Busy Bees

Now that I am a Resource Specialist rather than a classroom teacher it is more difficult to access or recognize my 'style' of teaching and therefor to write on this blog. Ideas do still pop up, as do remembrances of  what worked when I taught. Yesterday an 8th grade ELA teacher brought in a cart of lap top computers for the students to use. They were to construct an introduction paragraph for their research paper in conjunction with their science class. The students swarmed the computer cart like bees. Twenty minutes of chaos ensued as they squabbled over the computers and asked for help signing on and snuck onto game sites and tried to plug In to Pandora.   A number of students never did get signed on, another teacher was called in to help get the students online, and the class ran over as the teachers attempted to get the computers shut down and turned back in. about half of the class completed their assignment.

When the 7th grade class came in the next hour I asked if I could be in charge of the cart. After the teacher gave the directions for the paragraph I reminded the class their priority was a paragraph of 4 or 5 sentences, and the access to a computer was secondary. I handed out lined paper and said I would issue lap tops to students that were seated, quiet, and on task with their writing. There was much less speaking out and disruption. Slightly more than half the class received computers but nearly all of the students turned in a paragraph, as assigned. Sometimes it's just a little tweak in the management of a class that make the difference.