Success Stories from 2000

Each year the Techmobile Instructor identifies students and sites that have taken full advantage of the mobile computer lab and highlights the gains in these short summaries.

A Summer Reflection

I don't know her name. She stooped. Deep lines from weather and age carved her face. She sat two seats away from me at the Parents' Show in Polson. Her straight gray hair was pulled to the back of her neck where it hung like the silver globes on my Christmas tree.

A little boy named Miguel called her "abuelita," and she held him on her lap as we all watched the kids perform "Goodbye, Adios," "Que esté siempre" and "Skip to my Lou." Once, Miguel wriggled free of his grandmother's grasp and went to stand with the other kids who were singing (and possibly having more fun in his mind), but he returned soon enough to her waiting lap. Miguel performed with the rest for the final song of the night, "De Colores."

He put on a bright red paper serape with the letter "C" outlined in gold glitter on the front. He and his classmates spelled out "De Colores" as we sang the old song that became the anthem of the American Farmworkers' Union when Cesar Chavez founded it. I glanced over at Miguel's grandmother during the song, and tears were twinkling like stars from the creases around her eyes.

I realized then the impact that such a simple thing as a Parents' Night can have on the students and their families. I had been involved in several performances throughout the summer, but I was always too busy taking pictures or running the projector to pay much attention to audience reaction. In Sidney, Fromberg and Billings, parents would come to me and thank me after the show. One ESTRELLA parent in Sidney said he could not believe everything that the students were accomplishing.

However, it wasn't until that final night in Polson that I finally realized what was happening. The students, families, and teachers were becoming a community. We shared our joy in the kids' accomplishments, and we will forever be united in the tears of a grandmother, whose name I do not know.

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Fromberg

In tiny Fromberg, I worked with the most intelligent preschooler I have ever seen. She is a migrant from Eagle Pass, Texas, four years old, and I will call her Delia. Fromberg had a small program this year, and I was looking forward to working one-on-one with the students. The preschool class only had two students-Delia and her brother Miguel. Both were very quiet and a little unsure of me-a stranger. They would look up at me with their huge brown eyes and stare as if asking, "Who are you and what do you want with me?" But neither of them ever gave voice to their questioning eyes. The only thing I could get out of either of them was the occasional nod or shake of the head to a yes or no question. I'm not sure why they were so reticent, but it could be shyness or that they were unsure about speaking English (though both understand English perfectly well). Delia, as far as I could tell, had never used the computer before. She had trouble moving the mouse and clicking on the computer screen, but she was fascinated by whatever program I placed in front of her. For two hours a day, Delia sat in front of the computer screen and worked with help from her classroom teacher or me. At the end of the four days, Delia, who had never used a computer before, was outperforming her teacher. She created a family tree, drawing and inserting her own pictures. She typed the names of her family members, and she even navigated various educational programs. The pace at which she picked up the new material was astounding, and she will have no trouble in kindergarten this school year when the class goes to the computer lab.

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Sidney

A former migrant worker once told me that a migrant student who is able to say that he or she has experience using programs such as Microsoft Word and PowerPoint is rare indeed. However, for those students who migrate to Montana, this experience is not so rare. Every student in third grade or above completed projects in Microsoft Word and/or PowerPoint while on the Techmobile. One student from Sidney stands out from the rest-I'll call him Antonio. Like many young men entering adolescence, he was more worried about how he looked to his friends than he was about learning the different forms of energy. However, after a little persuasion and a few examples of what could be done, Antonio discovered that PowerPoint was "cool" and so did the rest of his friends. He inserted backgrounds, animation and sound effects to go along with Polaroid pictures he took with the visual learning specialist. He liked what he was doing so much that when he was given free time on the computers, he decided to work on his presentation. The skills Antonio gained while on the Techmobile will set him ahead of his classmates back in Texas. In his case, the Techmobile did not play a remedial role but rather an enriching one because it built upon what he already knew and took him beyond his peers.

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Hardin

"Do you plan to go to college after graduating from high school?" I asked Lupita, aware that I was making an assumption, in fact I made it deliberately. Lupita was about to enter high school. She had received good grades throughout junior high, and I wanted her to see herself going far in her education.

"No, not really," she answered.

"Why not?" I enquired.

"I guess I've never really thought about it," she said.

Probably very few junior high students have thought much beyond the impending excitement of high school, but the philosophy of Think College Early-a website developed by the U.S. Department of Education-is that those who plan for college early are more likely to attend and do well than those who wait until their junior or senior year of high school. The Think College Early site is where I took Lupita her first night on the Techmobile. I told her to explore the site and to be prepared to give me three good reasons why one should go to college. She wrote down her three reasons but didn't sound convinced. The next night I told her to look for three Internet resources that could help her pay for college when she was ready. She wrote those down as well and kept them with her for future reference. On my third and final night at her site, I asked her to look for three things she could do right now to prepare for college and write them down. When she was finished, I asked her again about her plans after high school.

This time she said she was interested in college. I asked her why she changed her mind. She told me, "It's not as hard to get in [to college] as I thought it was.

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