SK> If you would care to, I would be interested to hear 
 SK> some of the specific
 SK> "Deming" practices that you are using in your 
 SK> classroom and the results
 SK> which you have observed and interpret as "moderate success". While I
One Deming practice is team work, I have used teamwork on projects to help 
students work together for each others' benefit.   As I am the only "expert" 
in my class at the beginning, (althouth I do have a few that are fairly 
computer literate), I encourage them to help their neighbors if they can.  
Usually this promotes faster learning of various commands and routines used 
in their wordprocessing, etc..  Students who never have used a computer have 
far more fears than are present in most classes.  At the beginning of the 
year they are very hesitant-so we proceed slowly.  
 
This year, during a collaborative poetry project, I hope to take this 
teamwork to a higher level by using a team-building method out of the book.  
I have used the team approach in elementary as mentioned before.
(leader, reporter, etc.)  However, I want to use one of the methods mentioned 
in the book.
 
Generally, I don't accept papers under a "B" unless the student absolutely 
refuses my help or is suspended.  I try to concentrate on the "How" when 
instructing so that students learn a pattern step-by-step.  At first, the 
faster students get bored as we go slow enough for everyone in the class to 
keep up.  Right now, I am writing instructions on the board for some of the 
daily work--but I give them less and less prompting for things they should 
know.  For the slower students, the commands are listed on posters on the 
wall, the middle group knows most of them, the upper group is flying, they 
finish their work quickly and have time to explore other things in the class 
at their own pace.  This leaves me free to explain the "how" to that slower 
group so that they don't fall behind their peers.  I also try to have 
projects that are real or useful to the students.  We just did our 
preliminary greeting card, (in WordPerfect 5.1), and I had very few cards 
left behind or thrown in the trash.  As the students now know that they can 
do them, we will work on a holiday greeting card and focus on putting the 
quality in their work.  I like to build pride in work done (a Deming 
principle) and to encourage students to aim high in their work.  This builds 
real self-esteem, based on actual work accomplished.
 
My keyboarding is self-paced, however I am having trouble with those students 
who resist, (they tell me, "Why should I learn to type, I am going to be a 
roofer, etc.).  I reply, you don't know what you might be in the future, I 
didn't.  This helps somewhat as my family background was not economically 
much higher than lots of the students.
 
I wasn't trained as a keyboarding teacher, so that is an area I struggle with 
also.
 
Hope this helps.
Carl
--- Maximus 2.02
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