Today was my first meeting with Dutch for computer skills class. We discussed the idea of building a spreadsheet using Excel through "Teams" to evaluate a business idea. Dutch wants to evaluate the profitability of running a fishing charter business.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
This was my first session with Dutch. He was very informative about his history including interests and previous school activity. At one point when asked about his previous math classes, he said he couldn't remember and appeared to be confused. We are off to a good start given I used to race motocross and we both play golf. Computer modelling coming next week!
Today Ben used Google Slides to create a story discussed earlier with his English teacher. The goal is to provide an overview of a video game that Ben likes to play. He followed the first 3 of the 5 steps provided and plans to finish in school tomorrow.
Session Minutes
30
Minutes Student Attended
30
Lesson Comments
Ben did a good job working on the assignment he discussed earlier with his English teacher. I assisted him with formatting and spelling, but he needed little help. I was impressed that he uses voice recognition software to type his words. He is very polite, but does not stray from his objective or methods despite ideas being offered.
Today Kellan learned more office computer skills using Paint by creating objects, resizing them, moving them, undoing, redoing, and creating pictures. We learned how to change the backgrounds and formats.
Session Minutes
30
Minutes Student Attended
30
Lesson Comments
Kellan can occasionally act rudely when he wants to get his way. This was not serious but noticeable on several occasions. It's kind of like a mini tantrum but he gets out of it quickly. He is learning Microsoft Office skills by incorporating things that he likes - drawing, coloring, adding and moving shapes and pictures using the computer mouse.
Today Kellan created a four page PowerPoint presentation using "Paint" and exporting the pictures to the slides. He made the slide show himself and began using new functions on the keyboard.
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Kellan does better when I can get him away from his desk where his paper and pencils are. We worked well today creating a slide show in PowerPoint and later printing it for him to see.
Today I learned about Kellan's strong interest in comic books, including how he likes to create them. In building computer skills, he created a picture using "Paint" and then we imported it into a PowerPoint slide. We will continue this project next week. We also discussed the difference between "hardware" and "software".
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Kellan is obsessed with comic books (creating them), so we began creating one using the computer (Paint & PowerPoint). He appears a bit depressed based on my observation of a fairly negative attitude when answering questions but he is responsive to learning new things. He often loses attention and goes back to drawing comic books during a conversation.
Today Andrew and I discussed ideas for developing a business plan. The goal is to have Andrew use a computer to create spreadsheets, a slide deck, and a Business Plan write-up. We struggled with finalizing ideas for the plan but narrowed things down to building (or buying) hockey rinks to lease out to college or high school teams and leagues or a hockey equipment production company. We will move forward with one of these unless he proposes another idea by early next week.
Assignment
Finalize business development idea
Session Minutes
60
Minutes Student Attended
60
Lesson Comments
Andrew was resistant to the idea of developing a business plan and I struggled to get him motivated to explore this process. I tried to help him choose an idea that interests him (hockey), but he was not interested in any proposed ideas. The goal is to get him using a computer consistently and working on a project to develop skills. He was more interested in playing with Legos and resisted working with me on any proposed idea. We finally discussed two ideas (see above) and will proceed with one of them unless he comes up with something else by next class. We will use a lab computer since he said his computer is broken and he does not have a laptop.
Today Ben and I discussed finding an exercise we could do using his computer that would be useful in the future and would require the learning of software. We discussed the idea of writing a resume although he did not seem very interested in that, so next class we will discuss alternatives. We will begin writing a resume using Microsoft Word during his next class if we can't come up with an alternative project.
Session Minutes
30
Minutes Student Attended
30
Lesson Comments
Ben was very resistant to a variety of my attempts to discuss ideas for his computer skills project. While we talked about writing a resume, he did not seem to care about this at all, and at one point he just kept answering "yeah" to everything I asked regardless of what he thought or felt. He appears completely unmotivated and has no interest in learning. He is one that should be restricted from video games during school hours, and hopefully somehow convinced about the importance of learning.
Charlie used a website to create a word search puzzle from his spelling list words. He practiced spelling the list words and matching them to their definitions. He read an article on Readtheory.org and answered a set of comprehension questions. We also practiced adding quotation marks in a practice set of 20 sentences.
Object: how to navigate on the computer using the mouse and keyboard...
Kelcy used the mouse to navigate on the computer, getting to RazKids , where he read a story and answered questions. He also opened a word document creating a chart that we will use at a later date.
