This week at Fermi was a bit different than previous ones.  I fixed any of the problems teachers had. I'm proud to say there were very few this week.

As per Mr. Taylor's and Doctor Sanders' requests, I moved the computers in the teacher resource room to the other side of the room where there were ethernet connections and connected them.  This resulted from there being no ethernet connections on the other side of the room, and us having very few wireless adapters to go around.  I had to move the Ms. Honesty's desk a little to make room for the computers and she didn't seem to happy.  However, there's not really anything I can do because I asked Mr. Taylor if it was ok to move it and if Ms. Honesty was ok with it and he replied in the affirmative.  Regardless, the teacher resource center computers now have internet.

Ms. Sbarburo (spelling???) brought her class into the lab today and I finally got to help and actually interacted with the students.  Previously teachers have just been coming in and telling the kids to research.  However, she first went over a comprehensive, albeit not entirely correct, orientation about the startup process and how to log in to the computers.  Some students had problems logging in so I helped with that whenever there was a problem.  I was pleasantly surprised when only 2 or 3 computers were on the fritz. 

Next they went to a math website to work on rounding and estimating exercises.  I supervised the class and went by and made sure each student was in the correct place.  Beyond that, and really where I was able to have some fun, was helping the kids with the concepts of rounding and estimating.  I was able to help most of the kids who at the beginning of the class were haphazardly clicking answers to actually think about the problems.  By the end, after having explained the same thing to 20 different students, most students were passing the quizes with about 80 or 90 percent correctness.  I almost fell over when a few kids were talking with eachother about the math activities they had just done and were using words like fun, and learn.

This experience has prompted me to start thinking about working closer with teachers on possibly using technology to actually teach subjects.  I think that beyond just upkeeping things, we could possibly start doing computer orientation classes for students.  Maybe a typing component could be integrated into the English classes.  This would both enable us to integrate technology and use the education we are recieving at the UofC to help the teachers in teaching. 

Far from being a futile idealist, I know there will be difficulties in technology integration, and that it won't go as smoothly as today.  Having teachers with good classroom management is crucial.  Also, its easier to get younger kids excited about things than the other students.  Probably 2nd 3rd and 4th would be the easiest to start with.  I know Sara and I talked about doing a PowerPoint session for a classroom or two.  I will take break to think about how we could do that.