Spinning Wheel of Doom

Tuesday. Film Studies. Seventh period. 

When I walked in the classroom first thing in the morning, there was a note projected on the screen. It said to leave the big screen down all day, and that the movie the class was watching would automatically start shortly after class started. Okay, then.

First period, things worked perfectly. The class watched Sisu. 

It was a pretty violent movie. The teacher said it was in the same vein as John Wick. If you like that sort of thing, I do recommend. 

Third period was sophomore English, which I wrote about yesterday. The screen projected a note to the kiddos, reminding them of what they were supposed to be working on. Then fifth period it turned into another note to me, saying not to touch anything. 

It was a little creepy, but I've heard some stories of what subs end up doing, so I understood. I did not touch anything. Why would I? Everything was working perfectly... 

Oh, you know what's coming. 

Seventh period walked in. I took roll. Explained what they would be watching. (They watch movies all year, so this was nothing new.) Then, as planned, the movie started. 

I got comfortable. We were about ten minutes into it when something blinked on the screen, we got the spinning wheel of doom, and the movie froze. 

Naturally. 

The teacher had left his phone number, so when things didn't right themselves, I texted him. When I got no response, I called. 

I explained the situation. He said he couldn't fix it from where he was, and he couldn't leave. (He was on campus.) The class would have to do something else... 

Luckily, this was a good class, so they found something to entertain themselves. 

Just before the period ended, Mr. A walked in. He did something on his phone, and the movie righted itself. He had Apple TV hooked up, and he had programmed the full day on it. Somehow it had lost connection. Mr. A had the remote on his phone. If he had left a remote with me... 

But, as I said before, some subs... Anyway, the kiddos had access to the film, so they could watch it at home. Not as good as on a big screen, but tech issues and all. 

I was kind of glad not to have to watch the movie again. But I know they would have rather had it. Ah well. 

It worked for almost the full day. 

Changing My Password

Wednesday I was back at the continuation high school. And... Meh. The teacher was chaperoning a field trip whale watching. I had one student per class period. Yeah. Seriously. 

Alas, at the end of the day they had not seen any whales. They did see lots of dolphins, though. 

But I had one major thing I had to do on this day, and it had nothing to do with the students. 

Last summer, the district implemented a bunch of new security protocols. There were some breaches. Nothing bad has happened as of yet, but the IT people are concerned. So, two factor authorization became mandatory, and passwords now have to be at least 15 characters long and include a capital letter, one of the other special characters, a number, an incantation to summon the rain god, and the name of our first grade teacher. 

Well, maybe not quite all of those. 

And, of course, now passwords must be changed every three months. 

To change the password, one must use a district-issued device. Of course, as a sub, I do not have a district-issued device checked out to me. (I do get one when I'm on a long-term assignment.) And most teachers nowadays have laptops checked out to them that they don't leave in their classrooms for their subs to use. 

Some classrooms still have very old desktops. And some classrooms have newer desktops. So, knowing that it's been about three months since I changed my password, I was delighted to see a district-issued device that I could access in Mr. P's classroom. Which meant that this was the day that I could update my password so I don't have to worry about this again until May. 

I had a new password picked out and everything. 

Second period was my prep. As soon as my first period student left, I went about logging in and getting that password changed. 

And for the next hour... 

Because, yeah. I spent an hour on this ridiculousness. 

I mean, the actual changing of the password was pretty quick and painless. It was just in updating everything that uses that password that took for-ev-er. 

So, there's the login to the district computers. And my emails. (I have two with the district.) Then there was the login I'd used to login to the computer I was using, so every tab I had open suddenly didn't work. I have the district email on my phone, so that had to be updated. As well, I had to update my Wi-Fi access, as I can access the district Wi-Fi, but only via my username and password. 

And then the big problem. I had to re-login to Google on my phone, as that's what I'm using for my 2FA (because texting a code led to other issues), and that required 2FA, and... 

Like I said, an hour. 

And so, now I don't have to worry about this again. Until May. Sigh. 

All done. All clear. Until the next day when my computer wouldn't log in so I could take attendance, and I took way too long to find where to update the Wi-Fi password on that computer. Because of course there would be one more thing I hadn't quite updated. 

Whew. 

*My first grade teacher's name was Mr. Elm. 

Glitchy

Friday. Seventh period. Integrated math 1. (Read: algebra 1.) 

The plan was for them to do their study guide for a half hour, then I'd go over those answers, and then they'd take their test. While they were working on their study guide, I texted the teacher with the names of all the students (nine of them!) who were absent. 

