Motivation
Teacher Comments
“We continue to use technology on a daily basis. My students are enjoying school so much that I frequently hear, "It's time to go already?" at the end of the day. I never thought that I would hear those words at 2:18 in the afternoon, after a long day of learning.”
“She’s finding success. She knows what she’s doing and she’s willing to come in and ask for help. You know, when I did the training for Read&Write GOLD, the reading tools and the scanners, she was right in. In fact, she skipped lunch so she could come in and get trained. I had to send her back to get food she was so excited. And every day it’s “Can I use the scanner? . . . can I use the scanner? . . . so, she’s really enjoying that.”
“They are more willing to write. On days we don’t get to it, they’re a little bummed out. (They say . . . ) “I thought we were going to work on our letters today!” . . . you know . . . “Sorry we didn’t get to it, we ran out of time.”
Teacher #4 Anecdote - SETC Interview
Q: Has using this software in your classroom changed your attitude about teaching in any way?
A: “Yes . . . I didn’t like teaching writing. I will be the first one to admit that. Writing is my least favorite subject to teach, and now it’s one of my most favorite, because I can see what the kids can produce on their own, independently. And I don’t have to be there one-on-one with the students correcting their work. It’s in the students hands now . . . and it made me excited about teaching. I look forward to 5th period English, and 6th period exploratory, ‘cause the kids just don’t want to quit writing . . . so, we always go into 6th period . . . and they’re still writing during our exploratory time. So, I think it’s excited me, and it’s really excited the students.
I come in before school and I have kids in here scanning. I had a kid last year who scanned the entire Harry Potter Half Blood Prince ‘cause he wanted to read it . . . and he read at a very low reading level, but he was able to scan the whole book in . . . a page at a time . . . and then a chapter at a time . . . and then pretty soon 2 chapters at a time . . . and he read the whole book. It took him a month or so, but . . . and then he could talk to his friends about it . . . when before he was reading Judy B. Jones. And now, all of a sudden he’s reading Harry Potter. So, he’s going from a 1st grade level book to . . . basically, a high middle-school book, and felt good about it.”
Teacher #3 Anecdote - SETC Interview
Q: Does using the technology cause your students to improve their behavior?
A: “I asked my students, and I even asked my class this question, . . . “Do you think it’s improving your behavior?” . . . and some said yes, and some said no. But, where I see the behavior improving is . . . if I ask them to write something with pencil and paper, a lot of them will just quit. Writing is tough. And now I don’t see that. I see them working hard. It might take them a long time to type it out, but they’re not gonna’ quit . . . they’re not just throwing up their hands and saying I’m done. They want to persevere; they want to keep doin’ it. It takes us maybe a long time to get through a project, but it’s worth it. It makes learning exciting for them again.”