Saturday, 28 February 2009

New kids in the computer room

It has been great having the Grade 1s come to the computer room for their first lessons. As always they can't wait to get into the room, which I suspect represents a place of mysterious delights to them - a kind of technological Ali Baba's cave. No matter how boring the first lessons are, they enjoy being there and are enthusiastic about everything. Going over the rules in the computer room about clean hands, not touching screens, and not taking things in the room out with them had them enraptured and clamouring to tell me stories of what happened when Uncle Max used his computer after eating a peanut butter sandwich! Half an hour of learning how to logon and logoff - they turned into into a competition and asked for house points as a rewards for remembering this step. When we played their first game "Find the Dot" which helps them to learn how to hand the mouse and click more precisely, you would have thought they had found their pots of gold - they chattered excitedly, whooped rapturously and laughed when they met their goals. It leaves me feeling certain that there is absolutely no career as wonderful as one in education. The children have no idea how much they bless me; and I am grateful to God for giving me this gift of teaching.

3 comments:

Unknown said...

And you are an excellent teacher....if you'd been mine, you may even have succeeded in getting me to read!!!

Anonymous said...

I love the excitement of learning, and your ability to allow the students to explore and experience hands-on interaction made the lesson memorable for them. I can imagine their excitement from your delightful description!

Kobus van Wyk said...

It is with great joy that I read this posting ... I applaud teachers who take their learners into the computer centres and patiently guide them to the point where the computers could become tutors. One of our greatest challenges in South Africa is to convince teachers that this is the way to go. May your example spill over to many others.