One Month Without Technology

Yep.  I’m that kind of teacher.  I planned all summer.  Sure, I worked on products for my TpT store, but I only have products that I will actually use in my classroom………I mean, come on, why would I not??????? 

So I enter the classroom in August ready to

Rock and Roll   

I’m ready to head home on Friday afternoon…..that Friday…..the one before students come on MONDAY!!!!  

I’ve got my cute little power point that I use every year to break the ice.  A little humor…….A little sarcasm……A little wit…..A little bit of me……..A lot about my classroom expectations…….

I’m verifying that everything in the room is READY……..

And suddenly it rears its ugly face………

The Green Blob of Death………THE PROJECTOR HAS DIED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Oh, the horrors.  No promethean board.  No ELMO.  No power points.  No daily edits.  No ActiveInspire.

 NOTHING!!!!

I’m forced to do some serious soul searching.  I’m the first one to admit that I’m addicted to technology in my classroom.  I had a personal laptop and projector that I was using in my classroom in seventh grade before Promethean boards ever appeared in our building!!!!! I was showing videos and PowerPoints before it was even COOL!!! 

 I’m  HOOKED.

 I’m a junkie!!!!!

And now, the weekend before school begins, I’m searching my soul, my heart, my brain, my pocketbook (EMPTY) for the ability to SURVIVE THIS HORROR.   What to do.............

Here’s the motto for my district this year……

Here’s what my administration has shortened it to for our building…..

Be Positive!

Every time a teacher comes crying to the principal or assistant principal or another teacher or an aide or a custodian or a lunch lady……………and screams……….. “For the love of humanity, can’t you see how bad this is……?????”

The response is …..”Be positive”    Some days it is said with passion and feeling and gusto!!!!!

Some days it is said as a joke.

Some days it is said as a prayer to the teaching gods that it will make you leave the room.

But it is truly said!!!  Over and Over!!!  and Over and Over!!!!!

So I’m claiming it.

 It’s my chant.  It’s my matra.  It’s my prayer.  It’s my incantation.  It’s my warble.  It’s my song. 

I’m being positive.  One day the technology gods will shine down upon me and get me a new projector.  Until that time, I have found that I can truly live without it.  We have studied the HECK out of commas.  We've worked HARD on setting up the perfect Interactive Notebooks. 

No, we aren't arriving to school in horse-and-buggies,  and we aren't using a "slate", and we aren't fetching water in a pail, and we aren't dipping pigtails in the ink well........It's not that bad YET!!

But here's what I am doing.  This has made me

PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH PUSH

my true passion in the classroom, my love of reading. 

Be positive.  


http://funfoodfigurativelanguage.blogspot.com/2014/08/our-reading-journey.html