First two days

Well, the first two days with my new class are history, and I think the kids and I have both learned a lot. The first day I bit off a way too big a tech bite - sent the whole class over to computers - a doer and an observer/helper, open Word, try and type a heading, then try to save - and THEN switch places. Demonstrated on the laptop/projector beforehand, but this was just plain too much, and I should have known better. I was just so hoping to skip some of the basic stuff, hoping it had become second nature, I guess. Wrong. Whatever was I thinking?

So today, half went over to computers while half stayed at their desks and wrote. Managed to open yesterday's documents, add to them, save and exit. I was able to get around to everyone, at desk or computer, in a ten minute period. The desk workers were good observers of the computer process. Wow - they were great! Small, patient steps, remember, remember....

And yet, after just this small beginning, I can clearly see kids who will go so much farther using technology than last year's class. They are already so much more comfortable at a computer than I have ever seen at this age. Next week: Inspiration intro and Excel charting. After that, PowerPoint task analysis and web work. We're off!!