Valerie Garton / Technology Program

Technology Coordinator

Computer Teacher, Middle School Challenge Program Teacher since 1996/97

 

Education:

B.S. Elementary Education from Millersville University, 1978

Instructional Technology Specialist Certification, Penn State University, 2006

 

Highlights at KMS: Developed the computer program, computer curriculum and technology use at KMS; Put laptops in the hands of all teachers providing training and support, with most teachers using computer grading program; Helping teachers integrate technology with curriculum; Led group of students in creation of claymation video which won gold locally and silver nationally in the Scholastic Art competition - 2006; Teacher Impact Award finalist - 2006.

Click on a Grade to

see what we're doing!

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Classes are held twice a week for 20 minutes each session. Students began the UltraKey program after several basic computer lessons: learning the parts of a computer, learning how to work with the mouse, with windows (opening, closing, resizing, moving), & with several menu commands, as well as learning how to begin & end a program. In keyboarding, students worked on lesson #1 (home row).
  
  There are 9 lessons/tests in the UltraKey program. #1 (home row), #2 (i t .), #3 (o r n), #4 (h e p), #5 (w m c), #6 (g y , shift), #7 (u b), #8 (v x), #9 (q z). Students repeat a lesson several times before trying a test. They keep taking the test until they can score 10 words per minute, with 95% accuracy. The tests give them practice, too. I do make adjustments on length of tests or the pass level for those students who are becoming too frustrated after a period of time. Students are expected to finish lessons/tests 1 - 5 in 3rd grade, 6 - 9 in 4th grade, increase speed to 15 words per minute in 5th grade. In middle school, we only use UltraKey to get test scores. By the end of 6th grade, students should be typing 20 wpm, 7th grade - 25 wpm, 8th grade - 30 wpm. Several students finish UltraKey in 3rd grade and over half of the 8th graders type over 40 wpm (Some 60 - 100 wpm!). Typing games are used as incentives to build speed. Papers with sentences for each lesson are given to students to practice at home. The UltraKey program is available for purchase through the school at the beginning of each year. Contact Mrs. Garton.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Classes continue twice a week for 20 minutes each session. By the end of the quarter, students should have completed the lessons & passed the test for #1 (home row) and #2 (i t .). Practicing at home is crucial to making progress at school. Always tape paper to the keyboard so your child can type without looking down at the keyboard.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Classes are now held once a week for 40 minutes each session. We spend the 1st 20 minutes typing and the last 20 minutes on computer skills. By the end of this quarter, students should have completed the test for #3 (o r n) and #4 (h e p).
  
• Computer Skills - Students learn basic word processing and working with graphics (clip art) in the 3rd and 4th quarters. Word processing skills include: adding/deleting page breaks, formatting text, deleting text, aligning text, and using spell check. Graphics work includes: Getting clip art from the AppleWorks online file by conducting searches, resizing clip art, copy/cut/paste. Students must be able to bring up the tool bar and click on the draw arrow before adding clip art, so it is not inserted as text, in which case, it will not be able to be moved and resized. Students also learn how to save and open files, maneuver between two opened documents, change the view size of a document.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Classes continue to be held once a week for 40 minutes each session. We spend the 1st 20 minutes typing and the last 20 minutes on computer skills. By the end of this quarter, students should have completed the test for #5 (w m c).
  
• Computer Skills - Students apply basic word processing and graphics skills to create a slide show about science units they've studied. One slide show displays the five classes of animals. Another, examples of the categories of simple machines. To create a slideshow, students must choose a background & border, rearrange slides, choose the length of show & type of slide transition, and know how to begin & end the show.
  On the last day of computer class, parents are invited to come watch their children in action and see what they have accomplished!

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - All students began the year with a review by redoing some of the lessons & tests they had taken previously. Then they continued where they left off last year.
  
• Computer Skills - Spreadsheet (making graphs for math class.) The 4th graders learn about graphs in math class, so they also learn how to make them on a computer. They make bar graphs & pie graphs, adding some extra modifications to each to make them interesting. This also requires learning some spreadsheet skills like entering & formatting data in cells, changing row height & column width, aligning cells, copy/cut/paste. The graphs are created on word processing documents, which means students must be able to switch back and forth between the word processing mode of AppleWorks and the spreadsheet mode.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students continue working through the 9 lessons/tests of UltraKey. By the end of this quarter, they should have completed 1 - 2 more levels, or at least #6, in order to complete UltraKey by the end of 4th gr.
  
