UAF's Rural Practicum, with Ali-K Packa - History, Social Studies and English
Tuesday, March 23, 2010
A fun technology-based lesson
The outside of the school, forms of transportation, about mid-morning.
Let's look at pictures of Alaska from the gold rush! Kids were interested and engaged in this fun lesson on photograph analysis. "Break the photograph into quadrants," Mr. Fraser was saying, then a pause, "Who can tell me what a quadrant is?" That was an easy question for these juniors and seniors. The students were given time to choose any photograph from the Alaska archives and fill out a national photography analysis worksheet (steps one and two: look at the photograph for 2 minutes, then focus on the different quadrants and write down observations in categories, i.e. objects, people, activities, etc.).Students worked together and utilized their laptops - not one was playing the bubble game!Mr. Fraser asked the students for thumbs up if they thought they were better with technology than other juniors in the US, thumbs sideways if about the same, and thumbs down if worse with technology. Most of the kids were either thumbs sideways or thumbs down. Then Mr. Fraser asked Mirjam, Cat, and me if our kids had individual laptops at school. "Nope," we chorused back. "See," Mr. Fraser told the class, "I am willing to bet that by the time you guys graduate you will be better with technology than most other kids your age." I think the kids were encouraged.
Lots and lots of technology! Hardly makes up for having an adequate number of actual teachers, but certainly a start. And I now know why the $ per student is much higher there than here.
The outside of the school, forms of transportation, about mid-morning.
Let's look at pictures of Alaska from the gold rush! Kids were interested and engaged in this fun lesson on photograph analysis. "Break the photograph into quadrants," Mr. Fraser was saying, then a pause, "Who can tell me what a quadrant is?" That was an easy question for these juniors and seniors.
The students were given time to choose any photograph from the Alaska archives and fill out a national photography analysis worksheet (steps one and two: look at the photograph for 2 minutes, then focus on the different quadrants and write down observations in categories, i.e. objects, people, activities, etc.).
Students worked together and utilized their laptops - not one was playing the bubble game!
Mr. Fraser asked the students for thumbs up if they thought they were better with technology than other juniors in the US, thumbs sideways if about the same, and thumbs down if worse with technology. Most of the kids were either thumbs sideways or thumbs down. Then Mr. Fraser asked Mirjam, Cat, and me if our kids had individual laptops at school. "Nope," we chorused back. "See," Mr. Fraser told the class, "I am willing to bet that by the time you guys graduate you will be better with technology than most other kids your age." I think the kids were encouraged.
Lots and lots of technology! Hardly makes up for having an adequate number of actual teachers, but certainly a start. And I now know why the $ per student is much higher there than here.
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