Waiting For Dreamweaver…
I am still waiting to get my copy of Dreamweaver that I purchased from the MSU computer store. I am excited to work on my website again.
My kids at school are helping me get the pictures I need for my PowerPoint. I am struggling to get the sound to work out. I am going to do my best to incorporate the sound, but it may not be as fabulous I hoped/planned.
Reflections… I realize that I need to differentiate computer instruction for all the kids. Many of my kids are computer savy. But! There are the handful that are either “crazy mouse clickers” or are strugglers who frequently ask for help. I spend most of my time with them. While I am amazed at how far my students’ computers skills have come, I need to make sure that I help everyone, (including the advanced computer kids!), improve their computer skills. Next year I am going to prepare an ongoing plan to differentiated instruction when teaching computer skills.
on April 23rd, 2008 at 3:35 am
Beth,
I hear and feel your frustrations in using computers in the classroom. Because of the dynamics of the age group you teach, you have an extremely important teaching position for technology. I realize that most of your students come to class with a lot of technological know-how already, but there probably is a great imbalance with just that. Your influence of these young children will greatly affect how they respond to computers in the next few years and possibly impact them in their approach to using technology later in life. Please teach them patience. Computers are great and they look like they can do anything, but they are just machines and will eventually fail. One of the best things you could teach these young minds is how to sense when something isn’t working correctly on or with the machine so that they can be smarter users.
I teach middle school kids and even some of them want to go faster than I teach. That is a struggle any teacher will have, but we need to anticipate that so that we aren’t surprised and left with nothing to give the more advanced ones. A mind is a terrible thing to waste!
I wish you the best!
Wendi
on April 25th, 2008 at 5:30 pm
Thanks for sharing Beth. I understand your frustration and excitment as you wait for Dreamweaver to arrive.
I have been spending a great deal of time in front of the computer working on my projects. Like you, I have things that I am frustrated with and wish worked better but I am learning a lot. I am looking forward to sharing projects and asking questions and getting some input.