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02/27/2006: "Restarting blog"

Right, so here it is..

Today for Mr. Hodges class I showed them "The Gimp". I want to prepare them to be able to create multimedia to go along with their weather presentations, and I thought that the Gimp was a great vehicle to get this started. I went through the basics and showed them a few tricks. Next time, I hope to have it compatable with their personalized accounts so that they can use it in their presentations. If not, then it will be a little dissappointing. I need to search online to see about Mr. Hodge's erased data on his hard drive, as well. I get the feeling that there will be a user forum for the Gimp somewhere that will discuss the problem to some detail.

Raquel Lopez's class and Brian Horan's class were virtually the same, so I'll list them here together. We again talked about the Gimp, and I introduced them to some of the basic potential of the program. I am trying to interest them in the Internet. Specifically, I would like them to understand its inner workings. I feel that if I can give them the experience of expressing themselves and sharing that effort with each other that they will be better able to appreciate the content. As such, the gimp is means to create documents that they would like to save and present. I would also like to get them weaned from the need to print something that they create, or to only keep it for personal enjoyment.

Mrs. Lortz class went on a different tack. I started off the class by reviewing a few of the terms that we went over that year. I felt the need to cover the basics. We talked about the different things that can be done with windows. I demonstrated how a window can be very large, small, thin, or thick. They seemed to enjoy that. I then demonstarated that a computer could hold many many windows in the dock without breaking. This was an opportunity to emphasise that computers can store a lot of information in a way that doesn't take up very much space. I then led the class in practicing some of the things that we talked about in class today using Microsoft Word. I also introduced some basic formatting techniques. They seemed to be very interested in getting the words to look just the way that they wanted them to.

I generally shy away from saving work. Mostly this is because of the hassle involved in keeping every kid in every exact same computer seat. Also, I feel like the beginning steps require some repetition in order to be grasped. I think that knowing what can be done drives them to do it again. Ultimately, their understanding will be sufficient enough that they will take far less time to do the same tasks. When I see that happening, I will introduce another layer of complexity to keep the sharp students interested. I am also able to go into greater detail with them about a particual aspect or capability of a program when on a one to one basis. I feel that I am better able to command their attention at this time.