Lesson Reflections

This week was not my first week back to work for the school year. Teachers started back on Wednesday, August 12, but we didn't start having students until Tuesday, August 18.

For context, my job title is Technology Resource Teacher and I teach in a building with only kindergarten and first grade students. I visit almost every class once per week for a forty-minute "technology" or "computer lab" lesson, during which time the homeroom teacher gets their forty-minute prep/planning period. In addition to this teaching, I also troubleshoot minor issues for students and staff; I keep track of all student devices; and I have other duties in the building (such as helping with car rider dismissal). The beginning of the school year is pretty intense, especially since, for many families, this is their first encounter with the institutions of "school" and "school district." As the year goes by and we get to know our students better, my duties will change from general support in specific classrooms to literacy support for specific students via reading intervention.

I always refer to the "first week of school" as Week Zero rather than week one. This is because I don't really teach anything academic the first time I have each class. Instead, I just make sure everyone has a device assigned to them, and that device is clean and working as it should. First grade is easy, since they are using the same devices from kindergarten -- the last lesson I had with them, they helped me check that their devices were working, and cleaned them one last time before we put them away for the summer. The only issues we've had with first grade devices so far have been for students who are new.

Kindergarten has always been a little more challenging, though. Firstly, everything about kindergarten is new to them: their classmates, their schedules, the rules, the routines, and so on. They simply need time to practice and more time to retain information. When my nephew started kindergarten, he would bound off the bus each day to tell my sister what he did with his best friend that day. Could he tell you his best friend's name? No, he could not, not until after about two weeks of school. There is simply so much they need to remember, and so much of it is specific to its context that the details escape them when they're in a different context.

This year, so far, I have only had two kindergarten classes (they had a staggered start compared to first grade). I explained outright that we needed to make sure our devices were ready for kindergarten. I explained that we might not log in during class, but we were going to learn how to take care of our devices. We practiced holding them safely ("Hug it like you love it!") and used our walking feet. We opened them up and checked the screen, the keyboard, the trackpad. We made sure they powered on even if we didn't log in. We use individualized QR codes to log each student in, which requires the devices to turn on their cameras automatically. Many devices did not do this initially, but did so after a couple of clicks. Only two devices between two classes had a slightly larger issue, in that they hadn't been "enrolled" correctly. This was a more tedious and time-consuming solve, but very do-able. None of the students cried that they did not get to play on the computers, which is very different from years past. It could still happen for others classes' first technology lessons, though. Everything just takes so much longer at the beginning of the year with kindergarteners, because nothing is routine for them yet. We'll get the hang of it in time.

For kindergarten, "Week One" lessons will focus on being safe with our devices - mostly physically safe but also safe when we go online. We will practice distributing devices, QR codes, and headphones, as well as putting them away. In the meantime, I have actually already logged into all their accounts and bookmarked a couple of my favorite "safe" websites for them to "play on." (Starfall.com and SesameStreet.org.)

For first grade, I have a couple of options for Week One. I could start with a digital citizenship lesson from Common Sense Media (CommonSenseMedia.org). Or, I could use one of the computer science lessons I wrote as part of my Masters portfolio (if you are interested, email me at ComputerCaitlin at gmail dot com and I will share them with you). Or, I could create a new lesson incorporating new content that I want to prioritize this year. One of my goals this weekend is to obviously figure it out, with time to actually prepare for it!