Epic Fail

Have you ever had "one of those days"? You know the one...you might call it an epic fail. Nothing could or would go right.

I like to problem solve or be the problem solver with technology at school. Most of the time I can help get a solution. Today, a poor teacher had guest speakers and had to try two computers before calling me. I can't get the flashdrive to work. Try with the third computer and think that it is fixed....only to find out the computer power (even though plugged in) dies.

Epic fail?
What are these guests thinking? And a poor frazzled teacher! Classroom waiting.

Most of the time technology works for me or I can get it to work. So I might not have double checked as much as I should have today with the tools I wanted to use in my own class. At the bell is not the time to figure out that the USB web camera is not working with the program you want to work with. All the time that was spent downloading the software and gathering supplies...not to mention the "what now". A class of students eagerly awaits the plan for the day. I'll just say that something came together, but we had less than usual behavior in the room as I at times scrambled. 

Epic fail?
Spur of the moment pull an app from the air to have some download...only to realize it doesn't have the photo/camera option you want after killing time to get it downloaded
Computer class chair train (don't ask...but I wish I had taken a picture) while waiting
One computer for the class- stop-motion animation all using photo booth 
Mix in a little laser pointing (prop), toy cars, puppets, and more.

I'll be honest today felt like an epic fail. Technology can fail....not function, lose power, wig out, be uncooperative, etc. However, I hope the students saw resilience, persistence, humbleness (yes, things like this happen to everyone), humor (that sometimes it is okay to create a train out of computer chairs and ride them around the room...for no other reason than teamwork and fun). And we did make a little animation action.

I will enter a win for today. For nothing else, there is always learnIng through the failed attempts.

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