That first week of school, the week that I did not have Chromebooks, I was overwhelmed with the amount of paperwork that I had to take home each night. When I taught first grade, I was exhausted at the end of the day but it was a physical exhaustion and I rarely had to take grading home with me. Teaching sixth grade is very different. I don't get as physically tired by my mind is challenged all day long. It's a nice change. My students were very excited about the Chromebooks and couldn't wait to get them. I started talking about the importance of Digital Citizenship right away. I gave them a preview of what we would be using and how our classroom would work with the Chromebooks. To be completely honest, many of the things that we have put in place have been implemented because of a need rather than being prepared for certain circumstances.
This is a picture of the Chromebooks that we use. There is a review of the device linked to the picture.
Dell Chromebook 11Most of my students came to the Rollout Night. They were so excited to get their Chromebooks! They had to listen to a presentation about the rules and handbook, then they could pick up the Chromebook. They had to change their passwords on the school's network so that it would sync with Google and work on the Chromebook. Once they got the device, they had to stay at school and sign in before taking them home. It would not work at home if they did not sign in at school first. Students who were not able to come to the rollout night were able to go and listen to the presentation and pick up their device the next day during school.
We have had some trouble with the wireless in the classroom. I put in a ticket to have our tech department check the access point in my classroom. They did something that helped but it was still spotty. Then I had a student who needed to have her Chromebook repaired and use a loaner for a little while. We could not get the device to work. One of the tech guys came and helped get it set up and realized that our wireless was not working correctly. They rebooted the access point and our connectivity has been great ever since.
We have started to use some of the Chrome applications in the classroom. So far, Google Classroom and Google Drive have been the most used. Classroom is amazing and simple to use. (I'll post more about this later as it will take an entire post all on its own.) My students enjoy using coolmath games and Scholastic News when they finish early. I will be introducing them to Spelling City as well so that they can practice their high frequency and vocabulary words. Over the next few weeks, I will be introducing a few more apps to the students that they can use to enhance their skills in many different areas.
COMING SOON: How I use Google Classroom with my students.
