Teaching New Tricks Youngster Helps Teachers Learn About Computers

Thu., July 11, 1996

By Jeanette White jeanettew@spokesman.com

Bennett Williamson stands at the front of the class and thanks his students for playing well together.

The students burst out laughing.

Ben, 11, understands. His students - Spokane School District 81 teachers old enough to be his parents and grandparents - are used to being on the other side of the desk.

The fifth-grader and a few of his classmates are earning $2.50 an hour this summer teaching their teachers the latest in computer technology.

“Ben!” calls one teacher, asking for help with a spreadsheet.

“Ben!” beckons another, struggling to change a font size.

“Ben! Ben! Ben!” They wave their hands, vying for his attention.

“It does feel good,” says Ben, smiling slyly.

The summer classes, offered at Libby Center, 2900 E. First Ave., are so popular nearly a third of the 1,000 applicants were turned away. Classes continue through mid-August.

“We were just amazed at how many teachers applied for these classes,” says Nancy Wolfrum, the teacher who hired Ben as her aide.

Participants pay $10 for computer disks and materials; the rest is paid with $20,000 from US West and about $6,000 from the district.

Teachers say they want to use computers for class projects, day-to-day teaching and paperwork.

Students such as Ben, who have taken special computer classes at school and use computers at home, are way ahead.

On Wednesday, the thin boy darted from desk to desk in his black sneakers.

“He’s one popular kid,” says Dorene Brown, a Rogers High School teacher, after the boy helped her create a computerized, parent-contact log. “He can do anything.”

For eight days, he’ll give up television time and football in the front yard to hang out with teachers. His part-time teaching job will end just in time for Boy Scout camp.

Wolfrum and Ben show teachers all kinds of practical ways to use computers in class. How about a spreadsheet charting the hottest days of summer? Or a computerized computer lab schedule?

Elsie Cadena, who teaches American government at Rogers High, says Ben has already taught her one big lesson.

“I expect when I get a computer in my classroom, my students will know more than me.”

Then she nods toward Ben. “I would like to know as much as he does.”

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