Reflecting on the 1st Quarter

Looking back on 1st quarter, here are some positives and negatives.  As I reflect more, I'll edit the post.  The sequel to this: what are my plans for 2nd quarter will be a followup.

POSITIVES
Students comfortable with laptops: 
+ Very few locking themselves out now.
+ Routine settling in: read bellringer on monitor, Edmodo? log-in link?: Get your computer up and running.
+ Computers logging onto the network faster. (yeah C. Corbin and crew!!)
+ Students being student leaders - helping one another with problems.
+ Independent learners - accessing Edmodo from home to complete work.
+ Involved parents using parent codes; calling, emailing to support students & technology
+ Creatively incorporating technology into lesson planning.
+ Giving students time and opportunity to learn basic, and necessary computer skills, copy, paste, open, close, locate...
+ community work helping with differentiation: Wallwisher, Primary Wall, Edmodo, Polleverywhere, Today's Meet.

NEGATIVES
- Used devices too much for menial tasks causing waste of teaching time. (ex: labels on shared drive)
- Used it just to use it (see above) so I didn't feel like I was wasting the gift of having them on a daily basis!
- Lost instruction/connection time.  With laptops, time with teacher is lost.  I see this as a minus, some might see it as a plus.
- activities low on Bloom's Taxonomy. - Question is with beginning languages, how far can I go up?
- students struggled with Edmodo steps, didn't complete work due to slow log in time, distractions.
- Group setting detracted from my introduction of my courses, routines and rules - should have followed by first inclination to begin as individuals and "grow" into community of learners.
- Focused on mechanical use not creative use.  Need to use WWW sources for students to benefit from OTHERS using their languages.