Tech Club Reflection for 11/13

Tech Club Reflection for 11/13

I think we've really gotten into the swing of things now.  At our last tech club session,the students did dance mat typing for the first 10 minutes, as always then we read a story aloud from the same website we used last week.  This way, the younger students and the students who struggle with reading did not feel so daunted by navigating the sophisticated website.  Before we read the story, which was about hurricanes, we asked the students to tell us what they knew about hurricanes.  We also had a discussion about Hurricane Sandy and the effects it had on the east coast. The story was a lighthearted one about a woman who had experienced a hurricane as a girl.  Her parents had thrown a hurricane party, and all of their friends and neighbors had come over to eat, drink and weather the storm.  The kids were even allowed to play outside and revel in the creepiness of the dark, ominous skies that loomed overhead just before the storm hit.

The Longfellow students loved the story and were very engaged in the discussion we had afterwards.  We asked the students to each type a couple sentences describing something they learned about weather or hurricanes from the story.  This took up the rest of the time we had (half and hour is too short!).  The students printed off their sentences and shut down their computers.

This lesson plan was a successful one -- I think the only thing I would change would be to give the students more time to type at the end of the period.  It is easy for us to underestimate how long it takes them to type a couple words, and we really have to be more aware of a realistic time allotment.