Back to School: The Real Deal

Well, back full-time for the first week. I'd forgotten how much energy it takes, and how tired I'd be by the end of the week. I also had forgotten what energy can be drawn from interacting with 2,000 excited youngsters!

Us veterans were given seniors for our mentoring class on Monday, which I thought could be problematic, since I teach mostly sophomores (Health Education...I know, I know, scottie1242 says that's not REALLY teaching...Drape can fill you in on him...interesting character). Anyway, expecting a jaundiced group of (random) seniors, faced with a new attendance policy, etc., they turned out to be a blast! What a fun, funny group of hot dogs!

Technology woes reared it's ugly head immediately in the form of PowerGrade (our computer based attendance and grading system) being incompatible with the 'new and improved' system our district switched over to during the summer. This is on top of PowerGrade being unavailable the first five weeks of last year (NO attendance, NO grades, NO information for patrons, students, etc.) because it had been 'upgraded' by their engineers, which turned out to be a DOWNGRADE to teaches who eventually used it. Sheesh, and, as the largest school district in the state of Utah, we're paying 'em bazillions to screw things up.

I'm not ready to throw in the technology towel quite yet, but I have a HUGE problem understanding WHY the technology gurus wait until school starts to trouble-shoot, and we REALLY need it...they are, after all, making a helluva lot of money to do their job! Luckily, I was NOT assigned to work TIC-TECH this first tri, so I can take the chicken way out when teachers complain and just shrug my shoulders...ahhh, ignorance IS bliss.