Adaptations, adaptations, adaptations

Something I have come across recently is the strong need for adaptations in the classroom.  I do not mean adaptations for specific students.  When I say adaptations, I mean thinking on your feet--improvisation.  What happens when a projector doesn't work?  What happens if the computer you wanted to use isn't playing a video?  Most relevant, what happens when not everyone in your classroom has access to technology that is needed in classroom participation?

Teaching is like acting.  Everything you do in front of the classroom is a reaction to something.  You teach your lesson the way you know your students learn best, and you also assign them homework that they need.  So when something goes awry in the classroom it would make sense to follow this path.  If you're teaching and the projector doesn't work.  There better be a back up lesson, or a way to still teach the lesson without the projector.  I experienced this in one of my classes held in University Hall.  The projector failed to turn on, and so the professor cancelled class.  This was wasted time that could have more appropriately been used had he moved on to another subject or done the lesson with adaptations.

When students lack the appropriate tools to participate in the classroom, it seems that there is nothing that a teacher can do remedy that situation; however, there are many things that the teacher can do.  In my classroom, I would allow for time in the classroom for the students to work on a project or a paper if they didn't have a computer at home.  If students need dictionaries, or tools they can only obtain at the library or at school, then I would assign library time.  If a student can't have access to these tools at home, then it is the teacher's responsibility to make an adaptation in the lesson plans to help the student lacking that access.  It is important that a teacher is flexible, and ready to change the lesson on the spot.  This is something that is important for a teacher to know because of the unpredictability of the events of the classroom.