This week has certainly been challenging. My computer decided not to turn on this weekend, forcing me back into the "dark ages" before I had a computer I could take home with me. I've been staying extra late at school to get everything accomplished, but so far I'm surviving. The school's IT guys actually have my laptop right now, but they're still figuring out what's wrong with it.
Today, I wanted the 6th graders to type their personal narrative stories. We have six students and four computers (five if you count my desktop computer). Thankfully, one girl had typed hers over the weekend, so she didn't need a computer. I let one of them use my desk computer, so we had just enough for everyone. Unfortunately, the computers decided to take forever to turn on. Sometimes they go into a weird sleep mode, and then you have to hold the power button until it goes off, and then hold it so it turns on... but of course today it took 15 minutes for the log in screen to appear. That pretty much used up our time.
During the time their computer screens were blank, my students decided it might make the computers turn on faster if they pressed buttons on the keyboards. They discovered that pressing buttons equals a lovely pinging sound. So they kept pressing buttons.
Did I tell them to stop? Yes. Did they keep doing it? Just one boy decided to keep pressing buttons. Finally, I gave up and told them to come back to their desks; we would just do Spanish vocabulary until lunch. So we did.
Another technology development for my classroom...
We talked to a teacher at our neighboring school about using an iPad as a "SMART board" tool. All you need is an iPad, a desktop computer, and a free app that lets the user control the desktop from the iPad. After school yesterday, Mr. E told me to check out Craigslist for used iPads. I found one for $300. At Mr. E's request, I sent the guy an email seeing if he would go down to $200. A few minutes later, they guy replied saying he'd go down to $250. Mr. E and I discussed, made a decision, got a check from the treasurer (money from a family memorial donation), and I emailed the guy to set up a meeting time.
8:15pm. Met at Kwik Trip. I went by myself, sat in my car for about 20 minutes, and got a call from this guy's girlfriend. Her boyfriend was still in class, so she was going to meet me. To cut a long story short (or at least, shorter), our school is now the owner of a slightly used iPad.
I wanted to play around with it when I got it home, but I don't have wireless internet, so I had to wait until I was at school. Then when I got to school, I remembered that my classroom doesn't have a strong wi-fi signal. I ended up standing in the school office, messing around with it by the copier. Our IT guys said that it would be an easy fix to get a stronger signal to my room, so I could in theory have an interactive whiteboard by the end of the week...
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