Friday, February 24, 2012

computer log-in cards.

At my school, we love us some technology! Teachers love it, kids love it, parents love it - we all love it! But seriously, who wouldn't? We can use it in so many different capacities - virtual math manipulatives, online storybooks, comic-strip writing, podcasts, movies, the list is endless. Be still my heart.

But it's not always unicorns and butterflies. Our little techy world has one major hitch that can bring our digital utopia crashing down in an instant. In order to operate any device in the building, all kids have to log-in with a username that is a combination of bits of their last name, first name, and student ID number (I'm sorry, what?!) and the password is their legal first name.

Now, I'm not at all complaining about the kids having to log-in to the computer - I absolutely understand the reasoning behind it! It's just the difficulty with teaching a six year old a complex web of capital and lowercase letters and numbers, and a password that is probably going to require them to tack on an extra 6 letters to the name they already know how to spell. Oh, and by the way, don't even think about messing up because then we get locked out of your computer and can't get back in for 2 hours. No pressure, young one.

To help alleviate a bit of this stress, at the beginning of the year, I made each student their own "log-in card". I had a plethora of sentence strips, so for lack of a better option, I cut the strips in half and decided those would house the information nicely.I wrote their name so that it was the largest component of the card, then wrote their case-sensitive username along with their password below. I threw them in a bag and set them behind the computers for the kids to access each time they were logging-in to a computer.

Needless to say, it wasn't the most attractive place to house our cards. And the cards themselves were not the least bit lovely. But that wasn't the only problem - the kids would spend tremendous amounts of time digging around in the bag for their log-in card! Cards were sticking together, getting wedged in between papers and other cards - the system just was not working.

As I started thinking about what I could change to make our system of log-in cards easier to use for my kids, and more aesthetically appealing all at the same time, I knew that I would definitely need to type the cards' information. I also wanted to store the cards in a more easily accessible location. As for the "digging through the cards" problem, I knew that I could easily solve that problem by alphabetizing the cards by first name.

I typed up the cards and printed them on heavy cardstock. The child's name is still the largest text, their log-in name (partially blurred in the picture) is listed right underneath their name, and then their password is on the far right of the card.

But no collection of cards is complete without an adorbs cover, so I just HAD to make one of those as well.

And after hole-punching each card, alphabetizing them, and throwing them on a binder ring, our new log-in cards are lovely, compact, and easy for the kids to locate, remove, and replace!

I placed a Command hook on the side of the easiest-to-access computer monitor, creating the perfect new home for our log-in cards! They are easy to reach and always visible, which also encourages the kids to use them more often!

 
  • By using supplies I already owned, the project was no-cost.
  • It improved the system we had been using to make it easier on the kids.
  • It drastically decreased the space consumed by our log-in cards.
What simple changes have you made in your room that have helped your kids in a drastic way?

10 comments:

  1. Just found your blog and read through all of your posts! Love all of your great organization ideas!!! And your log-in cards are fabulous! My kiddos don't have to log into our computers, but they do have different logins for different sites (kidblog, vocab practice, grammar practice, etc.). This would be great to do so that they can easily access their login information for the different sites! Thanks for sharing and I'm excited to be following your blog now!

    Molly
    Lessons with Laughter

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  2. P.S. I've awarded your blog the Liebster Award! Come on over to my blog to get the award so you can proudly display it here! :)

    Molly
    Lessons with Laughter

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  3. Just found your blog via Pinterest. Love the log-in card idea! My kids currently have their info on a popsicle stick which makes passing them out in the computer lab very easy. BUT, I love this idea to hang by my classroom computers. Definately doing this next week.

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  4. I store my log-in cards on a ring, but I LOVE the hook on the side of the computer!!! Your cover IS adorable...can you share it with us, please?!!

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    1. Becca, you are going to KILL me but I made the cover so quickly that I didn't even save it! I'm such a terrible person! What I CAN tell you is that the image came from a "computer clip art" google search (it was like the 4th image in the results) and I used DJ Inkers' DJ Lex font for the words. Does that help at all? I promise to be better about saving my work in the future! Thank you for reading the blog!!

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  5. I know this is an older blog post but it would be so helpful for our staff. I'm starting a blog to give them some tips to incorporate more technology. Can I link to your blog? I'd love them to see some of the content with the link but I'm not sure how - of course linking back to your blog. Any suggestions?

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  6. Hi Laurie! Please feel free to email me at elementaryorganization@gmail.com and I can try to walk you through step-by-step to link back to my blog with content! Thank you!

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