The IT Program at St. Francis of Assisi Catholic School strives to increase the technological knowledge base of our students towards future advancements in education and society. Students will be prepared, to not only function adequately but to meet the challenges and have the ability to complete in this constant changing world of technology. We provide grade-appropriate resources necessary to give every student access to effective technological learning environments, both in the computer lab and the classroom setting. Educational technology is used within grade level content, including a portion of online learning, giving opportunities for student participation in project-based assignments which are challenging and related to real-world experiences. This develops proficiencies to become lifelong learners. In addition, the ethical, safe and discerning behavior while using media and information technology is stressed to promote a secure online experience.

Aligned to the Diocese of Arlington Curriculum Guidelines and the National Educational Technology Standards for Students (NETS-S), we integrate all core subjects by grade level, (K-8), with the technology skills of Computer Literacy, Writing and Desktop Publishing, Information Management, Information Retrieval and Keyboarding. Our students’ knowledge is enhanced with the use of Microsoft Windows Operating Systems, and Microsoft Office Suite (Word, Excel, Publisher, Access, PowerPoint), in addition to instructional courseware, Internet educational websites, PC activity worksheets, and software applications. We also use Google Classroom, the online platform where students are given assignments that are submitted back to their teachers for grading upon completion.

Computer Science Programming has inundated the educational field encouraging all students to be familiar with programming code. To this end, students at St. Francis of Assisi School (K-8) engage in coding assignments that teach the underlying concepts of programming, operators, events, controls, through the manipulation of blocks of logic in a particular order of instruction to move a character around a scene. Some of the available coding websites we apply are Hour of Code, Scratch, LightBot, Tynker, and Code Studio at Code.org. Students will then successively acquire the skills to advance in programming code and could make their own games and apps to share!

Our students are engaged competently to embrace a positive learning atmosphere and become technologically adept in today’s digital world.