WELCOME TO TECHNOLOGY!!!

 
Dear STM Upper School Students and Parents,
Welcome back to the St. Thomas More computer lab. This will be the start of my third full year at STM. One of the hallmarks of this program is to adapt to the changing needs of the students. This year will be no different.  
 
Last year we added a unit on Visual Basic to the 8th grade curriculum. This year we will again restructure the technology program to keep up with the changing need of the students. For the 2007-08 school year 8th grade students will be required to take the North Carolina Computer Skills test using a newly designed on-line assessment tool. Instead of waiting until mid-February to take the new version of the test, all STM eighth grade students will take the test in October. Last year all STM students passed the NCDPI computer skills test while other schools in our diocese had some failures. 
 
Below is an overview of the curriculum per grade level:
8TH
NC Computer Skills Test, High School Typing Assessment Prep (35 WPM), Intro to Movie Making, Intro to Visual Basic.
7TH
Intermediate Skills in Typing (30 WPM) and MS Office. Web Development, FLASH.
6TH
Foundational Skills in Touch Typing (25 WPM), MS Office.
 
New for this year we are linking the technology curriculum with core subjects. Following a foundational review of technology, core subject lesson plans will provided to technology students that incorporate elements of technology. These lessons will be graded by subject level content by the core teachers as well as integration of technology elements by the technology teacher.
 
For those parents who are new to St. Thomas More or the Upper School, my days of instruction are M-Th. Friday’s and weekends I work as an independent computer and web consultant. If you have any questions or for any reason you need to contact me during the school year, please feel free to email me at mthrom@st-thomasmore.org or call the upper-school at 919-2241. If it is a day or time that I am not at school, please feel free to contact me at either Mike@officeagility.com or (919)593-1961.