So.. Got a new job....

[iFargle]

teaching 6th, 7th, and 8th graders basic computer literacy at a middle school here.

Thing is, I've never taught this age group. I have very limited experience teaching / helping fifth graders, but the majority of my time in the classroom have been with kindergarteners and first and third graders (my mothers class over the years).

I'm also going to have to run an after school club, which I have decided to be computer related, but I don't know what yet. I've been thinking about making it an extension of the computer literacy class, but with a focus on hardware and identifying hardware components, their purposes, , etc, etc., how a computer works.. the basics. I don't want to start a gaming club because I'm willing to bet most of them play Call of Duty... and that isn't deemed "appropriate"

or just make it a science club.... broader scope, more kids would want to join, do technology, physics, engineering, math, biology... you know

It's been suggested that (in the class.. The club is my own thing, I can make it whatever I want) I start by giving an assessment the first day of class and one at the end of the class to judge how the students have advanced, which I have agreed to. The thing is, I'm going to need to know what I'm teaching in the class before I start thinking about the assessment.

My problem:

I don't know how computer literate an average 6th - 8th grader is. My mother taught fifth grade for a few years, so she has a grasp on this... She tells me to start off simple, such as going over the very basics: What is a cell, a column, a row, etc, how to put in data, how to organize it, how to make tables / graphs / etc in Word / Excel / Powerpoint, etc, etc. Should I also add a keyboarding component? Teach them how to type correctly (as in, no pecking at the keyboard)? I know there's a program in high schools that will teach them this, but it would take the burden off of them tremendously, and would also help in school while they are at this middle school.

The class runs for only an hour a day as far as I know, so what I was thinking about doing might not work.. An interactive lecture about the days activities (say, how to resize a cell, how to organize data, how to add numbers, subtract, etc and have them do those as I talk about them).. and then hand out a worksheet that goes over the presentation I just made step by step, giving them problems to work on along the way.

Any other ideas as to where I should start?

Once I get started I can set goals for them to work on.. One of the things my mom suggested was to have them make a weekly or monthly newsletter describing what's going on around the school. I'd set up the layout of the newsletter and assign them positions and tell them how long each article has to be.

I don't really want to go over clipart.. because it's almost completely useless. I'd also be teaching them on Word 2000 / 2003... I don't know which (I've seen some schools with 2000 with others on 2003)

All I remember from my middle school past is that I installed my first Linux distribution... I was already messing with the Terminal at a basic level (mostly apt-get install / update commands, rarely anything else, unless it was from an online guide).

/end wall of text

 

[Slaymate]

I think you'll find most kids will be fairly tech savvy.

Congrat's on the job

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Crikey, sounds like a handful lol

You can get entire courses devoted to Word or Excel, so yeah I'd agree with making sure you keep what you teach them very basic.
A typing class would be a great idea IMO. You can get some pretty decent typing games, provides a lighter/fun element to the class.

 

[iFargle]

@Slaymate:
That's what i'm thinking.. because even back when i was younger we had two computers in the house.. then I traded a nintendo 64 (yes, a nintendo 64) to some kid for an old Dell XPS desktop.. installed Ubuntu on it because XP was too slow.. and never looked back

But I'm going to be taking that with a grain of salt.. because this school isn't in the best part of town, where the kids probably don't get as much exposure to computers as I did because of family income. The kids I'll be teaching next year are my moms friends 5th graders, and from what they've been saying, they can do the basics in powerpoint, but excel is like a foreign language. I don't see myself having to do too much with Word, as that is pretty straight forward. I'll go through and do all three, like during the graphing section.. have them import a graph from excel to Powerpoint or word or something.


I remember I was in algebra my 7th grade year, so I might be able to do basic excel functions like average and whatnot...


@S0ULphIRE:

I'll look around for the courses after my last final tonight, thanks. The thing about the typing games, though.. These computers are largely restricted and I have no idea what kind of hoops I'll have to jump through to get them. I know they have learning games in the elementary schools, though, so getting a typing game on there shouldn't be too big of a hassle. i remember something similar from my keyboarding class in 7th grade





About the club...


What I wanted to do was a computer programming type club... teach them the basics of shell scripting.. because I only know C, shell scripting, and java.. and so far shell scripting is the least syntax heavy.

To get them interested i was thinking about showing them that 21 game I made a while ago... The more advanced ones I've been working on have been to do mundane tasks that aren't "fun" Go through the basic logic, if-then-else statements, while-loops, do loops, boolean logic.... Just to get them to think in a more structured / logical pattern, which is in my opinion almost necessary to programming on any level... I don't want to do that to help them be better coders, but just to understand the basic logic of any computer language.

But in this case I think my mom has the right idea.. give them more hands on time with computers.. do a hardware component. What is a motherboard, what does a processor do, etc... Something more interesting than programming. Or do a seminar type discussion.. the students ask questions and I give answers... on anything computing. hardware, software, etc.


This program isn't open yet.. They're hiring me to start it, so I have a fair amount of room to work here

 

[patonb]

Arent 7-9th graders the same smartness as kindergardeners? Puberty and girls makes the average male at that age right dumb, sojust treat them like 7yr olds.

Congats on the new challenge.

 

[-RockMan-]

sweet man, when you start up your job and if you need any kind of specific help from us you know where to call.
Also don't be afraid to not have all the info for kids, keep yourself updated and keep their brains always thinking outside of the box.

I am going to send you something over facebook later on today,it might help you or it might not, but what you do with the information is up to you.

Congrads man.

 

[iFargle]

I'll keep an eye out for it, thank you I have to resubmit my TB test today because they "misplaced it" $20 for the test, dang.

I'll let you guys know how the first day goes.. if any if you come up with any more ideas don't hesitate to let me know, thanks all

@patonb didn't think about it like that..

 

[Oreo]

Well done on the job man, sounds great.

Personally i don't see the point in teaching tying skills. Everyone picks up there own method after using computeres for a few years. I've tried to learn the 'proper' typing method many times, never could get the hang of it. So like most people i do my own thing, i'm not that fast, 50 to 70wpm depending on what it is, but that's fine. I think the kids will be the same.

Definitely teach them not to use Internet Explorer to start with
Also teach them all the different emote codes in Word, because a childhood is not complete unless you have spent your whole IT lesson creating pages of smiley faces.

Jokes aside, you probably won't even realise all the things they won't know (Well, 9th Graders probably will) about that us lot do without even thinking about or recognising it as a skill. Simple things like shortcuts, folders, copy and pasting (It amazes me how many people don't know copy and paste) Ctrl+F etc.

A great task for 9th grade is learning simple code like HTML in Notepad++, i remember doing it back then and i learnt alot and enjoyed it too, as did most people.


And then at the end of each lesson give them 10minutes free time on 4Chan /b

 

[S0ULphIRE]

Personally i don't see the point in teaching tying skill

Could. This. Be. Any. Better. XD Oh man, seriously but...

 

[patonb]

Nice!