Feb
6
Written by:
Dan Maas
2/6/2009
This has been my week to find out if I'm as smart as a 5th grader! Yesterday, I visited Hopkins Elementary School to see how the 5th grades use the new EeePCs in their classrooms. I was joined by Lynn Bramberry of CDE who is our grant administrator. It was exciting to see how Mrs. Urbanek runs her classroom. When I was in 5th grade, my teacher would do group work with us and ask questions. Some of us would raise our hands and he'd call on someone to answer. Things are different in this classroom. When Mrs. Urbanek asked questions, some students would raise their hands... she observed who that was but then directed the students to turn to a partner and share their thoughts. Suddenly, instead of the room having just one voice of the student who always answers the questions, the room was filled with student voices as all the students excitedly talked about their ideas.
This has been my week to find out if I'm as smart as a 5th grader! Yesterday, I visited Hopkins Elementary School to see how the 5th grades use the new EeePCs in their classrooms. I was joined by Lynn Bramberry of CDE who is our grant administrator. It was exciting to see how Mrs. Urbanek runs her classroom. When I was in 5th grade, my teacher would do group work with us and ask questions. Some of us would raise our hands and he'd call on someone to answer. Things are different in this classroom. When Mrs. Urbanek asked questions, some students would raise their hands... she observed who that was but then directed the students to turn to a partner and share their thoughts. Suddenly, instead of the room having just one voice of the student who always answers the questions, the room was filled with student voices as all the students excitedly talked about their ideas.
After an exercise together on the screen to orient everyone to the task, I watched kids go right to their EeePCs to work on rephrasing questions. They went to their class wiki and downloaded the MS Word document Mrs. Urbanek had posted, saving it to their USB drives. They had to navigate the Linux file system to save the file to the correct location and some students had even brought their own USB memory drives... I had never heard of U.B. Funnkeys, but these are USB memory drives that are in the shape of cartoon characters. Another student had her own glamorously pink USB mouse she brought from home. She told me that she noticed the plug matched the mice at school so she brought it in. This is just what we mean in our IT tenets when we say we "will promote technology ownership."
 Then the students underlined the words in the list of questions that they would use to restate the question in preparation to giving an answer. They also highlighted words they would change to make the restatement work. After going through a dozen or so restatements, they saved their files on their USB drives and then uploaded to their personal pages on the class wiki. After that, they went to the class blog and wrote a response to the question "What is the one thing you would do if you were President of the United States?"
You can see in this snapshot of the blog responses that the students applied the "restate the question" strategy to their responses. Wow! Here's a lesson in which students connect to wireless networks, manage diverse file systems, utilize wikis and blogs..... and the lesson was not a technology class. This was writing. The technology was just the powerful tool to get quality work done. This class is nothing like my 5th grade was. And for those of you reading this... considering all the technical tasks these students did as a simple matter of process for their writing... Are you as smart as these 5th graders?
To the students of Mrs. Urbaneks' 5th grade, thanks for showing me how you do your work. And thanks for telling me about Funnkeys. If you like, you can comment on this blog about what you like about having a computer in your class.
24 comment(s) so far...
Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Thank you visiting and checking out our class. My favorite part of the EeePC I can't decide between the camera and microphone or the games downloaded on the EeePC.
By 24 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
Thank you so much for coming to our school and seeing how we use our EeePCs. I think that they are very fun to use. I really like your blog. :) Yo should check out our blog! :)
My favorite part about using the laptops is that there is a camera and a microphone. I think that it is really cool. Thanks for coming, again! Bye!
By Hopkins 14 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
I really enjoyed your visit and would like you to know that you're a very nice person. What I like about my EeePC is it that it is a super way to learn yet it still has games and even learning games. I also like the voice recording and the web cam.
From,
#12 Mrs. Urbanek's class
By #12 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
Thank you for coming in and seeing how the laptops are being used. I think you learned a lot about how we used them.
My favorite part about using the laptops is the documents and the internet on them. I think it is really fun free writing and going on the internet.
By #11 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas
Hello again. I am glad you enjoyed my mouse. I do too. Thank you for coming yesterday. Some of the things I like best of the lap top is 1. It is a faster way to get things done. (Typing, research,etc,) 2. A creative way to do a report is the camcorder. You can record your self, save it to the data traveler, and play it on the smart board, or chat with somebody. Thanks again!
-#21, Mrs. Urbanek's class
By #21 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Thank you so much for joining us. I like using the laptops because its not like a regular computer, you can go places without having to lug a huge computer. Also you can do many other things that you can not find on a regular computer like penguin racer and other games. Using the laptops at school makes me want to use them today.
Mrs.Urbaneks student,
#4
By #4 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Thank you so much for joining us. I like using the laptops because its not like a regular computer, you can go places without having to lug a huge computer. Also you can do many other things that you can not find on a regular computer like penguin racer and other games. Using the laptops at school makes me want to use them today.
Mrs.Urbaneks student,
#4
By #4 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Thank you for coming to our class.
I really like your blog. You have to check out our blog at urbanek5thgraders.blogspot.com!!!
I hope you come back to visit sometime during this year. I really enjoyed you being here. I have 1 question though: How many schools have you been to? What schools are they? Did you enjoy coming here?
By the way, I love having the EeePCs because it is a fun way of writing, and we can do more things on them that we can't do on paper. It also tells you if you messed something up. Paper does not do that. The only problem I have is the laptop gets frozen once in a while.
Come back soon!!!!
Bye!
