Mr. Higgins’ Blog

The irony behind watching the presentation titled “Trash to Treasures: Creating Your Own Computer Lab” at the k12 online conference is that my situation is the total opposite.  I am a brand new teacher with brand new set of 24 computers in a room with new network layout, new tables, and a new wireless projector.  I do as much as possible to protect the equipment because I know my fortunes could turn to trash or could be given to another taskmaster.  Here are a few things I do to protect my “treasure”…

1. There is absolutely no slamming, hitting, kicking, or any such action on any computer unless authorized.  Students that bang on the keyboard are subject to losing their keyboarding privileges (which means they miss the points for the assignment too)
2. Unless a teacher states otherwise, there no use of any ports other than the USB on the front for flash drives.  All we need is a students touching the back of computers and causing anything from ESD to pulling the plug of the different computers.
3. As far as software on the computer, if a student encounters something like a crash they almost always notify me immediately and I write down the computer number and error that occurred.  This is very important when it comes to reporting the problem.
4. The internet is constantly monitored by myself while the students work on projects or any other sort of activity.  If I suspect that a students is doing something that would sabotage current installations they are immediately removed from the computer until I determine what action to take.

These are some of the rules I use in the classroom.  I hate to sound like a drill sargeant, but there is time for fun WHEN the technology is properly maintained.