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[00:00:00] Shanna Martin: Thanks for listening to the Tech Tools for Teachers podcast, where each week we talk about a free piece or two of technology that you can use in your classroom. I’m your host, Shanna Martin. I’m a middle school teacher, technology and instructional coach from my district.
[00:00:31] Fuzz Martin: And I’m her producer and husband, Fuzz Martin.
[00:00:34] Fuzz Martin: I’ve had too much coffee and that’s the key to the success of the show. You know,
[00:00:43] Shanna Martin: it’s okay.
[00:00:43] Fuzz Martin: Yeah.
[00:00:44] Shanna Martin: Key to anything. The key to the world.
[00:00:47] Fuzz Martin: The key to my heart. Happy Valentine’s Day, everybody.
[00:00:50] Shanna Martin: Aw.
[00:00:50] Fuzz Martin: Aw.
[00:00:51] Shanna Martin: Cute. Aw.
[00:00:52] Fuzz Martin: By the way, key to our heart, Daphne, who bought you a coffee.
[00:00:56] Shanna Martin: Yeah. I always appreciate when I get little messages from people who buy me a coffee and send me a fun message.
[00:01:01] Shanna Martin: Thanks, Daphne. Yeah. That’s much appreciated. It’s a little
[00:01:04] Fuzz Martin: spark to get our, uh, our, our show flowing for the day.
[00:01:08] Shanna Martin: Yeah. Yay.
[00:01:09] Fuzz Martin: Yay.
[00:01:10] Shanna Martin: So I’m glad we’re here because the sickness has hit the Martin house. So man, everything that’s been out there and spreading through the Midwest, like we’ve got it. So
[00:01:19] Fuzz Martin: I had influenza type a, I could have been my pun and then the norovirus, which is also ripping through schools in our area.
[00:01:28] Shanna Martin: So I
[00:01:28] Fuzz Martin: didn’t have norovirus our childhood.
[00:01:30] Shanna Martin: Yes. And then our
[00:01:32] Fuzz Martin: older child went to a concert and now has
[00:01:35] Shanna Martin: the flu as
[00:01:36] Fuzz Martin: well.
[00:01:38] Shanna Martin: Yes. So there’s a lot just spreading through and bits and pieces. Anyway, we’re all happy to be here and healthy and functioning and we have fun things to chat about with everybody today.
[00:01:48] Shanna Martin: So on that note, we are talking. About
[00:01:55] Fuzz Martin: we’re talking we’re talking typing. We’re not talking well, but we’re talking
[00:01:59] Shanna Martin: talking about typing today. So I was thinking about this as I’ve shared several other. Episodes that are talking and highlighting typing tools used in your classroom. Um, we, here in Wisconsin, our students start state testing around third grade and they need to be able to have typing skills and it’s hard because kids do a lot of things on tablets where they don’t have typing skills and, like my middle schoolers are on their phones all the time and they don’t actually have to use a keyboard and so I always encourage Typing skills and actually being able to put your fingers on the keys and type them appropriately.
[00:02:41] Shanna Martin: Like practicing the piano, like practicing typing is important. So I always share like gaming sites and fun things to get students engaged. But I’ve also realized that a lot of times, not a lot of times, but sometimes, typing gaming sites can be blocked in schools because of
[00:02:58] Fuzz Martin: gaming rules, gaming
[00:03:00] Shanna Martin: rules and things being blocked.
[00:03:01] Shanna Martin: And so they can practice those things at home, but not necessarily always in the classroom or as a teacher, you’re like, okay, I need you to really just focus on getting this skill mastered. And we’re not able to play the games or we have a short amount of time or that kind of thing. So I wanted to highlight some typing.
[00:03:18] Shanna Martin: Websites that are helpful. They teach skills. They’re quick. They’re simple to build your classroom. So those are my highlights. Like my five things are they meet all the basic skills that you need for typing. They are both of these sites can fall into these categories. They’re easily used. And I was thinking not just in computer class.
[00:03:35] Shanna Martin: We only have computer class offered in sixth grade and then in high school when they’re doing like computer applications type things. But like ELA class, like one of these, I’m going to highlight is going to talk about like punctuation. You literally could practice punctuation while you’re practicing your typing skills.
[00:03:51] Shanna Martin: Like here’s a semicolon, semicolon, semicolon, semicolon, comma, comma, comma. Anyway, you can practice, your actual punctuation also capitalization. Cause I feel like sometimes that’s getting lost with our students and like, I have to can’t play sentence. Like, yes, you do. And AI and your, your keyboards aren’t always going to check that for you.
[00:04:10] Shanna Martin: So making sure you’re capitalizing things and it’s a great review. So both of these are great review sites. They’re fast. You can focus on specific skills and they’re very simple to use. So you wouldn’t have to have a bunch of setup or background or creating accounts or any of that kind of stuff. You can just use them.
[00:04:25] Shanna Martin: If you want to create accounts, you can, but you don’t have to. So the first one I’m going to talk about, it’s called how to type. So it’s H O W dash T O dash T Y P E. com. How to type. It’s very straightforward. I do love that when you go to how to type. com, it has, in the upper right hand corner, you can choose your color theme.
