The Rover Chronicles: Tech Challenges

I’m a Rover. 

No not that kind of Rover.  I’m a teacher without a permanent home, who travels from classroom to classroom with all of my stuff on a cart.  So what kind of challenges come with being a rover?  Well first of all at the beginning of each day everything you need MUST be on that cart.  That includes handouts, graded papers, office supplies and most important my portable hard drive.  I don’t have the option of running back to the office to grab something I forgot, so that means I must get in early to prepare for my day.

Being a rover has its perks.  It has forced me to become highly organized.  I travel on a cart, there is absolutely no room to be messy.  It has also forced me to develop a daily routine for my students.  I am required to write clear class objectives on the board at the beginning of each class.  I also need to log on the computer, take attendance, and set up the SmartBoard to prepare for our lesson.  

Before I developed a routine this meant that my students sat talking for 10 minutes as I prepared for the class.  I realized that I was wasting valuable class time with my students while they waited as I set up.  So, I developed a routine.  Using the technology that is available in our classroom, I was able to simply tell them to log on to the day’s discussion board and read an article I posted for their response, answer discussion board questions about a previous lesson, or use todaysmeet.com to comment on a current events topic.  We also used an online stock market game, which was a good activity for my students be engaged as I prepared for our lesson.

https://todaysmeet.com

I am currently taking a course Technology for Administrators at Regent University.  In the past couple of weeks I have opened my first Twitter account, participated in my first Twitter Chat, started my own online Blog, and learned to create an online Screencast.  I plan to use all of these wonderful resources to further engage my students in activities where they can self-start and work at their own pace. 

Are you a Rover?  Well here’s a few pieces of advice:

• Have an external hard drive where you save all of your documents.  While most schools have a shared drive that teachers use, sometimes documents disappear.  Having a portable hard drive ensures you always have your documents in every classroom.  I like the Toshiba Canvio which I purchased on amazon at the advice of a veteran educator.

Toshiba Canvio Connect External Hard Drive

• Back up your hard drive on Google Drive.  This is very important!!!!  I have seen many teachers lose their life’s work because they lost their hard drive, or it stopped working.  Backing it up on Google Drive protects you against document loss, and if you forget your hard drive at home you simply log in to Gmail and have all your documents available wherever you are.

Want to learn more about Google Drive?  Click the link below:

https://support.google.com/a/answer/2490026?hl=en

• Ask your IT support person or Administrator if there is an IPAD available for you to use.It is easy to carry around and can be a faster alternative than logging onto different computers to take attendance, post discussion board questions, or do anything else that you need to do online to get students started.
  

While being a Rover isn’t an ideal situation by any means, it has helped me develop activities and routines for my students that ensure that we aren’t wasting valuable class time.  It has also forced me to become creative and developing activities that enable my students to learn to become self-starters and work independently.

Pinterest has some great ideas for Rovers, you will need to create an account.
https://www.pinterest.com/search/pins/?q=floating%20teacher

Happy Roving!