Students need to be able to type effortlessly and accurate in order to incorporate keyboarding their school assignments, reports and notes on a regular basis. Students taking this class will be given unlimited extra-credit for typing school work for other teachers at a rate of two extra-credit points per page. I will always offer unlimited extra-credit for students who type at home for practice on their word processor or typing programs at a rate of one extra-credit point per every ten minutes of practice. Parent simply writes me a note stating the number of minutes practiced at home.

Unfortunately, many students do not necessarily type with all ten fingers and frequently using their eyes excessively when first entering this class. Getting students to break bad typing habits can be very challenging. Parents, please observe your child typing at home. Are they using the home row concept with their fingers consistently with their hands on the same keys while typing? Are they using their eyes to find the keys? If done only by their eyes, then some scheduled practice is essential at home and/or at school as I am available to supervise practice sessions. after school

Keyboarding instruction in this class is three weeks in the AlphaSmart Lab. Daily keyboarding instruction is divided into two parts:

1. Typing one or two lessons per day out of a traditional typing book.



2. Composing five-sentence paragraphs at the keyboard that are assigned each day.

1. Touch typing (home row hand position) without looking at ones fingers while typing.



2. Use all ten fingers while typing.



3. Increase ones speed of keyboarding skills so that one can type faster than they can write. Realistic goal for typing rate is between 20 to 25 words per minute by the end of the semester.



4. Become more confident of touch typing. Below are some good free on-line web sites for your child lto practice with daily at home and/or at school between 10 and 30 minutes a day.

Eventually going through all four web sites throughout the semester.

• http://www.sense-lang.org/typing
  
  
• http://www.powertyping.com with emphasis on Qwerty keyboard 

• Typing Test - TypingMaster offers a free online Typing Test service and free Online Games. ... Complete our certified typing test and get a printed certificate ...
  www.typingtest.com - Cached
  • Typing Games
  • Typing Software
  • Typing Certificate
  with lots of tests and games

• http://www.typing-lessons.org with very specific lessons