Tech Nightmares

Up until October 2011 tech was a far away dream in my classroom.  While I use technology regularly in my personal life (computers, cell phones, ipod,  twitter etc) I had never been at a school where technology was feasibly accessible.  Sure I could book a projector (for one class) and then spend half of that class trying to hook it up properly, or a could book a mobile lab, where more than half of the computers would have dead batteries, or I could take my class down to a computer lab where they couldn’t remember their passwords from grade 8.  


          So prior to this September I was a cynic about technology in the classroom, wait I should rephrase that, technology in MY classroom.  I had an old school projector, I had my overheads, and my little world worked perfectly.

         Then I received a permanent job at a wonderful secondary school in Surrey.  When I arrived for the summer pro D in August I already knew this school had a different take on technology.  During the presentation teachers were tweeting!  They had not only heard of Twitter, but were actively using it! #OMGimhome!   I was impressed, but also fell back into my regular ‘this will never apply to me’ stance as I was placed outside in portable 3, a spacious, well lit lot in #portablecity. 

Now I’m not slagging portables, there are benefits (hello running around outside, getting to watch the wildlife and always knowing exactly what the weather is doing) but all the glorious technology I had seen during the summer, and kept hearing about was all found a 4 minute, and one big hill walk away, and I was back to the reliable overhead transparencies!