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A day in the life of a fourth grade technology magnet student
Jessica lets us know what she thinks about her school, her principal, the school board, and her work at L'Ouverture, a public school in Wichita, Kansas. By Mike Spina SCR*TEC I have to get my doctor's degree, but I'm not going to get it right away. I'm going to work for it when I'm still teaching. . . . Every now and then I go to school, and then I earn my doctor's degree, like Mr. Pitler did. --Jessica |
 essica got up at 4:30
one weekday morning this summer to accompany her
principal, Howard Pitler, to a regional Technology in Education Institute held by
SCR*TEC at the University of Kansas. With teachers from Kansas, Missouri,
Nebraska, Oklahoma, and Texas, Howard and Jessica discussed how kids work as
mentors, both to teachers and to each other, at L'Ouverture Computer
Technology Magnet School. During an afternoon break, we asked Jessica to sit down
with us to see what she thinks about technology, her school, and her work as a
student at this much-awarded, technology-rich school. Here's what she had to say. |
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What are the grade levels at L'Ouverture? K-5, but we're trying to get K-8. But the School Board doesn't agree with us because they say, "We don't have the money!" But they've got a lot, a lot of money. Have you gone to L'Ouverture since kindergarten? No. Since first grade. I went to a different school in kindergarten and it wasn't a very good school, and my mom had a friend who was a kindergarten teacher, but she doesn't work there anymore. She works at La Petite. And so she said that I could go there if I got on a waiting list. So I got on a waiting list and I was chosen. Do you like it? Yeah, it's really great. Yeah. |
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What kind of work do you do there? We work on computers a lot and we work on some of the basics. And we do I.L.S. What's I.L.S.? It's this integrated learning system on the computer, where you punch in a number, you punch in your code number, and then you punch in your name, and it'll take you to your stuff. And I have reading and math and problem-solving, like algebra. And it goes in there and you get to do those programs. And when you're finished, it'll get you out of there. Then you have to do reading, and sometimes you have to do problem-solving, but only sometimes. |
 Jessica with Howard Pitler, L'Overture principal, at the Technology in Education Institute. |
Do you make projects sometimes, too? Yeah, we do a lot of that. What kind of stuff do you do? We make a lot of HyperStudio stacks. That's how we do our reports. Or we draw pictures of stuff on Kidpicks. On our other reports, we draw pictures and then we put them with the report and type the report up on the computer. And we draw the picture and then we put them together on one piece of paper. And what was the last report you did or what kind of reports do you do? We do space reports, and dinosaurs, and fish, and we did Native Americans this year, and we did pioneer stuff. Africa, we studied Africa. And we studied Mexico. And we studied, I'm trying to think of one more . . . oh, I forgot. |
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What's your favorite subject? Art. I really like art. What kind of art do you do? We use pastels. We made an added up alligator, where you take shapes and you add them together. You put shapes on the body and it becomes an alligator when you're finished. Because you have to have a rectangle and a triangle, and you put shapes on the tail and on the body, and you put a border, and you put eyes and a nose and a mouth and teeth on the front of the alligator. And then you put legs on and decorate the legs. Do you do this on paper? Yeah, we don't do it on a computer. We do draw and stuff on the computer. |
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What other kinds of things do you do on the computer? We do Writing Center and Kidpicks and Outnumber and C.C.C.--that's the same as I.L.S. And we do 5000 on I.L.S. That's games, it's like a guest thing where you can play any game on the computer. And we play lots and lots of games. What kind of computers do you have? Macintosh. It's an old version. It's Macintosh I or II. Do you like those computers? Yeah, they're really easy to handle. Do you ever use CD-ROMs or anything like that? Yeah, sometimes. But very rarely. |
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You said last year you did stuff with a camera? Yeah! What kind of stuff did you do with the camera? I like to tape stuff. I take it on field trips and stuff, and I tape stuff that we see and pictures and movies. And I like to make reports about them. And we have our T.V. station at school. |
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T.V. station? Yeah, but it doesn't air every day. It airs in our school every day, but it doesn't air on cable T.V. every day. But at school, we have reporters and hosts. We have this weather machine, and the hosts just take it off the weather machine. They read it out, and they say what the school lunch is and stuff. Are the hosts students? Yeah. Students, and the director is a student, and he knows how to mess with all the buttons to make it right. I was chosen as a camera person. You have to tape one event or something in any classroom of the school, and you have to get good. And if they think it's good, then they give the job to you. It's like tryouts. |
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I heard you were on T.V. recently. Yeah! What for? Mr. Pitler got an award, and he and the T.V. station came and Latchkey program came, and I happened to be there that day. So they taped me on the computer, because every day you either have to play or get on the I.L.S., and I was a guest, because I don't come to Latchkey normally, because I was doing something with the Latchkey. I was helping them make homepages. |
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Make homepages? Yeah, because I was in third grade, and it requires making homepages, but when we, when the reporters came, they were from Channel 10. We were on Channel 10. And I was the first one to play a game, so the reporter, he spent like 10 minutes chasing me. Because I was the first one getting a game. Everyone else was messing around. So in third grade you learn how to do a homepage? Yeah. Do you have a homepage right now? Yeah, it's on my computer. I'll have to look at the address. What is it? You have to go to L'Ouverture. Do you know the address? Yes. What's the address? http://www.louverture.com/ |
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Okay let's see if I can find this . . . It's a requirement for third grade, you have to be able to spell the school's name. It's a requirement? Well it's a good thing it's not a requirement for me, then, because I don't think I would pass the third grade! You have to know how to spell that for the spelling test, spelling bee, whatever. So how do you get your page from here then? You scroll down. Keep scrolling. |
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"You have to get HTML in your computer and there are special codes you put in . . .
