Lesson Plan Work-Arounds and YouTube

This week has been a exercise in working around the fact that the Chrome Books are not in and the laptops we are using are old and cannot support the demands we are making...not enough memory to handle the Site, and pages and blogs and so forth. Many students type and navigate so quickly that the laptops fall behind and freeze in place in order to catch up to the number of click demands that have been made. Several machine will not always log in, or stay logged in.

OK, we're not talking this old, but still.

Yet, in spite of these equipment issues, the lessons move forward. This week has been Packet 2-Questions. The students have a Shared document outlining the required posts I expect to see when I grade them next Monday. They have been taught to prepare target dates and action dates in their project planners (calendar). I have noticed that the thinking about the lessons this time around has been better, and more questions have been asked for clarity. My suspicion is that they are aware others will be looking at their work and making judgments. One repeat student (an especially shy one) has mentioned she is not fond of the fact that her blog is open to others....she liked being able to keep her journal private. Others are keeping each other on their toes, and making helpful comments.....

.....which brings me to the YouTube issue. I have posted on the class Google Site a number of email etiquette YouTubes that will show how to write comments in a professional way. Before we get too far into the semester, I would like for the students to see those so comments they leave each other are appropriate. The IT department is figuring out how to allow that since students are never allowed YouTube access within the school domain.