Today wasn’t too “exciting,” as far as the technology piece goes in my classroom.  Students got caught up with their Science homework. There is one small, but significant victory I had today.  We had our Open House this evening, and I expected very few (if any) of my students to show up.  The plan was to have parents come into the classroom to see what/how their child was doing in class.  Just in case, and as a last minute idea, I decided to set out my iPad and have a slideshow of all the pictures I’ve taken of the students working so far play for anyone to see who came in.  I was pleased to see one of my students come in with his mother and little brothers and sisters.  (*side note: I absolutely love seeing my students with their little siblings. They have this adorable parent-like characteristic to them that makes them so sweet!)

Anyhoo, I introduced myself to his mother, who I knew from last year, and she noticed the slideshow right away.  My student had explained to her our use of iPads in the classroom and now she had a picture to go with it.  She and her kids giggled at the pics of my student whenever they came up, but you could tell they were happy to see it.  In all his pictures, he was hard at work.  It’s one thing to verbalize this to parents, but it’s another to get a chance to show them.  I don’t know why I didn’t do this before.  I’m so glad I have the chance to use the iPads in my classroom so I can do just that–show the parents that their kids are learning.  In the end, it was only him and another student whose parents came to visit.  However, even if his family was there for a small moment, I was happy to witness that awkward grin he gave when his mom saw what a hard worker he was.

Awkward, with a little bit of pride.