• Computer Skills - Students add text boxes to their word processing document. They must click on the "W" on the tool bar, hold down the option key, and drag a text box. Depending on where they click on the text box, they will be either in word processing mode or draw mode. They must understand the difference, because the menu bar will change depending on the mode. They must be able to format the text in either mode, changing font, size, text color, and alignment.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students continue working through the 9 lessons/tests of UltraKey. By the end of this quarter, they should have completed 1 - 2 more levels, or at least #7, in order to complete UltraKey by the end of 4th gr.
  
• Computer Skills - Students add clip art to their graph document, also learning how to duplicate the clip art, rotate it, flip it, and move it behind or in front of other objects.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students should be finishing the 9 lessons/tests of UltraKey this quarter, and be typing 10 words per minute, with 95% accuracy.
  
• Computer Skills - Students continue working with the "graphics" part of AppleWorks - "Draw". They work through all of the shapes on the tool bar, learning how to create, manipulate, & format them. They are learning the difference between the fill palettes & border palettes. Moving shapes to the back, etc. and making shapes transparent, as well as rotating, flipping, and aligning, shapes is taught. Lines, curves, squares, polygons, & arrows are some of the shapes the students make. This work is culminated by creating either a geometry slide show for math class or a state region slide show for social studies class.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - All students began the year with a review by redoing some of the lessons & tests they had taken previously. Then they continued where they had left off last year.
  
• Computer Skills - Word Processing - The 5th graders learn word processing skills for writing reports and poetry as they work on their Famous American reports and Poetry Packets. Formatting skills covered are: formatting text (font, size, styles), aligning text, various ways to select text, moving text up & down, first line indent for paragraphs, hanging indent in formatting bibliographies, left & right margin markers to move text as in moving a left justified poem, left tab marker to add a poet's name to the bottom of a poem, adding page breaks, adding headers & footers, adding page numbers & changing the beginning number, adding a title page, creating a table of contents by formatting the tab.
• Adding graphics - The students learned how to use the clip art library & Internet to add graphics to word processing documents. They review how to switch to the "draw" mode so that the images are not added as text. They learned how to "wrap" text around an image and position it on the page to keep the document well designed. We use free clip art sites from the Internet. Students learned how to copy & paste images to add them to a document as well as downloading them to a given location and inserting them into the document. Students gain practice moving between several applications since they must go back & forth between the Internet & their word processing document.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Those students who have completed UltraKey work to increase speed & accuracy. When students reach their individual goals, they have the opportunity to play typing games or use other programs for a day. By the end of this quarter, they should have completed 1 - 2 more levels. Students should be typing 15 words per minute with 95% accuracy by the end of this year.
  
• Computer Skills - Working in AppleWorks "Paint". Students learn how to use the paint tools in AppleWorks: brush, bucket, lasso, rectangle marquee, eye dropper, etc. Students learn the differences in working in paint, as compared to draw. These techniques & terms will help students to understand HyperStudio, a multimedia presentation software program we use later. To provide practice in using these tools, students create a slide show of tessellations, which they have also studied in art class. We finish this unit by using the program, Tesselmania to create slide shows of even more complex tessellations, using paint tools within the program.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students continue as last quarter.
  
• Computer Skills - Spreadsheet (formatting the cells including text wrap and formatting for currency, ordering one and two columns of data, using formulas to add & average numbers) Students use these skills to create a "shopping spree formula sheet". They are given a "flier" of computer items from Circuit City and $2000. Because of the formulas they have entered on their sheet, the following will happen: They'll type in the name of the items and the prices. As soon as each price is entered, it is automatically added and the total appears! At the same time, the amount they have left to spend also appears in another cell!

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students continue as last quarter. Students should be typing 15 words per minute with 95% accuracy by the end of this year.
  
• Computer Skills - Oregon Trail. In conjunction with westward expansion which is part of the 5th grade social studies curriculum, students learn what life was like preparing for and traveling with a wagon train. A lot of time is spent gaining background information from the program before starting out on the trail. Students pair up making decisions as they are faced with the trials of the rugged west.
• HyperStudio multimedia presentation/interactive program. Students are introduced to this program by creating a short presentation about their field trip to Philadelphia. Music is added, as well as pictures and text from the places they've visited. Students add buttons which go to each page in a transition chosen by the student.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students should have completed UltraKey by this time. If any student has not, he / she works on it in the lab during one study hall each week. Talk with Mrs. Garton if you would like to purchase the program. Students type in Ultrakey for 5 minutes at the beginning of each computer class in middle school. All middle school language writers' workshop classes are held in the lab, as students type all writing assignments. By the end of the year, students should be typing 20 words per minute with 95% accuracy (without looking at the keyboard.)
  
