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Show ' Page 1 jlD Lakeside Review Wednesday, September 18, W85 Teachers Learn About Computers From Volunteers CHERYL ARCHIBALD Review Staff HILL AIR FORCE BASE in Davis County schools will be getting a bit of computer knowledge to enable them to program all those Apple II computers the district bought two years ago. Thanks to the career ladder program incentive pay and to the volunteer spirit of an Air Force officer, teachers will be able to save the district money in expensive software programs. 1st Lt. Bruce Meraviglia is instructing three elementary school teachers in all they will need to make personalized programs for their classrooms. The idea is to have the teachers pass the knowledge on to other teachers. The purpose is to teach the computer logo to teachers who will teach other teachers to make the program Meraviglia said. It will help the schools use the equipment theyve purchased. They can make their own programs rather than having to buy more software. Programs will be more personalized - more flexible." Teachers will learn how to make up their own teaching games in math or reading, for example. Graphics like sprites and turtles are useful in keeping elementary school childrens attention. Kids have a natural attraction to the computers, said Meraviglia, himself a computer science graduate from Tulane University Teachers g, in New Orleans, La. Meraviglia is a special projects engineer with the 1954th Radar Evaluation Squadron at Hill Air Force Base. He is working on his masters degree in electrical engineering at Utah State University. He developed another volunteer program last year called teachers in blue in which Air Force junior grade officers volunteer time to share- their expertise ii engineering, history or other subjects with secondary students. - That program has been turned over to another officer this year. So Meraviglia will devote his extra hours, probably once or twice a week, to teaching logo. He began this week teaching Cheryl Payne at East Layton Elementary. He will also teach Deborah Smith at Hill Field Elementary and Mary Shephard at Cook Elementary with the help of S. Sgt. Ray Smith. Ms. Payne has developed a career ladder resume to get extra pay for her time spent learning computer logo and instructing other teachers in the 1985-8- 6 school year. Meraviglia helped her in drawing up the program to present to the career ladder evaluation team. In the fall semester she and the other two teachers will learn the logo well enough to be logo instructors themselves. They will develop lesson plans from which to instruct their fellow teachers. They will make up their own computer learning games, and then will develop a paper to present what they have learned. In the spring teachers will actually teach students how to run the programs developed by the teachers. They will get feedback from other teachers on the programs success in the classrooms. Next they will monitor classrooms to see if children actually learned more from the programs than regular methods. Was the instructors time in developing the programs worthwhile? explained Meraviglia. For the career ladder money Ms. Payne may write a paper about the program - the lessons learned, faculty acceptance, if it was employed into regular and feedback from on how ineterested they Ti - 1 4,. ;v; I- ; S4 .v - , x 1 t . I M 4? ' 'L - f LMj A'N-IC V - k A M) SJ J f -- tVil ; "A I x ' ' I V;" , 1 , ? . ' jV - 1 . i, ?: ;i: 1 ' ' t, . - 4 ..3 ,' 4 V t l, ' 4 i ' ' v A ' f ? ,, . , v K y i"- yv i 'Ki v f su-de- Test results of students learning from the computer programs compared with those who learned the would be the final determination of the programs usefulness. li ' - " T curric-ulum- s, were. : I M.J m,,,, vru-w- v v. I) a- x'V w ' ay - ' . at East Layton Elementary School gather around Sgt. Ray Smith, a volunteer from Hill Air Force Base, as he CHILDREN Staff Rhoto by Robert Regan describes how computer works and; now they can create words and pictures with it at schocl. Says National Expert Teachers Should Focus on Teachlngr Not Assignments Too often teachers focus on assignments rather than on making sure students are learning the how-to- s of reading, a national expert said. Dr. Dolores Durkin of the University of Illinois spoke recently at The Year of the Teacher Conference held at Weber State College, and told the audience of public educators that while we spend a lot of time assessing comprehension (through tests and assignments) we spend very little time teaching. ? Dr. Durkin said readers and reading programs used in school districts across the nation - programs typified by the Dick and Jane series used a number of years ago - are focusing too much on assignments and tests and too little on teaching techniques. She explained the books have short reading selections followed by a series of multiple-choic- e questions, but the concepts are so poorly taught