We enrolled both children (boy and girl) in a speed typing summer course at Landon. Best money ever spent . .

Anonymous wrote:NP here. What age is best to really start working on this at home?

We taught DD the summer before 3rd grade.

IME, that’s when the Chromebook use really ramped up. Up until then it was mostly just games.

Also the PARCC test was on Chromebooks so it’s helpful if your kid can type!

NP here. What age is best to really start working on this at home?

Typing Club is good and teaches touch typing.

My kid's teacher allows them to use Nito Type, which is NOT GOOD.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for posting! I completely agree - these kids need to learn to type! When I was a kid and computers were new my dad bought me Mavis Beacon software and I sat in my basement and practiced. Given where technology is now, how is this not a thing?

They don’t have time and money in MCPS to implement this. Parents just have to do it at home, IMO.

It's not a question of time and money. They have the money for all kinds of technology and the kids spend a lot of time on computers.

It's a question of will. MCPS doesn't prioritize skills. It's the same thing with handwriting, spelling, grammar, etc.

True. I do agree that MCPS doesn’t Prioritize skills.

But I do think there is just no time in the day to add in a typing class for the second or third graders.

They start with the Chromebooks in K now so the kids are already starting with the Hint and Peck method and developing bad habits by the time they get to 2nd grade.

I don't think it needs to be a traditional daily typing class. They could do 5 minutes a day for years, or maybe once a week do 1/2 hour.

I also don't know that it needs to be second or third grade. Maybe it would make more sense to start when the kids were younger and had fewer academic demands. Or maybe it would make sense to do it when they're older and have larger hands.

I don't really care when they teach typing as long as they teach the skill before it's needed. In my experience, MCPS expects kids to do things ignoring required skills. It used to drive me crazy that my Kindergartener and 1st grader were supposed to write things for homework without instruction on how to form letters or even hold a pencil. If a kid is expected to write lengthy papers, they need to know either handwriting or typing. Before teachers expect typed papers kids need to have been explicitly, systematically, taught how to touch type at school.

Yes, parents can, and in many cases will, do so at home, but relying on parents to teach basic skills is, in my opinion, one of the biggest contributors to the achievement gap.

Eh, I didn't take typing until high school, and became a fast typist. These kids have plenty of time. I don't think you learn bad habits from hunting and pecking, you just haven't learned the good habits of typing yet.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for posting! I completely agree - these kids need to learn to type! When I was a kid and computers were new my dad bought me Mavis Beacon software and I sat in my basement and practiced. Given where technology is now, how is this not a thing?

They don’t have time and money in MCPS to implement this. Parents just have to do it at home, IMO.

It's not a question of time and money. They have the money for all kinds of technology and the kids spend a lot of time on computers.

It's a question of will. MCPS doesn't prioritize skills. It's the same thing with handwriting, spelling, grammar, etc.

True. I do agree that MCPS doesn’t Prioritize skills.

But I do think there is just no time in the day to add in a typing class for the second or third graders.

They start with the Chromebooks in K now so the kids are already starting with the Hint and Peck method and developing bad habits by the time they get to 2nd grade.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for posting! I completely agree - these kids need to learn to type! When I was a kid and computers were new my dad bought me Mavis Beacon software and I sat in my basement and practiced. Given where technology is now, how is this not a thing?

They don’t have time and money in MCPS to implement this. Parents just have to do it at home, IMO.

It's not a question of time and money. They have the money for all kinds of technology and the kids spend a lot of time on computers.

It's a question of will. MCPS doesn't prioritize skills. It's the same thing with handwriting, spelling, grammar, etc.

Anonymous wrote:Thank you for posting! I completely agree - these kids need to learn to type! When I was a kid and computers were new my dad bought me Mavis Beacon software and I sat in my basement and practiced. Given where technology is now, how is this not a thing?

They don’t have time and money in MCPS to implement this. Parents just have to do it at home, IMO.

We taught our kids at one using Typing.com.

10 minutes a day and they picked it up after a month or so and they get tons of practice now.

Before that DD used to hunt and peck which took forever.

Our ES does NOT teach typing at all. Not even typing centers.

We certainly pushed our kids to learn to type but I think computer voice recognition will win out in the end.

Anonymous wrote:MCPS teacher here, typing is apart of practice. The kids are allowed to use typing club. The kids can login with their MCPS google account and password. Typing club teaches posture, position of the hand, etc.

https://www.typingclub.com/en/login/

See I think that's what parents are lamenting (myself included). Kids should actually have to use the program daily in the classroom. All kids together all at the same time. It's really the only way to learn to type.

Thank you for posting! I completely agree - these kids need to learn to type! When I was a kid and computers were new my dad bought me Mavis Beacon software and I sat in my basement and practiced. Given where technology is now, how is this not a thing?

MCPS teacher here, typing is apart of practice. The kids are allowed to use typing club. The kids can login with their MCPS google account and password. Typing club teaches posture, position of the hand, etc.

https://www.typingclub.com/en/login/

DC is in elementary school. Still hunts and pecks, but has been exposed to sporadic online typing programs at school.

With so much work on the Chromebook, bad habits are just being reinforced. Should I force DC to practice touch-typing at home? Why isn't typing part of the MCPS curriculum?