Notes from the Class – Feb 2010
It’s been a long time since we got to do a post, everyone has been quite busy for the past two months. However the classes went ahead as usual and we were also able to capture some of the good moments that we shared with the students. For the new year everyone got a small gift of a funky Ben10 Pencil and an Swan Eraser. Though a small surprise it made the students more enthusiastic and committed about their class.
We have already finished MS Word and now giving small exercises from the lessons that we have taught. There are small revisions carried out for the past three weeks testing different aspects of MS Word. We are now finalizing on an overall test after which we are planning to start on Microsoft Office Power Point. Hopefully we will be able to start on Power Point quite soon once we are confident with the MS Word Exam.
There are some interesting events which we came across during the past few months, which we will share on another post…
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The Projector…
Finally!! Got the projector from the temple! It was in bad condition but now its been repaired. It’s actually a used Avio multimedia projector with OHP functions. Though, we do not need the project any handouts, the ability to plug in the laptop and demonstrate what we teach was something that was really helpful. The projector lenses are a bit unclean and the projection comes off in a light green screen. Though the colors were not the best it was clear enough to show what was on the screen.
The projector actually gave us a lot of leverage on explaining various commands and functions practically. We are now able to easily show different buttons and the layout without having to draw different boxes on the board. The only difficulty is showing off a clear picture..but still its really good that we got the projector fixed…
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The Class this week focused on Font Formatting. It continued from the previous week’s exercise and modifications were made to the existing document. The kids were given a small exercise at the end which assessed each of the functions taught through the lesson. Each class was measured with the number of errors recorded and the three classes were assessed on how well each group has understood the lesson. There were a few pleasant additions made to the computer lab where there were new computer chairs brought replacing the existing plastic ones. The chairs were not brand new but it really added something new for the lab and these small additions are really encouraging the children to focus more on the work.
Also there is a projector which the temple has which got repaired and brought over. The projector has not been tested yet but we are hoping that it would be really helpful when explaining lessons. Anyway the class is going at a steady pace but it will take more time to even start looking at an end date for Microsoft Word Lessons….
Hoping we would be able to start the class with the projector next week….
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The Monsoon…
It was raining pretty heavily in the morning, and we expected a low turnout in the morning class, however there were only quite a few who didn’t come and the class continued as usual. The classes kicked off with an introduction to Microsoft Word which we continued from the last week session. We introduced them to the basic functions and features of Word, with a detailed briefing on how to use the keyword and functions of its various keys.
After the basic introduction we asked them to type out an essay that they had brought prepared from home. On the previous week we asked each student to write an essay in English about “My Self”. The essay was given several specific guidelines on number of words and characters, these guidelines we expect to explain them further when we arrive at functionalities such as word count, character limits etc. This week’s lesson had to be carried forward as there was a lot to be covered within the two hours of the class. The essay typing exercise would be the first of many practical sessions that we have planed for each of the sessions. With this exercise we hope to cover Formatting functions such as change of fonts and alignments.
The unfinished work was saved in a specific folder that was created for them, which would be the main work folder from which they would be accessing all of their practical exercises. All this was quite too much for some to bear in a two hour session so the class ended as usual after the two hour session…
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Katina Pinkama and Classes
The morning class stared off a bit late. So we had to continue the class 30 mins more just to wrap up the day’s session. The class headed straight to a practical session which looked at what we covered a week before. It focused on using the Standard Menue Buttons and navigation. The exercise involved basic actions like creating folders and using the Standard menu buttons to navigate through. To our surprise they were doing quite well, apart from a few everyone else managed to easily pull it off. However there are a few who are still not quite familiar with using the mouse and its actions. This is quite unfortunate since the only time most of them ever even get to sit in front of a computer is during the two short hours they get during the class.
The afternoon class even with the hot weather and the rising temperatures was filled with enthusiasm and eagerness. The session covered several more actions and functions in Windows XP. The practicals are turning out to be quite fun and exciting, most of the time we try to employ small interactive exercises to explain the functions, these even though it takes some more time to conduct seems to be going well with the students. The evening class couldn’t be conducted since were preparations being made for Katina Pinkama. The evening class was moving ahead of the rest and giving them a break was not too disruptive to the flow of their studies.
Hopefully we would be able to start on Microsoft Word from next week onwards…
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Notes from the class….
Well its already been 9 weeks! Quite excited about being able to start off the practicals and the classes are doing really well. The classes started off covering some theory on the history of computers and then moving on to various features and componants of a computer. When the theory part was drawing to a close we were a bit reluctant to start off with the practicals mainly because we feared that the small number of computers we have may not be adequate for all. However we managed to slowly start off and the kids are happily sharing the PCs with their friends and the practicals are going at a healthy pace.
Currently we are going through basics in computer usage and explaining them about Windows XP, its features and how to navigate through…
Thoguh we may expect a kid from these times to easily get used to widows and usage of the mouse, for some it quite isn’t so. We had to go through a separate session on explaining how the mouse can be used, actions like “select, deselect, double click” and even proper usage of left and right clicks.
To get the children used to the mouse and navigating through the screen, we thought of giving them some time to play around with Microsoft Paint. The kids loved it and the session can be called a success with everyone quickly learning the features of a mouse even though it may take them some time to properly navigate. We’ ll post some of the drawings probably after the next week when we will be able to move on to the next session …
Last week’s class concluded with a small practical session on working with folders and managing files. The Katina Ceremony will be held at the temple next week so there will not be any evening classes. But we were ok with this, as the 4.00pm class was any way a bit ahead of the rest.
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Helping Hendala 