Thinking “Outside of the Computer” Creates Quite an
Engaging Classroom!

Tess Keller

Instructional Technology Specialist, Inman Elementary School
Fayetteville, GA.

Sabrina Sterling, (website) , was just what I was looking for at the GaETC this year! She shared some wonderful, attention grabbing ideas that I yearn for each year, and always find at the annual technology conference. Beach balls, slippers, and flyswatters are just a few of the new “supplies” for the kinesthetic friendly computer lab.

Some of the physical ways to learn keyboarding include tossing a bean bag or beach ball to students and having them call the letters of the keyboarding lesson. An example would be a….s….d….f. etc. Finger puppets labeled with the home row can be used with the “Five Little Tree Frogs” poem. Just substitute the letter “A” for the number one, and you will see children having fun while learning the keys.  After reading a book like Hop on Pop by Dr. Seuss, students can use fly swatters to practice “swatting” -op words on a giant keyboard that could be created on a sheet, shower curtain, or bulletin board paper. These can also be purchased from a company called kinekeys. Students could also literally hop onto the correct letters while wearing special slippers. Another great center involves wearing a pair of “magic gloves” that are labeled with a fabric marker or stickers with the correct letters for typing. If the children are led to believe that they are very special and magic, then wearing the gloves and learning will feel magical!

My students repeatedly ask if we can play “Simon says minimize” again. It is really a simple and fun way to teach minimize, maximize, restore, and close. They love imitating the computer screen while learning-and fine-tuning their listening skills. A teacher can simply create visuals and anticipate the excitement. Other favorites are “Technology Twister” and “NetLand” The “twist” on Technology twister is using pictures of a monitor, keyboard, mouse and central processing unit in lieu of colors. “Right foot monitor”  Everyone loved “Candyland” as a child, and traveling through the internet safely can be reiterated with this entertaining game.

Something else to reinforce “getting to know” your computer is letting students use file folders, rubber stamps, sticky notes shaped like a mouse, screen shot printouts, foam sheets, and foam shapes to create their own “laptop” with the correct keyboard. It is wonderful watching the “light bulbs” flash as the students relate the game and activities to a hands-on computer lesson. Educators love the big “Aha!”

As a former kindergarten classroom teacher who loves being a PreK through 5^th grade computer lab teacher, I am excited to incorporate kinesthetic computing into my bag of tricks! More importantly, my most important clients, the students would like to thank Sabrina Sterling for bringing even more fun into our classroom!

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