My Adventures in Logging on with Kindergartners!

 My Adventures in Logging on with Kindergartners!

The light blue half sheets are my student's login cards.
Their information is written large enough that they can
track where they are at with their finger.

I love using technology with my kindergarten students! I have a few programs I come back to yearly that I feel really benefit my students and add to the lessons I am teaching. I also enjoy introducing and experimenting with new things. My biggest problem has always been that daunting task of how do I teach these tiny 5 year olds, some who don't even know any letters or numbers, how to log on to our devices with their usernames and passwords? But that’s not all, then once they log onto to the device, they most likely have to log on to whatever program we are using too! By the time they finally get all logged on it's 30-45 minutes later and it's time to move onto something else. Plus, I have spent that whole time helping with issues or helping students find the letters on their keyboards and the rest of my class who aren't on computers has been doing something on their own without my support. Usually around January, like everything else in our magical kindergarten land, most students start to become independent at it and then the real fun begins, but now half the school year is gone and I am left wondering what more I could have done if I had had more time!

This year I wanted to make a change...

One student pausing to help a classmate troubleshoot his
problem! They figured it out without any assistance
from me and were back working within minutes.

I set a goal that all of my kids were going to be proficient at logging in by the end of September! To do this I met with my amazing friend who also happens to be our district technology support teacher to brainstorm some strategies. We came up with two simple things I would implement starting day one of school and let me tell you...IT WORKED! Not only could all of my students log on to their devices with zero assistance from me, but they also had learned how to get to our online math program and use it all in one short month. Then by the end of October my students had learned to completely manage our online reading program solo as well as some simple problem solving tools if some basic things went wrong with their device. Now, it is mid November and I am introducing Google Docs as a writing station when in years past this wasn't possible until March!

The secret to their success is so simple that anyone can do it!

1. Each of my students has their own laminated keyboard. Their morning work is to get out their login card, find and circle, in order each letter or number in their username and password with a Vis-a-Vis pen. If they have a letter or number occurring more that once they circle it again. Then I simply rinse them off in the sink and they have them to practice on the next day. This now takes them only about 3 minutes total and about half of my students have their full login information memorized already!

2. My amazing district tech support teacher mentioned above, spent one day pulling each of my students one at a time in the first week of school and walking them through the login process. She also gave them a few key tips that has helped them become tech issue problem solvers before asking me!

I’ve always tried to have the kids begin logging on for the first time in small groups. This meant they did a lot of waiting and I felt like I was being pulled in 6 different directions at once the entire time. One on one is definitely better and probably took less time in the long run.

Needless to say, I am very proud of my students and so excited for the all the extra time we have for new adventures in tech!