Because I was covering Ms. M's math classes for two weeks, I was given access to her Google Classrooms and the set up she usually uses to instruct her classes.
Ms. M puts the slides she uses in class online, so the students can access the notes (like, if they were absent). They take down the notes in class as they're written, though. And they are written. Examples are worked out in real time. (She uses a whiteboard app called Jamboard.)
Friday. Sixth period. It was almost the end of the period. I had done their notes and many examples. (The topic of the day was the area of circles.)
The question of ℼ had come up. I explained that it was just a number (albeit a weird irrational one). Since they were viewing everything on the in class TV screen that I was using via a computer, I searched online for ℼ to more than a couple digits, and I found it.
Then I went back to the lesson. But, everything I had written on the whiteboard app, everything that was supposed to remain in their Google Classrooms, vanished. Poof.
Uh...
I attempted to write something on one of the slides, and the digital pen wouldn't work.
I had less than ten minutes of class, so I pivoted to something else, and then had them get ready to leave class.
But what was I going to do? Was I going to have to recreate the notes from class so it would remain online?
After they left, I tried to troubleshoot. The digital pen wouldn't work, so perhaps rebooting the computer might get that going...
And when everything restarted, all my notes reappeared on the slides.
Whew.
But, all my scribbles (from when I was trying to get the digital pen to work) were there as well.
Deep sigh.
The digital pen also has a digital eraser, so that was fixable. And at least I didn't have to try to remember everything I had done with them in class.
(Ms. M left notes that I was mostly copying for them, but I also worked out examples in their books and such, so while I wouldn't have to recreate it all from memory, there was stuff I would have had to recall.)
As I read past the "Uh ...", I kept thinking, "This poor teacher!" I was so happy for you when I got to "Phew." This is a great post, specific to your life but universal, too.
ReplyDeleteTechnology goofs plague us all.
DeleteWhat a relief they were there when you restarted!
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, I was so very relieved.
DeleteWhy does that always seem to happen? You don't even do anything and your stuff just disappears.
ReplyDeleteA big whew, indeed. Just shaking my head because we live and die with technology.
ReplyDeleteWe do.
DeleteThe advantage of teaching language and literature, as I do, is that when technology fails we can manage with words. But pi is a different matter!
ReplyDeleteI'd have to revert to writing up examples on the whiteboard. Doable, though.
DeleteTechnology can be a pain, for sure. Good recovery!
ReplyDelete-Darla Sands
https://darlamsands.blogspot.com
It can be.
Deleteit has to be hard to move around and enter, and work in classrooms you are not used to....when I helped out in other offices I had a hard time with a diff keyboard!! lol
ReplyDeleteI've done this long enough that I'm like a nomad. I'm used to working with different setups. I have a few ways to do just about anything. (And most teachers keep certain supplies in the same place--I can usually find their paper clips or extra staples.)
DeleteAw, the life of a teacher. I was just talking to my sister about her son's preschool teacher. Definitely underpaid but still delivers. You guys really are everyday heroes.
ReplyDeleteI'm just the sub. I just keep the class going with the teacher's lesson plans.
DeleteAustralian me just eye twitched at the title of this one, so I am assuming this is a case of slang in one country, slur in another (hey Thongs are 100% shoes in my world), but it did take me a red hot minute to remember that when something vanishes...
ReplyDeleteI am trying to find the video where an Australian Comedian, on US TV, talks about how a name commonly found in Enid Blyton books is, here in Australia, slang for your lady parts, hysterical!
Now I've got to look up what that means in Australia. I had no idea...
DeleteWe get quite a few International students here at my school in Australia, we do have to go through words that are acceptable here and words that are not, particularly when it comes to names. Try explaining via Google Translate why it really is NOT a good idea for their child to be named "Fanny" (as per Enid Blyton) as their English Name here in Australia.
DeleteAnd the poor American kid losing their mind when they discovered that "bugger" is just common vernacular here for something that is a slight inconvenience, I mean it isn't polite, it is certainly slang, but certainly not a bad bad swear.
It is also Mardi Gras at the moment here in Sydney Australia, which for us is explicitly LGBTQI+ , so reading the title on the day of our biggest Pride event of the calendar year, and thinking "What the...."
DeleteDefinitely not intended as a slur.
Delete