My Laptop Exploded

Technology: sometimes a white knuckled ride

Mrs. A. — Sat, 04 Sep 2010 00:07:34 +0000

We are three weeks into the school year and I am waist deep in my first big project.

I have learned two new things already:

Projects can be a bit messy
Older students are eaten alive with jealousy when the younger group gets to do something cool that they didn’t do

My 7th graders are matched with a school in Sydney, Australia and will be creating a wikispace on modern slavery in the world.

I am really excited about it, but I had to accept that in order for them to complete their class introductory voicethreads that they would have to be let loose in the school to take their pictures. Messy. Not neat, quiet, controlled.

I uploaded their pictures to my online Picasa album and in a literal instant they had them copied from the Internet into their student laptop folders. They logged into Voicethread in the next instant, and were ready to upload their pictures. It didn’t work. The laptops don’t have Flash and the alternate student Internet had blocked the site. More messy. Alternate plans necessary. They logged into my Moodle course and completed the review of our recent section so the time wasn’t lost.

Hardware hurdles are an exercise for the teaching mind…especially when I know the easiest, possibly least acceptable answer is, “Bring your own laptops in and let me go grab a handful of ethernet cables from the server room. We’ll be done in no time!”

Goals 2010 – 2011

Mrs. A. — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 13:25:29 +0000

1. Create complete unit plans for each unit/chapter that I teach. I have this info scattered around in different files right now and would like to pull it all together in a single binder / file for each class.

2. Incorporate my new SMART board and ELMO into my existing lessons in ways that are highly effective (for example, not using my SMART board as a glorified screen but using the Notebook software to create interactive lessons.)

3. Revise the country project lesson plans to incorporate the use of Google sites. These projects were previously reports, etc., that could be printed. I have struggled to get students to write good reports and not simply copy information. Incorporating Google sites will allow me to reach several goals: increase student choice in these projects, increase use of technology, make these projects much more accessible than the binder that previously was stored in my room, and hopefully make them even more interesting to the students.

4. Demonstrate use of web 2.0 technologies in my classroom: Google docs, Prezi, Glogster. I believe that showing students how I use them will encourage them to use them even when they are not assigned.

Let’s Begin, Shall We?

Mrs. A. — Thu, 24 Jun 2010 04:02:41 +0000

June. Ahh…June. A month of relaxation. Right?

My mind is literally bursting with possibilities.

Prezi! How can I best utilize the Flat Classroom connection I am forging with a teacher and school in South America? What can I change about my country project to better implement Project Based Learning or is it PROBLEM Based Learning? I really don’t know. And again wow! I have a smartboard now…how I can I implement that? What all does it do? And I forgot about my ELMO…..and my beloved Moodle, whom I happily refer to as my teacher’s aide because she grades a lion’s share of my students’ homework. I swear I could kiss Moodle every morning with a smile on my face.

So yes, I’m a little overwhelmed.

Welcome to the ride.