Mrs. Martha Groneman

Mrs. Groneman began teaching technology at Our Lady Star of the Sea School in 2004. Additionally, in 2009, she began serving as the Office Assistant on Tuesdays and Thursdays. She is a graduate of Star, has a Bachelor of Arts in Communication from Washington State University and, in 2006, received an Associate in Technical Arts degree in Web Design from Olympic College.

Mrs. Groneman is active in the parish serving as an Extraordinary Minister and as a member of the banner committee. She is married, with one son, also a Star alumnus, O’Dea High School graduate, and currently attending the University of Portland. Mrs. Groneman enjoys spending time with her family (including their dog, Lucky), reading, movies, walking, and trying to understand the mysterious ways of computers!

Technology Overview

The goal in technology is to introduce and improve students’ abilities in the following areas: computer literacy, keyboarding, word processing, spreadsheet, presentation skills, ethics, email, internet, information literacy/research, graphics, multimedia, and web pages. When possible, these concepts will be integrated with other classroom work. The junior high classes will touch on all of these areas and the intermediate grades will learn these concepts as experience dictates. Grades 2-3 will focus on keyboarding skills. Read more of the technology syllabus here.

Additionally, students are required to follow the schools’ Acceptable Use Policy (AUP) which can be viewed here.

The technology schedule is as follows:

• 2nd Grade – Mon & Wed 2:45-3:10
• 3rd Grade – Mon & Wed 11:30-12:00
• 4th Grade – Mon & Wed 1:45-2:15
• 5th Grade – Mon & Wed 9:00-9:30
• 6th Grade – Mon (6A) & Wed (6B) 12:50-1:40
• 7th Grade – Mon & Wed 9:45 – 10:35
• 8th Grade – Mon & Wed 10:35 – 11:25

Resources

Helpful Links

 

Five free programs for students

1. tinySpell
tinySpell is a spellchecker. Of course, you’ve seen spellcheckers in programs like Word. But tinySpell isn’t tied to any particular program. It can spell-check just about any typing you do on your computer. It even checks everything that you copy and paste automatically. A tiny icon pops up with spelling suggestions. And you can add to tinySpell’s dictionary to improve it.

2. Graph Paper Generator
This site offers a graph paper generator. Just enter some sizes and then print your paper. And you can make a lot more than just grids. For example, you can make manuscript paper for music. You can even make old-fashioned handwriting practice paper.

3. WordWeb
WordWeb is a dictionary and thesaurus that you can use on the spot. Like tinySpell, it’s not tied to any particular program. So you can search using WordWeb no matter what you’re working on. And you don’t have to be online.

4. The Map Machine
Map Machine can show world and country maps, including historical maps. You can specify which part of a map you’d like to zoom in on. The maps include data from the U.S. Census. There are plenty of facts to start off exciting reports. Map Machine has some satellite imagery maps, as well.

5. Calculator Plus
Microsoft Calculator Plus really outshines the little calculator that comes with Windows. It can serve as a good scientific calculator. It’s capable of trigonometric and logarithmic functions. And it can easily work in scientific notation. It can do lots of measurement conversions. It can even do some currency conversions!

“Why Computers Sometimes Crash!” by Dr. Suess

If a packet hits a pocket on a socket on a port,
and the bus is interrupted at a very last resort,
and the access of the memory makes your floppy disk abort,
then the socket packet pocket has an error to report.

If your cursor finds a menu item followed by a dash,
And the double-clicking icon puts your window in the trash,
And your data is corrupted cause the index doesn’t hash,
Then your situation’s hopeless and your system’s gonna crash!

If the label on the cable on the table at your house,
Says the network is connected to the button on your mouse,
But your packets want to tunnel to another protocol,
That’s repeatedly rejected by the printer down the hall.

If your screen is all distorted by the side effects of gauss,
So your icons in the window are as wavy as a souse;
Then you may as well reboot and go out with a bang,
‘Cuz sure as I’m a poet, the sucker’s gonna hang!

When the copy of your floppy’s getting sloppy in the disk,
And the macro code instructions cause unnecessary risk,
Then you’ll have to flash the memory and want to RAM your ROM,
Then turn off the computer and be sure to tell your Mom!