Classroom
Management | Teacher Skills | Tools 

Management

• If your instructional routine involves lots of worksheets while students work quietly in rows and columns, you may have a tough time adjusting to using computers in the classrooms.

• The students collaborate and communicate. This means they talk and need to be able to see each other. Pods of three or four students work pretty well in my classroom.
  You have to plan their time on the computers. If you just "let them work" undirected, they will be playing Snood, trying to download porn through the firewall and emailing that wellness instructor love notes with your return address.

• You have to supervise what they are doing. I have rules about a visible taskbar and no chat windows open (even if they are inactive).

• The students have to be accountable. Clicking through projects after a session to see progress is a great opportunity for feedback and peer assessment. If they have been goofing off a classmate will call them on it.