Make-Up for ASP

For my make up assignment I went into a third grade classroom at Hawthorne Elementary and worked with a couple students on typing their plays that they were working on. It was pretty typical, I had to remind a few of them repeatedly to keep their fingers on home row. Many of them tried to keep their hands and fingers on the correct keys. Some students needed more help than others navigation the computers to find what they already had typed. I had one student who just forgot to save his the last time he worked on it and had to start over. So saving sometimes can be an issue. For the most part they were on their own and I just kept an eye on them and was there to help if needed. It was pretty straight forward, just like during the ASP at Hawthorne.

3/1/12- Visit SIX

On my last visit I think we finally started figuring out how to make the students more interactive. We ended up bringing the computers downstairs to where the rest of the students were. This helped a lot, so that students were to the point of not getting enough time on the computer. I think they all didn't want to miss out on anything that was going on in the downstairs if they were upstairs working on computers. I think this idea helped a lot and Hawthorne might be starting to get the right idea for the technology in the after school program. So hopefully the second cohort will have a better experience since it was more figured out and put together. Overall I didn't learn much from this experience, it was too jumbled and no one really knew what was going on.

2/23/12-Visit FIVE

I was gone for a conference meet (Track & Field)  on the fifth visit I should have had at Hawthorne Elementary.

2/16/12-Visit FOUR

On my visit to Hawthorne, one would think by the time the visits were halfway over, things would have gotten figured out better. But they were still pretty messy, we again just worked with the few kids we could get to come into the seperate classroom and work on their computer skills: typing, math, and other various games/activities. We had to supervise really well to make sure the students were only going on websites that were aloud.

2/9/12- Visit THREE

The first time going to Hawthorne it was pretty jumbled and we were still trying to figure out how to work with the students (who wanted to actually come and type). We basically just helped the students with their typing or math games when they needed help. We had less students this time, but started getting more of different ages. We got in some kindergarteners and first graders who needed significantly more help with their typing so that gave us something more to do.

2/2/12- Visit TWO

Gone For a Funeral.

1/26/12- Visit ONE

On the first day at Hawthorne, we were still trying to organize how it was going to happen. I was outside for about half an hour or so just hanging out with the kids. Once we finally went inside it was pretty unorganized but we ended up getting quite a few students to work on computer typing games. They were in third grade, and got bored pretty easily. Especially knowing the other option could be going outside to play. After a long day of school, the kids would have rather gone outside then do more school work. We had about 5-6 kids the whole time, switching out of course. Susie Miller had to try pretty hard to find kids who wanted to come practice typing though. Not a super successful day.

Innovation Assignments

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1vZgwGRluu2mGD0b8WUnH7gmYAIPxpTZBAO53-0Pvt2U/edit

I would chose to use an iPod Touch in my classroom, they are more reasonably priced and are smaller and more portable than an iPad. They have such a wide range of educational apps that a teacher can buy to achieve the success of their students. You could use it for practicing states and capitols over and over without having to print off blank copies. A teacher could use it for flashcards so they students could practice on their own free time whenever they had the chance. There is nothing to clean up, all you have to do is put them away. All ages of students would be able to understand how to use them.

Week 12

I believe a part aside from learning what is being taught in the classroom, students learn social skills. How to interact with peers and how to treat elders. When a student is kept at home to take online courses, that would be a lot like being homeschooled. The fun part, for me at least, about going to school was getting to see all my friends and make new friends. 

 This subject is very broad, there are many angles to argue from. Like in this case study, Michael needed the online courses because he did not have time to sit in class for 8 hours out of every day. Some students may benefit from online courses. But others may not, they may just think of it as a free be to not go to class. But even for students who would benefit from online courses being offered may not be able to be for the hefty tuition being asked for. I think that if the schools is entirely virtual than why would they need teachers, or as many teachers as now. They could use the teachers salaries to pay for online courses. If that happened, then teachers would lose their jobs. 

   I believe teachers are extremely necessary, one can't ask a computer when not understanding something. In my opinion, this world is depending on technology every day more and more, soon it may be out of our hands. What if the Virtual School crashes, then students will be without education until it can be fixed. 

   I do not think the government should require high schools to have online courses, as more and more schools try it out, if it is successful then maybe eventually it could be required, for some subjects. In my experience I adore being able to go to my teacher and ask as many questions as I would like until I understood the material. With an online course, you just can't do that.