The Computer Applications Cycle classes are designed as a three-year course at Schuyler-Colfax Middle School. Students who are enrolled in cycle classes will be able to take Computer Applications as a course offering. Students that complete the three-course offering will be proficient in keyboarding, Microsoft Office products - MS Word, MS Excel, MS PowerPoint & MS Access and will also have two years of Internet Safety as well.
My philosophy and techniques are motivated by my past experience in the corporate world. I try to find high-interest projects and topics while exposing students to the technology tools that they will need for the future. I generally, as a rule, do not assign any project work for home.
Here is a general summary of the curriculum projects:
In Grade 6 - Computer Applications I, students will learn keyboarding or touch typing and basic MS Word. In addition, our SRO, Officer Mark DuBois, will provide a two-day course on "Internet Safety". When the students have completed this cycle class they will be typing between 30 - 70+ words per minute.
In Grade 7 - Computer Applications II, students will have a keyboarding refresher. They will then have a high interest project-based learning unit. In this project, students will create and market their company. It is a hands-on, task-based project, that is also a project-based, real-world simulation, that will expose the students to company culture and marketing of their current company while learning MS Word - formatting techniques, MS Excel - entering data and creating different graph types & the basics of MS PowerPoint. It is my intention to expose the students to other industry's as this project can work with many types of businesses. In addition, I provide a one-day refresher course in Internet Safety.
In Grade 8 - Computer Applications III, students will again have a keyboarding refresher. In addition, they will learn more advanced MS Excel techniques - formula use and graphing data. Once they have mastered formulas they will embark on a project-based, real-world simulation, called "Making Ends Meet". The students will be assigned a "hypothetical" job and analyze whether they can afford to make ends meet by tracking their expenses on a spreadsheet. It is an enormous project and is very rewarding in the end for them. Their second project is a multi-media MS PowerPoint project on a "school appropriate" topic of their choice. The students learn advanced MS PowerPoint formatting techniques, in addition to learning how to insert music and video clips while gaining more experience running their own presentations. MS Access, a database program, will be introduced this year as well. In addition, I provide a one-day refresher course in Internet Safety.
Ms. Angela Russo e-mail
Computer Applications I, II & III
Building Computer Technology Representative
Mrs. Ronnie Drewke e-mail
Computer Applications III
October 17, 2006 - Great News!!
Due to parent, student and faculty efforts to recycle printer cartridges, we were able to order THREE new Canon Canoscan 8400F scanners. We have two additional boxes to go out already. Thank you, from the Staff and Students at SCMS.
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