Beams, Giraffes, and Too Much Fun!

I was reminded once last night during class of the frustration we all feel from time to time. Tony was up in front, explaining beaming and we're sitting at our tables, already putting the concept into play. He still has a few things to tell us, but we've gone on, beaming away, excited and overwhelmed by the ability to send something to another handheld across the table! It is wonderful to see such enthusiasm and to know that we all take that back to our schools and our classrooms. We at Willowdale are really fortunate to have a principal who fully supports technology advancement. One of our classmates, Lynn, is frustrated because her staff and/or principal doesn't understand the value of handhelds in education. If any of the rest of you face a similar roadblock, invite them to call our principal here. She is an incredible advocate!

The giraffe game was driving me crazy - I would get to about 1200 points and then not be able to make it the rest of the way because of periods, colons, and other punctuation. I worried that my first class would come in before I finished the current game. What would I do with them? Could I, quick, put on some music and tell them to relax and listen to the sounds of this month's composer? Something told me this would not work for the first grade class. With 4 minutes to spare, I reached a score of 1481. I still missed a couple of brackets, but at least I will now be able to teach my morning classes without having those lines of descending letters dance before my eyes.

One of my friends, who works at a private school, but in the development office rather than the classroom, told me it must be nice to get graduate credit for playing on a handheld computer. I pulled out my handheld to show him all that it could do - to him, it still looked like a lot of games and perhaps too much fun to be learning. But that's the point, isn't it? That's what kept me trying giraffe, over and over again, determined to reach the appointed score. It IS fun - and it encourages unknowledgable learning - learning without even realizing you're learning something.

So, I continue to be amazed at the capabilities and have many questions as I continue to work with it. I want to hook up to the internet, dock it to my laptop, use it in my music classes - all things that will come with time and patience. I am frequently asking my students to be patient when we're working on a project - I guess that's something I should practice as well!