Technology Integration

For much of this year, I’ve seen two or three students come into the 5-8 lab with their aide. The students would go to BrainPop, and the time seemed well spent.  After we received “Neighborhood Map Machine,” I trotted out to show them the new software and for the next few weeks the students would go right to their maps as soon as they logged in. Then, a few more students began to ask, “can we come into the lab?” instead of milling about in the holding pen (cafeteria) between bus arrivals and home room bell. I would then see seven or eight students in the lab, mostly all 5th graders. After a week of this, the lab is now full with 25 to 28 students, again mostly fifth graders, on line with MiniClip, Reckless Drivin’, or some other Internet game. Girls seem to search out photos of Hannah Montana for their desktops, and one guy is fascinated with John Deer logging equipment such as skidders and feller bunchers (his dad owns several). Out of the total group, maybe two or three are finishing up their reports.  Nearly all are fifth graders.   I don’t allow any point and shoot games or fighting games, even if it’s Obama and Hillary with boxing gloves  Some teachers might not want to be flooded with students the first thing in the morning, but I think this is a wonderful opportunity (1) to get to know them at the beginning of their middle school experience and (2) to shepherd their use of technology.  I can say, try this at inventionatplay or look at this circuit program with an interactive physics applet.The questions that I get often surround some technical issue, and I then have the opportunity to teach them how to use the browser history or recent search functions. We had a late start to using this space due to new construction this year with this “program”, but next year I would expect to see students in the lab as soon as the end of August.