Modern Video Problems

Tuesday. Third period. 

Upon finishing reading chapter three of The Great Gatsby, we were to watch the scene from the 2013 movie version. 

This was in the lesson plans. I saw it weeks before. So, like any prepared teacher, I set about making sure I had what I needed to get this done. Because technology wasn't going to make this easy for me. 

The movie was on Netflix. Was. But, alas, since Ms. A had found it there, it had been removed, for when I went to look for it, it was gone. And it wasn't streaming anywhere else. (If you ever want to know where some movie is streaming, just search it up on IMDb.com. It lists it there on the first page.) 

Ms. A had it on DVD. But, no one has a DVD player any longer. I have a teacher computer. No DVD player in it. (The old, out-of-date computers have DVD players in them, but they don't work all that well. And I couldn't get a hold of one.) I called the library to see if they still had a player (as I had heard that they were getting rid of theirs). They did. But, it didn't have a cable that would connect to the in-class TV. (It had the RCA connector, not the HDMI cable that the TV has connections for.) 

I looked on YouTube and found some video clips of the movie. That were heavily edited and not very long. Sigh. 

After discussing it with another teacher, Ms. K, the co-teacher, bought a digital copy on Amazon. Phew. Problem solved. 

So, it was Wednesday, the day to show the video. We were on a shortened schedule for state testing. The audio for the chapter took about a half hour. 

But, I stop. And discuss. So, even shortening my discussion because I knew it was going to be a time crunch, we finished reading with about ten minutes left in class. The video clip was ten minutes long. Close, but I could make it. 

I went to play the video... 

It worked just fine. On my computer. The projection? They could hear, but they could not see. Deep sigh. 

I did not have time to troubleshoot. (I saw it worked on my computer and hadn't bothered to make sure it projected.) I had a YouTube clip to show to finish out the period, but that was all I could do. And since I wasn't going to have time for the other classes, I took my time stopping and discussing with them. 

But Ms. A wanted the clip shown, so it was time to figure it out. 

I know five ways to connect the computer to the TV screen. The way I was using wouldn't show the video. I knew another way that would show the video, but it was jerky. Not smooth. I managed to scrounge an HDMI cable, but when I found the cable, I also found a wireless display adapter. But it wasn't connected. 

Luckily, I had kept a copy of the instructions on how to connect the thing in my files. Still, it took me 45 minutes to get it to work. Sigh. (And then it turned out there was an easier way that I figured out two days later.) 

The good news: it worked. Finally. 

When I went to show the video the next day, it played. And I watched as they watched it. So, success. Eventually. 

It's always something.