• Computer Skills - Advanced Word Processing - Sixth graders learn how to modify clip art, or create their own, using AppleWorks paint tools within a word processing document. Word processing skills are covered and advanced skills are introduced, including: formatting a heading using right tab markers, changing margin width, text wrap for graphics, outlining, formatting business letters. Many word processing skills are introduced through a team-teaching approach with Mrs. Garton and the language teachers in the lab.
• Spreadsheet (graphs) - To integrate computers with what is being taught in the classroom, students use the computer to help them with the graphing skills covered in math class. Students create data sheets or tables and convert the data into 3 types of graphs: pie, bar, pictograph. They format the graphs to customize them, and add clip art and text to create an attractive final document. This project is team-taught with Mrs. Garton and Miss Grove in the lab.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - HyperStudio- This is a multimedia presentation software program. It is similar to PowerPoint, but more complex and designed for students. It contains numerous sounds & music files, pictures, photos, backgrounds, and small movies. It allows students to create a "stack" of interactive "cards". These cards have buttons students make that can be made to play sounds, movies, etc., move to other "cards" (pages) with various transitions, have graphics or words animate, write one letter at a time, appear or disappear, roll as in rolling credits, scroll, link to the web. A student's voice can be recorded, the program will read text in a variety of voices, cd's can be played as part of a presentation. Paint tools are also part of the program so students can create their own art work or modify other graphics. The tools & techniques are similar to other image editing software or drawing programs. Frame animation (like a flip-book) can be used to create actual "professional-looking" animations. Students learn the basics of HyperStudio, creating a "practice stack".

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - Advanced HyperStudio Frame Animation - (See 2nd quarter.) Students learn about paint tools, image files, and animation techniques by creating a fun animation which shows a snowman being built (and possibly melting, being knocked down, etc.) In 7th grade, this skill is used to create an animation showing the blood flow through the heart for science class.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - Advanced HyperStudio New Button Actions - (See 2nd quarter.) Students learn "new button actions" - a more advanced feature of HyperStudio. Some of these buttons are: Ghost Writer (Text writes letter by letter on the screen. Letters can be deleted one by one and new text written. Speed of writing can be modified. It can be made to look like an IM conversations by determining when and where text will appear.) Hide/Show (Text or graphic appears or disappears.) Animator (Text or graphic moves on a path student creates. Speed and effects can be modified.) Roll Credits (Text moves at determined speed on screen like movie credits.) Blabbermouth (The computer will read the student's text in a voice the student chooses.) Students use these skills to create a "Spiritual Stack" based on a verse(s), account from the bible, chorus or hymn, or biblical concept.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students should have completed UltraKey by this time. If any student has not, he / she works on it in the lab during one study hall each week. Talk with Mrs. Garton if you would like to purchase the program. Students type in Ultrakey for 5 minutes at the beginning of each computer class in middle school. All middle school language writers' workshop classes are held in the lab, as students type all writing assignments. By the end of the year, students should be typing 25 words per minute with 95% accuracy (without looking at the keyboard.)
  
