Reading Project--Day Four

Day three was largely the same as day two. I oversaw the last of the students recording their reports. The students back in the Reading teacher's room continued to listen and work on their reflections.

Today I was back in the classroom to help students map their printers. This is a hassle, that has to be done for every student in every class, because the laptop images do not include it. The most serious part of the issue is that many of the machines will freeze during the process.

I also, for various reasons, was only able to use the LCD projector in one class. However, I think things went as smoothly as possible.

Class began with the Reading teacher passing out directions for the second part of the assignment while students logged on. This made the most logistical sense, but might not have been the best idea from a classroom management perspective. Students did pay attention to directions while waiting for their computers to boot up (they were very good about holding technical questions until she had finished speaking), but towards the end of class, as some students finished with the first part of the project, they didn't remember the directions for the second part (despite having handouts in front of them). However, had we waited until later in the class, there would have been five or so minutes of completely wasted downtime while we waited for computers to start up. Also, there would never have been a good stopping time, since students finished with the reflection at different times.

I walked the entire class through the mapping process as a group. i did it step by step, making sure to stress that if they did not follow directions, or if they tried to jump ahead, they would freeze their computers. In the first class, no one froze. It was a complete success.

In the second class, things did not go as smoothly. About a half dozen students ended up freezing and having to restart. Two students had restarted three times and were still not mapped by the end of class. However, based on experience, I knew that they could work on their reflections in word while waiting to see if the mapping would work or not. Basically, just the printer properties froze, but everything else was functioning. They would work for five minutes, check, and if the printer properties had frozen, I made them restart. For most students, this was successful--after a few minutes the printer was mapped. As I said, for two students, this didn't work.

The last class of the day was a bit more daunting. No one mapped successfully. The Reading teacher and I decided to save all of reports to my thumb drive and print them ourselves. This worked very well for a last second plan B. A few students left the mapping running in the background, and about five minutes before the bell, were getting the printers mapped successfully. The Reading teacher suggested that the delay might have been because of our distance to the printer.

I think this was one of those classes where the technology interferes with the learning. Having students stop to map a printer, or check on its progress, breaks the flow and concentration. However, it is a tech skill that they probably should have. I know several of the students will be able to map a printer without help in the future.

I've talked to the tech director and, over the summer, the school plans on having this added to the student image.

I look forward to reading over some of the student reflections and reflecting on the success of this project.