8th grade U.S. history. For a week. The teacher was chaperoning the annual Washington, D.C. trip.
His lesson plans were genius. For half the period, they had a packet on the chapter about the Civil War to work on. For the other half, we were to watch a movie on the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s.
It was perfect. They weren't stuck doing anything for too long. Just about the time they'd had enough of the bookwork, it was time for the movie. And we never watched the movie for so long that it would tax their attention spans.
It would have been a perfect week. If not for the ubiquitous technical difficulties.
I thought I was prepared. I knew the sound trick. I got the projector working. I got the movie started. And everything was going swimmingly on Monday. Until we got 3 minutes 41 seconds in. That's when the movie froze.
I managed to get it going again. Then the same thing happened 2nd period.
Long story short: the DVD was scratched, and at that particular point the movie was broken. If I fast forwarded past the point, I was okay, but if I didn't get past that point before it stuck, I was stuck. As I learned the hard way.
There's nothing worse than having a group of 8th graders waiting for you to try to fix a movie. For 20 minutes. In the end, I had to restart the computer...
So, 4th period I was prepared. I stood over the computer before that point... And missed it by thatmuch. Seriously. I was going for the fast forward just as it hit 3:41. I'd get it right 5th period, you say. Not so much. In fact, I barely missed getting it right 6th period as well.
Sigh. Well, at least nothing froze after that point. Problem solved. Sort of.
Yeah, I had other issues. Sound issues. Starting the movie but it not starting issues. The whole week the DVD was glitchy. It wasn't playing well with the computer. But somehow, we got through the whole thing.
I kind of miss the days of insert tape, push play.
(Not really. Those days we had issues with rewinding to the right point, and the TV was small and sometimes hard to hear, so I'm not that nostalgic.)
You don't have much luck with movies and videos, do you? Sounds like they need to splurge and buy a new DVD.
ReplyDeleteUgh, I remember those days. I wish I was as techie as my two sons! Teenagers are unbelievably advanced in that area.
ReplyDeleteSome are.
DeleteWe've had that issue on DVDs at home, plus some that have dual layers which our super duper blu-ray player takes issue to. You'd think technology would help make things easier, wouldn't you?
ReplyDeleteOh no. Technology gives us new problems to replace the old.
DeleteI wonder if these kinds of problems will disappear when we all go digital, or if there will be some new problem. (No, I don't really wonder; of course there will be)
ReplyDeleteUgh. And how many kids were unfamiliar with what happens when a DVD/CD is scratched? I'm guessing not many! They're thinking, "What is this strange disc? Why didn't she just stream it from the Internet?"
ReplyDeleteOh, they're familiar with DVDs still. But give it a couple years.
DeleteOhhh that must have been frustrating. Nothing worse than when technology doesn't work!!
ReplyDeleteTrue.
DeleteYou should have just had one of the kids do it! They seem to know so much more about these things than we do!
ReplyDeleteIn this case they had no idea. But give them a couple years...
DeleteWouldn't it be cool if you could be the substitute teacher going to Washington DC with the students? Technology is wonderful as long as it works; otherwise it is a nightmare, especially in a room of students.
ReplyDeletebetty
Yeah, that would have been... Nah, considering that I don't know the kids nor am I familiar with the itinerary, it'd be the worst subbing experience ever. Too much could go wrong.
DeletePaula's right. The kids help me with technology all the time and my class are only 9/10 years old! I feel for you though Liz.
ReplyDeleteI tend to shoo them away as they cause more harm than good where I'm concerned. (But I'm fairly proficient with the tech.)
DeleteTechnology can be evil, can't it?
ReplyDeleteAh, I remember when there was a movie in school and I could take a nap :)
ReplyDeleteTechnical difficulties are the worst. Especially when kids/teens are counting on you to fix it.
ReplyDeleteAnd getting louder and louder while you're working...
DeleteGosh-I remember the actual movie projector and the film tape coming undone. Usually it was a horrible movie about some moral we were to learn. I hope you left a note for the teacher saying the DVD is done
ReplyDeleteTechnology problems are the worst! So frustrating.
ReplyDeleteYvonne
Yup
DeleteExtremely frustrating. It happens with my Wii disk yesterday. I was just glad that it was only a sweaty fingerprint that caused the system to shut down. Now I am also relieved that I didn't have an audience of impatient students watching me search for the manual, unhooking components, etc.
ReplyDeleteExtremely frustrating. It happens with my Wii disk yesterday. I was just glad that it was only a sweaty fingerprint that caused the system to shut down. Now I am also relieved that I didn't have an audience of impatient students watching me search for the manual, unhooking components, etc.
ReplyDelete