The Good , the Bad and the Ugly...

So you are wondering how my first week back in the classroom went? From the title you would be correct in assuming it was a less than perfect beginning.

Let's start on a positive note. My assignment gives me 4 full days at school on the north west side of town. The room is large , spacious, and air conditioned :) They have also purchased brand new computers with lots of memory. Sounds wonderful right??? Well if something sounds to good to be true it usually is. My wonderful brand new computers did not have any software installed on them, and are not hooked up to the network printers. So I had my first day of instruction learning how to be creative with MS Paint program. The children there are delightful with the notable exception of just one class of older students, who seem to take challenging, disrespecting, and rude behavior towards the new teacher as "Sport". With 27 of them and one of me I am of course going to work hard to get them under control and to do simple things like, raising their hand and waiting to be called on, as well as NOT talking over the top of me while I am giving directions. Of course actually being able to print out written assignments would be a real help! To solve my software issues I have been staying after work until 7:30-8:00 each night installing software to all 30 work stations., because of course none of the workstations show the network drive so I can't just install to the network. So far the computers have Kid Pix, Google sketch up, Alice, and WestPoint Bridge design. I also have to install those little "plug-in" programs we all take for granted...you know Windows Media Player, Shockwave, Adobe Acrobat reader, Real Player and a few dozen others I won't bore you with.

Friday I returned to my long time favorite school located in Kentwood. This is my fourth year there and the kids are like family. I know the parents, and the staff are some of the most dedicated teachers I have ever met. Sounds good doesn't it??? Here';s the bad... the computer lab is a little area partitioned off from the library. The room has no Air Conditioning and as you know the cooling fans on the computer produce heat. So picture a really small hallway with no windows, no airflow, and 15 computers computers venting heat on a day that is 80 degrees outside with 75% humidity.( The picture above shows my little lab.) By the third class a computer dumped it's memory core and would not restart. By the fourth class two more bit the dust, and I had to have the kids turn off the systems. On my first day back at my favorite school I manage to kill three computer systems. So my last three class I end up taking the kids to the parish center reading stories and drawing pictures with them. Now the really ugly part ...they could not believe how hot it was-we had somehow managed to reach 98 degrees in the lab. If I would have realized we had gotten that hot I would have, of course, turned the systems off much sooner.

Kelley the computer killer...gee

So I bet you can guess...mowing the lawn today was therapy!