Thursday, January 20, 2005
The first part of the morning was a little hairy. The kids seemed nervous and The Dragon Lady was going way too fast for them. She was also showing them things that were not exactly necessary for what they were doing, like how to change the color of their fonts and how to save things in different folders and whatnot. The kids began to twist about and whisper. The Dragon Lady became a little annoyed. Eventually she started shouting, "You have to LISTEN and LOOK UP HERE AT ME!! If you don't LISTEN and LOOK UP HERE AT ME you will have to LEAVE!"

The flaw in this is that they cannot simultaneously listen, look up there at her, and also do what she wants them to do on their computers at the same time. So they fidgeted. They became anxious. They gave up a little. It was painful to watch. I am a control freak when it comes to my kids. I hate watching other people do things with them that I can see is not working.

Finally, though, her lesson ended and the kids were left to create their own PowerPoint. I was so amazed at their skill in doing this. I was also really amazed by their creativity. They are creating presentations about societies they have created (tied in to The Lord of the Flies) as an advertisement to convince others to move there. They can do things with the computer that I have only dreamed of! I love to see things they are good at. And they are engaged! Engaged! Every teacher’s favorite word.

I am having my cable installed tonight…and my Internet! So exciting! I just hope the snow doesn’t delay it again.
¶ 4:40 AM