Where Will Class 102 Be in 2019?

HOW IT WORKS
Where Will Class 102 Be In 2019? is a computer-based program that incorporates various activities dealing with future career choices. To stimulate their vocational interests, students read the book When I Was Six by Jamie Lee Curtis. (Any appropriate book can be substituted to match ability and grade level.) Then students brainstorm things they can do at their current age, compared with what they were able to do when they were younger. Students compose one or two sentences about this. Once the sentences are composed and edited,
they are published and illustrated using computer programs including Student Writing Center and Kid Pix Studio. Students then read books on different careers, and after each chooses one, they come to school on a given day dressed for that profession, whereupon their pictures are taken. They compose a brief paragraph explaining their choices. Sentences are also composed to accompany the picture of each student in career costumes, and they create business cards that help younger students learn their home addresses and phone numbers.

When these activities are completed, the students use Hyper Studio and create three-page chapters about themselves. They learn how to make buttons move from one computer page to another, and record their voices, insert pictures, and compose sentences. All the chapters are then combined for a class book. The final project also contains all illustrations, business cards, written stories, and pictures. Then the class has a book-signing party and invites parents, administrators, students, and staff to view the project in written form and through a projector. A digital camera is used throughout this unit to capture the students in all their activities. 

THE STUDENTS
One first-grade class consisting of 23 children participated in the program. The class was on or below grade level, with members classified as special education students. The students’ computer abilities varied. Students used the computer once a week in a lab and twice a week in small groups. The language lessons occurred during the students’ reading. 

THE STAFF
Anthony Scimeca III has taught special education for 14 years. In the last five, he has developed different programs for different levels of students that include both the New York Standards in Language Art, Social Studies, and Science and Technology. He has won five in-district computer contests—including one for Where Will Class 102 Be In 2019?

WHAT YOU NEED
The program can work if the room has eight iMac computers or if you have access to a computer lab. Other materials include books on different careers; large chart paper to list the students’ sentences; software including Hyper Studio, Kid Pix Studio, and Student Writing
Center; a color printer; color ink; a digital camera; and a binder to put all the work in and present the project as a book. The Internet can be used with higher grades as a research tool to explore career choices. I also prepare lesson plans and demonstrations for other staff members, showing them how to use the software and various technological tools, and how this program can be utilized with fewer computers.

OVERALL VALUE
This program encourages creative thinking and motivates students to consider their future. By doing this, they learn the value of education. The digital camera gives them immediate feedback, and Hyper Studio allows their work to be displayed on-screen with sounds they create. This interdisciplinary program can be adapted for any grade level and meets many state standards.