GENERAL - Technology in the Classroom

Dear Students,

Is it just me, or have we been using the computers less and less in the last week or so? There are a couple of reasons for this:

1. We've been having internet problems! But... I think I've figured out the problem. I think that many of the ethernet cables I used to set up our classroom are bad. The good news is I have a few extra cables that I can use to replace the bad ones. The bad news is that I'm not sure which ones need help. So, please let me know if your computer is one of the funky ones.

2. I wanted to give us a head start in the reading on The Great Gatsby. But, now that we've done the first chapter together, I'm going to start assigning the readings at home. If the book is read at home, that means we can use our class time to work on the computers. Yay! But this of course means that students will actually need to do their assigned reading. Shocking! It's up to you, folks!

3. I needed ideas about how to use the computers in our classroom. Believe it or not, it's hard to come up with these ideas. While I write this post, I'm at a Technology Conference that is helping me to come up with ideas. But I could use your ideas too. If you have any good ones, why not go ahead and post them as comments here?

Thanks,
Mr. Rolapp

GENERAL - Don't Forget to Review

Dear Students,

How many of you are going back to the old posts and reading all the comments that have been added over the weeks? Did you know that I go back and comment to the posts all the time. So do other people. Ms. Reilly has been on several times. So has my mother. So have several other teachers. Are you curious what these people have said about our work? Go back and find out... and while you're there, you can add more posts too. These aren't just one-time assignments. They're places where we can think and grow together.

Enjoy,
Mr. Rolapp