A word about classroom climate...

Taking a group of students to the computer lab can frequently be confused by the students as going to a fun place, a place where we can behave differently than we do in the classroom. For the teacher, it can become a place where we now not only have to deal with 20 plus students, but also with 20 plus computers. There are lots of questions, and lots of distractions, and lots of opportunities for the classroom climate to become noisier and more distracting than usual. It's natural, but if this situation persists, the results of Skills Iowa's assessments and lessons may not truly reflect a student's ability. 

Students need to learn that the computer lab is just an extension of the classroom. Behaviors that are not tolerated in the classroom, such as talking to your neighbor, should not be tolerated in the computer lab. Teachers need to realize that when they are helping students, that they can be creating distractions too. Answering student questions needs to be as quiet as possible, and as infrequent as possible. Students need to be encouraged to be independent when in a large group.

To make quiet and independence possible, we need to do our prep work. Students should be shown how an assessment works before they are expected to take one. LCD projectors and smart boards are great tools for this. If you have access to this technology, creating a sample assessment and going over it with the class will prepare students for taking assessments on their own. If you do not have access to these technologies, you might just want to have students gather around a computer while you show them the procedures that will be utilized, or you might have each student at a computer while you guide them through, step by step an assessment or a Skills Tutor activity. Once they have completed this assessment or lesson, they can proceed to take an alternative assessment on their own. 

If you have students who cannot or will not behave at the computers, you may want to consider making the use of the computer a priveledge that students earn. You can print out a student version of the assessment and have those students who are too distracted take their assessment that way. Once they see the other students at the computer, they may want to behave differently.

The bottom line is that the computer lab is still your classroom. The same attention to learning climate that is maintained in the regular classroom is just as important in the computer lab.