I know that it seems like heresy since we had the first really nice warm day of the summer but August will be filled with teachers going in and out of school to get prepared for the start of the school year late August and then it gets serious for September. There’s already a great deal of chatter happening on our FirstClass conferencing system.
It’s time to get bulletin boards updated, make sure that there are enough desks and chairs, chalkboards prepped, etc.
Just like you want to make sure that the room is prepared after it gets its annual cleaning, successful computer use will make sure that the computers are prepared and ready to go for success. Your technician will have imaged each one of them over the summer to refresh old software and install new title.
Now, our context is that we use Windows computers and IBM’s School Connect to manage the classes so some of this will be unique to us but some items on this list apply everywhere.
- Make sure that all of your laptops/computers actually start up and connect to the network. It may seem like a simple thing but no connections can be immediate class management issues. Nothing worse than a crimped cable or a wireless switch turned off.
- Make sure that your teacher account is active and take the time to create your class(es). Using the software management tool, put the one or two applications you need for the first day into your class. Avoid adding them all!
- Grab your class list and select all of the students that you have in your class so that when they log in, they’re ready to go.
- Check the printer. Make sure that you can print to it and that there’s paper ready to go.
- Hop onto the internet and check some sites inside the firewall and outside. http://www.gecdsb.on.ca/d&g/ is good and http://dougpete.pbworks.com is good too. That’s not too self-serving, is it?
- Check that the occasional teacher account is functional. If you assign computer tasks when you’re away from class, add this account to your class.
- Check out the new software titles. Comic Life and Adobe Premiere Elements are a couple that will find a nice home in your classroom this year.
- Check out the old software titles. If you’ve used Microsoft Publisher in the past or Fathom or Tinkerplots, make sure that they’re good to go too. There are enough surprises in the computer world!
- Check the SMART Board and data projector. There are more connections there that could jiggle or have a gremlin attach over the summer.
- Restore your report card comment libraries. You won’t need them right away but if there are problems, it’s best to get at resolving them.
Finally, for #7 and #8, take a look at BookIT and see when PD offerings for any titles that you wish to have more information and experience with before going live with students. It will be great to have you out for a workshop or to book some time for me to visit your classroom.
Best wishes for a great computing new school year.
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This was a great post. A lot of really helpful information went into this one. I have found a website where this information would be a great help. Applebatch.com is this free teacher resource site that would benefit greatly from this information. All you have to do is join the site at http://applebatch.com and start posting into your a Teacher Network. This would be a valuable resource to any teacher who has questions about their own computer literacy. The Applebatch Teacher Community would greatly appreciate your insights and information.