And lock up the keyboards and mice. Explain to them that, due
to their vandalism and general lack of basic toilet training,
they have lost all computer privileges.

Spend the week having them read articles about technology,
including detailed written responses that you will collect at
the end of each class. Give them lengthy homework assignments
every night of a similar nature. Explain that all this written
work will figure heavily in their grades.

On Friday, give them a challenging test on what they've studied.

The following Monday, IF they've been good, uncover the
computers and tell them that you'll give them a second chance,
but that if there's one single problem, you'll revoke their
privileges again.

If you ever discover a student destroying the class equipment,
write him up for illegal vandalism and do everything in your
power to get him suspended and removed from your class. He
does not deserve to be there.

Make sure that all of their next report card grades reflect the
disrespect with which they've treated their classroom
resources. F's, F's, F's.

Try to find the budget money to replace those old rubber-ball
mice with optical ones. If your district will allow it,
install a couple of cameras in remote corners of the room so
you can find out who the criminals are.

Clear out ALL old files, cookies, and unneeded junk from the
computer hard drives, and then defragment them.

Set up individual subdirectories for each student that can only
be accessed by password.

If they're wasting time on the Internet, check the browsing
history and then block all access to their favorite junky websites.

Some of this stuff will take extra time on your part, but you
can't let a bunch of spoiled brats run your classroom.

Contact the special ed chair at your school and demand that the
one child have an instructional aide. If that person balks,
contact the district special ed supervisor.

And at NO TIME, under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES, should students be
left alone in any classroom, let alone a computer lab, without
supervision. Don't ever leave the room until it's empty, and
when you leave, lock the door.

On 10/24/09, overwhelmed wrote:
> I am new to teaching computers. I have a class of 24 8th
> graders. 1 of them is a special ed kid who really could
> use an aide but doesn't have one. The computers frequently
> freeze, in spite of my many work orders.
>
> I'm having a really tough time. The kids have gone into
> other kids' files on the shared drive and deleted their
> work, pried the keys off the keyboards and put them on
> upside down, taken the tracking balls out of the mice...
>
> And I can't watch every kid every minute. It's tough to
> accuse someone if you don't see them doing it. I"m not in
> that room all the time.
>
> What can I do?

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