2 Qtr

We are deep into our Digital Discipleship which has 3 parts- Ask your child if they remember the 3 parts. The first part is Digital Life which includes things like Edmodo & Kidblog. This we will be doing all year so the your child can begin to learn how to use these as tools for reading, writing and thinking. The second part of Digital Discipleship is Internet Safety. The students have been working on either a Powerpoint or Word document and as teams are going to present to the class a tip to staying Safe on the Internet. The final part of Digital Discipleship is Research and Information which we will begin addressing in class after all the presentations have been completed. The students are soaring through 4th grade!!

The Battle

We have completed the first 2 weeks of school and it has been exciting! The students and I have been discussing how with technology there is a battle. We can use it to Honor and Glorify God or we can use it for evil purposes. We discussed how as they get older there will be more and more options available and that my goal is to help them make the right choice.

The first thing we discussed was that they are Warriors  and all good Warriors need 3 things:

• Shield of Faith- BELIEVE
• The Sword of the Spirit- BIBLE
• Communication with the Commander- PRAY

We talked about how they will have their own user name and logins this year and they now have privileges they did not have previously. I sent home the Acceptable Use Guidelines for you to sign and review with your child and return immediately.  We also are reviewing it in class.


The second thing we discussed is how God wants them to choose HIM.  Psalm 144:1 it states:"Praise be to the Lord my Rock, who trains my hands for war, and my fingers for battle". So there it is, God knew 2000 years ago that these hands and fingers would have access to the world and that there was going to be a battle. Praise God that we know who won.

As you can see it is very important to me that they use this everchanging technology as a tool for righteouseness and not as a tool in the hand of the enemy!

Technology UPDATE: The students are logged in with their own username and passwords. Additionally, they have set up their computers with Word, Powerpoint , Excel and TT4. They have also learned to bookmark things on Safari. They are booking marking www.learning.com (which can be accessed from) home and our AR program because they have taken their Star Reader test.

It has been a blessing to have your children 2 times a week and I hope to hear from you on my blog with responses and input.

God Bless You and your day!!

First Few Weeks of School!! The Plan !!!

Isaiah 43:18-19a NIV
“Forget the former things; do not dwell on the past. See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?"

Welcome Back Parents & Students!! The first thing your child will notice when they walk into the Computer Lab are the new computers. We have moved to the Mac computers. This will bring automatic excitement!! They will be given an online activity for an introduction of the Mac but before we do that we will review the Class Rules. Most of your children have had me before so this should be a review.

Rules:

1. No talking when the teacher is talking
2. No talking when another student is talking
3. No talking when we are praying
4. If you want to say something you may raise your hand so everyone will hear you
5. If you need to leave your seat you must ask for permission unless we are doing projects

The next thing we will go over is the fact that as 4th graders they will be assigned their own user name and password. I will send home an Acceptable Use Guideline that we have reviewed in class. They will be required to return it by September 2, 2011 after you have reviewed it with them and both have signed it.

Parents could you reinforce the use of proper passwords with the guidelines below? 

Protect YourPassword

 ( taken from http://www.netsmartz.org)

• A password is private
• Never tell your password to anyone
• Don't use something obvious( like  your name, address, phone number or date of birth.)
• Make up something unique 

So this is how we will start the class- They will be so excited about the Macs: Wait until I tell them they will be blogging - SHH !! Don't tell the secret :)