What to do with one classroom computer

Jun 6, 2016

1 min read

It's seems contradictory to live in a technologic era, and still have many schools with scarce computers, or any technology at all. My previous school district was all about technology. We had Chromebooks carts in every grade level, 5 tablets per classroom, and 3 student desktops. Then I moved to my actual school district, which I love, but there isn't that much technology available. I actually have one student, and one teacher computer in my classroom.

Any way, that wasn't going to stop me from integrating technology in my classroom. I set my students Google accounts, and with a password generator, I created strong passwords for all of them. I created a Google Sheet to keep record of those logins.

Then I created another Google Sheet with a Computer Rotation Schedule. Every day, 3-4 students will ge to use the computer for 15 minutes. This mainly happened while doing Word Study, or during Independent Reading. Most of the time, they were login in to their Google Classroom account, where I had assigned them passages from Fluency Tutor, or from Newsela. Having all the assignments in Google Classroom helped them to keep focus, and not to wander around different accounts to complete work.

I posted the computer rotation near the computer, so it would be accessible to them. After a few weeks, they had already picked up with the routine.

I hope this can help maximize the time, and give your students more opportunities to acccess online resources and activities. I will soon post about different ways your students can have strong passwords to login to their different accounts.

Until next time. Remember, we are all teachers under construction!