• Computer Skills - Advanced Word Processing review - We cover skills such as formatting text (font, size, styles), justifications, various ways to select text, moving text up & down, use of tab key & space bar, first line indent for paragraphs, hanging indent in formatting bibliographies, left & right margin markers to move text as in moving a left justified poem, left tab marker to add a poet's name to the bottom of a poem, right tab marker to format a heading, adding page breaks, adding headers & footers, adding page numbers & changing the beginning number, adding a title page, changing the margin width.
• HyperStudio - This is a multimedia presentation software program. It is similar to PowerPoint, but more complex and designed for students. It contains numerous sounds & music files, pictures, photos, backgrounds, and small movies. It allows students to create a "stack" of interactive "cards". These cards have buttons students make that can be made to play sounds, movies, etc., move to other "cards" (pages) with various transitions, have graphics or words animate, write one letter at a time, appear or disappear, roll as in rolling credits, scroll, link to the web. A student's voice can be recorded, the program will read text in a variety of voices, cd's can be played as part of a presentation. Paint tools are also part of the program so students can create their own art work or modify other graphics. The tools & techniques are similar to other image editing software or drawing programs. Frame animation (like a flip-book) can be used to create actual "professional-looking" animations. Students learned the features of this program in 6th grade. Seventh graders use the program to create frame animations showing the blood flow through the heart, which ties in with their science unit.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - AppleWorks advanced slide show - Students create a more advanced slide show displaying the layers of organs in a frog. This project ties in with their science unit on anatomy and frog dissection. Before creating the slide show, students use an interactive frog dissection web site that contains videos of the actual dissection. After creating the frog organ slide show, students take an online quiz about the organs, that I created.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - Database /mail merge - Students learn how to create a database and do a mail merge by creating a student information database. Popup menu fields are created to show favorite "restaurants", "teams", etc. Radio buttons are created to show gender. Students change the layout of the database, adding graphics and formatting text, etc. They learn how to sort and find records, as well as create new layouts from the original. Students then write a "prize winning" letter to use as a mail merge for their data. Students integrate database with their study of the parts of speech in language class. After working with "mad libs" on a web site where they can add words to stories to change the story, they create their own mad libs database of verbs, adjectives, prepositional phrases, etc. Then they merge those parts of speech with a story they've written and typed. This "mail merge" automatically creates several versions of a "mad lib".

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.) By the end of this year, students should be typing 25 words per minute with 95% accuracy (without looking at the keyboard).
  
• Computer Skills - Using Internet searching & HyperStudio to create an interactive travel brochure. Students have been studying Greece in social studies. After viewing a great student -created web site on the country and culture, students conduct their own searches for information they use to create an interactive travel package to Greece. We discuss search engines and searching techniques, and proceed to find: flight info (airline, cost, departure/arrival times, length of flight), a map of the country, a hotel (pictures of hotel, cost, location), a restaurant (pictures, menu, location), attractions to visit, weather, currency, food, and other cultural interests.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (typing without looking at the keyboard) - Students should have completed UltraKey by this time. If any student has not, he / she works on it in the lab during one study hall each week. Talk with Mrs. Garton if you would like to purchase the program. Students type in Ultrakey for 5 minutes at the beginning of each computer class in middle school. All middle school language writers' workshop classes are held in the lab, as students type all writing assignments. By the end of the year, students should be typing 30 words per minute with 95% accuracy (without looking at the keyboard.) This is the expected score for students entering area high schools to be exempt from taking a keyboarding class.
  
• Computer Skills - Advanced word processing review / AppleWorks & MicroSoft Word - We review skills such as justifications, various ways to select text, use of tab key & space bar, first line indent for paragraphs, hanging indent in formatting bibliographies, left & right margin markers to move text as in moving a left justified poem, left tab marker to add a poet's name to the bottom of a poem, right tab marker to format a heading, adding page breaks, adding headers & footers, adding page numbers & changing the beginning number, adding a title page, changing the margin width, adding section breaks for using columns within a document, setting tabs for lines and table of contents, using text wrap. At the same time we were doing these operations in AppleWorks, we do the same thing in MicroSoft Word.
• New York City web-based learning activity and webquest - To prepare students for their upcoming field trip to NYC, Mr. Schildt and I use the web pages and webquests I created and posted on our web site. These web pages contain: The agenda, maps showing the walking paths to take and sights to see, a brief history of the areas of interest, links to sites we will see an advice page written by past students who have gone on the trip, a webquest and online quiz about the subway, a webquest and online quiz about Chinatown. After the trip, the 8th graders write their own advice for the next year's group.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - Spreadsheet graphs - In health class, students compare the fat & sugar in different brands of the same foods. We use the computer to graph the data, customizing the graphs and adding text and clip art to create an attractive document to explain the results.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.)
  
• Computer Skills - Internet use - Since students are beginning their science fair projects at this time, we use that as a stepping stone for teaching Internet use. We discuss our Internet Acceptable Use Policy, and students sign the agreement before being allowed to conduct searches. We discuss benefits and dangers and proper use of the Internet. Students learn the parts of the browser, how to bookmark sites and organize bookmarks. They do activities to teach ways to check validity and accuracy of sites. We discuss copyright issues and how to give credit to Internet sources. I have a list of science fair web sites linked on our site. Students then learn how to conduct effective searches with various search engines.
• Excel - Students transfer their knowledge about creating graphs in AppleWorks to Excel, learning how to use this program for formatting graphs. They also learn how to create line graph, and we discuss how to know which kind of graph to use for their science fair projects.. This prepares them to use either AppleWorks or Excel for their science fair graphs.