and the questions so inappropriate children end up taking educated guesses to answer r rv I s fPj ; 4' the questions. Dr. Durkin said, What the tests really measure is how to pick out what is nonsense and put an X in front of what is left. Our testing often She added, isnt worth the paper its printed on. She said the reading programs may be promoted as having comprehensive instruction, but, in fact, they only provide skeletal instructions that soon turn into just another form of assessment." A I, I V4 I rl. V'l '3 'I f T? f "V U5rN 1 ' & W A. W1 ii ' Y: ? s- iv C - J 4--, x i t I 5 I X S j ;V ' : 'f-;- . I - j J' r , . - V ',1 ? More than ever before assessment is driving instruction. The tail is really wagging the dog, she said. She told the WSC group the problem wouldnt be so immense if teachers recognized the sparse amount of teaching that is encouraged by the manuals, but instead most teachers use the books as if divinely inverbatim, spired. the 1985-8- 6 school year are, from left to right, Kris England, who is serving as secretary; published. laterials qoming out for 1986 continue the trend of a tremen-fou- s amount of exercises for signments, she said. writing activities Dr. Durkin said most publishhile rarely providing useful iners are strictly profit oriented and formation for learning. pour large amounts of money inChildijfen really suffer from to marketing while relatively (this n approach to edusmall amounts go into the curriccation, pr. Durkin said. ulum and program development. She continued, There are a lot Writers have little time to devel- - j of problems, but its going to get op the text and sections and usu- - worse before it gets better. Are you at wealth of information on chil needs and assistance for parents FARMINGTON your wits end? Have you won- development, discipline, commi of children who have special dered if there is a place you can nication and other parenting sub- needs. Guidance is offered in seturn for information, practical jects, said Mary Hughes, PERfC lecting childrens literature and skills and assistance in parenting? director. filmstrips to help children deal The Davis County School DisPERC has books, filmstrips with situations such as death, illness, divorce, formulating values, tricts Parent Education Resource and educational toys. Audio-visuCenter is just what you need. The equipment is available and no etc. PERC center offers many classes, fees are charged for the us of The PERC Center, 100 S. 200 materials. workshops and seminars on famiE., is open Monday through Frily and parenting skills. Other PERC services include day from 8:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. In addition, the center serves counseling in the choice of mateWednesday PERC is open from much like a lending library with a rials best suited for individual 8:30 a.m. to 7 p.m. al Event to Promote Safety This year marks Americas Year of School Safety and Student Attendance, an observance sponsored by the National School Safety Center, state governors and students nationwide. i p rtf. Dawn Warren, historian; Kathy Puzey, who is and Jodi Merrill,, serving as president. is told jthe WSC group that .t , vice-preside- I She Center Gives Aid to Parents dance. student body officers for tion before the book band-wago- Most of the time the teachers think the people who write the manuals know more about reading and writing than (teachers) The goal of the sponsors during the 1985-8- 6 school year is to increase public awareness and involvement in campus crime and drug abuse prevention, improved discipline and increased atten- ROY JUNIOR High all f written quickly by a number ofwriters with no final correla- Parent Involvement , Vo s nA do. Thats dreadful, said Dr. Durkin. Publishers are printing the kind of instructions that encourage teachers to do mindless things because they think public schools want slick covers and lots of as- Many schools have existing safety programs, but they need conscientious application maintenance throughout I . and the contrary, the purpose of discipline should be to guide children toward acceptable behavior and chief counsel. Oct. 20 - 26 will be obsi rved s to teach them to make wise and said Kahn. the first "Americas Safe chools responsible decisions," Week." A specially created American applie, which features a waving American flag shaped into the form of an apple to represent education, is displayed on (various CLEARFIELD Holt Eleprinted material to symbolize the mentary, 448 No. 1000 W., Cleartwo events. field, wiP offer eye examinations for amblyopia (lazy eye) on Sept. school Although, for somej 23, 9 to a.m. and to 3 p.m. cticit and images discipline safety The tests are for misof corporal punishment,-fochildren 3 to 5 years and kinderbehaving students, PTA 'President "On the garten ages. Kahn Ann disagrees. school year, said George h the centers ichol-so- n, directc and 5 Eye Examinations Dated at School 1 1 1 pre-scho- ol :. |