Today was just one of “those days”.
It all started with the night before when I unintentionally fell asleep in front of my computer while I was working on a Power Point presentation and lesson plan on Henry David Thoreau. I had an exhausting weekend and just haven’t had time to catch up on good rest or sleep. I’m used to it, though, so I don’t really mind running on very little sleep.
Anyway, I woke up this morning and decided that I would just finish touching up the presentation and lesson plan at work. As always, if I ever work on something at home, I always email it to myself at work. I woke up earlier than usual today since I had to be at school for a Student Council meeting.
I got to work about 6:40am and turned on my computer. It started up reallllly slow, which was definitely unusual. I shook it off and didn’t really mind…until I couldn’t log onto the Internet. I checked my phone, and an omninous message was on the screen: “Connect to Phone Port” (which really means, “Hey, you’re not connected to the Internet at all.”)
Great. What do I do now? I remained calm and decided to go to the computer in the teachers’ lounge. That computer wasn’t working as well. It was 6:55am, so I knew I didn’t have time to roam around the school looking for a computer to use.
Now, you’re probably wondering why I would be so worried. Well, I was getting observed today by my assistant principal first hour. All of my lesson plans are very well-thought out, and I’m always trying to make them as engaging and innovative as possible. It was no different for this lesson plan…only I didn’t have the necessary files for it!
In a hurry, I put together another Power Point presentation and handout and virtually changed all of my activities because they were connected with using the Internet (i.e. YouTube clips, etc.). The Power Point was mediocre at best and the activities weren’t nearly as visually or audibly engaging as my orginal activities.
The lesson went fairly well, and I was blessed to have been observed teaching one of my better-behaved, highly participating juniors. However, one student did notice that I wasn’t really myself. He mentioned to me, “Miss Yeam…you didn’t seem like yourself today. I mean, today wasn’t bad or anyting, but I could just tell you weren’t completely comfortable…” Now, if a student noticed, my assistant principal would definitely have noticed. At least I’ll be able to tell him at our post-observation meeting.
So…what did I learn?
- Well, I definitely made some rookie mistakes. I should have backed up the files on my flash drive instead of depending on email alone. You never know what can happen when it comes to technology.
- Always have plan B no matter what. Something unexpected can always happen, so I need to be ready for anything.
- Experience does help. This is my fourth year of teaching. Although it hasn’t been too long, I definitely feel like I handled the situation fairly well. If this happened to me during my first year of teaching, I know I would have broken down into tears…:oP
Despite the fact that this is how my morning went, the rest of the day went by without a hitch, so I feel very blessed and thankful. I get to teach the same lesson tomorrow with my original materials, so we’ll see how it goes! 
Hannah, I can totally sympathize with you on expecting the unexpected. While I’ve not had quite the stressful situation you were in, I’ve been there too many times for comfort. I am always prepared and when things don’t turn out, I beat myself up over it for not planning an alternate activity or lesson. My principal likes to plan whole-school assemblies, but not tell teachers about it until the morning of or just a couple hours before. While some teachers can plan and adjust for these types of things, I have a much more difficult time…maybe if I had at least a day’s notice, but you know everyone says teachers need to be flexible…Glad everything turned out well for you especially on your observation day. ~Ashley
Hannah,
Way to think on your feet! I enjoyed reading your story about how you had to go with Plan B. I think we definitely rely on technology for many things, and when the network or internet doesn’t work, its tough to feel like we could get anything accomplished while 9 years ago when I was in high school it was becoming prominent but not to the level of today.
Last month, our wireless when out for a couple weeks and so many teachers were complaining and upset about how they couldn’t connect or teach without it. It was amazing to see the wave effect it had on all the teachers and our teaching. Teaching with technology definitely forces us to think on our feet!
Carole