Rich's Other Pages
Ah, the wonders of outsourcing...
I got home from work yesterday and checked my email as I always do. After deleting about twelve offers to let me in on fabulous unclaimed fortunes in Nigeria, I took my Scoobert out to poop. When I came back in, I found that I had lost my interet connection. I've had DSL for several years now, so I know the drill; I unplugged the modem, unplugged the wireless router and turned off the computer, then I turned everything back on. Still nothing.
So I called up Verizon tech support to find out what was going on, and I got a polite young lady with a thick Indian accent. Yes, I was routed to India to find out what was going on in Northwestern Pennsylvania. Again, she was terribly polite, but I could barely hear her and had to keep asking her to repeat herself. I asked her if there was a problem with the lines because it has been horribly windy around here lately and we actually had a brief power outage earlier in the day. She said there wasn't as far as she could tell and proceeded to walk me through turning everything off and on again.
Nothing.
Then we released my IP address and renewed it.
Nothing.
Then we disabled my network adapters and re-enabled them.
Nothing.
Then we removed the wireless router from the system to see if that was the problem.
It still didn't work.
She said that was all she could do and put me on hold so someone else could help me. I sat there on hold for about fifteen minutes. During all this, my wife Dolores had come home, fixed dinner and ate with the kids (note to self--next time, we get a speaker phone) while my dinner got cold. Finally a gentleman came on, and I could tell by the suddenly increased volume that I had somebody in the U.S. I explained the problem to him and elaborated on what steps we had already taken. He asked if he could put me on hold for a moment more. When he came back he told me that there was a problem in the line in my town and that DSL was out for about 350 customers here. He promised it would be back on within a couple of hours.
Gahh.
I had to wait for over an hour on the phone and all but perform oral sex on my computer so they could tell me it wasn't on my end? Wouldn't it make so much more sense to actually run a test on the lines before making a customer do all this? Are they saving so much money by having the first line of tech support outsourced to other countries that it's worth pissing off their customers?
Look out, Saudis! Aquaman and the Sub-Mariner may be horning in.
Spiffy Free Software for Writers
How do you like the new Meez?
Sadly, I think that's a fairly good likeness.
I don't think I'll be using this much on the blog, as that's Alexandra's schtick, but my duplicate will probably show up quite a bit on my classroom website.
Clever AND Righteous
Changing Jobs
I love being in the classroom. I love standing in front of a classroom full of students and watching their faces as they think about something we're covering in a way they've never thought of before. I also like to think I'm fairly good at my job. I've had numerous students come back to me over the years to thank me for something I taught specifically or for our class in general.
It's these things that have made this weekend a rough one for me. On Friday I was offered a new job, and I've pretty much decided I'm going to take it.
Our school district got a HUGE grant this year from the PA state government called "Classrooms For the Future" (CFF). This grant gives the high school a ton of new technology for educational use in an effort to keep our schools competitive in the global arena. We're getting mobile laptop computer labs, laptops for teachers, overhead computer projectors, and Smart Boards. And in order to make certain that the tech is actually used properly, the grant also pays for a "technology coach"; a teacher whose job is to help the rest of the faculty learn to use the tech efficiently in facilitating learning. I put in my resume for the job early in the month, and Friday my principal came up and said I got it if I want it.
It's a totally lateral move. There's no more pay involve, and I wouldn't be an administrator. They'll get a long term substitute teacher to finish out the school year for me starting in early October. It's technically only a year long position as that's all the grant covers, so at the end of the year I'd go back to the classroom. However, many schools who already have the grant have kept the tech coach on, so there's the possiblity I would be asked to continue in that position next year. Even if the position disappears after the year is up, I don't lose any contract steps or seniority, and I step right back in with no penalties.
I'll miss being in the same classroom all day, especially this year. I really enjoy ALL my classes this year, something I haven't always been able to every year. And I'm not looking forward to announcing to them I'm leaving. But I will still be in the same school and I'll be in and out of the classes across the school, meaning I'll still be seeing and interacting with all of them. One of the best things about the position for me is that while I love teaching, I'm looking forward to NOT spending the hours grading papers.
I figure that even though I don't plan on going anywhere, this is a good resume padder, and quite frankly how many folks are offered the opportunity to try something completely new for a year with no financial risk?
It's going to make for an interesting year.
Christmas Should Arrive Early At My School This Year
The laptops are Lenovo R500 ThinkPads, and the primary differences between the student and teacher models are that the teacher models include a built in webcam and microphone and have some administrative software on them that the students won’t need to access. Also, the teachers’ memory was upgraded from the standard one gigabyte of RAM memory to two by the district so thanks go out to John, Sue and the administration for okaying that. These computers are a tad heavier than what many would think of for a laptop today, but that’s because they were built to withstand a bit more punishment than one you might buy for yourself from a retailer.
There is an amazing selection of software that is available that is already installed on the computers. Each computer has Microsoft Office 2007(Word, Excel, PowerPoint, Access, Publisher, Movie Maker, and more), Adobe Design CS3 (Photoshop, Fireworks, Illustrator, InDesign, Dreamweaver, Flash, Acrobat, and more), Inspiration, ITunes , Google Earth and a number of free, Open Source programs. In addition, there is a collection of tools from Microsoft called Learning Essentials which is designed specifically for using Office products effectively in the classroom. Some of these products were new to me, so I would imagine some will be new to others as well.
The district opted not to get MS Vista as the operating system. These computers still run XP, so the learning curve is very slight. Microsoft Office 2007 may be a shock to those who haven’t ever used it because it is a complete redesign of the product from the 2003 version used here in the district. Personally, I like it better. It has several new features that make it much more efficient and workable, but it definitely takes some getting used to, and some people may be a bit put off by the differences.
Meanwhile, I’ve been flitting to and from various points on the map for training on how to best help teachers actually utilize all this stuff, and I’ve picked up a number of great ideas for all curriculum areas. I’ve also assembled a huge list of websites that can help teachers in the classroom. You can access my bookmarks by going to www.delicious.com/rrlane.