Where I was on September 17, 2004
At 8:00 a.m. Friday morning, I walked down the stairs at Falcon Hill Elementary School in Mesa, AZ to Room 29. As I opened the door, the lab assistant, Ms. Marrow, greeted me. After introducing ourselves to one another, she then explained to me how our day would go. She informed me that the first class to come in and use the computers would be a third grade class. Following that class, a fourth grade class would enter, and an hour later the final class, third grade, would come in. After giving me an overview, Ms. Marrow looked at me and said, “Are you ready, they will be here any minute.” I looked at her and said, “Let the day begin.”
It was 8:15 a.m. when the door opened and in a single file line twenty one middle class third grade students entered the lab, found a computer, and sat down in an orderly fashion. The majority of the students were Caucasian, but there were two African American children, and one Hispanic child. There were more girls than boys, probably 60/40. So, then after all the children were seated, the third grade teacher, Ms. K., told her students to log onto the computers and open the program, Excel. All at once, they reached for the mouse and without hesitation, opened the program Excel, put their hands in their lap, and looked up at the teacher. Ms. Marrow then nudged my elbow and told me that my job was to walk around the room and answer any questions the students might have. Ms. K informed the class that they would be making graphs on Excel. On the white board located in the front of the room, she wrote the words, “Who was your second grade teacher?” Below this heading she placed four teachers names and below the teachers names she placed the word, other. After the words were written, she then told the students to raise their hand when she called out the name of their second grade teacher. After all the numbers were gathered, Ms. K walked to the teacher’s computer and told her students to follow her step by step so that they could make good looking graphs. During her presentation some students raised their hands and told me that they were lost. Therefore, I guided them through the steps until they were again at the same place as their teacher. When all twenty one graphs were completed, they were given instructions to print their graphs one time. Ms. Marrow leaned over and told me that Ms. K had to emphasize the phrase, one time, because some kids would print their paper five times or more, which caused the school to run out of paper. Anways, after the printing process was complete, all twenty one students walked to the door, stood without making a noise, and waited for their teacher to lead them out of the lab. The clock now read, 9:00 a.m.
When 9:15 a.m. came, in walked twenty eight middle class fourth grade students. This time there were more boys than girls, probably 70/30, and they were all Caucasian, except for one African American boy. Unlike the third grade class, they came in talking to each other as they tried to find where to sit. Their teacher, Mr. B., right away went to the teacher computer and logged onto PowerPoint. In a loud voice he said, “Ok guys, stop the talking, and open up PowerPoint.” Just then, almost every hand shot in the air like a bullet. I walked over to the child closest to me and asked what he needed. He told me that he had no clue how to open PowerPoint. The students around him all looked at me and shook their heads in agreement with his statement. Therefore, I verbally gave them directions to log onto PowerPoint. The teacher then said, “After you are in PowerPoint, put your hands on your head.” After all hands were on heads, he then said, “Watch me and work the same time I am so you can start your presentation. The rest of their time was spent working on PowerPoint. After forty five minutes had passed, Mr. B. had them save their work, log off the computer, push in their chair, and walk to the door. By 10:00 a.m. all twenty eight students and Mr. B. were gone.
Right at 10:15 the door opened to reveal eighteen third grade students. The ten girls entered first and following them, the eight boys came in. All of these students were middle class Caucasian students. Their teacher, Mr. H., was the last to come in. Unlike the other teachers, he did not go to the teacher computer. He simply told his students to log on, open a program called Mathematics Plus, and click on Easy addition facts tic-tac-toe. With smiles on their faces, they all did what they were told and for forty five whole minutes they played addition tic-tac-toe. One student, Josh, raised his hand and waved it back and forth, back and forth. I went over there, and all of the sudden he said, “Look at my screen, I beat the computer!” I then replied, “Good Job Josh, give me five!” A couple of minutes later, Mr. H announced it was time for lunch, and so all at once, the students logged off their computers and stood by the door. The final class left at 11:00 a.m.
After their departure, Ms. Marrow asked me if I could help her turn off the computers and tidy up the room. As I turned off the computers, I looked around the room and noticed that the rules for the computer lab were posted all over the classroom walls on bulletin boards. I also noticed that Falcon Hill uses Windows 98 on their computers. After all the computers were turned off and the room was picked up, Ms. Marrow signed my papers, walked me to the office, where I needed to check out, and said, “I will see you next Friday. My day ended at 11:30 a.m.
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