Time to Compute

Good Practice Contd.

Mentors who have been working in the programme for a number of years report that it is good practice when working with the children to:

Become familiar with your school's ICT system which may be very different from your workplace.
Each school will have their own policies and procedures for ICT and the school ICT co-ordinator will give you details of these.
You will have available a variety of software or programmes, including the banded software package 'School box', provided to NI schools by Granada through Classroom 2000.
Arrive in the school some time before the start of the session, perhaps get a coffee from the staffroom, and in the Time to Compute room login on the computer system in preparation for working with the first child.
Be prepared - at the end of a session plan what you will do with the child on the following week
Go to the child's classroom promptly to collect him/her from the room - a good opportunity to interact with the teacher.
Vary the diet, the software and programmes you are using with the children.
Keep a record (a Time to Compute progress diary) of what software and programmes have been used.
If, as a group of mentors, you want to consider giving individual gifts to your children, decide on a strategy - perhaps birthdays only for example; gifts should be inexpensive and related to IT (a book based on the subject or book token?)