Teaching the Students in the Computer Lab

Today, we began to teach the students computers. We had 7^th grade and Form 2 come in this morning and 6^th grade come in the afternoon. Twice I was teaching three kids at a time, but we were able to teach the basic information about Microsoft Word. Most of the students had not used a laptop before, and the ones who had used a laptop had only used a laptop once or twice before and did not know what Microsoft Word was. Little things like knowing how to use the shift key and highlighting words became mountains to overcome. However, little by little the kids began to learn. And, as they learned, larger smiles began to appear on their faces. I ended each lesson with high-fives for them and made sure they were proud of themselves. As frustrating it is for us, it must be at least as frustrating for them. The students want to learn and be able to type quickly, but it is hard using a foreign device. The students are basically learning how to write again through technology. We hope that they can continue getting better here. The teachers we have been teaching certainly are. We regularly find the teachers practicing their typing and using excel in the computer lab.

Students waiting to come into the computer lab

Students working on Microsoft Word

Students learning about the laptops

Students showing off their work on the computer

One of the funniest moments today was making a video of 5^th graders singing the Smurf theme song. The blue of their uniforms matches nicely with the blue of Smurfs. We had a lot of fun making the video!