Third Day in First Grade
Talk about a technology FAIL!
Today I tried to get 18 6 year olds logged into their Chromebook. I would have preferred herding cats! I started by getting them so excited to log into Prodigy Math, one of my favorite math games for students. I showed them their log-in information (printed on a sticker on the inside of their chromebook) and set up a couple of students at a time. I had the rest of my class coloring in their math sheet, and they seemed to be having fun with that. I got my first two students to my back table and asked them how to unplug their Chromebook from the charging cart and sat them down to have them log-in. Seemed easy enough. Then, I noticed that the one student started typing away letters when he needed to type in the 8-digit student number. The other student couldn't find the number zero, so there were eight letter "O"s in his student number section. I slowly helped them type in their username and password and started to get them signed into Clever to find my teacher websites. If you have never used Clever, it is a "clever" way to isolate the students to your dedicated class selected websites. After 15 minutes of getting the first two students logged in, I was ready for the next pair. The rest of the class was getting chatty, but still finishing up their math sheet. I tried to start up the next Chromebook to find out it wasn't charged. I pulled out three more and they were not charged. Oh man! I finally found two more that were charged and proceeded to walk the next two 6 year olds through logging in. Now, my first two students were starting on their math game and were confused on how to play. So, now I am reading directions to the game while helping locate letters on the keyboard. Suddenly, Chromebook 3 started to blink (after we just got logged in) and flashing low battery. You can see where this is going. After 45 minutes, I had 4 playing the game, 2 trying to log-in and 3 staring at a blank dark screen with a computer that needed to be charged. The other students were running hopelessly around the room trying to engage in tag. (of course, the direction was to finish math and read quietly) Needless to say, I have learned a great lesson. Technology is only a great tool, when it is charged correctly and thoroughly and explicitly taught. I fixed the wiring in the Chromebook charging cart, created better lesson plans and hope that tomorrow I can at least get all the students logged in! Wish me luck!
I can definitely relate to this situation, especially this year. Our school shifted the way we use chromebooks from last year. Last year each student had their own and they took it to and from school. However, with this model, they were allowed to carry backpacks around school throughout the day. They also would leave their chromebooks or chargers at home, and we had so few loaners last year to use, that those students who left them couldn't access the assignment or lesson that a teacher had planned for them.
ReplyDeleteThis year each classroom was supposed to be assigned a cart and students would be assigned numbers for the chromebook in that cart. They are not taking their own chromebooks around school and they are not taking them home. We used this model before the pandemic and many of the chromebooks were damaged, because the students weren't taking care of them. They would pop keys off, the screen would get cracked because they were just tossing them back in the cart or they would be their pencil inside the chromebook and close it. It was a mess. I don't like that we are back to this model because some classrooms don't have chromebook carts, because we don't have enough chromebooks. I was given a cart with only 28 chromebooks, when I have classes of 33 students. I attempted to try the chromebooks in partners last week, to only find out that these chromebooks don't hold a charge or the cart isn't working. Either way they wouldn't turn on. I am so frustrated with them, that I have yet to plan anything using them. If I do plan to use them, I will have a paper option ready to go, when the chromebooks don't work.
This post really brought me back to the beginning of my teaching story. I started out by long term subbing for a 1st grade classroom in Montgomery County. I also love to have students use the game prodigy for practicing math skills. My class at that time was about 20 students with only 10 allotted chrome books that were kept in my team leads classroom. I remember it taking many days to have the students practice logging in to the computer and then game. It is also amazing to see how quickly the students learn how to use all this technology.
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