• Keyboarding in UltraKey (See the 1st quarter.) By the end of this year, students should be typing 30 words per minute with 95% accuracy (without looking at the keyboard).
  
• Computer Skills - PowerPoint - Students learn how to use this program, by creating presentations about the gifts God has personally given to them that make them unique. They learn how to add and format text boxes, add graphics, create word art, add backgrounds in the program and customize their own, do customized animations with sound and adjust timing and order, add/delete/change order of slides, add slide transitions, run the show with variations. To integrate this skill with the curriculum, students create first aid presentations for health class. These are advanced, with students modifying clip art in a paint program, using pictures taken from a digital camera or scanned, adding sound effects from the Internet, or recording their voices. These presentations are shown with the projector in health class.
• Immigration Internet activity, webquest, and online quiz - To integrate technology with the 8th grade social studies immigration unit and prepare students for the simulation activity where we transform the meetinghouse into Ellis Island, and students take on the role of an immigrant, we use the Internet to gain information. I have created web pages with a brief history of immigration and links to sites with videos, audio, and accounts of actual immigrants and their experiences. Students may use the webquest activities to better understand this topic, as well as the online quiz I created to check their understanding.

• 2005/06 - Dying of Thirst - Students created a claymation video using over 700 still pictures taken with a digital video camera. The pictures were transferred to a computer where students imported them into VideoBlender, combined the images, and edited the footage, adding sound effects and voice, transitions, a title page, and credits. The footage was exported as a QuickTime file and imported into iMovie, where audio was added. The characters, set, and story for this claymation were created by students after studying claymation using the Internet. Students took turns directing, editing, and moving characters during the many scenes. This video won a gold key award locally and a silver key award nationally in the Scholastic Art Awards competition. Permission to use the theme song, Happy Trails to You written by Dale Evans and sung by Roy Rogers, was granted by Roy Rogers' estate. Click here to view the video.
  
• 2006/07 - Creating videos with iMovie - Students had an opportunity to act, direct, and work the camera as each came up with a way to eat an Oreo. All footage was transferred to the computers, so each student could edit his/her own commercial. Scenes were deleted, effects and audio were added to created many versions of what was filmed. They were so fun to make and watch! Creating web pages with Composer - Students learned how to create a web site with formatted text, backgrounds, images, links to other web pages, tables and anchors. Click here to see a few of them! PhotoShop - Students learned how to use this professional graphics program to cut and combine images, modify images using the stamp tool and by changing hues, light, etc. create vignettes, add beveled and embossed text, add effects to layers, etc. Student projects - Students used these three programs to create their final project: Legally Brunette I movie preview, Indurango miracle elixir web site, Kraybill's Amazing Students web site, Swift energy drink commercial (Basketball), Swift energy drink commercial (4-Square), Save the Fluffapig web site. Another student's final project was an animated video, The Field Trip, using HyperStudio and VideoBlender. Click here to view a few of the projects.

Our Program:

• Students in grades 3 - 8 receive formal computer instruction integrated with the curriculum once a week for 40 minutes.
• Grade 3 - 5 classroom teachers are present in the lab during computer instruction.
• Grade 6 - 8 language teachers hold formal writing classes in the lab for 2 periods each week.
• There is a computer elective class for students in grades 7 - 8.
• The middle school challenge program (enrichment/gifted program) is based on use of technology.
• The library has computers students use for locating books; checkout is done by computer.
• Teachers use a grading program for calculating and reporting grades.
• Teachers use the school web site for online news for parents and for some assignments.
• The lab is always open to classes, students, teachers. If there's an empty computer - you're welcome to come!
• Ongoing staff development tailored to teachers' needs
• Students are always welcome in the lab to do extra projects or research.

Our Equipment:

• One computer lab with 28 student computers: iMac G4's with OS9 & OSX
• Computers in classrooms: 4 iMac G3's in grades 3 - 5; 1 iMac G3 in most other elem. classes; 3 G3's for learning support
• Each teacher has a laptop and thumb drive
• All computers have MicroSoft Office for Mac installed.
• 3 multimedia projectors to be signed out by teachers
• dvd player, VCR to be used with projectors
• 2 digital cameras
• 1 digital camcorder
• 2 scanners
• 3 laser printers; 1 color printer
• 1 quickcam