Welcome to the Woodward Tech Lab!
All students have secure, supervised Internet access throughout the building. Each student has a student-issued Chromebook. With this, they can access their own Google Drive account, which is internal: meaning they have no access outside our school district. They use Google classroom to access their assignments and communicate with their teachers. Google Drive is used to store projects made in Google Docs, Google Slides, and other Google apps. Google Drive also allows students to share projects with their teachers. Google Drive also allows students to work collaboratively with other students on certain assignments.
Students will primarily be using their chrome books, but we also have iPads for coding and more projects.
One highlight throughout the year is filming/being filmed in our green screen room! Anyone filmed with the greens screen can “magically” be placed in front of any location imaginable, just by inserting an image! You may see your 2nd grader on the continent of Africa, or you may see your 3rd grader on location at the first Thanksgiving in Plymouth!
Root, root, root for Coding!! All students will learn coding with Root, the Coding Robot! Students learn to design and test coding algorithms, debug their algorithm, and watch in amazement as they program Root to move, turn, play music, light up, draw, and more!
Grade 2 students come to the tech lab once a week. During this time, they are introduced to a number of activities including keyboarding, keyboard shortcuts, formatting documents, navigating between tabs, creating bookmarks, and more!
Grade 3 students also come to the lab once a week. During this time, they are introduced to a number of activities including keyboarding, keyboard shortcuts, introduction to spreadsheets, making hyperlinks, and more!
Internet safety basics is a topic we cover with both grades. Discussions include the difference between information they should always keep private vs. things that are ok to share. We also talk about how the internet is a community, where they are citizens and that everything they do becomes part of their digital footprint. Students also learn what to do when they encounter people they might not know or accidentally get to another website. Emphasis is placed on the importance of telling their parents or other adults if they see something online that makes them uncomfortable, and asking for permission to go to a website.
Looking forward to another great year!
Mrs. Benford
Please contact your child's teacher and see if you can volunteer in our tech lab!