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Getting Started and Getting Settled
Harry Wong, author of The
First Days of School, suggests that procedures
reduce the need for rules and discipline. Establish the procedures you
expect kids to follow and stick with it. Explain each procedure, model
it, then rehearse, rehearse, rehearse. Consistency pays off. Work out
the steps for each procedure that you feel is important and unique to
your situation, such as when to print
or how to request help.
Always have backup plans for the first 10 minutes
of a technology activity. When the network is down, equipment is "frozen"
or mouse balls are missing, have classroom sets made of relevant "Disaster
Preparedness Pages." Pick and choose from 36 different activity
sheets or color mini-posters. Students can keep their copies in a "Technology"
3-ring binder for the year and use them to review for the Eighth Grade
North Carolina Computer Skills Test.
Another idea is to allow students to plan
ahead on paper for the activity they will be doing. For example,
let's imagine students are about to create a multimedia product in the
computer lab. While you are restarting machines or trying to figure out
why the projector isn't working, students can preplan their products using
a storyboard
similar to this.
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During the Activity
Distractions are great and attention spans are
short! Students are faced with multiple distractions when they are surrounded
by equipment or gadgets. Keep them focused on the reason or the WHY
behind the technology activity. View and print several different note-taking
pages that help keep students on-task. Of course, the printables work
their magic only if the teacher monitors note-taking efforts.
As you know, most students cannot remain truly focused
on a software program, Internet content, or other electronic media longer
than 40-45 minutes. Here's one example of time management:
Technology
Environment: Computer Lab
Time: One Hour
First 10 minutes: Remain in classroom to introduce lesson objectives, grab their
attention, outline responsibilities, and distribute handouts.
Next 40 Minutes: Go to computer lab. Clearly state the purpose of the activity again,
and then facilitate while students work.
Last 10 minutes: Back in the classroom for reflection time or turn off monitors
and have students turn their attention and chairs to you. Discuss
what happened, what worked or didn't work, problems, epiphanies,
etc. Allow students to summarize, contrast, debate, and discuss. |
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Ending the Activity
When you allow students to discuss their learning,
represent it in a new way, or put it in their own words, they remember
it better.
Send the students that finish
first to the Express
Reactor to change the "packaging" of what they have learned
in class with you. How does this help?
"This is where you change the packaging of
information from the one in which it was delivered. So, if something
is presented verbally, you make a graphic or a diagram of it. If there
is something visual to learn, you put it into words. Active learners
understand the need to somehow make some changes in what they are learning.
They make tables, drawings, and bulleted lists. The very act of creating
these recoded information packets helps consolidate the information
in memory. "Memories are Made
of This: Schools as an Unending Test of Remembering and What to do
About It," By Dr. Mel Levine, www.allkindsofminds.org
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