Helping Students Learn Keyboarding Skills
We all know that online testing is coming up. We also know that students' typing skills are severly underdeveloped at this age. If you want to start working with students on developing those skills now, here are some websites to get you started. You could try different ones with your classes in the computer lab to see which site works best for your class. Let me know if you find one you really like!
I really like this site as a beginner tutorial. It starts students off with the very basics of home row and the space bar. It moves slowly, and progresses in levels as the students master one level, they can move to the next and add more keys. This site is great for beginners.
This site offers a wide variety of typing games for kids. There are varying levels, and it might be fun to let students pick and choose the game they want from this site. There are also timed typing tests (Typing Challenge) where students can check their typing speed over time to see how it improves.
Typing Master offers arcade-style typing games, which I think students will love. These would make a great center or free-time activity. The games don't take long to play, so you don't need a big time commitment for students to get a little practice.