[00:04:45] Shanna Martin: So if you want tropical or ice, there are color combinations for you to. Engage in your typing skills. Stranger is black and red. It’s very exciting. Um, I’m gonna go back to tropical because we could use some sunshine around here. So, with that, free typing lessons, typing practice, and typing tests are all together in this little, in this website.
[00:05:14] Shanna Martin: And you can click learn to type or practice typing. And then I appreciate the actual, like, so you got your usual home row, your top row, your bottom row, capital letters. You can focus just on capital letters and you can hold that little shift key and do those J’s and those K’s and make sure that you’re actually practicing your skills with capitalization.
[00:05:38] Shanna Martin: Again, that’s why I think it’d be great in ELA class, because if you’re. Practicing punctuation and language arts in your writing might be helpful. Punctuation. You have your exercises. You can click on it. It’s going to bring your right back in. So you can do your colons and your semi colons and your commas.
[00:05:55] Shanna Martin: And you just hit the restart button. So you can just have kids like, all right, as a group, let’s see how fast you can do it, put a timer up on the. Front of your board and just see how they can go through it. It’s not formal where they’re going to like test it Um, but you it’s practice so it’s to practice these skills some of it too.
[00:06:10] Shanna Martin: I think of When you’re teaching lela and you’re talking about punctuation and some of those that you don’t use very often like a semicolon Like you could talk about Why you use it and then where to find it on the keyboard because I feel like sometimes in a chromebook Or if my students are using their computers They don’t know how to do some of the things on their computers So I think that that could be also helpful in a lesson if you’re combining things numbers lesson, you can go through and all your numbers are there with practice and then symbols, things that we don’t use very often, such as like the, and sign, you can practice those things as well.
[00:06:43] Shanna Martin: So
[00:06:43] Fuzz Martin: I’m taking a typing test.
[00:06:44] Shanna Martin: I gathered that that’s what you were doing because you are like hammering away at your keys. I’m like, he’s gotta be taking a test right now.
[00:06:51] Fuzz Martin: Uh, I got 74 words, man. On the first one,
[00:06:53] Shanna Martin: uh,
[00:06:55] Fuzz Martin: I’ve done faster than that, so I’m giving up on this one. Cause it’s, uh,
[00:07:00] Shanna Martin: Cause you’re under like pressure now, cause we’re talking about
[00:07:04] Fuzz Martin: it,
[00:07:05] Shanna Martin: Practice a new quote, so you can practice not just sentences, but actually it’ll give you quotes to practice that you can do any topic, any length, which is kind of fun.
[00:07:13] Shanna Martin: You can swap up quotes again, if it’s into ELA class, along with computer class. Or anything else that you want to kind of build in with practice. They do have typing of quotes. They have typing code.
[00:07:25] Fuzz Martin: Oh,
[00:07:27] Shanna Martin: so you can practice actually typing code, which to me is huge for kids to understand what I’m teaching them.
[00:07:34] Shanna Martin: Code basics that. Um, basically, when you’re typing code, it’s not going to be full words necessarily, or it’s not going to be in your traditional how you write a sentence. So, they always get frustrated if they write a line of code, they’re like, it doesn’t work. And I’m like, I know, because you’re writing it like a sentence, and now you don’t need to write it like a sentence.
[00:07:58] Shanna Martin: So, I do appreciate that they have practice writing code in here. Which would be great in a coding class, a STEM class, a computer class, and just teaching them that writing code actually looks different than writing sentences. And either way, like there’s skills just to get your brain kind of thinking about that.
[00:08:14] Shanna Martin: So how to type just lots of options. Like there’s a speed test, there’s lessons and yes. If you choose, there are some games at the bottom. So there are a few games built into there as well. So those are options, but I do just appreciate like the clarity and the lessons I kind of walk you through stuff.
[00:08:35] Shanna Martin: And if your kids are not able to do gaming things in your building, or if you want them to send them home with practice, that they’re. Families can do with them. This is definitely an option.
[00:08:46] Fuzz Martin: And German teachers, if you scroll to the bottom and click the little German flag, it flips all in the German and you can teach in German.
[00:08:55] Shanna Martin: Well, that’s amazing. It’s all at the very, very bottom in like the starfish, you’ll find the German flag.
[00:09:02] Fuzz Martin: That’s fun.
[00:09:04] Shanna Martin: Well, there you go. So how to type. com lots of great basics, lots of great things. That would be helpful.
[00:09:14] Fuzz Martin: Yes. And in a tropical theme,
[00:09:16] Shanna Martin: in a tropical theme or in the ice theme
[00:09:19] Fuzz Martin: or yes,
[00:09:20] Shanna Martin: or something else.
[00:09:21] Shanna Martin: Yes. So try it out, test out your typing skills. I’d love to hear what your, your scores are. Yes.
[00:09:29] Fuzz Martin: My word per minute. Got the 84
[00:09:32] Shanna Martin: while we’re talking. So yeah, exactly. Thank you. Love it. Thank you. All right. Our second site similar is going to be another, again, line it out. Basics piping site is Kiber K E Y B R.
[00:09:51] Shanna Martin: com.
