Target: Kindergarten in the Lab

[Sylvia Adair <adair@EXECPC.COM>]

Dear Netters:
Once again, I'm asking for your help.  Our kindergarten teachers are
struggling with the computer lab.  They say that there's no software
for kindergarten (which is at least partly true)and they want us to
buy some, but of course there's no money.  We have Kid Pix 2,
Clarisworks, Hyperstudio, Math Blaster (an old version, grades 1-6),
Math Keys, and Netscape, plus ten copies each of a few CD-ROMs such as
Groliers.  We're running this on Macintosh 5200s with 40 MB of RAM on
an ethernet network.  We have a 56K line for internet, and our own web
server, to which I can post virtually any web pages I create.
If you have software suggestions, I would be interested, but I don't
think the district is going to spend a lot of money on this lab, since
it's eventually going to be replaced by PCs.

What I REALLY need are ideas for successful lessons kindergarten
teachers can teach in the lab. (Unfortunately, I can't assist them in
the lab because their weekly labs times conflict with my class
schedule.)
Ideal lessons would be coordinated with the curriculum.  I've been
reading Clifford Stoll's High Tech Heretic, and I agree with many of
his criticisms of pushing young students onto the computer for no real
educational reasons.  However, both parents and adminstration in this
district are pushing teachers to include the computer in instruction,
so we can't simply dispense with it.

We're having a meeting on this issue on Thursday, and I'd like to at
least have some ideas for these teachers.  Both of them are frustrated
and angry, and frankly I think they'd rather complain than do anything
to remedy the situation.  They also complain about not having any time
to learn how to do "all this stuff", although they have the same
amount of time everybody else does now that we've gone to full-day
kindergarten.  What they really seem to want is to plunk the kids down
in front of the computers and have the software take over, which we
all know is bad educational practice.
There!  I'm done venting!  I'll post a hit with the responses when
they come in.  Thanks again for your thoughts and ideas.  LM_NET is
fantastic!
Sylvia L. Adair, K-8 Library Media Specialist
Lomira, Wisconsin
adair@execpc.com

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