It might not seem like it judging
by the drop off in new blog postings lately but I HAVE been busy with subbing
assignments.
My last assignment was a three day assignment with 3rd graders
at the newest school in the district. I’ve managed to only get assignments here
once or twice until this year when I picked up five assignments and had to turn
down three more due to personal conflicts.
To emphasize just how new this
school is, look no further than the men’s restroom. No other school in the
district has two urinals AND two stalled toilets. All other schools in this
district are “single service”, which makes the timing at the end of lunch break an Olympic class race for male employees.
This school, being the newest, has
the latest in high tech gear including document
cameras, SmartBoards and high end Apple computers in every classroom.
It was the Apple computer that
unexpectedly shut down just before class began on the third day of my
assignment making the SmartBoard an instant Dumb&DeafBoard. I attempted to
restart the computer, but I had problem with this particular version of Crapple
Computer.
It had no “ON” button. In fact, I
couldn’t even FIND the computer. I started with the big screen monitor and
followed all the cables hoping to find anything that looked like a computer
without success. Class was starting and I didn’t have any more time to futz
around with it.
Fortunately the DocCamera still
worked and using the Teachers Editions and practice books, we plowed away with the
lessons as best we could without the fancy popup graphics and animation planned
lessons.
After class, I resumed my search
for the hidden Crapple computer. Again not finding one, I turned my attention
to the big screen monitor. Again, finding NO controls on the front, bottom or
top or sides, I moved around the table to the back. After moving a pile of
books and folders, I saw it. On the lower left side BEHIND the monitor there
was a single power button. Evidentially the big screen monitor WAS also the all-in-one
computer. Have I already mentioned I’m not fond of Apple computers?
This experience hasn’t altered my
opinion one bit.
2 comments:
Got to read up on your blog. Our district gives us laptops to do work on and op our smart boards. Thankfully if a laptop ever stopped working I could borrow my neighbors if I had to. Just started allowing the kids to get near the thing cause I was so nervous one of them would do something I could never had expected them to do to my board. Oh, yeah we also have single serve restrooms. But we also have 4 all over the building.
That type of computer is one reason I don't want to volunteer for computer class again until 3rd grade when the kids move up to the PCs.
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