My new 6th grade educational technology (edtech) class is both exhilarating and frustrating at the same time. I spent the summer working on bringing some cool tools to the classroom only to find, upon my return that I only had 30 minutes a week to work with the students. THIRTY MINUTES - you can't do tech projects in 30 minutes. Just taking out the computers takes up 5. Another 3-5 to settle the kids down, 5 minutes to log off and return the laptops to the cart. That's half the class time.
So the teacher and I who share the one hour block have shifted to every other week for each of us to have the hour. My plan was to have the week I don't meet with the students in class to do their assignments online via Edmodo.
Who knew the 6th graders would be so resistant to doing the assignments. Is it because the class is not graded? Is it because this particular class of 6th graders is so young and immature that they don't get the homework piece? Apparently they are not doing their homework for the other teachers either. They are however chatting away on Edmodo about everything except homework.
Of course there are those students who are embracing the technology and are using it well and doing all of the assignments.
No matter what carrot I hold out to encourage their participation it just isn't working.
We have been working on a digital storytelling unit since the second week in October. I have been trying to engage them in conversation on how to put together a digital story. Ideas, storyboard, appropriate images and video, text, fonts, colors and video editing. A lot to accomplish before winter break in December meeting only every other week. Not to mention one of my three groups I only get to see once in November because of days off and other school related activities. They have a documentary project coming up in Jan/Feb that I am afraid they will not be ready for.
I am FRUSTRATED. For the group I am only seeing once this month I created a video podcast of the lesson and sent it off to them. Let's hope they come back to class ready to move on with videotapping.
It seems when I am at my most frustrated point in school I am at my most focused with my knitting. The summer is when I am free to knit to my hearts content and spend all of my free time with my knitting friends. But once back at school my knitting comes to a grinding halt until tennis season is over.
With 5 projects on needle I have been working a bit of each at one time. Finally I have settled on one project to focus my frustration upon. After making my first lace scarflette this summer I was certain I was ready for a more challenging yarn over project. It may be that I bit off more than I can chew with Knit One Crochet Two's Athena Tank but I am determined to complete it and give it to my daughter by the December holidays.
How many times have I ripped out the lace panel until I got it right? I needed a lifeline to salvage at least some of the work. My thought process kept telling me there was an error in the lace pattern but did I look online to see if there were any corrections? Of course not. Not until at the end of last weekend I had an epiphany and checked. Okay so the error was one I guessed at but did I lose a stitch along the way? I was certain the panel needed 28 stitches not 27. So when no one was looking I kf&b on a stitch and the panel finally got completed.
Along the way I found JKnitHD and KnitEvenly apps to make my life a bit easier. I just love my iPad. With JKnit you input the pattern into the app and then the app spits it back to you one line at a time. Charts are supposed to make life easier but this one was driving me crazy. The extra time I spent inputting the pattern was worth it. The KnitEvenly app was a gimme I found while on Jknit's website. Trying to figure out how to evenly space increases on either a flat or round piece made my head spin. The app does the work for you and then line by line feeds you the info. Maybe I will rip out the sleeve I did for Jessie's sweater and redo it using this app as my guide.
The front of this piece is going to be just as challening as the back. Not only do you have to do 20 rows of the lace pattern but you have to decrease for the arm hole and neck edge at the same time. I had to write that one on paper and then input it into JKnit.
With all of my frustrations being focused on this project I returned to school today much calmer about my 6th grade class. I just need to make corrections to my lessons, just like I made corrections to the pattern, to get the results I need.
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