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expected to write the programs to teach fourth-grade mathematics on computers. That job is only about half done, Lynn Beahm, the team’s programmer reports. The lessons use graphics, even animation, and sound. Each lesson takes longer than expected, she said.
Starting this summer another programmer will be hired for the project. Ms. Beahm expects that to speed up the programming process and to have 80 percent of the mathematics done by the start of school next year and all of the lessons done that will be used in the first part of the year. Then the rest can be finished before it is needed, and the programmers can begin programming language arts lessons.
She said the team is not yet certain how to proceed with the lessons in language arts and will use the summer to make plans, “but I don’t expect it to be as computer- intensive as the other subject areas,” she said.
Also this summer the fourthgrade teachers will be getting lessons on using “HyperCard,” the program used for programming, so they will be able to write individual lessons for their classrooms, Ms. Beahm said.
Another goal of the program has been to teach the fourth graders touch typing on the computer keyboard. The students have a 40-minute lesson each week during their “pull out period.” Some of the students have picked that up quickly and some haven’t, Lelo Wolf reports. Those with computers at home are especially fast at picking up the “Type” program, she said.
As a result Layne Vickers, the curriculum specialist with the team, has also been working with third graders on the computers in the fifth and sixth grade computer lab during their 30-minute “pull out period,” she reported. She believes this will enable them to pick up the “Type” program faster next year when they are fourth graders.
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