MONROE - A heaping serving of Macs and Cheese has Monroe summer school students stretching their creative wings.
More than 50 students are taking "Macs and Cheese," a new offering in the summer school lineup this year. The class allows children entering third through fifth grade an opportunity to "explore technology for the sake of exploring technology," teacher Nikki Lutzke said.
That means students in the class are getting creative and delving into blogging, making slideshows and DVDs, and even tinkering with soundtracks.
"It's a chance to do something a lot more creative than they've done before," she said.
This is the first year for the class. Lutzke came to the Monroe school district with 15 years experience and just completed her first year teaching fourth grade at Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy. The first three-week session of summer school ends today.
The school's Macintosh computer lab provides everything the students need. Each child works on a Mac laptop with a built-in camera and video camera and uses software including iDVD, iTunes, iPhoto and iMovies to create multimedia presentations. Students also can use a digital camera and video camera to help complete their presentations.
The class is a way to share the mobile lab, which is used throughout the upper grades at Abe, with students from other elementary schools, St. Victor School and home schooled students.
While the class is meant to be fun, there are no games being played, Lutzke said. Students each created a comic book, kept a blog, and made a DVD presentation that incorporated a slideshow or movie. One student even used the Garage Band software to create a musical track for his presentation. The students are using the Macs to turn out professional quality work, she said.
When Lutzke first approached the administration about her idea for the Macs and Cheese summer school course, she envisioned 15 students per class (each class meets for two hours.) But she wasn't sure if anyone would sign up. She ended up getting a call, asking if she could handle 25 students per class. Lutzke said yes, and now has a total of 51 students learning the ins and out of multimedia.
Morgan Quinn, a 10-year-old entering fifth grade at Northside Elementary School, said she wanted to take the class after hearing from a friend at Abe that Macs are fun to work on. "It sounded fun," she said. She's particularly enjoyed blogging.
Luis Aragon wasn't sure why his parents wanted him to take the class, but he's happy he's in it. He made a DVD that included a lot of photos of himself, said the 9-year-old, who's entering fourth grade at St. Vic's.
"It's quite fun," he said.
Lutzke said having a higher number of students, who come to the class with a range of computer experience, has worked well because of the number of "textperts," or student helpers she has in her classroom. Students who have learned how to do something, such as burning a DVD, are encouraged to help other students with the same task. In this manner, knowledge "spreads like wildfire throughout the classroom," she said.
The speed at which the students caught on was the biggest problem: Lutzke said the kids tore through what she thought was three weeks of material in two weeks.
"They went to town so quickly," she said.
More than 50 students are taking "Macs and Cheese," a new offering in the summer school lineup this year. The class allows children entering third through fifth grade an opportunity to "explore technology for the sake of exploring technology," teacher Nikki Lutzke said.
That means students in the class are getting creative and delving into blogging, making slideshows and DVDs, and even tinkering with soundtracks.
"It's a chance to do something a lot more creative than they've done before," she said.
This is the first year for the class. Lutzke came to the Monroe school district with 15 years experience and just completed her first year teaching fourth grade at Abraham Lincoln Accelerated Learning Academy. The first three-week session of summer school ends today.
The school's Macintosh computer lab provides everything the students need. Each child works on a Mac laptop with a built-in camera and video camera and uses software including iDVD, iTunes, iPhoto and iMovies to create multimedia presentations. Students also can use a digital camera and video camera to help complete their presentations.
The class is a way to share the mobile lab, which is used throughout the upper grades at Abe, with students from other elementary schools, St. Victor School and home schooled students.
While the class is meant to be fun, there are no games being played, Lutzke said. Students each created a comic book, kept a blog, and made a DVD presentation that incorporated a slideshow or movie. One student even used the Garage Band software to create a musical track for his presentation. The students are using the Macs to turn out professional quality work, she said.
When Lutzke first approached the administration about her idea for the Macs and Cheese summer school course, she envisioned 15 students per class (each class meets for two hours.) But she wasn't sure if anyone would sign up. She ended up getting a call, asking if she could handle 25 students per class. Lutzke said yes, and now has a total of 51 students learning the ins and out of multimedia.
Morgan Quinn, a 10-year-old entering fifth grade at Northside Elementary School, said she wanted to take the class after hearing from a friend at Abe that Macs are fun to work on. "It sounded fun," she said. She's particularly enjoyed blogging.
Luis Aragon wasn't sure why his parents wanted him to take the class, but he's happy he's in it. He made a DVD that included a lot of photos of himself, said the 9-year-old, who's entering fourth grade at St. Vic's.
"It's quite fun," he said.
Lutzke said having a higher number of students, who come to the class with a range of computer experience, has worked well because of the number of "textperts," or student helpers she has in her classroom. Students who have learned how to do something, such as burning a DVD, are encouraged to help other students with the same task. In this manner, knowledge "spreads like wildfire throughout the classroom," she said.
The speed at which the students caught on was the biggest problem: Lutzke said the kids tore through what she thought was three weeks of material in two weeks.
"They went to town so quickly," she said.