[00:09:52] Fuzz Martin: It’s perfect for this cold weather. Kiber. Wow. We’re doing great here.
[00:09:59] Shanna Martin: Okay. , And the first one I would say you could definitely do 3rd or 4th grade on up, same here. And this one has more ads that pop up, just so you’re aware. But, this one you can sign in, you can have a little sign in, keep track of scores, or you can just practice your typing skills.
[00:10:15] Shanna Martin: So you click or press to activate and then it is going to give you your sentences and it is going to give you your little typing test. This one, the reason why I like Keyber is that it actually shows you the keyboard. As you’re typing it. So as you’re typing, it like flashes the letter on the keyboard that’s on the screen in front of you.
[00:10:42] Shanna Martin: So you can type and it shows you a little keyboard where things are located and it circles it for you. So beginners that are hunting and, and pecking and trying to find their keys, it will actually like. Circle, click the space bar and it kind of teaches you the location. And I like that as you type, it flashes it on the screen and you can see what’s happening as you’re typing.
[00:11:08] Shanna Martin: So I like typing and talking here and it’s kind of a visual, which is crazy if your brain works that way, where you’re going to see the letter. That you’re typing on the screen in front of you, just below the sentence that you’re typing, which is weird. I think I’m going to put, I think I’m
[00:11:24] Fuzz Martin: going to put just typing sounds underneath this whole episode.
[00:11:26] Fuzz Martin: So it sounds like,
[00:11:28] Shanna Martin: because we are both typing and talking at the same time, but we both have little quiet keyboards. You cannot hear us hammering on keyboards as we’re doing this, but yes, so you can do all keys, speed, cranky, and this one like works your way through. So you have to work through your E’s or N’s or I’s or A’s or L’s.
[00:11:46] Shanna Martin: R’s and L’s, and then it will like move you forward on that. Like I said, you can click practice. You can, this one, make a little profile and you can have your little sign in if you choose to, uh, and you have those options of letters, digits, punctuation, characters are options as well. This one just basically goes through your speed and we’ll track it.
[00:12:06] Shanna Martin: It has little charts below. So if you scroll further down on the screen, you can see how fast your reactive speed typing is. So again, another, just a simple site. It gives you the information to practice, your typing, and this one gives you just like a visual as you type, which is kind of cool as you’re doing it.
[00:12:24] Shanna Martin: It’d also be great if you’re teaching a lesson, if you put this up on like a smart board or on a digital board in front of your room, and if you’re typing, the kids can see it flash, like as you’re typing where it is on the keyboard, which might be kind of fun for a challenge in your classroom as well.
[00:12:38] Fuzz Martin: Yeah. 74 words a minute. That’s a pretty
[00:12:40] Shanna Martin: consistent
[00:12:41] Fuzz Martin: format.
[00:12:42] Shanna Martin: Nice.
[00:12:43] Fuzz Martin: Not bad.
[00:12:44] Shanna Martin: No, now though, you’re going to like race yourself through and then we’ll put your highest score. I’ll just put it in the blog this week and I’ll be like, Oh, thank you. I’ll
[00:12:52] Fuzz Martin: just be at home.
[00:12:57] Fuzz Martin: Got carpal tunnel from . Yes, from like over a hundred words for podcasting per a minute. Yeah, you’re doing it wrong, .
[00:13:04] Shanna Martin: Love it. Okay, so typing time. We are highlighting these two sites. So how to type and keeper.com keeper, and you should. Test them out, practice your typing skills, challenge yourself, and also it’ll support your kids in your classroom, and they should have some fun, and yes, you can always build some of those other episodes that we’ve talked about with the typing games in, but these are just some basics that hopefully won’t be blocked on your school computers.
[00:13:30] Shanna Martin: Hopefully
[00:13:31] Fuzz Martin: they, they pique your students courteosity.
[00:13:36] Shanna Martin: Wow, and there we have it.
[00:13:38] Fuzz Martin: Thank you. I’m a very good pun professional
[00:13:44] Shanna Martin: on that note. Thanks for tuning in. This has been the tech tools for teachers podcast. If you ever have any questions, you can find me on Blue Sky Threads, Facebook, Instagram at SmartinWI.
[00:13:54] Shanna Martin: And if you want to get more information on the links to the technology discussed on this episode, You can visit smartinwi.com. If you’d like to support the show, please consider buying me a coffee or two. Visit buymeacoffee. com slash smartinwi or visit smartinwi.com and click on that cute little purple coffee cup.
[00:14:11] Fuzz Martin: Thanks, Daphne.
[00:14:12] Shanna Martin: It is much appreciated. Your donations help keep the show going. New episodes each week. Thanks for listening. Go educate and innovate.
[00:14:19] Fuzz Martin: The ideas and opinions expressed on this podcast. and the smartinwi website are those of the author, Shanna Martin, and not of her employer. Prior to using any of the technologies discussed on this podcast, please consult with your employer regulations.
[00:14:32] Fuzz Martin: This podcast offers no guarantee that these tools will work for you as described, but we sure hope they do. And we’ll talk to you next time right here on the Tech Tools for Type in Teachers podcast.
