Plugging things in IS hard.
Our technology guy sucks. There is just no other way to put it. He suckety suck sucks and from now on we shall call him He-Who-Has-Too-Much-Free-Time Not only does he spend 80% of his time talking to his wife on the phone or IMing his son in college (that’s in addition to teaching no classes, friends), he is repeatedly unavailable to help teachers who want to integrate technology into their classroom. Boo. (The worst part is, outside of the “not doing his job stuff”, he’s a really nice guy so it’s hard for me to work up my usual venom. I will try my hardest just for my friends in cyber space and to honor the rage I honestly felt earlier last week).
Monday’s email:
Dear He-Who-Has-Too-Much-Free-Time,
Can my class please have five digital cameras charged and ready to go on Wed afternoon…we have an exciting project we’re working on.
Thanks,
Mrs. Mimi
Tuesday’s email:
Hey He-Who-Has-Too-Much-Free-Time,
Just a reminder that I will be picking up those five digital cameras charged and ready to go around 1:00 on Wed.
Thanks again,
Mrs. Mimi
Wednesday – a lovely note stuck to his door with a candy attached (I work it good!)
Good morning He-Who-Has-Too-Much-Free-Time!
P. will be by about 1:00 for those five cameras. Thanks for having them charged and ready to go!
Have a great day,
Mrs. Mimi
Wednesday at 12:45
Picture it: Twenty excited young friends sit on the carpet, all their eyes eagerly listening to their teacher as she explains their next big project.
Me: All right guys, we’ve been learning all about our urban community. Now it’s time to take our community walk. Remember, we’re going to be working in teams with the digital cameras. Each group has their lists of what photos we plan on taking. Are you guys ready?
The Class: YES!!!
We troop out into the hall, everyone buzzing. It was my personal goal to integrate more technology into my teaching this year and as our culminating project for this portion of our work on urban community, my kids were going to narrate photos of their community, discussing the elements that make it distinctly urban and/or the things that they love about living there. I was going to stream the photos and voices together and burn it on to a DVD to be played during lunch on the gor-juice new plasma TVs our principal got installed. (The man is a miracle worker…seriously, we have everything.)
P runs to get the cameras. He returns. With one. One camera. One camera and a note that said He-Who-Has-Too-Much-Free-Time did not have the free time to plug in cameras. In the last three days. Not enough time. Three days. One camera. Insert your favorite slanderous phrase here.
And, just to put the cherry on my sundae, the lone camera that I received only had enough memory space for four pictures. FOUR!!!!
Then the battery died. As did my faith in other adults.
17 (really 15) more years
LMAO- and you just described at least 5 people who work in my school (but not our technology person- she is absolutely wonderful). Kinda reminds me of our dean, who teaches 5 classes a week, and kills half of those 5 classes by taking attendance…..
MsWhite
That was our tech person, too. When he wasn’t busy doing “something” for “someone” – “somewhere” in the building, he was out sick. Then there were all the days he was at county meetings…usually when we had to give computer-based assessments or our grades were due.
On the plus side, some of us developed some mad tech skillz!
Anonymous
I hate to admit this but we have a tech department above and beyond all others. Plus, we have a tech teacher at our school who is phenominal! I am very sorry you have a lazy bum on your campus. I will trade you one lazy bum for one high strung perfectionist new teacher who knows it all.
Jen Barney
that stinks…. the kids are the ones who got the dumper of the deal!!! take him down mimi!
jenamoured
my fucking god that sounds like every technology experience i’ve had this year, which makes me want to KILLKILLKILL everyone, especially the media specialist.
laptops? yeah you can use them. by the way, they won’t turn on and you also won’t be able to connect to the internet. and especially not in your own classroom.
lcd projector? yeah you can use it. just remember that we don’t have a sound setup and that the laptop that you’re supposed to use with it won’t let you access your jump drive, because you’d need to install that, and no one (NOT EVEN THE TECH PERSON) has administrative rights on the computers.
overhead? yeah, you can have an overhead, but it will only project 1/3 of the display, and no one will be able to see it anyway, since your screen is in the corner.
copy machines? don’t fucking get me started.
ire.
pure ire.
Mimi
I could go on for days about photocopying…I’m not actually allowed to touch the copier (my advanced degree evidently leaves my unqualified).
Ooooo…I fantasize about that scene from Office Space….just me, the photocopier, and a bat in a big field…
Cathy
so sorry that your amazing plan to incorporate technology into your class didn’t work…my heart groaned knowing what was coming as i kept reading…sometimes flexibility is really hard as a teacher…this wouldn’t be acceptable in a corporate business…so why in a school? how frustrating!
Anonymous
Just to play devil’s advocate, next time get the cameras a day ahead of time and make sure they get charged. Just sweetly say to the overworked tech guy that you know how busy he is and you will take care of making sure they are ready by getting them the afternoon before you need them. That way YOU have control. 🙂
Yeah, I am a techie – but you’ll forgive me…