No one had any questions about the study guide. So, then it was time to start the test. I collected their work, and they went to get computers. 

The test was online. 

Dr. R wanted the names of those absent so she only had open tests for those students who were in class. (Absent students could access the test from computers at home, but at home we couldn't guarantee the students weren't using notes or their phones or someone else was doing the test for them.) 

Once they got logged in, a student called me over. Her test was paused. It turned out she was on my absent list. (Which, seriously? I called out the roll. Was she not paying attention when I called her name?) So, I texted Dr. R to open her test. 

Whew. Class was quiet. Phones were put away. Things were going well... 

Sterling approached. His test had been paused. He showed me that when he tried to input a plus sign, he instead got a new screen. And because it was a test, the computer only allowed one screen and one tab open while the test was being done. 

I texted Dr. R. Sterling continued working on his test... 

A few minutes later, another problem. Sterling wanted to backspace to fix something he had mistyped, only backspace wasn't working. Deep sigh. 

I had Sterling get another computer. Clearly the one he had was glitching (or he hit something that was disrupting things), and I wasn't going to be able to fix it. So, I had to text Dr. R one more time... 

It was after school when I saw her final response. That she had opened Sterling's test twice. (I got busy with class stuff so I wasn't looking at my phone.) 

I made sure to send along an explanation for what happened. Tech issues. Always gets us. 

This is one reason why the math teachers don't usually give tests while they're out. (Well, those teachers who do the online tests. Some teachers still do tests on paper.) 

Old Broken Technology

In February, I took a long term gig covering a class that had lost its teacher at the semester. It was a mad scramble. 

At that time, the library was clearing out its old technology. They were throwing out all their old DVD players as most teachers now stream video to their big TVs or have the kiddos watch things on their Chromebooks. The aide for the class snagged one of those DVD players and left it for the classroom. 

At no point did we ever use that DVD player. 

Wednesday. Freshman math, special ed. 

New teacher, but familiar classroom. Mr. R arrived, admitting that he had forgotten he was out of class, so his lesson plan was kind of thrown together. The kiddos had a couple worksheets, and then they could watch a video. (He left three choices.) That DVD player, that Ms. S acquired in February was connected to the TV. 

We got through the worksheets and "Good Things". (Every day they do a thing where the kiddos talk about one good thing in their lives.) And then it was time to watch the movie. I let the kiddos pick which one, and I went to start the DVD player...

Only it wasn't plugged into the wall. We searched for an extension cord... 

I turned on the player, put the DVD in, but the TV wasn't getting a signal. I switched out the cable. Nothing. I tried a few other fixes. Again, nothing. 

I grabbed a Chromebook, figuring I could stream the movie. Only, the Chromebook didn't have a spot to plug in the HDMI cable to plug into the TV. 

Finally, after a good half hour of troubleshooting, I cast the Chromebook to the TV. Only, the picture worked, but the sound did not. Sigh. (The sound worked from the Chromebook, so I turned that up as high as it would go.)

For the next class, the aide called a neighbor teacher who is tech savvy to see if she could figure out the problem. She plugged in a different DVD player... and that worked. (Well, the drawer for the DVD wouldn't open, but the TV got a signal from the DVD player.) 

So, the DVD player, that Ms. S "rescued" from being thrown out, didn't work. Sigh. 

If only Mr. R had tested the thing before setting that as the lesson plan... 

One Small Detail

Wednesday. Seventh period success, eighth grade. 

Success is about teaching the kiddos study skills. There's some social/emotional stuff as well. (I've talked about covering this type of class before.) 

The class was across the way and a couple doors down from the art class. There were some familiar faces. And I knew what I was in for. But the teacher, while small, is mighty, so I wasn't anticipating any issues... 

They had an assignment online. I had them log in. They found the assignment, only the assignment didn't contain any assignment. 

That is, the assignment existed, but the teacher had forgotten to attach the slides that the students needed to do the assignment. 

It was a good-sized class. Full. And these sorts of students don't take to waiting too well. Let's just say they came in loud and not having something to focus on meant that instead of settling down, they got louder. 

I don't like to bother teachers when they're out, but this was a time when I was glad the teacher had left her cell phone number. I texted her... 

Before I went to text her, I had told the kiddos to work on missing assignments. Were they? Of course not. They were treating the time like free time, with half the kiddos sitting on the floor, and others were roaming around, getting into mischief. Sigh. 

Eventually, we got me logged into her account, and I was able to upload the slides to the assignment. Whew? Well, not so fast. 

