The geeky moment:
I wish I I had taken a picture as my 26 students and I quietly sauntered through the hallway holding out our iPads searching for a good signal where the app I wanted to use would download and work. Fortunately the auditorium area had stronger WiFi, so we conducted class on the auditorium stairs today. It was surprisingly enjoyable and fairly successful for a "make it work" moment. (Tim Gunn would have been proud.)
The geeky details:
Our technology director Paul ended up with some extra iPads, and so he was able to give them to my two AP Language and Composition classes, which was ideal because half my students are already part of the school's pilot program through their physics classes, so by supplying the other half with iPads, now two more classes are part of the program. I couldn't be more thrilled and overwhelmed with the prospect of prepping and teaching using the iPad for two more classes.
So today was our first time using the iPads for instruction after a very smooth, swift initial set-up day last Friday with Paul while those students who already had the iPads also assisted the others through the process. (A particular highlight was when the students applauded as Paul walked in the room with the cart of iPads.) For my initial iPad reading class, Paul had been able to get in to the classroom over the summer to boost the WiFi and set up everything to prevent hiccups, so things have been amazingly smooth as far as connectivity goes. But since he just got these students the iPads during the school year, he couldn't have known this would happen in this classroom located in a different hallway, especially since everything had worked so ideally just a few days before when he was in our room showing them how to set up the iPads.
But today, the wifi just wasn't cooperating as the students tried to download the iBooks app, a free version of Scarlet Letter, and the Nearpod app at the same time. Those who have had the iPads for a month now started chatting about the places throughout the building where they have better luck with wifi. So I asked them pack up all their stuff and then somewhat obnoxiously pantomimed for them the manner in which I expected them to walk silently through the hallway while holding out their iPads and watching for increasing wifi and and the app downloading.
After firmly insisting upon absolute silence in the hallway, we all headed off. Perhaps it was the novelty of the crazy hallway skulking the 27 of us were embarking upon together, but they were great with keeping quiet in the hallways during this strange promenade. We made our way toward the auditorium as they started whispering, "It's working better here." and "Yeah, mine too." So we set ourselves up on the stairs and tried the lesson again.
They were impressed when they signed in to Nearpod and I immediately pushed slides about Scarlet Letter and American Romanticism onto their screens. They were amused when the app notified me in red that a student had timed out and so I jokingly called out our endearing class clown on his little infraction. And they were hooked when I broke up the typical lecture format with surveys and polls and trivia questions about the topic.
During the day, I ran into another one of our other technology guys, and so he actually came by for my afternoon AP class to check it out and help. I was able to repeat the same process and trek to the auditorium, and this time it went even more smoothly with his walking around and troubleshooting when a few students got confused or timed out of the app by accident. Yay for an awesome support system! (Also, when I told Paul about the wifi issue, he promptly resolved it and we have had no further problems.)
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