This school year has been an incredible challenge. I was assigned to a rural high minority school. My students had lots of educational challenges. I had to learn to make my computer-curriculum relevant to them. I began with their learning the keyboard, then progressed to keying simple reports for their English Language Arts (ELA) teacher.
After practicing keying personal-business letters from the textbook, my students wrote their own letters or email to a favorite sports team, recording artist or company. The students loved getting letters, pictures, and even discount cards back in thanks for their input. This not only demonstrated that the students had met the standard of being able to write a grammatically correct letter, but they also learned that they could communicate with "real" people outside their social circles.
A third lesson I got to experience was some Web Site Evaluation skills. The eighth grade ELA teacher and I coordinated on a unit about Internet research. I assisted the students in narrowing their searches by using specific keywords. Then after finding a site that looked like it held beneficial information, I assisted the students in evaluating their chosen web sites for usefulness, reliability, up-to-date information and even determining the purpose of the site. Several students believed that anything on the Internet must be true! Their preconceptions were proved wrong by this activity.
Overall, it's been a good first semester. I have enjoyed the challenge of making computer skills relevant to students who do not have computers or internet access at home, and don't expect to have any job using computers. I am looking forward to an even better second semester.
After practicing keying personal-business letters from the textbook, my students wrote their own letters or email to a favorite sports team, recording artist or company. The students loved getting letters, pictures, and even discount cards back in thanks for their input. This not only demonstrated that the students had met the standard of being able to write a grammatically correct letter, but they also learned that they could communicate with "real" people outside their social circles.
A third lesson I got to experience was some Web Site Evaluation skills. The eighth grade ELA teacher and I coordinated on a unit about Internet research. I assisted the students in narrowing their searches by using specific keywords. Then after finding a site that looked like it held beneficial information, I assisted the students in evaluating their chosen web sites for usefulness, reliability, up-to-date information and even determining the purpose of the site. Several students believed that anything on the Internet must be true! Their preconceptions were proved wrong by this activity.
Overall, it's been a good first semester. I have enjoyed the challenge of making computer skills relevant to students who do not have computers or internet access at home, and don't expect to have any job using computers. I am looking forward to an even better second semester.
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