Tuesday, April 22, 2008

The Kindergarten, Transition and First Grader's Voted!

I know it has been a while since I've posted, but this journey through technology has been a wild ride. Teachers within the district are slowly beginning to see how computers and technology can be a learning tool to enhance instruction and student learning. I feel the biggest building that I have had an impact on is our K-1 building. The teachers in this building are thirsty for technology and I love to sit and talk and share with them.

Because today was the primary election in Pennsylvania our principal decided it would be a great day to conduct an election in the building. Yesterday, she read five books to the students and handed out bookmarks with the five book covers on them. The students were to take the bookmarks home and discuss the books with their parents and then decide on their favorite book. To help tabulate the votes, and to give the students a more realistic way of voting, I created a Google form using a Google spreadsheet, and the students came to the computer lab to cast their votes. To assist the Kindergarten students, many of the first grade classes were partnered with a kindergarten student. After I led the first graders through the voting process, they cast their vote and traded places with the kindergarten student. The first graders were then responsible to help the kindergarten students complete the voting process.

What an experience: 1. To see the students participating in the democratic process by voting.
2. To see 1st grade students take on the serious role of making sure that the kindergarten students were able to cast their votes. 3. To see kindergarten students truly thankful for the help their 1st grade buddies provided.

After the students voted, I even gave them an "I VOTED" sticker complete with our school mascot on. The teachers were thrilled to participate in this exercise, it was short, simple, but tied technology and the computer classroom to the real world!

What a great day! Tomorrow, the teachers will share graphs of the voting results with their students, as they begin to analyze the results by school and by individual class.

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