Usually, when we assign the kiddos something, we "make a copy for each student" so they can edit the files. They each do their work and submit. But (something I learned the hard way a couple years ago) you can't give each student a copy when you attach something to an assignment already assigned. You can only do this when the assignment is being created. 

But earlier in the week (or was it last week? it's all starting to run together) I covered a class where they made their own copies of an assignment and attached it. So, I went to talk the class through what they had to do. 

As I explained, I got a couple good questions, so those who were following along were able to get the assignment to work. But after I got them started, I got more questions... 

Some students were able to get this to work. Others needed me to walk them through it. Individually. Sigh. 

Eventually I got to every student who couldn't figure it out on their own. Or, at least the ones who were asking. So, hopefully, they were able to complete it. 

Technology. Makes some things easier, makes other things harder. 

At least I knew enough to take away the excuse that they were unable to do the work. 

Modern Pranks

Wednesday. Seventh period. As usual, I was standing outside the classroom "greeting" the students as they walked in.

"Your computer turned off..."

As they walk in the room, I have a slide up on the TV. Usually it's the agenda for the day, but since rearranging the room (see yesterday's post), I had their new seating chart on the screen so those who weren't sure where they sat could find their seats. 

I had gone into the power settings on my computer ages ago so that it wouldn't go to sleep while I was using it. (I have it timing out after two hours.) That it would just shut off...

And that's when I realized what had happened. It hadn't just shut off. Someone turned it off. 

It's a thing they do. The kiddos will reach over and turn off each other's computers. Log them out. I'm not sure which key combination does it, but it's two keys, and they can do it fast. 

As they came in, I logged back into the computer. But whatever key trick it is on Chromebooks does a strange thing to laptops--it puts the function key on lock. Which I discovered the hard way when I went to reinstate the music I usually play in the background for them. Deep sigh. 

I growled at them. They denied it was them. (It wasn't "them". It was one student. They probably saw who it was, but they weren't saying.) 

I quickly keyed in my password, found my files, and pulled up the slides for the day. And then we got to work. 

I managed to get through the lesson. I couldn't put on music. (The next day I sat down with the computer and figured out how to disengage the function key lock.) And now I know I have to watch my computer as well as all of them as they come into the room. 

Grrrr.

Modern Problems

Friday. Seventh grade science. Third period. 

The lesson plan had them working on a Friend or Foe paper. (They were given two organisms--plants and animals--and they were to determine if the relationship was beneficial or parasitical.) I passed that out, and they were to fill it out using information found in their Google Classroom. 

Only, the information wasn't in their Google Classroom.

Luckily, this happened at the school I had started the school year out in. You know, the school where I did the long term for the seventh grade science teacher? (She's back now.) So, I knew just who to call for assistance. 

Ms. W didn't have access to Ms. H's Google Classroom, but the three seventh grade science teachers are all friends, so she was able to contact Ms. H to get the issue dealt with. (I actually have Ms. H's cell phone number, too. I was going to text her, but I thought Ms. W might have access, so I thought I'd try the teacher on campus first. Ms. H might not have been easily reachable.) 

Within a couple minutes, the info the kiddos needed appeared in their Google Classrooms. Phew. 

Digital assignments are great, until something occurs and the kiddos can't access them. 

Of course, they also were to start working on their study guides for their final (fast approaching), so I did have a backup in case things went totally awry. But it's much better that I didn't have to resort to that. 

Paper Deficit

Monday. My last day in the English class. 

As is my habit, the first thing I did was to get out my computer(s) and log on. Very quickly I discovered that there was no internet. I soon learned that the internet was out for the entire district. 

Not only was this a "transition day" where I was going to give the next sub access to the Google Classroom, lesson plans, and slideshows she would need to teach the class for the week, I also had grading to finish up from my tenure in the class (all done online along with the online gradebook). 

Oh, and the classes had a quiz. That was online. 

After I panicked, I began to contemplate how I was going to approach the day. Luckily, I had a prep period first, so I had some time to adjust. I thought about how I had seen the paper copy of the quiz in the digital file of quizzes for the class, and how I wished I had internet access to print out said paper. And that's about the time I remembered that Ms. A had a file cabinet, and wouldn't it be cool if there was a copy of that quiz somewhere in those files? 

There was a copy on paper of that quiz in Ms. A's filing cabinet. It took me not all that long to locate it. 

The copy machines are not dependent upon the internet. 

I decided to make an answer sheet to go along with the quizzes. (I had time. That lovely prep period.) I was in process when the sub who was taking over for me arrived, so I got a little sidetracked explaining what she was going to need to continue teaching the class. But eventually I got the answer sheet completed, and we headed to the copy room to make the copies we would need for the day. 

