10/20/08

After having a three day weekend, it was good to be back at school. I think the students enjoyed the extra long weekend and I don’t think they wanted to come back to the routine of getting homework. I let my two algebra classes know that they would have a test tomorrow and that I would have a review. I reminded them that everyone who came to my review the last time earned either an A or a B on their test. This time, there were quite a few students who showed up.

After the review I taught my first lesson about computers to Bedya, who is in my Advanced Math class. She wanted to know more about computers so I told her that I could meet with her a couple times a week. I asked her what she wanted to learn and she told me, “Everything.” She had never used a computer before. I told her to come to my classroom and I could teach her after the review. It seemed so strange to think that someone in the 11th grade had never used a computer. I showed her how to turn on my laptop and went from there. I had to show her how to move the mouse to get the cursor on the screen to move and basics such as folders and files. After this, I showed her Microsoft Word and Excel. Next, I plan on teaching her to type and once I feel like she is fairly familiar with computers then I will show her the internet.

After teaching what seemed like such a basic lesson, it reminded me of the many ways you can help so many people here. In the US it seems like we are always learning something as many things are engrained within our daily lives that constant learning is inevitable. However in Haiti, there are so many luxuries that people don’t have so it is great to be able to share something you have in order to teach someone else. Bedya will be graduating in a few years so I hope this helps her afterward in either getting a job or to help her with college if she pursues it.