Typing Programs

by | Sep 14, 2016

It’s been a few days since I’ve done a blog post.  The start of the school year is always so busy.  I am a full-time classroom teacher, so all the realities of the first weeks of school apply directly to me too!!

I don’t do a formalized typing unit in my Computer Technology classes, but keyboarding is an important skill to learn. There are many resources available online.  I posed the question to one of my PLNs on social media and received the following online utilities as good programs to use in the classroom.

www.typing.com offers free accounts, and has few restrictions on the accounts.

Other resources that have been recommended to me by my PLN include:

Typing Club – https://www.typingclub.com – has a free edition and a paid edition. There are significant limitations to the free edition.

BBC Typing – http://www.bbc.co.uk/guides/z3c6tfr – This one appears to be designed for younger students, is formatted as a game and looks to be very good.

Typing Pal – http://ecole.taptouche.com/info/en/ – Does not offer pricing online, but contact with the company offered this information – We have two different subscription models for Typing Pal Online:

  •         A school subscription, which is based on the total number of students enrolled at the school
  •         A per-user subscription, which is based on a specific quantity of user accounts.

A per-user subscription for 260 users would receive the 100–499 user price bracket of $6 per user, which totals $1560. If you can provide the total number of students enrolled at your school, as well as the number of user accounts you would like to subscribe, I can compare both options and provide a quote for the best price applicable.

EDU Typing – https://www.edutyping.com – Again, there is a per-student fee to use this application, and if you teach large numbers of students, it can become fairly costly.

Nitrotype – https://www.nitrotype.com – This one is a competitive online typing race.  It looks like it would have good potential for occasional use. Common Sense Media gives a good review of it for classroom use.

Learn2Type – www.learn2type.com – I use the typing test on this site to do intermittent typing transcription tests.  Ultimately, I am looking to see an improvement in the keyboarding skills of my students.  They all arrive in my class with a wide variety of skills, and the goal is personal improvement.

 

Finding an Image with your Remind Numbers

by | Sep 3, 2016

Whether you’re new to Remind, or you’ve used it before, it’s super handy to have the image that shows your “phone number” (it’s not your real phone number, it’s a number issued to you by your Remind account) that you can post in your Distributed Learning shell, you can print and hang in your classroom, you can distribute on the school website and so on…

Remind instruction image

Somewhere in Remind you can find an image like this.  I know it’s there!  I found it yesterday.  Then I forgot where I found it, and so I wasted about another fifteen minutes trying to find it. Fifteen minutes that I didn’t really have to waste on the first day of school.

So, if you’re looking for the image, or the .pdf instructions to send home with students – here’s a quick video tutorial showing you where to find that information!!

Remind App Not Allowing Kids to Sign up

by | Sep 3, 2016

So, today we experienced a new error in our Remind apps. A number of students received the message “You are not allowed to join this class because it is not associated with a school”. This was not something we had seen before. I did some searching and came up with nothing (my time was limited because I am a full-time teacher, so this we between classes and during the last few minutes of my prep that I was attempting to find the answers to this sudden issue.

I’ve outlined the problem in this video

And more information can be found Remind’s site “What does it Mean to Link to a School” and “What does Remind Look Like for an Under 13 Student?”

I was very impressed with their customer service. I initiated the ticket mid-morning, and they had responded by noon. Their response to my inquire was succinct, to the point and indicated that Canada is in their near future plans.

I applaud Remind for ensuring that they are a kid-safe website, and that they have done what is necessary to receive ikeepsafe certification.  Digital safety and digital citizenship are not always convenient, but they are extremely important concepts in 2016.

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