A Rant!

I hope you don't mind if I rant just a bit. My inquiry is about developing creativity in children and I have to have a technology component. My thoughts were that I would let the kids experiment on the computers a bit, get them comfortable with the kid pix program and then do a visualization lesson (think Adrienne Gear) with them and have them illustrate this using the kid pix program. But I've hit a snag...a major snag! Today I had my lovely high school student volunteer in my class for the morning. What better time would there be to get all the kids working on the computers? With two of us running around trouble shooting, surely all the kids could have some constructive time on there. So the plan was that after recess, the two of us would get the computers out, turn them on and log the kids on and then bring the computers to the kids. We have been told that we can't have the whole class logging on at the same time as it overwhelms the system (hogwash, I say, but that's beside the point). So, we turned on 4 computers and started logging on. IT TOOK US 45 MINUTES TO LOG ON 15 COMPUTERS...THAT'S NOT EVEN ENOUGH FOR ONE FOR EVERY STUDENT! We tried all 30 computers in the mobile lab, and eventually only had 15 working. So that meant that a few of my students had to buddy up at a computer, which is a major problem because the things are so puny only one can really see the screen at once...but that's also beside the point. Fortunately my class was having a good behaviour day (and believe me that doesn't always happen), and they waited patiently. I think maybe the threat of computer removal was enough that they just coloured quietly and stayed out of my way! But what a waste of time. For 45 minutes, I could have done a great math lesson, done the visualization exercise 3 times over, or got more than enough time to do my DPA. UGH! So much for the technology aspect of my inquiry. Next time I'll just use the good old pencil and paper!