Special ed. seventh grade world history. We were reading a chapter on the Middle Ages, St. Patrick, and Charlemagne.
Their teacher (Ms. M) was in the habit of projecting the pages for the class as they read along in the textbook. I have to admit, it made it easy to let the kiddos know where we were as most weren't following along, so they'd know where to start when it was their turn to read. Alas, setting that up...
Ms. M had checked out a laptop for me to use, and she even had the tech guy, Pete, come out to make sure it was all good to go. (No, Pete's not his real name.)
After Pete left, I noticed the battery was on red. But it was plugged in. It wasn't showing it as being plugged in on the toolbar. I jiggled the plug. I moved the plug to a different outlet. I called over the instructional aide (IA) to see if he could make it work.
(I've been subbing so long that the IA... I remember having him in class not too terribly long ago. As a high school student.)
There was no help for it. We needed Pete. But I had a class to deal with, so I had the IA call him.
Towards the end of the period, I asked the IA what Pete had said. Apparently, the battery on the laptop was bad, so it wasn't going to show that it was plugged in.
In retrospect, this made no sense. And if I hadn't had the class to deal with, I would have called Pete and we would have had a different conversation.
Because, after period one left, the computer died. It blinked out and wouldn't turn back on. Naturally.
And when Pete returned, he discovered what I had been trying to tell him. (He did exactly what I did, plugging the cord into a different outlet.) However, he had more luck than I did, and after about ten minutes, he had the laptop working again.
Whew. Because there were also video clips that went along with the lesson.
Good grief. I'm reminded of the two technicians at my last employer. The guys I worked with complained about them, while they always treated me with polite efficiency, even when a website for my personal enjoyment got blocked by company policy. ~grin~ A smile and genuine appreciation go a long way.
ReplyDeletePete's actually awesome. He's bailed my butt out of problems so many times. This time was just weird. It was that kind of day.
DeleteWe call o Help Desk the “helpless desk”. Truth is, they get the job done
ReplyDeleteOh, no complaints about Pete. Since I can deal with most technical issues, I'm only bothering him for the hard stuff :)
DeleteOh no. Had the IA ever made it to the blog when he was in school? I suppose him being old enough to work there is better than him being old enough to have kids that go there.
ReplyDeleteTechnology - makes life easier after you've ripped your hair out. Lucky it lasted the lesson!
ReplyDeleteGood to see the IA working. I'm thinking he wasn't a troubled student when you had him in high school?
ReplyDeletebetty
Well I was going to say something like COMPUTERS, great when they work right but in this case it was the plug in and not the computer. So...wall plug ins, great when they work. Okay, sorry that was not even funny, to early, to cold, and only one cup of coffee down. Maybe I will be funnier later!
ReplyDeleteWell, you could have gone with "technology" or electricity or something. But computers is accurate.
DeleteI'm impressed that the class read out loud.
ReplyDeleteThis is an excellent way for kids to learn..by reading things aloud. I am sure Pete just didn’t want to be bothered and thought you were “just” a woman.
ReplyDeleteOh no, Pete is amazing. He's saved my butt more times than I've ever recounted here. And I'm fairly good with technical stuff, so I'm only calling him after exhausting everything I can do.
DeleteGlad you finally got it working! Technical problems like that drive me nuts.
ReplyDeleteThey're not fun.
Delete