1st Week: Orientation: I drove to Emily Dickinson and met the group that was doing the After School Program for the first Cohort Session. I also got to met the After School Program Coordinator who showed me the computer lab and recess area for their students.
For this first week I observed the students and discussed with my peers what they had done in the past and what their experience was so far. I got advice from them and a list of projects that they had done with the kids.
After checking out the school and meeting some of the students individually I went back home.
2nd Week: For this week I planned to introduce students to the website abcya.com which provides games and typing programs for the grade levels 1st to 4th grade. I had kids from 2nd to 5th grade. Everybody was very engaged and motivated to fulfill tasks and the games. Most of the games have a score in the end of it to see how and if you improve your skills (typing). Some of the students got very ambitious and tried really hard to beat their peers.
It was a lot of fun and I was surprised that after 1 hour I had to send students back to their class since they rather would have played some more with the computer.
3rd Week: Spring Break was coming up. So I decided to use the Program Word to have students type a paragraph about their plans during Spring Break. After that was completed they were free to play games on abcya. com again. I observed that half of the students (mostly 4th and 5th grade) had no problems typing a paragraph in Word. Their motor skills were better than the ones from younger kids. Also, grammar and spelling came much easier to them. I stayed mostly with the younger kids for this project and kept motivating and helping them. After everyone was done typing everybody was excited for the online games.
4th Week: This week I used the program called switcharazoo.com. This is a fun website to be creative, have fun but still learn about animals and different environments they live in. Students from every grade level (2nd up to 5th grade) enjoyed this website very much. There was much laughter and showing proudly their completed projects to me and their friends. Again, by the time one hours past I had to send students back to the other group because everyone just wanted to keep going!
5th Week: Since the students enjoyed learning and talking about animals the past week I decided to have them write a paragraph about their favorite animal in the Program Word. I gave no rules and kids could talk about real animals or make their dream animal up. Everybody enjoyed fantasizing about their dream animal and one paragraph was fast filled. After that we went into the Program KidPix and everyone was given the task to now draw their animal and its talents. Students who wanted a Print saved their work onto a USB Stick and for the next week I made prints to bring to class.
6th Week: It is the last week and to show my appreciation I brought candy to class! Students were given the choice to use their favorite Program (switcharazoo,abcya) or I introduced them to the online game Bob the Builder. Here you can play games, draw and be creative. Most kids knew the TV Show and enjoyed the games very much.
My overall experience was very good. The Coordinator for the After School Program was very organized and students as well me knew when and what to do. Children were very excited about the tech club and lined up at 4pm to spend the next hours with me. They listened very well, followed instructions and were engaged in their work. Of about 10 Students I had only one students that needed one on one time and more help than anybody else. This was a great experience and opportunity for me to see how I can manage a classroom (while focusing on one student) and timing (give everyone equal attention).
Although I must honestly say that I am not a huge fan about technology I did enjoyed this project and learned new skills.
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