Oct 07 2006
Sometimes Technology Isn’t Fun
Reading the Thinking Stick 1 year anniversary post made me think about something that happened last week.
Instead of a chapter test, I had my 7th grade reading classes write a news story about an incident that happened in the novel we’re reading. One student was taking longer than usual. This student is constantly in motion and often needs reminders to pay attention. During this assignment he kept looking on the computer of the student next to him to see what she was writing and he just didn’t seem to be putting much effort into doing his own work. I’ve been a Special Education teacher for about 20 years and I have found that if I push some kids, they actually do the work and then they feel great about themselves. This student is usually one of those who thinks he needs help, but can actually do the work if he takes the time to focus on the work rather than complaining about it : ) (Note: The students in this class are not special ed [well some have IEPs] – it is a reading class for students who earned an average score on the state tests)
Well, Friday I was reminded that things aren’t always what they seem. This student was far behind the rest of the class. He had one paragraph written and seemed to be dawdling on writing any more…..until I took a closer look. I realized that he WAS trying to work, but his typing skills are so bad that he couldn’t do the work. He was actually in tears before I noticed and I felt horrible! He wanted to do the work so badly (he was afraid he’d get an F if he didn’t finish that day) that he wouldn’t even go to the restroom to wash his face and get a drink of water, even when I told him to go.
I finally asked him if he’d rather finish the assignment on paper and he said yes and look so relieved! I also asked him if he wanted me to email his mother and tell her that he needed a typing program at home, and he said yes. He will not get to take my computer class this year because he is in another all-year elective, so he won’t even get basic computer skills at school. I did email the mother and she responded quickly agreeing to get the typing program. I also asked the student if he wanted to take a break from the assignment or if he wanted to work on it over the weekend and he said he wanted to do it over the weekend. I told him he did not have to hand it in typed unless he chose to.
Here I was thinking that I was doing something fun for the kids by having them type a writing assignment – and post it on their blog – but for this child it was torture!
(Note: there are no links in this post because I get errors when I try to post with links – I will add links as soon as I can)
2 responses so far
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WOW, great post. I forget sometimes that even though most of my students can type, there are some that have not been exposed to it. I always try to give my students options and not judge them on the options they choose. People always marvel at how fast I can type and how I use my computer in staff meetings, in curriculum meetings, etc. Everyone thinks I use my computer because I can’t stand to be disconnected (which is half true
) but the real reason is I can’t stand to write on paper in front of other people and have them look at all my misspellings. If I misspell something while typing it’s just a typo and hopefully I get close enough that the spell checker will pick it up. We all have ways of coping, what education needs to do is allow students to cope and teach them how to cope to overcome their personal obstacles. Whether LD or not being able to type…we all have obstacles to overcome. 
Thanks for the conversation!
Thanks Jeff –
It’s connections like these – me reading your post – that let us reflect on our own actions. As teachers we’re isolated in rooms and we forget that there are other people out there with experiences that we can learn from. Because you are so honest about your difficulties, I was able to write about my student.
I love it when web 2.0 connections work