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Cri-Help Course Report - July 2007
Instructors: Melinda Grodsky, Walter Howells, James Farrell, Jim Fitzgerald
This session at Cri-Help was a great session overall. The session started off a little rocky because of the change in teachers and the fact that the two Tuesday teachers were both new, but by the end of the session we had a majority of students being proud to graduate from the program, and a handful even inquiring about taking the next level class.
We started out with 24 students. We lost a couple of students because they were discharged during the time period of the class. We were unable to graduate three students because two of them decided not to finish their papers and put the extra effort in to graduating and the third had already taken the class before. The smaller the class got, the easier it was to teach. We ended up with 16 graduates.
We had a wide range of knowledge in our classroom. During the first session, approximately 8 students had never touched a computer while at the same time we had about 4 students who were already pretty advanced and everyone else somewhere in between. We had to work hard to make sure all the students who were new to computers got enough time to practice. On Tuesdays, we had trouble balancing between people getting lost and people getting bored with the curriculum. Lab time never seemed long enough and therefore many of the students would come before class or stay in during the break to work on the computer. Some of the students especially enjoyed the 'Mavis Beacon' typing program to improve their typing skills.
Getting the papers done was a challenge for many of the students, but the work they produced was tremendous. The students really put a lot of effort into thinking about their futures and it was great to be there when the students realized how their new computer skills could help them with future jobs and contacts. For instance, one man in the class was talking about how he was going to use computers to improve the business that he already owned so that he could make it more efficient and profitable. Also, a lot of students talked about the Internet as a great way to search for jobs and stay in touch with family members as well as future job employers.
Overall, the students learned a lot and they gained a basic foundation for gathering more knowledge about computers. Their positive attitudes will take them far. By the end of the class, at the very least, no one was fearful of computers anymore.
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