Each student at WashingtonWilkes Elementary School will be given the opportunity to learn numerous skills in the technology lab during the 2005-2006 school year.

Each fourth and fifth-grade homeroom will attend class in the Technology Lab for six weeks with Mrs. Tanya Morgan. In the class, students will learn valuable skills including keyboarding technique, word processing, spreadsheet creation, the internet, and presentation skills. Many of these skills can be used to complete school projects. In addition to the various skills learned, the students will also learn computer basics, computer care, and the history of computers.

Plans are also being made to introduce Pre-K students to the computer. One of the favorite activities of the fourth and fifth grade students is typing to music. Their favorite music to type to is fast “pop” music.

The Technology Lab has also been very beneficial for the teachers to use as well. All reading and language arts teachers will use the computer lab to allow their students to take Accelerated Reader tests. Throughout the year, science and social studies teachers will collaborate with Mrs. Morgan to complete classroom projects that correlate to the new Georgia Performance Standards. Students will not only be learning technology skills, they will be completing activities in all subject areas.

Pictured above, Mrs. Jennifer Holton’s fourth and fifth grade reading students are using the lab to conduct an author study. Groups of students used the internet to research an author and will then use word processing skills to type information about the author to be displayed outside Mrs. Holton’s room. Visitors are encouraged to drop by anytime to view the “Awesome Authors” display. (l-r) Emily Treadwell, Grace Ann Branch, and Kelsey Brooke, students of Mrs. Jennifer Holton’s fourth and fifth grade class, are hard at work researching an author in the W-WES technology lab.