Your Name: Clara Gibbons

Today's Date: 4/25/11

School: Robinson

Kind of Work: Computer lab, tech general

After coming back to Robinson and fixing a few minor problems (malfunctioning printers, for the most part, especially the printer in Ms. Hill's room), I started running computer lab for room 306.  At Ms. Davis' suggestion, I've been taking small groups of kids (5-6 at a time, on average) to the computer lab to work on Study Island.

It's been going pretty well; I usually go into the lab before I get the kids to turn on specific computers and get Insight running (I block all websites except study island, block computer programs, and I have the screens blanked when the students come).  Because they aren't really even able to do anything besides what they're supposed to do, the students usually do their work with no attempts to play games, etc.  So far I've gone to the computer 3 times, and I'm hoping to go again on Wednesday of week 5.

There has been one major issue when I went to the lab, but I don't expect it to happen again.  On Wednesday of week 3, I had 5 students in the lab for about 45 minutes.  They were pretty well-behaved for the first 40 minutes.  Then the bell rang, and I told them to shut down their computers.  One girl had stood up to leave, and was walking towards the door, but she hadn't shut down her computer or closed Study Island.  A boy went to turn off her computer, but she thought he was looking at her Study Island scores, so she got very angry and pushed him to the ground.  He then stood up and tripped her so that she fell, and then they both started trying to hit each other.  I pulled them apart, but since I was the only adult in the room I had trouble getting them to calm down.  One of the custodians heard the commotion, so she went to get the security officer who is in the building.  He came quickly to the computer lab, and the students calmed down.  Apart from that one incident, the kids have been very well-behaved in lab.