-> Well, I am the lab instructor, here are some of the things I do:
......
-> Almost every 8th grade student comes to my class at least once a day.
-> There is no set curriculum in the state - nor has the district come
-> up with one yet.
......
-> When all else fails, I teach standard office products, (letters,
-> forms, memos, invoices, etc.). I also teach students the following:
Sounds like you have come up with a pretty good list of things to do and
teach on your own.
-> Students are amazed when I pull a computer apart to repair or add a
-> card to it. Most have never seen a teacher work on equipment and very
-> few have seen the naked computer. 
-> One student was looking at the motherboard of a computer, and said,
-> "Looks like a city, the little wires look like streets and the chips
-> look like buildings where work or storage is done". I told her that
-> was an excellent analogy.
We have on old 386 motherboard sitting around at home. I was thinking of
passing it around the class when we talk about hardware (which we have
done some, and I've assigned reading on it, but I haven't really
discussed it as much as I'd like). On the first day of class I had the
students fill out a survey for me, and two of the questions were:
1. Have you ever seen the inside of a computer?
and
2. Have you ever installed a card, memory, drive, or other hardware?
I think the overwhelming majority of them have seen the insides of the
computer. And a significant minority (1/3 maybe) have either installed
hardware or helped/watched someone else do it.
I had even thought about taking the case off one of the computers in the
lab to show the insides to the class. But I am thinking now that that
may not be so wise, since I have had several head-buttings with the tech
who is supposed to maintain the lab, and he and my dept. chair may not
think that is such a wise thing to do. Besides which, several of the
machines seem to have lots of dust inside them, and I don't want to open
one and show the kids THAT! :-(
But, I guess I may still take the motherboard and pass it around.
I do remember one of the teacher ed courses I had to take for my
credential on computers, the instructor opened up a computer to show the
insides. I thought that was pretty cool, although I'd seen it before
since my husband does a lot of work on our machines at home. The other
teachers in the class seemed quite impressed.
-> Soon we will have our bbs up and running, so they will have lots to
-> learn, more rules, common sense, good manners, etc. will have to be
-> discussed and learned.
How exciting. Just out of curiousity, what BBS software will you be
running? Is it going to be a local BBS or are you planning to dial out
for mail and participate in any networks? What conferences do you plan
to carry, if you are dialing out for mail?
-> I am writing a grant for a cooperative geometry project using LOGO. I
-> will be working with both math teacher on a project.
-> I am on the school's grant writing team and we have done pretty good
-> so far. I am looking for others though.
Good luck. Let us know how it goes.
Sheila
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