:) :) :)
#23
By Hopkins 23 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
1-6-09
Dear Mr. Maas,
I thought it was really cool you came to our classroom and studied what we were doing on our laptops. I thought it was really cool because you took pictures of things that we were doing and asked questions. The reason I thought that would be so cool is because then other school parents could see what we wrote and are doing and see what a great school Hopkins is! I really give my thanks and I'm grateful that you have a blog other people can look at.
My favorite part about the laptops would have to be how it has internet connection. I think it's really awesome we have internet because if we didn't I couldn't have my own wiki and we also wouldn't have a blog. I also really like how everyone has their very own jump drive. I think it's awesome that we all have our very own jump drives because that way we can keep the memories from 5th grade forever. I also like jump drives because that way the next 5th grader to use this laptop I'm working on right now can't see any of my things.
Sincerely, #2 from Hopkins
By #2 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
Some reasons why I like the EeePCs are that they have internet and games and a lot of other things on them. Also thanks for coming in and watching what we are doing on the EeePCs.
From, #10 Hopkins 5 Grade
By 10 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
How are you? I am fine. Thank you for coming into our classroom and seeing how we do with the EeePCs/or laptops. I like the laptops because we get to play games,go online,and we are the only grade to use them in the whole entire school. Another reason I like them is because they are so small. Good thing my step mom,Brenda, wasn't here because every time she sees something cute and small she screams
''it's so cute!''Got to go.
Sincerely,
#9
By #9 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
Thank you for this great report on Mrs.Urbanek's 5th grade class. I like these new computers because they have very good WiFi connectivity. Once again thank you for coming to our school and giving this great report.
From,
# 8 in Mrs.Urbanek's class
By # 8 in Mrs.Urbanek's class on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
Thank you for this great report on Mrs.Urbanek's 5th grade class. I like these new computers because they have very good WiFi connectivity. Once again thank you for coming to our school and giving this great report.
From,
# 8 in Mrs.Urbanek's class
By # 8 in Mrs.Urbanek's class on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Some reasons why I like the new EeePCs are that you can mess around with them, the EeePCs have cameras' and a microphone, the EeePCs have fun learning plus you can just normal games you can play, and you can go on the internet. On the EeePCs you can plug in a mouse and a Data traveler. Also you can make presentations, spreadsheets, and a word document. There are many fun things you can do like the voice recorder, the media player, the music manager, and the photo manager. Basically, all of the tools on the computer are fun.
Sincerely,
#13, Hopkins
By #13 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
I was not here yesterday but what I like about the laptops is that they're small and they have a lot of stuff and the camera.
FROM 25
By 25 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr.Maas,
What I like about the laptops is we don't have to write on paper and pencil all the time.
I only do when I fell like it and when I can. Sometimes we have to write on them and I have no choice.
From
#15
5th grade
By 15 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
I am so glad that you came to our class. I think it will be fun and helpful to so many class's if they had laptops.
What I like about the Laptops are how it is better and easier than paper, pencil and how you have a thumb drive and the thumb drive can carry so many things. When I am on the laptops Spell check is always there I have no problem. I am so glad that we have the laptops because when you are doing work you can also have fun at the same time.
From Mrs. Urbanek's Student #18
By #18 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas
Thank you for coming to our school to see what we do on our laptops. I honestly think they are very cool. Ya they're small, but you get used to them after a few weeks. They are also fun, because they have games on them, theres Penguin Racer, Frozen Bubble, Crack Attack, Tux Typing 2, Suduku, and many more. They are so fun to play, but if you want to know about the working it is fun as well. Cause instead of having to write with a pencil, you get to type. I like everything on this computer. We get to use them every day for writing. When ever I get onto this laptop it feels like I cant get away from it. It's like a vacume trying to steal my heart away from me and hold me hostage. That is how much I adore this laptop. Nobody can get away from these things, they are just too much fun. Well thanks again for coming to see what we do on our laptops.
Sincerely,
#20
By #20 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
Thank you for coming to our class; it was very interesting to have people watch what we do here.
It is great to have the laptops because we have freedom on them to do things on our own instead of in a group where the teacher writes everything down and sends it. Now we get to write it by ourselves and post it by ourselves.
From,
#19 Mrs. Urbanek's fifth grade class
By 19 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Maas,
It was fun to have you visit. I like the laptops because you can play math games and free write on them. It is fun to use them without a mouse.
#3
By #3 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
I like having you in our class room. I like playing video games.
By #22 on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Thanks for all your ideas and your very good writing. I like the way you restated the question just as Mrs. Urbanek taught you. I posted a comment on your blog... and I hope to see you again soon!
By Dan Maas on
2/6/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas,
I like the laptops because they are so interesting. I like the laptop because I love to type and I am so fast I am almost always the first one done with all our writing asignments and if writing is not over yet I get a little free writing time. The thing I like the most is the games they are so so cool they are the best games I have ever played and I have played a lot of games in my life. I try to get on my brothers laptop every night and play a lot of games but I have never played any games like this before. My favorite game is the penguin racer it is the best game in the world but there is this one track that kinda has an inappropriate name but other than that it is pretty cool.
I like this for many reasons and I don't have internet at home except for my brothers laptop so I am glad i get to get on the internet without having to use my brothers so thank you.
By #6 on
2/9/2009
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Re: 5th graders at Hopkins...
Dear Mr. Maas, March 16, 2009
The laptops help you because you can search for stuff that you need. If you're sick and you need medicine you can search the internet. You can have a document for writing and you can play games. Also you have a touch pad. That's how I think the laptops can help you.
How a laptop helps us is it can give us capitalizations and we can search for directions if you need to travel.
If we did not have the laptops I would be really mad because I would like to research things.
They will like the nice cool laptops and they would be picked by name sticks to do something to help with the homework.
Gabe Hopkins
By Gabe Hopkins on
3/18/2009
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