November 10, 2008 Mrs. Garcia’s class 1 ½ hours
I work with Mrs. Garcia’s and Mrs. Hernandez‘s class in the Language Center at Western Hills Elementary in West Fort Worth. These two classes are especially designed for students that recently had arrived in the country. Some of them have never seen a computer before. I was very happy that I was able to help them. This class is focusing today in phonics using programs that specialize in sound and letter recognition. The name of the application is Star Fall. Today we have two new arrivals one from Colombia and the other one from Zimbabwe. The later had never seen a computer before. I just felt lucky that I was going to be able to introduce her to this new machine. These students do not speak any English. So when I try to speak to them I have to use a combination of gestures, expressions, and sometimes drawings. My student from Zimbabwe was very happy and eager to learn. Today I thought her how to turn the computer on and where to type the web address in the Internet Browser. I’m going to keep it simple for her; eventually I know she would be able to do it on her own. We practice these steps for a good forty-five minutes. I can completely relate to her when it comes to computers. Sometimes they can be intimidating. The language barrier can make it very difficult also. For the next hour we decided to do something different, with Mrs. Garcia’s authorization, we open the browser and search for images and communicate with her using pictures and drawings from what I found online. I was very glad I chose to do that with her. I learned that she has two siblings and that she was living in a refugee camp. Time flew away and it was time for our class to leave. I hope that my interaction with her and the friendly way we used the computer will help next time she has computer lab.
November 12, 2008 Mrs. Hernandez’s class I: 00 hour
Both of the classes that I work with had to do a placement test today. They do this test at the end of the semester to be able to know which students are ready to leave the haven of the Language Center and go to a regular class. Today I’m helping every one trying to get the test done. I’m going to be moving from Mrs. Hernandez Class to Mrs. Garcia’s class (their classrooms are across the hallway from each other.) The FWISD is trying really hard to have students become familiar with computers. This is the first time we are using this type of program, so I will be learning with them how to use this new application. As you well know I’m not the most technological person in your class, so this would be a big challenging. The students will have an hour to complete the test, so we decided that I was going to be moving around and that they would signal me by raising their hands whenever they needed help. The hard part for the students to get a grip of this new system was how to save their answers. The FWISD internet is not very reliable sometimes, and a few of the students lost their answers every time the system would go down. We had a difficult time trying to complete this test. Most of the kids were very frustrated because they would lose their answers and they would have to start all over again. I try to help them as much I could with the technological problems. But we were not able to finish the whole test. I only come to help Monday, Wednesday, and Fridays, so tomorrow they would have to do it in their own. I feel so bad for them because I understand their frustration.
November 14, 2008 Mrs. Hernandez’s class 1:00 hour
Today we went to the computer lab, it was freezing! Again the students were working on Star Fall. I found this program very useful especially for these kids. The FWISD is doing a great job making an effort to bring this animated computer programs available for this kids. I had to help the girl from Zimbabwe. Apparently, she understands better when we use visuals to communicate with her. The majority of the kids in Mrs. Hernandez and Garcia’s class speak Spanish, but that does not mean that I can speak with them in Spanish. The goal of this program is for the kids to become familiar with the language. And when they found out that I can use the web to communicate with them and at the same time to introduce them to computers they agree in letting me talk to them with images. We found out that this really helps to challenge the kids. Today we had a very successful class.
November 19, 2008 Mrs. Garcia’s class 1 ½ hours
Mrs. Garcia’s class is the beginning class they are divided in three groups 3rd, 4th, and 5th grade. The computer teacher does not do anything, every time I walked in the computer lab she is either eating or surfing the web. I heard that the FWISD is having money problems. I think they need to get rid of people like her. She never helps the kids and is always muttering how much she dislikes these students that cannot understand English. It was a very frustrating class today. She did not allow me to use images to communicate with students, even though Mrs. Garcia and Mrs. Hernandez agree that instead of speaking to them in Spanish I was going to help them with visuals. (Mrs. Garcia was sick today) I try not to show my frustration to the students because they take it personally. They are very well aware of the language barrier and they tend to blame themselves for not being able to understand the lessons. I tried to let them know that is OK to be frustrated sometimes, but that is not an excuse to give up. We work on our placement tests today, this time I made sure that I saved their answers. This is the beginning class, so I have a little more liberties to help them do that. Because the substitute teacher does not really understand the curriculum of the Language Center I was doing most of the work by myself.
November 26, 2008 Mrs. Garcia’s class 1 ½ hours
This week we introduced a new program is called Ellis. This program would require each student to use the computer during class and work in their English with the help of visuals and interacting games. The FWISD requires that every child in a Language Center be at the computer for at least two hours a week in the classroom, this does not include the computer lab. It is very difficult to add some more activities to an already cramped schedule. But Mrs. Garcia found a very clever way to do this. I’m in charge of keeping track of the time and help them if they need to log in every student has a user ID and a password. Each student would spend at least fifteen minutes on the computer and they would rotate. This way Mrs. Garcia hopes that she would be able to have each student in the computer for two hours a week. I really like this program they are learning how to interact with the program. I found it very clever. one of the things that they like the most is when they have to record their voice. This is a very fun way of practicing their pronunciation and also the ability to move buttons around. They would have to stop the recording and record their voice, then stop their recording and listen to their voice recorded in the program. They love this new way to learn their phonics!
