I came across this frustration last week. In Social Studies we are working on the unit Changes Over Time. I had created a triple venn diagram to use to compare and contrast colonial times, parent's generation, and my students generation. I had picture and words students would use to drag into the correct area of the graphic organizer. This was going to be saved, and then printed out for students to use as a writing tool for a paper. Social Studies time came around and I discovered my computer was frozen. No big deal, I restarted it. Now, my program to display the venn diagram would not open. When it finally did open, it had somehow changed the format of the document. After completely getting frustrated and undone, I gave up and we drew in our notebooks. However, time was not used efficiently.
In my experience, I have come to rely on technology. However, always have a
"Plan B" in the back of your mind. I did not have a plan ready. Students deserve to be exposed to 21st century skills; however, if something is not working properly, the students still need to learn the information! Being a teacher means you need to be flexible. Roll with the punches. This can be hard, but it is necessary. While technology is a wonderful asset, we need to be prepared for the inevitable. Something will go wrong with the school's server, the website will be closed due to maintenance, etc. As teachers, we cannot let this get in the way of our student's education. I learned a great lesson last week, and I just wanted to share this with you all.
I became very thankful last year that my class was just a few doors down from the hall copier! I worked hard to incorporate technology into my classroom last year, but there were the moments where my laptop/projector/doc camera/websites would decide to not work when I needed them. I always like to print off a copy of what we are doing just for myself. If my technology went down then I would rush to the copier and make a quick one for the students. If I wasnt able to do that, then I would definately have them draw it themselves.
ReplyDeleteMeghan,
ReplyDeleteYour lesson plan with the Venn diagram seems like a great idea. That is unfortunate that it did not not work at class time. However, I agree it is very important for teachers to be flexible and always have a plan B. When time is not well spent that is when students get into trouble.