Using Technology

One thing that I'm realizing in the frantic first few weeks of school, is how quickly my plans to use technology have gone out the window. My kids have watched some presentations I made, and I used some cool hurricane footage that I found on the web, along with a brain pop, but I haven't even had them touch the computers yet. Another teacher in the 6th grade came to me to talk to me about how to do a Powerpoint "choose your own ending story" which he started with his class last week and I realized that I should get into gear. This week, the kids are starting an investigation project in reading and a travel brochure in Social Studies. I'm taking both classes to the computer lab today, but I can't wait to get them into some more interesting ways of using the computer.

My biggest frustration right now is that I'm used to having the rights to add things to my computers in my classroom (which I know is not typical). That is never going to happen at this school, I think because LAUSD has very strict requirements on how software is acquired and put on machines. Everything I want to use (mostly) is free and available to download, it's just a matter of putting a list together of what all I want and then getting permission for it to be on the computers. We'll see how it goes.