April Fools!

My first foray into the computer lab with my students during the measurement unit. I had been asking for YEARS to get in during this time, but had been denied until now. So hours went into creating a webquest about Prisms along with getting google sketchup installed and a JING made on how to use it. I was ready! With the entire lesson based on using the web .... if there was no web access ... I was hooped! I voiced that the night before to my husband - what were the chances?

Wednesday rolls around and off to the lab I go with a huge smile on my face. This was going to be a great lesson with kids all actively involved for the whole 70 minutes ... I couldn't wait! After getting everyone logged in there started to be cries of "I can't get to the sharepoint" echoed throughout the room. It had happened, connection had been lost. Serves me right for even voicing the possibility of no connection coupled with trying this on April 1st of all days! I didn't have much of a backup plan but was thankful the sketchup is a local program, so I directed the kids to open this up (while I prayed feverishly) and walked them through the most important buttons (my JING was not available for them to view). In under 10 minutes there were students creating some of the most amazing solids .... it was really cool to watch. They were not satisfied with making just boring prisms, but taking the idea and running! There haven't been too many times this year where this class has done much more than the minimum ... but today they were inspired! I sat back and watch, listening as they helped each other do this and that with the tools.

Thankfully, before long we were back online and the webquest was started. A few minor issues, one student started writing over the question template (I quickly learned that I needed students to copy and paste into a blank document before proceeding), but for the most part it was quite smooth. Some students chose to just go out and google the questions rather than check out my links ... and ended up at sites that I had eliminated due to poor or confusing content. I was seeing that some students were good at copying and pasting BUT they weren't reading carefully enough to make sure that it made sense. I don't think there is any way to avoid this ... maybe having them in partners so that they have to check and compare their answers might have been a good idea. Guess I'll have to give that a try on Friday.

The cool part about this class, besides sitting back and watching students helping students, was that I still had some technology skills that the kids didn't have. Instructing them on how to use the "print screen" button to copy the screen to clipboard then paste into their document - everyone seemed so surprised! What other keyboard short cuts are there that I should know about and could share? It is so easy, but powerful at the same time. I was able to trouble shoot a few other problems and there were kids that started responding to me like I knew what I was doing - amazing! She's not just another teacher with a tablet! Another huge bonus was hooking a few of my math resistant students .... I heard one talking to himself as he played with sketchup ..."this is so cool - I can't believe this is math!".

As I sit here preparing for my 2nd day in the lab, I'm both excited and saddened. Excited for the chance to get them to collaborate more, saddened by the fact that it most likely will be the last time I'm in the lab this year. It is completely booked and it was sheer luck that I was able to get in. Next year I HAVE to make more of an effort to get my classes into the lab so that this kind of fun with learning can happen again. Maybe I should be starting to ask for a class set of netbooks so we could do this in class .... I could just ask :) .....