"The Internet Is Down"

The dreaded words were spoken today ... and for hours (and I do mean hours! from 9:00 AM to 2:00 PM!), we were not allowed on our laptops at all at school today. The tech people were trying to get to the root of the intermittent service we had been getting all last week. What was I to do instead of being on my laptop? Well, my newly developed visual lesson (see post below about working on weaknesses in my teaching through my self-evaluation!) would have to be moved to another day and photocopies of the most important information would have to be made. Interesting -- I had literally not made photocopies for my classes in months. It actually felt weird. And gratifying -- when my students came into class knowing that they had not been able to be on their laptops all day, they said, "What in the world are we going to do today without our latops?" I know this might bother some people, but not me. To me, this means that I have integrated technology so well that they know it is the foundation of how the class runs. Not the content, but the mode. Yes, they worked diligently on paper "like old times," but I knew my lesson that relied on technology would have been much better. And that is what it is all about.