but otherwise, you just write." |
So all the class has a homepage then? Yeah, but I was in a special class, so there were lots more second graders than third graders. So there were only like 6-7 third graders . . . right there! There's the page. Now scroll down. And we all had to do it, and my group, we all had groups, only the third graders in the highest group--and I was in that group--we were the first to make homepages. We could put pictures and stuff on them and change them every now and then. Yeah . . . here comes my homepage. Here it comes. How did you make your homepage? What software did you use? I don't use software, I use HTML. You use HTML? You just write HTML code? You have to get HTML in your computer and there are special codes you put in, like if I wanted to highlight somebody's name, because that's a link to another page, you have to put a lot of letters and stuff in. But otherwise, you just write. Like if I wanted my name to flash, I could make that flash. |
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So you actually type in all the HTML? Yeah. You don't use anything like FrontPage or . . . No, this is all I typed in, I just copied that, that was a report I did. We made goonie birds. We write stories about them, and I just copied that and put it on. See I have some graphics. Scroll down and there's some more. |
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Where did you get these graphics? I found them on a clip art page. This page that just has clip art. So you have to download it. Yeah, I make a file for it. See the Mohawk Indians. And this is where I got it, from Barry's clip art page. I made a link to it because I liked it so much. . . . That's my other graphic, K.U. You made a red background with white text. No, that's not white, that's ivory. Ivory. Yeah, like Ivory Soap. Just like Ivory Soap, that's very nice. Yeah, we don't learn to use PageThinner or any of those programs until fourth grade. |
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We've got college students learning HTML and adults afraid to learn. It's too hard,
they say. It's not hard, if you know the right codes. And how did you learn the codes? My teacher, because Mr. Pitler taught the teacher, but the fifth graders taught us a bunch. The fifth graders taught you? Yeah, because Mr. Sauer, he's like the genius of computers, and he's got this computer that's got this ball in the thing and you move it around. It's a really big-screen computer. And he teaches his fifth graders how to do everything, and then the fifth graders come and teach us. They help us and he fetched our homepages up. You have to fetch them to get them up online. |
 Jessica shows her work to the TEI participants. |
Fifth graders helped you out? No, the fifth graders told this one girl how to do it and then that one girl helped us. She's a third grader, too. And you have to have specific colors and stuff. I can't show you my HTML because it's not on this computer. I would show you, but I can't. It's all about Maryann. She's my goonie bird. Goonie Bird? What's a goonie bird? It's these birds we make out of paper maché. We put paper maché round a balloon, and then, when it dries, we put legs on. You hot glue legs on, you paper maché hot pieces, and you put the legs in, and it sticks. You put glue and rocks in it, and it sticks, and then you put feet on it that are cardboard. And then when it's all finished, you paint it white. Then you paint its feet--you paint those two different colors--and then you put a pointy nose on it that's yellow. And then you draw eyes on it, and then you have to cut wrapping paper and construction paper. Then you cut it like fringe and wrap it around its head and all around its legs. It's really pretty. I have one at home. Is it? And yours is named Maryann? Yeah. |
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Mr. Pitler said that you were teaching people how to do some
HTML? Yeah, we have to teach that stuff. We have to teach them the basics. Some people think they are ready for search engines, and some people think they need to learn the basics. Some people think they need to learn to do searching and some people think they need to learn to create a homepage. So you teach them? So, we split up into groups, and I always teach the basics or searching for stuff because I don't like to do homepages much. But the fifth graders usually do the homepage because it takes a long time for us third graders to do it. So we stay in the lower areas, and then, when we get finished looking around, they all go home. And if we did good, then we get some free software from Mr. Pitler. That's nice. Who are these people you're teaching? They're just people from the community. Anybody can come. How often do you guys do this? Once a month, but we don't do it in the summer. |
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So you're going into fourth grade this year, right? Yeah. They're going to do some parents on computers in September, maybe. And if there's a scavenger hunt and if you made it or if Mr. Pitler just had to get rid of the software, then he'd give it to you. And then that would be your prize because I had this Macintosh CD thing. I don't know if I can use it on my computer, but it's a color thing and you can put in a picture and then change it, draw all over it or something. Then we've got the Virtual Eye, it's like the Virtual Body. It lets you explore the body and you can build a skeleton, build your own skeleton. And sometimes you can do it right. I did it right once. And you can--oh there are these really neat eye tests where there's this guy, well there are two patients. First you pick a patient and you put the thing in front of him, and he says, "I can't see the letters! Ooh laa poo tah . . . " And then you put those things in front of him and then you mess with the things like . . . The settings? Yeah, and then if it gets really blurry he says, "Oh no, it's too blurry! It's even blurrier!" And then when it's alright, he says, "I can see again!" And then he gets a prescription for glasses. So, do you like teaching people HTML? Yeah, it's pretty fun. |
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What do you want to be when you grow up. A teacher. I want to be a kindergarten teacher and teach them their ABCs and how to play in Millie's Math House. I want to teach at L'Ouverture. I want to be a teacher too, someday. I have to get my doctor's degree, but I'm not going to get it right away. I'm going to work for it when I'm still teaching. If I get my degree and still go to school a little bit, every now and then I go to school, and then I earn my doctor's degree, like Mr. Pitler did. |
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Visit the L'Ouverture Computer
Technology Magnet School homepage. |
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