CDD Class Report Cri-Help 7-17-10

WEEKLY CLASS REPORT
Cri-Help/July 17, 2010


Opening Comments:

Renee and Micah arrived on time and began class. Everybody was already seated and prepared. Micah did a quick introduction.

Attendance:

Renee took attendance. All students were present at the beginning of class on time with the exception of Eddie Aguilar. Some students were a few minutes slow in returning from break, and Micah explained to students during Lab that timeliness is critical.

INTRODUCTIONS OR OVERVIEW:
Renee began with a quick review of the class expectations and a short discussion of the Outline. We reminded everybody of the paper's title and that the outline is due Tuesday.




1ST TOPIC COVERED:

Renee started off material in the class with a review of the Computer Discovery Terms 7 – 12. After asking the class, we decided it would make sense to assign analogies to each of the terms. Once we did that, we had the entire class engaged in understanding the terms. They all remembered the clever analogies used for the first few terms and were comfortable with the format.

Video card = eyes
Sound card = ears
CD/DVD Drive = sketchbook/flipbook
Power supply = heart
Monitor = TV (difference: resolution (dots on the screen))
Modem = telephone

2ND TOPIC COVERED:

Micah continued with the rest of Module 1. We did a quick check for understanding of the material presented Tuesday; students were comfortable with that material. To review the 2nd half of the material, we used the board to draw examples. The students really seemed to like learning and expressing the functions of the various parts of the diagram in unison.

Micah drew a Desktop with a start button, taskbar, and My Computer/Mavis Beacon icons. He pointed to each item and asked the class to name each one. Then he drew a window of My Computer, and asked students to name each part of that screen (IE, titlebar, minimize button, maximize/restore button, close button). He made a picture of what the screen would look like after each button was pushed. At the end the class was able to reliably say the name of the function together of each component on the screen. (IE, point to minimize button ( _ ) and everybodfy would say “minimize – put it to the taskbar”).

ADDITIONAL TOPICS:

We covered the basics of how resolution works to help students understand the differences between TV's and computer monitors.

LAB TIME:

We split the students into the groups and group A went on the computers first, and group B worked on their outlines, then they switched at the halfway point. Renee spent time with the students on the computers while Micah did the outlines.

On the computers, students demonstrated their understanding of what the buttons did (minimize, maximize, restore) by using each function under Renee's supervision. Students also practiced deleting and emptying the trash can. Advanced students went on to Mavis-Beacon.

The other group continued with working on the outlines. Many students had already completed an outline; some hadn't started. We reinforced with each student that the outlines would be due Tuesday. One student, (Ibra, I believe) needed more individual help with his outline. I told him to work on what we went over in class and that somebody would help him individually on Tuesday. He did have the outline started and made some progress during class.

FINAL NOTES:

Micah is working on contacting Cri-Help to request a work order to get the Internet fixed. Micah also requested a clock be installed in the room so we can keep track of time without pulling out our cell phones during class.

Group B started on the computers this time and I feel that both groups got roughly equal time. We had to start late by about 5 minutes for the 2nd half of the class because many students had not returned. We were very specific in notifying students during Lab that tardiness returning from break would not be tolerated in the future.

The group seems to be dedicated and interested in the material. Matt is definitely the most computer-literate in the group, but his typing skills are nonexistent; we believe that during lab time he should usually be allowed to go straight into Mavis Beacon to get the most from Lab time.