Week 1 update

Quick little synopsis of what we have been doing in technology lab with each grade level.

6th- This class is comprised of 10 students, and we are forging ahead with a project I named "Teach the Younger Kids".  Yesterday, the older students brainstormed ways in which we could use technology to help younger students.  I asked them to focus on K-4, and most of them focused on K-1.  This could be an idea to help them in any facet of life, not just school related.  They came up with some great ideas, typed out on Microsoft Word, and today we are going to go a step further with that, brainstorming ways to create a presentation using speech, video, pictures, music, and text.  This will be done via Google Docs.. I am excited to put this engaged learning project in action.

5th- We have been mostly working on, as with all grades, procedures for computer lab since every student is new to them, as am I.  I have been showing 5th, 4th, and 3rd a presentation on Prezi with a little intro on me, since I am new to this school as well.  For 5th, we continue on to discussing the desktop picture on their screen currently, which is the first personal computer ever sold, an IBM release in August 1981.  We talk about the use of this computer in the 80's, what it could do and what it couldn't, as well as the price.  Then we go through the steps of logging onto our teachers' blogs, as very important information is on these blogs that the 5th graders need daily.

4th and 3rd grades are very similar to 5th grade.  4th graders are actually covering supply and demand, scarcity, and other topics of economics in Mr. Page's Social Studies class, so they have awesome comments concerning our discussion of the older computer from the 80's/the price guessing, etc.  Today, with the 4th and 3rd grade classes I had, we went to Microsoft Word or Paint, just to determine some basic skill levels as I floated around the room.

2nd grade-  Second grade was very similar to 3rd and 4th, with the exception of Word and Paint.  We had enough time for intros, sitting at computers, procedures for when they need help and when I need their attention, and turning the computers on and shutting them down.

K & 1st grades-  Kindergarten and 1st grades met Google the giraffe, our technology lab mascot, through a story constructed on Prezi.  (Google the giraffe writes to a friend in Israel, and I actually had a student today who's name is Israel!  That was a neat surprise.)  We then discussed my signal for attention as well as getting to sit at a computer after I called roll.  Next class we will turn the computers on!