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We can't hear or see each other. Students are constantly telling me that the audio or visual components are lagging. "Black squares" frequently populate everyone's screens and force us to restart Zoom. We are three months into the school year and buggy technology is preventing me from reaching my 5th grade students to the best of my ability. While my school has done an admirable and noteworthy job distributing Chromebooks to over two hundred students, the sad reality is that many teachers were left with computers that were incapable of handling the many technological demands of running a virtual classroom. As I have done for the past five years, I have relied on my own computers to plan lessons, collaborate with colleagues, and for the first time, deliver high-quality remote instruction to my students. For the most part, my technology ran smoothly for Zoom meetings with 27 students. I am saddened to report that after years of professional use, my computer is reaching its end. Zoom problems seem to increase weekly, and processing speed is declining rapidly. Toggling between several different applications in one lesson wastes so much instructional time and during that waiting time, students disengage. I need a new computer, with adequate memory, fast processing speed, and a large screen, so I can best serve all my diverse learners. The large screen will allow me to view all teaching applications/tools at once and will help me see students and keep them engaged while I teach.
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