Activity Journal

Mentor

I had the opportunity to mentor 11 teachers through a class that I taught called Intel Teach to the Future.  This was a perfect opportunity to practice working with staff members on using technology.  The course was four hours once a week for ten weeks for a total of 40 hours.  The curriculum involved designing a unit using multimedia presentations, publications such as a newsletter or brochure, and a web site.  I was trained this summer by an individual from Intel.  The focus of this course was to integrate technology into the current curriculum while focusing on state content standards.  The 11 teachers that participated in the class varied in comfort level with technology.  I had the opportunity to share tips about using PowerPoint, Word, and Publisher.  Many of the participants were very appreciative of the skills they learned in this class.  One participant even said that, “this was the best 2 credit class (she has) ever taken.”

Technology Observations

Dell Rapids Elementary—I visited Dell Rapids Elementary on the morning of November 11 from 8:00-12:00.  I was completely impressed by the technology that they had available.  Not only do they have it, but from what I saw in the 4 classrooms that I visited, they use it to enhance their curriculum.  The first room that I visited was a 2^nd grade class that came into the lab to work on an author study PowerPoint.  I couldn’t believe how patient and comfortable these second graders were with using computers.  The teacher said, “click on the ‘favorites’ tab and then wait,” and the students actually did wait!  The fact that these students have been exposed to technology starting in Kindergarten really stands out.  This class was going to the teacher’s web site to find a particular author’s site and making a favorites list for themselves.  The students then went to an author’s page, found a picture of a character from a story, and copied and pasted it into their slide shows.  Next, I went into a classroom that was working on daily language skills using a projection system.  The teacher used Microsoft Word to type in some incorrect sentences, and the class discussed the mistakes and made the proper changes.  When they were finished with this, they practiced their word wall (spelling) words using the projector.  The teacher typed in one of the words so that it was the only thing showing on the screen and one student volunteer got to go up to the screen and “lift” the word with a large sheet of white construction paper.  It was so simple, yet the kids thought it was great, and they were all practicing the words together.  Not one student was off task during this activity.  Next I visited a third grade class that came to the lab for computer class with the computer teacher.  This class worked on making a poster using Publisher.  The students typed a paragraph about what they are thankful for.  During this time, the kids would come back two at a time and take each other’s picture with a digital camera.  The last class I visited at the elementary school was a second grade class that came to the lab with their teacher.  She had them working on adding speech bubbles with text to a picture that they had taken of themselves previously.  This was part of a project her class was doing for a grant that she had written last year.  She and another teacher received a set of handheld computers to share between the two classes.  They also recently made a trip to Omaha to visit Planet 5^th and find out more about using handhelds.  I was just impressed at how well these kids, in all of the classes that I observed, used technology to enhance what they do on a daily basis.  This school has made technology a priority.  Each teacher has a projection system in his/her classroom plus three student computers.  The school has a lab that is used by the computer teacher and a separate lab that can be checked out by classroom teachers.  There is a technology curriculum that goes along with national technology standards.  Each teacher is required to have and use a personal website in the classroom.  This is the kind of school that others in South Dakota should be learning from. 

Dell Rapids Middle School—I visited Dell Rapids Middle School on the afternoon of November 11 from 12:00-4:00.  The first class that I observed was an 8^th grade computer class.  I realized right from the start that I am glad I teach 3^rd grade!  These kids were working out of a text book to learn about different formatting features in Microsoft Word.  All of the assignments were on the teacher’s web site, and students were very familiar with using his site to get what they needed.  The next class was a 6^th grade class.  The first part of this class was used for a discussion about internet safety.  The teacher had just been to a conference and told some stories about students getting into trouble by using their real name and address when they were chatting.  This brought out some good discussion with this class.  When the discussion was over, students began working on their Microsoft Word projects.  Students that finished went on to do a keyboarding program.  Many of the students were off task.  I think that middle or high school computer labs really need software that will allow a teacher to see what each student is doing at any time.  The last class that I observed was a 5^th grade class that worked mainly on keyboarding and a PowerPoint project.  One difference that I noticed between the elementary school and the middle school was the fact that the students in the middle school were not nearly as motivated as the elementary students.  This is probably because I am just not used to middle school classrooms or students from that age group.  I was glad that I visited the middle school.  I have a new perspective on what goes on at the elementary level.

Professional Reading

Wade Helleson
Created:  06/2002
Updated:  11/01/2005
Send comments to:
Wade.Helleson@k12.sd.us