Can I Have the Website?

Today was the first day that we were using the computers. The hardest part of the computers was setting them up. The computers were located in a different room and none of them held a charge so they all had to be plugged in. Therefore while the students were eating pizza we had to quickly set up each computer and find power strips to plug in all twenty laptops. Once we finally got all of the computers plugged in and really to go we had the students find the website and go to the culture section. Once you put students on the internet it is hard to keep them on the webpage and not start playing games. Fortunately, we had some great help from a teacher at the Arc Community Charter School. We had student volunteer to read the culture sections online to review the idea of four fold symmetry. In the last fifteen minutes we had the students explore the Virtual Bead Loom tool. They did not quite understand how to plot points to create a design that they chose so it was a little difficult at times. For the students I help I had they place one bead anywhere then I had them change the X or Y to one less and see what happened. After a couple of times they figured out how to move in different directions. The last fifteen minutes flew by and then it was time to go to the Troy Boys and Girls Club but the students did not want to pack up and leave. One student even came up to me and asked if I could write down the website so he could use the tools at home. I feel that the fact the student wanted to learn more shows that the tools are successful. I can't wait to see what they learn in future sessions!