Anyone teach in a 1:1 classroom (each kid having a laptop)? Looking for suggestions.

[Goblinmonger]

I am going to the be pilot classroom for our high school this fall. Any suggestions, ideas, help would be great. I teach communication and English. Juniors and Seniors.

Edited for clarity of terms that I take for granted with all the reading I have done this summer. Sorry.

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

1. I have

tutored a home schooled boy who was having trouble learning how to read.

I individualized the curriculum to his interests and found this helped enormously.

I hope that your school district allows you this flexibility.

[Goblinmonger]

2. Sorry, I meant the term in a different manner

I meant 1 computer for each child in the class.

[Davis_X_Machina]

3. Maine is 1-1 in every public middle school...

...and has been for five years. Google "Maine Learning Technology Initiative" and see what comes up.

[jody]

9. Thanks. n/t

[ayeshahaqqiqa]

5. That is quite different!

:)

But I've also taught in a 1:1 class where each student had a computer--only they were senior citizens!

I was teaching them how to use the internet to do genealogical research. Many didn't even have the basics of email, so I had to go slow. I had one lady who discovered a gaming zone and would just come in and do that (slots-luckily not for money!), so I know that distractions can be a real hassle.

I'm assuming the laptops are only for composition--or is there internet access? If so, always check to make sure the students haven't overridden restrictions.

I would say again that the important thing to do is to have the students explore something that meets their interest. If your goal is to teach about grammar and spelling (nowadays translated as grammar/spellcheck), then any sort of composition will do. If it is to communicate, again, the subject matter for communicating isn't as important as the goals of communication--clarity, simplicity, and repetition to get an idea across.

Are you going to have them just write essays? Or will one of the assignments be to write an ad campaign for a new product? Or a webpage explaining to elementary students how to do something they will need to do in high school?

Assignments like those mentioned above will keep the kiddos from getting bored, and yet still teach the basics, I think.

[doni_georgia]

4. I have one student computer in my class

But since I am sitting home on day two of an unpaid furlough, computers don't seem to be a top priority in my state or district.

[LWolf]

6. I have 3 student computers,

and will be sitting home one day a week all next year to save money.

Since our computer lab is scheduled to make sure that the whole school gets 3 opportunities at every standardized test they have to take except writing, I don't get to get them into the lab for computer use, either. :shrug:

[noamnety]

7. I teach in a graphics lab

and each kid has a computer because of the subject area. Some of this won't apply to you if you have laptops probably, because they may not be using them all the time. Mine have full monitors taking up almost all their desk space.

If you can arrange the room in a horseshoe so you have line of sight to all the monitors, it'll help you out a lot - otherwise they will be off task at least some of the time. (Some of them all the time).

Another thing I learned early on is that any time I'm addressing the class as a whole and want their undivided attention, I tell them to physically shut off their monitors. In my current room I can't arrange the furniture to see all the screens, but I can see the glow of the monitors on their faces to tell if they are surfing when the monitor's supposed to be off. A casual "turn your monitors off for a few minutes here" works really well - I don't want to make this sound like an ongoing struggle because it's really not, it's just something you have to establish up front as a routine. (In your case, closing the laptops would be simple to see.)

One of the big advantages was that I can do some automated quizzes (either as self-assessments where grades don't count or as grades if I want), and the kids can get instantaneous feedback. Classmarker.com lets you set up a teacher account and enter an ID for all your students so they can take your quizzes. I am not in a subject area where I do a lot of quizzes in general, it's not my normal style of teaching - as an art teacher we are more project based. But actually the kids did enjoy it much to my amazement, I think because it felt like the online fun quizzes they were used to taking. Not having to take time to grade the tests was a big luxury for me.

I set up a forum (like DU) with an area for each of my classes, and they submitted their work online through the forum. It solved my messy desk problem, and I gained the ability to grade everything from home without hauling papers back and forth. They lost the ability to accuse me of losing papers - either things are posted in the forum or they aren't. The forum helped keep the kids organized, I kept all their assignments posted online, numbered in the subject line - and they can click their own forum profile to pull up just their own posts. By scanning through their posts, they can see easily by subject line what's missing. Also, they are able to submit work from home.

I'm the only teacher teaching that way in our school, I dread the thought of ever getting laid off and having to readjust to a classroom of papers. I love that I can combine the best aspects of both distance learning and classroom face-to-face contact.

[Nevernose]

8. In adddition to to noamnety's helpful remarks

See if your school will spring for the Vision program. It will allow you to monitor all student use on all registered computers. You can bring up kids' screens individually, by group, or by whole class. You can see exactly what they're doing at any given time, even taking control or limiting options when necessary, or turn them on and off. You can also instantly send them feedback or remarks, or send that information to the entire class. Also, the kids think you're omnipotent, which comes in handy.

If you give kids a specific and interesting task on the computer, you will be amazed at how many students are actually on task at any given time.

For the record, I had a computer lab when I taught remedial ninth grade English.