.

Barbara Barr, Technology Resource Teacher
Fayette County Public Schools
Instructional Technology
701 East Main Street, Lexington, KY  40502
Cell Phone/Pager:  859.983.3602                       FAX: 859.381.4763 
E-mail:bbarr@fayette.k12.ky.us       Website:http://teach.fcps.net/trt4/
Archived newsletters are available at http://teach.fcps.net/trt4/enews.htm

Thursday, March 6, 2003

Great Ideas

Web Sites of the Week

At Lansdowne, Annette Moore's class is learning how to use email.  Each of her students now have a school email account.  Most primary teachers use the teacher's school email account for learning activities.  Individual student email accounts are available through the school district and are very appropriate for learning activities in the intermediate grades.

STLP participants are always on the job at Yates.  Under the direction of Beth Drake, they have added a new responsibility, and the students are currently installing additional memory in the school's computers. The technology department purchased memory for all Fayette County schools that requested it.

Rita Dobson, the STC at Harrison, has made a word wall of technology terms.  Students examine the word wall, and come up with new technology related words for each letter of the alphabet.   If you are interested in learning more about Word Walls, I have an extensive list of links to a number of sites:

http://teach.fcps.net/trt4/literacy.htm#Word%20Walls

Time is Running Out

If you have not yet scheduled a time to work on Keyboarding with your students, time is running out.  Remember that ALL 3rd graders need keyboarding, and 4th and 5th need review.  Middle schools are checking on the keyboarding skills of incoming students, so we need to insure all 5th graders meet the district goal of a minimum of 20 words per minute.  I'd be delighted to get your class started with keyboarding, or to demonstrate activities and games for reinforcement.

GUIDE TO GETTING ALONG
http://www.urbanext.uiuc.edu/conflict/

ALL ELEMENTARY:   This is an incredible site on social skills.  The site is narrated, so it is appropriate for all elementary grades.  This site could be used for large group discussion, small groups, or individuals.  The site presents a problem, and offers choices on how to handle the problem.  The story continues according to the choices made, so it demonstrates cause and effect.  A special thanks to Rita Dobson (Harrison) for sharing this fantastic site!    

ST. PATRICK'S DAY LINKS
http://teach.fcps.net/trt4/StPats.htm

ALL ELEMENTARY/TEACHERS:  Young students just seem to love learning through holiday activities.  Holiday activities are a great way to teach or review concepts in our Competency Assurance.  These links include pictures for the little ones, and teacher resources.

My Schedule

NOTE:  I will be at the Kentucky Teaching and Learning Conference (KTLC) in Louisville the next two days.  I will have VERY limited access to my e-mail.  Many of you reply to my newsletters, or send me emails from my newsletter.  I may not be able to answer right away, but I will respond to you email as soon as I can!