Beginning a new adventure with technology!

Our school just went wireless. We've been wireless for the teacher's laptops but now we are allowing students access online with their own devices! So I volunteered along with a some other teachers in my school to be a B.Y.O.D. classroom. I just jumped right in without thinking much about how to manage it and it was not a great idea. I had students trying to look at their devices while I was teaching. I also had a student leave his device outside the classroom door unattended while he transitioned to another room! So I took a step back, went over the rules again and implemented a few new routines. I am now putting up signs on the board to show when they can access their devices and when they need to be left alone.

I also made a consequences sheet for when the rules are broken. A few students had to put them back in their backpacks, now I can have documentation of a each occurrence. The last problem I was having is the space on their desks.....those devices were just too tempting sitting right in front of them. I found the best solution at Office Depot They make these little plastic business card holders that even hold up an ipad. It works awesome, and if a student doesn't have a device....it makes a great pencil holder! (Plus they are only .99 in the store)

There are still a bunch of challenges ahead of me.....on Friday we tried to use our devices to access an online game called Kahoot and the game froze and kicked us out! I still need to work on lists of aps and websites. So it's a work in progress!

If you are interested in downloading my posters, you can get freebies here! I would love to hear how you manage devices in your classroom, yours or student owned.