CDD Course Report Uhuru 4-23-10

Instructor End of Course Report


Center Name: House of Uhuru

Beginning Date: 2/16/2010

Graduation Date: 3/23/2010

Names of the four Instructors: Loryn, Mark, Juan, Chris

The session started out with 15 students with many students having had experience using computers and a few being newbies on the computer. The session started off with instructors Juan and Chris teaching the Computer Discovery terms to some very enthusiastic students. The students were happy to learn the difference between a video card and a sound card, as well as seeing a motherboard for the first time. Loryn and Mark made an effective team introducing the students to computing concepts. Throughout the course, students were able to learn the basics – minimizing, resizing, and maximizing Windows; the desktop; cutting and pasting, copying and dragging; MS Word; and the class favorite - the Internet. As graduation drew near, students were ready to jump onto the Internet to search for various items to help their journey to recovery – apartments, jobs, schools, as well as social networking tools to keep in touch.
David was inspired to seriously start pursuing his dream of going into real estate. Jeffrey, who did not know much about computers at the start of course, was happy to be able to type up his paper by the end of the course.

Christopher always loved learning about different languages and cultures. With the help of the instructors, Christopher was able to see how the Internet could help him research what it takes to become a linguistic specialist. In his paper, he discusses with enthusiasm how he intends to pursue his hobby of learning languages and parlay it into a career in linguistics – Christopher passionately read his paper at the graduation.

Lisa, a quiet student who was intimidated by the computer, has never finished anything of significance in her life – drugs always got in the way. This class was the first time she has actually taken something to completion. Her sense of accomplishment will be her first step to completing other endeavors in her life.

Using the Internet, Simone was astonished to be able to check the weather of her hometown in Germany. She has not been back to her hometown in over 20 years but she was able to feel just a little bit closer. She said that she intends to use something she learned about in the course - e-mail - to communicate with hometown friends.
Sharanda was able to improve her typing skills from 17 wpm to 21 wpm during the course of the class. Other students did similarly well, building on their existing knowledge of computers. Reggie learned how to change his mouse settings to accommodate his being left-handed. Juana, Dennis, Orlando, and Oscar were excited to tile their windows so that they can see more than one window at a time.

Most students also improved their typing skills, utilizing the class to practice on the Mavis Beacon typing software. Many students were also thrilled to learn the basics of MS Word.

All in all 10 students graduated, each with new skills developed in the class. Even though we started out with one of the largest groups, three students left the facility and other students could not complete the class for personal reasons. But that did not diminish the work that the students accomplished. We were very proud of the students who week after week strived to gain some computing skills. Both the staff at House of Uhuru and the CDD instructors (Loryn, Mark, Juan, and Chris) gave them huge congratulations for graduating.