When Technology Fails Us.....

Mother's Day is upon us.  In my classroom the Friday before Mother's Day is our Mother's Day Tea!  We invite mom to spend an hour with us at school.  We entertain and enjoy the company of none other than the World's Best Mom's.  Ask the kids why they are the best and they will tell you all sorts of reasons ~ they coach our soccer, they shop with us, they snuggle with us and read us big books.  Ask me why they are the best and I would say ~ they make all the arrangements necessary to make it to school for an hour to spend with their child.  Today they are demonstrating to their child that they value education and that spending time with their son or daughter is important.  I LOVE watching them interact with each other!

I was ready.  Invitations were sent home and emailed home a month early.  Everyone RSVPed.  The room was decorated.  The cookies baked.  The iced tea bought.  The portraits drawn.  The questionaires filled out.  The video created and tested for proper volume levels throughout the room.  We were READY!

As I plugged my iPad into the hdmi connector so it would all play through my LCD I said "Technology don't fail me today."  JINX!!!!  A staff member walked in and said "The wireless is down today".  WHAT!!!!  The guests would be arriving in 3 minutes.  I thought......" well good thing we could use the wired computers and the video was on youtube.... no - I don't have a splitter for the screen to properly show from my desk top to the LCD (I always use my laptop).  Guess what I did not bring my lap top to school today...... my hands were full, I did not need it I had my iPad!!!!! "  My mind raced a mile a minute!

So off went that staff member to get her laptop (thank you!)and in came the moms.  Instead of cheerful greetings, I frantically was working with technology that was failing me!  My classroom EA took over  the tech part so I could meet and direct (thank you!)  We hooked it up.... it worked BUT the volume was so quiet playing only through the laptop speakers and 40 people were in the room!  They saw it, barely heard it and I encouraged them to go home and watch it on the wiki:(  We moved on to the entertainment.  My McIsaac staff is so great!  Within minutes, our principal was down curious about the no wireless, he then went in search of our tech guy who came super quick to help but I was already on to serving tea and had no time to talk tech troubles.  And our tech support mentor later offered all her help.  Thanks to everyone for wanting to help~ it worked, sort of.  I was just so sad because today, a day to showcase the technology I use daily failed me!