Keyboarding

A hot topic right now in schools is keyboarding.  Several conversations I've heard at different schools ask questions about when is the right time to start teaching keyboarding, how much to expect from students, and- possibly most pressing- how will we accomplish a keyboarding task with limited tech access?

Keyboarding skills are now time-sensitive for students.  Standardized testing is shifting to computerized administration, but may schools still don't offer typing electives until middle school.  I thought I would share 2 programs I have had experience with- Typing Pal and Tux Typing.

I used Typing Pal last year with my 3rd grade class.  Since the students would be tested in 4th grade for the Smarter Balanced assessment, our principal recommended that we take 1 hour each week to devote strictly to keyboarding.  One thing I really enjoy about Typing Pal:  It has several lessons at the beginning specific to proper finger placement and posture.  These are essential to developing good typing skills.  The program bumps the students up a level once they meet proficiency for both speed and accuracy.  My 3rd graders loved this program, and often raced each other during our keyboarding hour.  Many of them accessed the program at home for extra practice.  

I love that Typing Pal shows you individual student reports, including a breakdown of whether or not their finger placement is working.  

Finger placement is essential with the Typing Pal program.

Screenshot of a typical student report- categories on the left. 

Another program I have used is Tux Typing.  I had *almost* forgotten about this program in the midst of Typing Pal, but I recently found out that my school had access to it on CD (yay!), so I had it installed on my student computers.  This one is better- in my opinion- for the younger grades to get motivated to learn keyboarding skills,  It's much more colorful and appealing to the eye.  I think many of my 3rd graders would have found it a little silly, but let me tell you the 1st graders go NUTS for time on this program!

...see what I mean?  FUN!  

Regardless of which program you use for keyboarding in your classroom, this is now an ESSENTIAL skill for all students!  I had my first keyboarding lesson in 7th grade.  Now that would be way too late to start!  There are tons of great programs out there- these are just 2 of many!  Get your students on the computers and get them typing- I think it's never too early to start!