65 Days of School, but only 15 Technology Classes

The life of a specials teacher is in one word, flexible.  By the end of this week, we have been in school for 65 days, but I have only seen my one first grade technology class 15 times.  That only equals about 11 hours of instruction.  Narrow it down even further, that is not even two school days.  I wonder some days if my lessons are good enough and if my instruction is improving, but with such limited time with the students I get to teach, how can I be evaluated effectively.  Last week, I was observed by an administrator and got effective scores.  It is not the scores I worry about, but that I am getting what I want to get done with my students.  Even though I feel that there is never enough time, days like today happened and my students were amazing and completed my lesson with enthusiasm and I was beaming.  The worst part, no one was there but me to witness it!

I laugh that we as educators may not always feel happy being observed, but today I wish someone could have been there!  I had my first graders watch a screencast of me showing a Google Presentation about some technology vocabulary words.  This lesson came directly from some feedback from my administrator about adding more academic language into my lessons.  I then had students complete a paper and pencil assignment that went along with the screencast.  I was really unsure how it was going to go, and I was so happy and surprised that it went seamlessly.

I felt like a success today and that is always an amazing feeling.  I am so excited to see how my students will keep growing and advancing in their computer skills.  My plans for the new year will be to begin to use Google Docs with these first graders and really get my student to student collaboration going!  Even though I have only seen this class 15 times, I know after a day like today that what we are learning is sticking and we are becoming tech savvy at age seven.