Computer Lab
Aurora School has a wireless Apple computer lab, with over a dozen laptop computers, external keyboards and mini-mice. Students in grades two through five attend Computer lab once a week. The computer lab activities help students become comfortable with the computer, learn to use the computer to organize and express their thoughts and learn to use it in creative as well as responsible ways. Computer activities also strive to support the classroom's thematic curriculum.
General Computer Knowledge
Students develop a basic understanding of all the cables connected to their computer and what they do. They learn how information is organized into files and folders and how to follow a given path to a specific folder both locally, on their desktop or on the school's file server. Students learn about multiple applications running simultaneously and how to switch back and forth between applications so they share data between them.
Standard iLife Applications
Students learn to use tools that allow them to easily create photo slideshows, music, movies and DVDs. They build photo libraries that they then use to learn the basics of digital photo editing, slideshow creation and personalizing their desktop.
Students also learn to create music using GarageBand. They build songs using prerecorded loops, instrument tracks they have recorded by typing on the computer keyboard and even recordings of their own voices. Larger projects give students practical experience in digital storytelling by using all the available tools to assemble the pieces they have collected from a classroom activity into a cohesive presentation.
Word Processing and Writing
Students create documents and learn to open existing documents to make additional changes. They learn to do basic text formatting and layout, as well as how to correct misspelled words using the spell-checking tools.
Keyboarding
Students learn to 'touch type' with their hands held in the home row position. They are asked to use proper keyboarding technique for all typing activities, as well as learn to maintain healthy ergonomic posture while typing.
Students also learn to use GarageBand to practice their touch-typing. They use the Musical Typing feature to play scales, arpeggios and other specific sequences using the computer keyboard. They improvise to a collection of jazz songs using the same technique.
Internet
Before students receive access to the Internet, they discuss appropriate uses of the Internet, privacy issues and online safety. All students learn how to use a search engine, and how to narrow their searches down by adding further descriptive words. Credibility of resources is discussed by looking at where the data is coming from.
A sample lesson using the Internet involves students viewing photographs from the Gold Rush era from an online archive library. They look at photos of Sutter's Mill and its surrounding geography. After reading about Coloma and learning that it is now a ghost town, students view current satellite images to confirm that there are indeed few signs of development or activity there today. Students also compare the terrain that was in the background of the old photographs to the current satellite images to confirm that they are viewing the same place. Zooming out to see where this area is in relationship to the Bay Area helps to give students a further understanding of the geography they are studying.