The First 100 Days - Family Computing and K-Power Magazine ...

HOME-SCHOOL CONNECTION
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specific programs. Teachers can or
der those programs tailored to sup
plement their specific curriculum.
Oliver kindergarten teachers, for ex
ample, use a MECC concentration
game, which teaches shape and col
or recognition. Sixth-grade teachers
use a MECC program that in
structs their students to chart the
circulation flow of fish. Each stu
dent at Oliver begins learning key
board skills in kindergarten and
simple programming in BASIC by
the second grade.
Even though the computer lab.
housed in an extra classroom (with
three formica-top wooden tables,
custom-built by an Oliver father) is
the largest school facility in the
county, it's always filled to capacity.
Knowles has painstakingly sand
wiched seven computer classes into
the six-hour school day. and has
had to stick to a grade-by-grade
schedule before and after school
hours to keep the lab from being
mobbed by enthusiastic students.
"We have kids waiting for us in the
morning and we run them out in
the afternoon." he said. "And I still
get calls constantly from parents
worried that their children aren't
getting enough computer time.
In an effort to guarantee their chil
dren more computer time, enthusi
astic parents have geared up for a
new fund-raising campaign this fall.
Knowles is so encouraged that he's
started plans to buy four more Ap
ples to give students private extra
curricular computer time in a small
room off the school library: three ad
ditional Apples for the main lab; and
a networking system that will allow
all school computers to be connected
o one central disk.
"We're going to sell 850,000 this
time," says Cathy Gebhardt with a
determined glint in her brown eyes.
"PEOPLE REALLY
RESPONDED WHEN WE
TOLD THEM WE WERE
RAISING MONEY TO
HELP PAY FOR
COMPUTERS FOR OUR
KIDS."
"Everybody's involved now. It's
such a joint effort that none of us
feel we have to work that hard." said
Donna Shaw, mother of two Oliver
students. Donna and her husband
Jon raised S350 for last years cam
paign. "The fact that we were raising
money to help pay for computers for
our kids really helped, too." she
said. "People really responded when
we told them what we were doing."
And what Oliver parents were do
ing was much more than raising
money. In fact, computer purchas
ing has been just the beginning of
parent involvement with computer
studies at the school. The slogan for
last year's sales campaign asked par
ents not only to participate in fund
raising, but also to "tune into com
puter learning."
One hundred parents did just
Don't say cheese, say compirlerese! Alicia Tales and David Knowles loke a break with her second graders.
26 FAMILY COMPUTING
that, enrolling in afternoon and eve
ning classes run by Oliver teachers,
who quickly realized that they were
working with a group of willing and
dedicated computer initiates.
"The response was overwhelming,"
said Phyllis Huff, teacher of gifted
students and one of the workshop
instructors. "I was planning on run
ning two or three workshops, but we
ended up with eight or nine." Huff
and the other teachers at Oliver had
been trained by a school district
staff-development instructor.
The parents who came to work
shops each paid S3 for a two-and-a-
half-hour computer-awareness work
shop, and the teachers were paid
extra for their time. Huff expects an
other large group of eager faces this
year, so she and another teacher of
gifted students are preparing to
teach a new set of classes this fall.
"I wanted to know what Andrew
was talking about now that he was
getting on his new computer at
school." says workshop graduate
Cathy Gebhardt. "My husband is a
mechanic with Delta Airlines and
they're ordering parts by computer
now. so I was the only one in the
family who didn't know about them."
There has been so much parent
interest in the computer-learning
process that the school has consid
ered having the parents themselves
teach the computer labs. "It's com
mon to see parents in the computer
room learning with their kids in the
afternoon," said Knowles. "We have
parents schedule their day so they
can actually come to computer class
with their children."
"If it's that important to our chil
dren," Debbie Krivacck said, "we
parents want to be in on it. loo."
Raising money and coming to school
to share class time with their chil
dren was only the first step for some
Oliver families. Pauline Galloway, a
former high school math teacher
and IRS employee who uses main
frame computers on the job, says
her family got so involved in com
puters that they went out and
bought an Atari 400 for home use.
But Mrs. Galloway sighed as she ac
knowledged that she, her husband,
and 12-year-old daughter Kathryn
"get to use the computer only when
Gregory [age 17] lets us."
There were a number of students
who ached for even more time with
the computers at Oliver, so last sum
mer the school offered six consecu
tive weeks of computer "camps." the
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