Tech Club Visit Number 2

1.  The students typed on a keyboard program called virtual piano for 10 minutes.  Then went over to a table in the library with fossils on it and a short presentation was given about what fossil teeth tell us about dinosaurs.  Kids were allowed to touch the fossils and ask questions about them and after all the teeth were passed around to look at, numbers were drawn assigning a tooth to a student.  Then the students took the fossil teeth to a computer and wrote a short story about what they thought the dinosaur ate, and looked like.  Instructors helped build the students creativity by asking various questions such as "what color would it have been."  Afterwards the students were shown what a dinosaur actually looks like, not to tell them their ideas were wrong but to give them more perspective.
2.  Some of the problems arose with classroom management.  The first group of students (there were two) were organized sitting at a table with fossils on the table, this caused them to want to touch everything and I allowed them to look at fossils while I was talking which caused them to not pay attention.  I was able to answer any and all questions, but the presentation took too long for the first group and they didn't have much time at the computers.  The second group sat on the library floor while the table of fossils was above them, while I talked I didn't pass out fossils but passed out fossils after I showed the students them, and then continued to talk when the fossil was returned to me.  This allowed me to answer questions the students had while holding the fossil.  The presentation was also made shorter so the students had more time to create.  The virtual piano software worked well but the students were initially confused as to what they were supposed to do.
3.  Clearer instruction, and classroom management.  I don't want to get a recurring theme going but I little to no experience working with elementary school students so my classroom management is mostly built around a fear that they will cry if I tell them no.  I would also have enjoyed getting together with the rest of the group to formalize instruction a little more so the rest of the tech club didn't feel so left out (they didn't say they felt left out but they stood there most of the time).