It was interesting to do the quizzes on paper. The kiddos were not used to this sort of thing. I had to explain how it worked. It wasn't all that long ago when no explanation would have been necessary. How quickly we adapt to new technologies. 

The online quiz and the paper quiz were pretty much the same. The only difference was the format. And yet, the kiddos who took the paper quiz didn't do as well as the classes that took the online quiz the previous Friday. (There was a 20% difference in average scores.) 

This makes me wonder. Was it the technology? Or were the kiddos who got to take the quiz online cheating somehow? (The quiz was "locked down", so the kiddos couldn't access another tab while taking the quiz. And I monitored them for cell phone use.) 

This is not the first time we've had an internet outage. (There was this time and this time that happened fairly recently.) I'm sure it won't be the last. 

Modern Video Problems

Tuesday. Third period. 

Upon finishing reading chapter three of The Great Gatsby, we were to watch the scene from the 2013 movie version. 

This was in the lesson plans. I saw it weeks before. So, like any prepared teacher, I set about making sure I had what I needed to get this done. Because technology wasn't going to make this easy for me. 

The movie was on Netflix. Was. But, alas, since Ms. A had found it there, it had been removed, for when I went to look for it, it was gone. And it wasn't streaming anywhere else. (If you ever want to know where some movie is streaming, just search it up on IMDb.com. It lists it there on the first page.) 

Ms. A had it on DVD. But, no one has a DVD player any longer. I have a teacher computer. No DVD player in it. (The old, out-of-date computers have DVD players in them, but they don't work all that well. And I couldn't get a hold of one.) I called the library to see if they still had a player (as I had heard that they were getting rid of theirs). They did. But, it didn't have a cable that would connect to the in-class TV. (It had the RCA connector, not the HDMI cable that the TV has connections for.) 

I looked on YouTube and found some video clips of the movie. That were heavily edited and not very long. Sigh. 

After discussing it with another teacher, Ms. K, the co-teacher, bought a digital copy on Amazon. Phew. Problem solved. 

So, it was Wednesday, the day to show the video. We were on a shortened schedule for state testing. The audio for the chapter took about a half hour. 

But, I stop. And discuss. So, even shortening my discussion because I knew it was going to be a time crunch, we finished reading with about ten minutes left in class. The video clip was ten minutes long. Close, but I could make it. 

I went to play the video... 

It worked just fine. On my computer. The projection? They could hear, but they could not see. Deep sigh. 

I did not have time to troubleshoot. (I saw it worked on my computer and hadn't bothered to make sure it projected.) I had a YouTube clip to show to finish out the period, but that was all I could do. And since I wasn't going to have time for the other classes, I took my time stopping and discussing with them. 

But Ms. A wanted the clip shown, so it was time to figure it out. 

I know five ways to connect the computer to the TV screen. The way I was using wouldn't show the video. I knew another way that would show the video, but it was jerky. Not smooth. I managed to scrounge an HDMI cable, but when I found the cable, I also found a wireless display adapter. But it wasn't connected. 

Luckily, I had kept a copy of the instructions on how to connect the thing in my files. Still, it took me 45 minutes to get it to work. Sigh. (And then it turned out there was an easier way that I figured out two days later.) 

The good news: it worked. Finally. 

When I went to show the video the next day, it played. And I watched as they watched it. So, success. Eventually. 

It's always something. 

Unpopular

Tuesday, fifth period. 

The period goes by a couple names. Conference. Prep. It's the period I have off from students. 

So, I was sitting in "my" classroom, doing what the period was intended for. I was doing some lesson planning. Some grading. And eating my lunch. 

The phone rang...

Ms. L, who I sort of co-teach with second period, called. 

In a prior second period, Ms. L used her document camera so that her students could copy down some notes. Only that day the thing wouldn't work. As I am familiar with the technology, I managed to get it going. 

And this is what Ms. L called me about. She couldn't get her document camera to work, and could I help her out? Well, sure, I was without students. 

I popped on over there, and in a couple seconds I got the thing working...

This success was greeted by a loud round of boos from the eighth graders. 

I'm not sure what they thought would happen if the document camera didn't work. It's not like they were going to get the period off. They might have had to do something harder than copy notes. Really, they should have thanked me. 

Ms. L did thank me, though. Profusely. 

And I was then off and back to my lesson planning and grading. 

(It was a beautiful sunny and warm day. It was nice to get out and walk in the sun for a bit.)

The Easy Class

On Tuesday of last week, I was asked to cover a class on my prep period. No problem. (I get paid extra for this, so it's not generally a hardship.) 

