groups and plan a full summer tour, creating T-Shirts, planning a route in Mapquest, Creating Logos in Logomaker, creating presentations about the Cities we are visiting,
We find out what our Ecological Footprint is and create Brochures in Publisher for our Community to share tips on how to make our community "Greener."
And much more!!

Hopefully these will give you a few ideas to run with!!

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Jenny Murphy on August 26, 2011 at 2:02pm

Hi David,

This is an awesome and thorough list of the topics you cover. I am an Instructional Technology Specialist K-8, and I teach a Technology Course to grades 6 and 7. I have no curriculum, however, so your list is extremely helpful to me! I was wondering if you have a website or any resources that you use for your projects that you would be willing to share. Feel free to send me an email. I'm interested in more details and/or resources on some of the lessons.

Thank you,

Jenny

jennyrmurphy@gmail.com

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on August 26, 2011 at 6:27pm

Sounds like you have a really good program in place.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Merle Hall on August 26, 2011 at 6:25pm

Wow! I just reread one of my older post. Way out of date now.

First let me state all of our technology courses are in an online envirionment on Moodle. We don't print, or use text if they are not digital. This reduces much of the costs. It also enables the students to work at school, at home or on vacation, and reduces the lost homework or I gave it to you already excuses.

Let me update what we do at my school. In 8th grade we integrate technology with the Constitution. We just couldn't fit everything in with the social studies classes. After all that is a field that keeps on growing. I teach the kids how to make podcast and smartboard applications with the subject being the Constitution. The podcast are recorded on MP3 players and then edited on Audacity. Everything is geared to passing the Constitution test.

In the 7th grade it is all about economics. We integrate technology with that subject by teaching the studentst how to write webquest using HTML code. Then they are to create a game in the second semester. All of these things are geared toward learning economics.

In the 6th grade we teach word, and excel. We teach word formatting, and integrate that with language and reading classes. We teach excel and enhance the math and science depts. We make salary spreadsheets, grade averages, formatting and much more. We begin by playing monopoly and using checks. We input the checks into a spreadsheet and create a check registry. When done we balance it by writing a formula.

Our philosophy is that if it isn't reinforcing the curriculum of the other classes and teaching students how to use technology as a tool to help with their studies, what is our purpose for having technology.

▶ Reply

Permalink Reply by Peter Lane on August 27, 2011 at 12:56pm

@ Merle,

It is so incredibly awesome that your middle school sorts placement into technology classes by grade level. While I am not longer teaching a technology class (due to budget cuts) I found it incredibly frustrating to have to work with three grade levels all one time thus being unable to support much of anything from the core classes - outside of English. And even when we did that it had to be on the generic side as each grade level was working on different concept... And, oh yeah, I only had them for three months at a time... :(

So impressed with what you have in place!!!