Computer Lab Rules and Procedures--The First Week Lessons

The time finally came....the first week of SCHOOL!  I am not going to lie, I was very nervous.  I had decided that the first week we would just talk about the computer lab rules, procedures for entering, leaving, etc and become familiar with logging in/out of our computers.  But what would my rules and procedures look like?  Hmmmm......

I scoured the internet looking for the perfect set of computer lab rules, and found several good examples, but none of them were quite perfect.  So I came up with my own set of rules (I am still working on making a fun printable for these)

• No food, drink or gum allowed in the computer lab
• No talking when the teacher is talking, or when one of our friends is talking to the class
• We use a quiet voice when we talk
• No printing (my lab does not have a printer, so the students would need to walk two halls over to get printed material)
• Stay on task
• Only go to approved sites and programs
• Do NOT turn off the CPU or Monitor
• All 4 legs of the chairs must stay on the floor (OK, so I added this one after the first week)

Now I needed classroom procedures for entering and leaving class.  I decided that I wanted my younger students (K-2nd) to go to a carpeted area in my room each day.  It is easier to do the group learning part of the lesson with out the distractions of a computer.  My older grades (3rd-5th) go straight to their chairs, but do not touch the computer until after the group learning portion.  Also, upon entering the computer lab EVERYONE gets hand sanitizer! About 600 kids come through the computer lab each week, so keeping our hands clean to not spread germs is a priority.  However, I do go through almost an entire (smallish) bottle of hand sanitizer each week.

As for leaving the classroom, we do Give Me 5:

1. Save your work and close out of the program
2. Put your headphones on your monitor, on the side it plugs into the CPU
3. Straighten your keyboard and mouse
4. Gather your material and trash
5. Stand up and Push your chair in

I then call the room by sections to line up, once the students are lined up, I open the door to wait for their classroom teacher.  Once my door is open, I expect hallway behavior:

• No talking
• Hands to self
• Feet still
• Face forward

You can find my lesson plan for the first week here.

The information for drills is provided by my school. 

Every grade (well, Kindergarten doesn't come the first week in my district, so 1st-5th) watched this fun video:

My older students (3rd-5th) then reviewed the parts of the computer with this video:

And I started teaching my younger kids (1st and 2nd) the parts of the computer with this video:

Afterwards, I let the students free draw in paint.  This was great practice for learning how to open and close programs, find programs and learning about mouse clicks and mouse movements.

What mistakes did I make my first week?  I thought it would be a great idea to teach each grade level how to log on and off the computers.  The younger kids just COULD NOT handle it.  After the first week, none of my students log off the computer and I only have my 5th grade logging on each day. 3rd and 4th grades log in as needed.

What have I missed?  Is there something else I should have covered the first week?