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So I was giving a PowerPoint (power point, power point….. power point) on airbags (actually it is the lesson plan I made for this class). I found had two good clips of airbags being deployed in slow motion, one of the driver’s side and one of the passenger’s side. They were saved on my computer at work, so I put them on a thumb drive, took them home and used them in the PowerPoint. They worked when I put them on my computer and assembled the presentation. They worked when I ran the PowerPoint from the flash drive.
However, when I got to school in front of twenty nine students and my principle they did not work. Not at all. I tried clicking them with the mouse, I tried right clicking, and I tried the space bar. Nothing worked. Thus, I was forced to describe what happened in the clips. I’m sure it was riveting.
The big finish to my airbag presentation was supposed to be taking the class outside, principal in tow, setting an airbag off. I had a Suzuki airbag hooked up and waiting and two more in reserve in case the first one failed. And fail it did. So I hooked up the backup. Nothing. Surely, the third would not fail as well. It did, and stop calling me Shirley.
Thankfully the principal had left after the first back up failed to deploy. I took the kids back into the classroom and had two of my advanced students remove the driver’s side airbag from a Saturn that had been donated the year before. At the end of class I hooked the Saturn’s airbag up and it went off on the first try. Good ole GM.
Don't you just hate this when it happens? Isn't this one of Murphy's Laws: If anything is bound to go wrong, it will? It sounds as though you put a lot of work into this, and the lesson sounded valuable for students. What is it they say about the "best laid plans of mice and men"?
ReplyDeleteActually I had a professor in a "Response to Crisis" class that liked to say; "Anything that can go wrong.......probably won't."
ReplyDeleteFrankly this is much more true than Murphy's Law (think of all the things that can go wrong on an airplane for instance) but when you are in front of a class of students and a supervisor it never seems to be the case.
bf
Did you get your evaluation yet??? If I was an administrator, I would applaud you for your preparedness (?????). This makes me think, we are obviously the "technologically advanced" in our buildings considering that we have all chosen to expand on our knowledge of education technology...imagine how your less techie cohorts would have handled this situation. I think this is why, in general, there is an opposition to using technology in the classroom. When was the last time a textbook let you down?????
ReplyDeleteOn a completely seperate thought....make sure you have all of your work for class done by next Thursday.......I sure would hate to miss the Jim and Pam wedding 'cause I had to write a paper!!!!!
Preparedness and determination ... don't sweat the eval. I agree with Doni, you worked your butt off, just to have the technology fail. Such is the life of people on the leading edge of change. Just keep at it; it will prove worthwhile in the end.
ReplyDeleteP.S. It would be helpful to follow up with the school tech staff to see why the videos wouldn't work. That was a bummer.
Keep up the good work.
I am still laughing at the Agent move- You really should just break out that move next time!!!
ReplyDeleteAs for the technology lesson you were incorporating in your class, mad props to you! Although your lesson "failed" you, your lp sounded awesome and intriguing. I am sure your students still learned the content you were covering, even without the technology!
I'm sorry for all your trouble, but the way you told that was hilarious. I love the Office and that reference had me rolling! So did you get your eval by now!? Curious to know how it went. You did a great job incorporating the tech. And I agree with the good ole GM (I'm from a GM family). You did a great job and I love your sense of humor. I've found that's the only way to get through quite a few of my days in my classroom setting (self-contained spec ed).
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