Dance Mat Typing

[Ben Rimes]

For those of you trying to teach students how to type at the elementary level, I highly suggest Dance Mat Typing. I introduced it to my 3rd graders this past week, and they absolutely loved it!

It's a BBC Schools website, so maybe it's just the accents that the kids like, but they're all really engaged and taking their time to make sure they use the homerow correctly, it's awesome!

[Jean]

As someone who is new on the elementary scene and on the computer scene, I agree. I stumbled onto this BBC web site and I love it! The upper elementary kids were complaining that it was beneath them, but they really NEED those basic keyboarding skills!!!

I am looking for any and all suggestions! As I said, I am new to elementary and new to computers. I have been told that anything that I do with the kids will be fine. I have come to find out that the kids have had several different teachers in the last few years and they haven't done much in the way of learning. Computers to them are fun and free time. I don't know where to turn outside of the state bench marks, and the suggested school curriculumn(which apparently hasn't been followed). I am starting with keyboarding because most of my students can't type more than 10 WPM and they don't know what WPM stands for. I have gone though the parts of the computer and we split them into input devices and output devices, but now I am lost...

[Danielle Letter]

Jean- I would also suggest looking at the 8th grade Technology Literacy Requirements. We started off the year by taking the questions, revising some of them and presenting them to my students (4th - 6th grade) to determine their skill level and experience. It definitely gave me a starting place, plus it was so interesting to see the range of ability and knowledge! (and now I know kids know almost nothing about Excel, so any projects anyone has would be very helpful) :)

[Jean]

Danielle,
I used a basic addition, subtraction and multiplication chart (using formulas) to introduce the idea of relative versus absolute location. We only type 1-3 and then click and fill 4-15 across the top and down the side. Then I introduce the formulas. When they click and drag they get really big numbers really fast and I ask them to problem solve and figure out what in the world happened. When they figure it out (on the mulitplication it is usually in the 4X1=24 instead of 4X1=4 because of the 6 right above) I ask them what we can do to fix this and then I introduce the absolute location using the $ sign.
Jean

[Dale Ehrhart]

Hi Danielle
Here's a link the lists quite a few Excel projects for Ele, Mid, and High. About a third of the links are broken however.

MS Excel Resources

[Dale Ehrhart]

Hi Jean, welcome to Macul Space

Andy Losik has this site posted on his blog

Free Typing Games

For everyone:
Are there any time guidelines for dedicated keyboard training?

[Jean]

Dale, Thanks so much! The kids actually showed this to me today. I think I learn way more from them than they learn from me!!! ;) Jean

[Dale Ehrhart]

Kind of interesting looking at my past posts now that I have a couple of months as the technology teacher in a K-6 lab.
1st and 2nd grade use KidKeys where I focus on learning proper form and keeping index fingers on the F and J.
I use typingtime with MS word and Dance Mat typing for the 3rd graders
4th, 5th, and 6th we use UltraKey. High emphasis on form, technique, and accuracy and then speed.
I have them keyboard every session for about 15 minutes, almost like extended bell work as they come into the room.

Ultrakey is nice because of the record keeping and flexibility with skill settings. I had a couple of 6th graders who had been putting in a lot of effort but just falling short of their speeds to pass the skill levels. I thanked them for all their hard work and that they were doing fantastic with their accuracy. I then gave them the option of letting me put them in a slightly lower speed next week. They agreed, and then promptly passed the skill check at the normal level. I think I may have just taken a little pressure off them. It really made me feel good-exactly why I always wanted to be a teacher.

[Cawood]

Is dance mat typing a license ?? Cost, company info or maybe it's free source:)

[Ben Rimes]

It's a website, the link is up at the top of the thread :D

[Dale Ehrhart]

This is kind of a nice typing site I just heard of.

keybr

[Kristina Rider]

My students also enjoy using this site. They are fifth graders and will often complain about the characters (usually when they miss something) They are actually keyboarding more quickly now.

[Andrew Birt]

Prior to using Type to Learn, I used Dance Mat Typing. It was great. I found that the older students commented that it went too slow or was beneath them also. In those cases, I would send the students to http://www.freetypinggame.net/. Check out that website.