I was promised a class of “great kids” for today. This is my first subbing day of the new school year for a 5th grade teacher I had subbed for last year.
The promised “great kids” performed as advertised. They listened, worked, and were helpful in all that I asked them to do. We stayed “on plan” without any hiccups until the last five minutes of class.
This is one of the newest schools in the district. That means everything still works.
The A/C will actually keep the classroom at the required temperature. The walls are insulated against “neighbor noise”. The outside walls are almost floor to ceiling windows for lots of natural light. All the classrooms are pre-wired for audio, video, and computer communications. Each teacher has a high end MAC computer, large flat screen monitor, color laser printer and video and multimedia projector.
The last item in the lesson plan right before dismissal was: “Have M. access the homework data file in my computer to put up the homework assignment on the projector for the weekend. She knows how to set it up”
M. is absent today and nobody else is allowed to use the computer.
All this hi-tech stuff for the teacher does nothing for this substitute teacher.
Even if I had the computer password, trying to navigate his fruity computer with a one button mouse when I’m used to a fully functional PC mouse, is like trying to do word processing using only thumbs. It can be done, but it’s extremely aggravating and impossible under a five minute time constraint.
Note to all teachers reading this post. Please include hard copies of everything you want me to convey to your students to avoid just this type of unanticipated situation.
For today, the kids got a homework free Labor Day weekend.
1 comment:
This post reminds me of why I hate those "I'm a Mac and he's a PC" commercials.
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