Teaching Technology Without Computers

Thursday: We had an early Technology metting to go over the "Infinite Campus" application that we will be using to do Grading, Attendance, etc. this year. This is a new application for our district. Not all of the bugs are ironed out. Spencer, our IT Guy, has been working on getting my new lab set up (it isn't yet) and getting the Infinite Campus stuff going. He has been working very long hours recently (sort of like an accountant before Tax Day) and it showed when he tried to give a presentation to the staff on how to use the system. I don't think everyone caught on.

We also went through a building meeting, to start going over teacher stuff. Stuff like Staff Meetings, Lunch Duty, Class Sponsors, Concession Stands, Invoices, Announcements, Study Halls and a million other little things that happen everyday in a school that you don't think about. My head started swimming, just a little bit.

I don't have any computers in my classroom that work, so I haven't been able to check out the network, Infinite Campus or anything else. Other teachers are working on their computers, getting stuff prepared and I am rearranging junk. I threw out more junk today, old computer manuals, old science books, a notebook stuffed full of the old purple mimeograph copies of science handouts, the old T-Shirt Transfer press that doesn't work, stuff like that.

I am trying to get rid of all of the junk. It will take awhile, but I would like to get the classroom looking like a Technology Lab, instead of a garage. I hope to have numerous exhibits of student work on the walls and the shelves and the windows, showing visitors what we do in the lab.

For now, I would just like a computer that works, though...