I'm trying to take mental note that when I'm in the classroom to be always attentive and learning new things and writing them down. Because the days slip by and I'm learning new things all the time but very few seem to stand out at the end of the day amid all the chaos of the classroom.
Describe:
So computer lesson last period on a Thursday afternoon, the weathers been mysterious black clouds looming ( for some reason that's an excuse for wild rampant off the walls behaviour.) I'm picturing in my head kids going wild on the computers and me in my best efforts to control 30 kindergarten students and their hands on the computer.
Analyse:
So I had 50 minutes for the lesson but between the dawdling all the way up into the senior school to the computer labs and then sitting them on the floor and getting their attention the minutes were flying past. I quickly rearranged the lesson in my head knowing that we wouldn't have time for even half the things I had planned. I was originally going to get them each individually to play a game on the sesame street kids website learning about the keys on the keyboard. However logistically speaking opening that many web pages and having kids go that many directions was going to be a disaster. So I decided to get them to practice logging on and off with their bunny ears and tail (CTRL, ALT, DELETE) and then logging off. Now I expected that to take some time, but I'm not kidding It took the entire 20 minutes to log on and off, some kids were rushing on ahead so then they missed out on the activity. When realistically speaking I should have known I was teaching to the 'technological generation'.. these kids all have a basic familiarity with computers, Ive got kids with Ipods, IPADs, Iphones; in kindergarten its incomprehensible what on earth such a small child would need such a large technological device for.. but there you have it..Knowing that I should have provided an option for the students who knew how to log on to go ahead and the other students who needed more assistance to work a bit slower. Its the whole targeting to the diverse abilities that I need more practice on. Its easy to plan and teach for students all in the same level but no ones class ever has kids all on the one level, but we justify our planning that way so easily.
PLan:
- Everything has to be visual, there is no point giving verbal instructions without visual backup or prompting, it literally goes in one ear and out the other with not much time in between.
- Have a purpose for everything you do, without specific goals, things tend to be wishy washy.
- kindergarten kids pick up on unorganisation.. and as soon as that happens their attention is out the window
So for me this lesson was a reality check for kindergarten and how quickly the time flies, short simple instructions and lots of demonstration from the smart board. It also gave me hints about the afternoon block and how to engage the students who are tiered and at the end of a long day so concentration and energy levels are low.
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