And They're Off...and Crawling

The start of a new school year is always exciting. However, late August and early September can also be a frustrating time of year.

When I last worked with students, everyone knew how to readily access the customized program, and my focus was almost entirely on students and content rather than how to access that content. Of course, I took it all for granted.

When the school year began, I had done much of my summer homework. My program was largely in place, at least enough of it to give me a comfortable lead over my fastest moving students. However, I soon learned that I had not done all that was needed.

• ID/Passwords: As I ease closer to two decades of working with young adolescents, I should remember that memory/organization challenges can be a big part of the young adolescent mix. So, as I welcomed my returning 8th grade students back into the customized program, I shouldn't have been surprised that some of them did not recall (or have recorded) their key IDs and/or passwords to access my delivery systems. Oops. A wise teacher will record such critical info from returning students before they walk out the door for the summer. That way, veteran students can hit the ground running rather than being held up by password resets and calls to the already busy tech crew for assistance. For incoming students, the more tangible and less complicated the ID/Password process can be, the better. This is not the time to be overly concerned about security. (Remember, most of these students may not even be able to access their own account, let alone someone else's.) A simple layer of protection should be adequate during the first few weeks of the school year. This is not the time for upper case, lower case, symbol, sixteen character passwords. Once students have settled in, passwords can be enhanced for greater security.

• Application Testing: If there is one thing that software developers seem to like as much as developing new software, it is updating current software. I ran into this when my students began using a great web-based application called Word Voyage. Things started well as one of the benefits of this application is that the classroom teacher has full access to user IDs and passwords. Yet, the progress began to slow when students encountered tasks that were not part of last year's programming. This all came as a surprise to me as I had not taken the time to review this regularly used application for any changes. Oops. A wise teacher will quickly test out key software for little changes that can act as speed bumps for students as they race to access content. This is especially helpful to bear in mind if new students are entering the mix. They may not have any experience with the software and may need assistance from their teacher. It's hard to help them if you don't know your way around.

There are, of course, other things to keep in mind when wrapping up or starting a school year. However, these two simple tips should save me and my students some valuable time and lower our stress when the next school year begins.