Blog 2

When I was a child my sisters and I would literally sit at the door waiting for my dad to come home from work every afternoon. Dad would walk in, greet us, “Hi girls”, and go straight to the kitchen and wash his hands. My sisters and I would watch him eat dinner as my mother shared the neighborhood gossip. After dinner my father would go outside, cigarette in one hand and Spanish newspaper, ‘La Opinión’ in the other. Dad would sit as we watched him disappear behind the gray newspaper, skimming through the headlines but devouring the sports section. These events unfolded day by day, I grew up watching my father come home tired and weary from a hard day’s work, but never skipping his daily reading routine. While he was at work mom often wrote letters to her sisters and family, they lived out of state. Mom would also tell us stories about her and dad writing letters to one another while they were dating. She would write often, he not so often, but she nonetheless told about her anxiety at waiting for the mail to arrive. On a good month he would write at least once a week, she told my sisters and I about her frustrations while choosing the “right words” when responding to his letters. She cared, but he didn’t need to know how much. Yes, she liked his family very much, but she would prefer if once they married they had their own home. Listening to my mom’s stories about her younger years and her letter writing habits with dad, and watching him read the newspaper every evening are my first recollections with literacy.

Having no formal education beyond the high school level my parents always instilled in us the belief and value of an education. My parents were always involved in our school work, attending parent conferences, taking us to the public library and keeping track of our grades and progress. My parents provided us with trips to the public library and books; we didn’t have a computer at home until my older sister started high school.

My first encounter with a computer occurred when I was in grade school, fourth grade. I remember going to the computer lab, my classmates and I were instructed to pay attention and wait for instructions. The computers were large, white, the screen was dark, the letters green. Computer lab time was only once a week and all we were allowed to do was play a game that involved adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. Though my memory is a bit unclear I do remember that the purpose of this game was to save some fuzzy animal or fruitlike character from exploding by providing the correct math answer. I didn’t really enjoy computer lab time in grade school.

Though my grades were always superb, my favorite subject in school was always reading. In middle school I developed an obsession for reading and improving my reading level. The Accelerated Reader Program was a part of my school’s curriculum; this program involved a lot of computer usage. We were initially given a reading assessment, assigned a reading level and encouraged to read books at our reading level. After reading a book, we were to take a test that would determine how many more books we needed to read before moving up the next reading level. I believe that this was my first clear memory of using computers on a nearly daily basis, this because I would read so many book that I always needed to take a test.

All of these assessments and tests involved loging in with your name and password, reading the passage, the multiple choice questions and clicking on the correct answer. Though I enjoyed this program and computer class in the seventh grade, I think that I still preferred reading to any other subject in school. Computer class in seventh grade provided me with typing skills as well as more knowledge and greater exposure to technology such as Word Processor and the Web. This was interesting and all, but I think that my love for books prevented me from igniting a true spark of interest for computers. High school brought more “Computer Classes”, greater knowledge about the Web, and research possibilities as well as more comfort with typing and working on a computer.

I think that my high school friends and their enthusiasm for what great fashion, music, or movie star websites they had discovered created in me a greater desire to spend more time with the computer my family had at home. The more time I spent with it, the more I saw it as a valuable tool especially for school. Still, my love and preference for books continued to grow beyond this new trend that had completely fascinated my friends. While they spent countless hours a week in front of one, I spent maybe three or four. So while I developed a closer relationship with the computer, I think that I was in college when I finally felt truly comfortable and knowledgeable about this technology.

I’m not sure why it took me so long to feel genuinely acquainted with a computer, but I think it may have something to do with my love for books. I enjoy sitting in front of a book for hours, I do not particularly enjoy sitting in front of a computer for longer than I need to. Though it has become indispensable as a part of my teaching career I always try to limit my computer usage to completing necessary tasks. I know how easily hours can be consumed in front of a computer. Grading, paying bills, research, email, and homework are ok, and are done on a frequent basis.

Recently I discovered that my students responded positively at having the vocabulary presented through a power point presentation. It was wonderful to have a class full of ninth grade students sit quietly as they attentively copied the vocabulary and notes being projected. Their feedback has inspired me to try to integrate more technology based activities into the lessons. My students’ early experiences with computers are definitely different than my experiences with the silly math game that I played in the fourth grade, which is why I feel they are highly prepared to work with the new computer technology that is immersing every aspect of our world.