Welcome New Sixth Grade Rotation!

Dear Sixth Grade Students,
Welcome to your computer science rotation! Your homework for TONIGHT is to find this page (congratulations!) and bookmark it. Also make a bookmark to Custom Typing so that you can find it easily for your 30 minutes of typing homework each week. The secret question is: What is […]

6th Grade: Welcome to Scratch!

Dear 6th grade students,
Today was your first taste of Scratch, a programming language for kids from MIT that we will be learning and using for the next four weeks in class.  Your homework assignment for tonight is to download Scratch at home (free!) and show a sibling or parent one of the things you learned […]

5th Graders: State of the iMovies Address

Dear 5th Grade Students– Does it feel like we’ve been working on your “All About Me” movies for months? Well, guess what? We have! Since each class only meets once a week for 45 minutes, progress on the movies has been slow but steady. You do know the story about the tortise and […]

“Computer Science: Right-Brained or Left-Brained?”

Dear Students,
Mr. Franke, Lab’s high school computer science teacher, wrote a very interesting article for the school’s Web site called “Computer Science: Right-Brained or Left-Brained.” A lot of people think computer science is strictly logical and mathematical, but anyone who has ever designed a computer game, made a web site or solved a […]

Typing Homework for New 6th Grade Rotation

Dear 6th Grade Students– Many of you had questions in class yesterday about exactly what to do for your typing practice homework for my class. Since improving typing speed seems to be a universal class goal, consistent weekly practice is going to be really important for the next eleven weeks (and beyond!).
Here’s the scoop: […]

Welcome New Rotation!

Dear Sixth Grade Students– Welcome to your Winter Quarter Computer Science rotation with me, Ms. Hansen. What is one thing you hope to learn about computers or computer science this quarter? Respond in the comments.
Sincerely, Ms. Hansen
PS Remember to sign your comment with JUST your first name (no last names!) Include a last […]

Painting with ArtRage

Dear 5th Grade Students–
I wanted to let you know that ArtRage, the painting software we are using in class to create self-portraits is available for free download for Mac or PC: Download ArtRage.
Here’s my beautiful self portrait:
I’ll publish some of yours here next week when they are finished.
Sincerely, Ms. Hansen

Programming with Scratch

Dear 6th Grade Students,
We are deep into our computer programming unit using a new programming environment called Scratch. Scratch was developed at MIT to provide an easy and intuitive way for young people to create animations, interactive games and even basic software applications.  All of the code is in drag and drop “blocks” which fit […]

Adding Photos to Word

Dear 5th grade students,
Did you go home after class this week and show your parents what you can do with Microsoft Word? Most grown ups don’t know how to do most of the tricks with Word we learned about in class these past two weeks!
For example, the trick you used to place photos onto […]

Using the File Server from Home

Dear Students–
Now that the school year is well underway (eek!) and homework and projects are starting to pile up, lots of you have been asking me questions about how you can access your file server account from home. Some of you may not even realize that you CAN access your file server account from […]