The teacher, Mr. H, had a meeting, so he was there to start class. There were eight students. And they had a story to read and questions to answer. The assignment was online. 

Mr. H explained to me the class was really good, so I'd have no problems. 

Well, I didn't have any behavior problems...

First up, one of the students couldn't log into the assignment. We tried everything. She switched computers. We reloaded. Nothing. 

Apparently she'd been having issues. Nothing I could do about that.

And then, just when things were going well, the internet went out.

Naturally. 

(Later I found out the internet went down for the entire district, so at least it wasn't some weird dead spot where we were.)

The good news was by that time half the class had already completed their assignment. And their phones worked fine. So, they kept themselves entertained. 

Why is it that the internet goes down when I have only online work for kiddos and no way to pivot to something else? Sigh. 

Technical Difficulties 13

Last week, the first week of summer vacation, I was sick. Well, I caught this cold (or whatever it is) the weekend of Memorial Day, and it's been lingering on ever since. I probably would have gotten better sooner if I had taken some time off work. But the last two weeks of school? Yeah, no. I pushed through.

What does that have to do with a Thursday 13? Consider it background for what's been going on.

1. Landlady decided she wanted to switch out the Wi-Fi. She was looking for a cheaper option. And we haven't had a moment of peace since. (We left Frontier Fios and went to Spectrum.)

2. The install went okay. (I got to do it.) But after, getting devices (like my computer) to connect to the Wi-Fi is hit or miss. Mainly miss. Basically, most days after logging onto my computer, I have to unplug the router and let it come back. Then I can connect to the internet.

3. Although, sometimes I have to do this twice...

4. I live in a condo complex. We have a mail room. I went to retrieve the mail one day to find a note on the box. Broken. Must get mail from post office. Deep sigh.

5. Roommate when to post office to get mail. They told her it would be a week until they could get someone out to fix it.

6. A couple days later, I managed to run into the postal carrier. She was very nice, and she explained that it was actually going to take two weeks as when they condensed our area to be part of the greater Los Angeles area, they no longer had the staff nearby to do the job (and likely fewer of them anyway). What was wrong with our mailbox? The key the mail carrier uses to open it to feed in all of our mail got broken off in the lock. (No one is sure who did this.)

7. It did, in fact, take about two weeks. In that time, I went down to the post office twice to retrieve mail (as I didn't want it stacking up). 

8. Landlady switched out our router three (or four?) times to try to fix the connection issue. She also had a couple technicians come out to fix things. (This included getting the streaming TV to work, too.) It turned out that the person who signed her up signed her up for more than she really needed. So, certain things were taken out of the package. This shouldn't have influenced the Wi-Fi, though.

9. Although, the Wi-Fi seems to be strictly a computer issue. The TVs work. My phone works. But getting the computers connecting... Although, landlady has had issues getting her phone to connect to the Wi-Fi.

10. And the Alexa Echo device. Landlady likes to play music. Her Alexa wouldn't connect to the internet, even though it worked just fine before. We tried uninstalling and reinstalling. We tried factory reset. She went to visit family out of state, and somehow her grandson got it working, although that didn't translate to the home Wi-Fi. 

11. She finally got it working after finding that her phone still had it set to the grandson's home. But why didn't it work before? That's still a mystery. (Especially as there are two other Alexa devices on the Wi-Fi that continued to work just fine.) 

12. I went to turn on my TV, and it wouldn't turn on. Just... nothing... I unplugged and replugged it in. Then, in desperation, I pulled out my old remote. (I bought a new rechargeable remote a couple years back.) It turned the TV on. I had to reinstall the "new" remote, and it apparently had 5% of charge remaining (which was very weird as I had just recharged it not a week ago). Deep sigh.

13. So, with all the internet issues, landlady has decided Spectrum isn't worth it. Now it's just a matter of switching the internet again... *ducks head*

A Bad Poof

Because I was covering Ms. M's math classes for two weeks, I was given access to her Google Classrooms and the set up she usually uses to instruct her classes. 

Ms. M puts the slides she uses in class online, so the students can access the notes (like, if they were absent). They take down the notes in class as they're written, though. And they are written. Examples are worked out in real time. (She uses a whiteboard app called Jamboard.) 

Friday. Sixth period. It was almost the end of the period. I had done their notes and many examples. (The topic of the day was the area of circles.) 

The question of ℼ had come up. I explained that it was just a number (albeit a weird irrational one). Since they were viewing everything on the in class TV screen that I was using via a computer, I searched online for ℼ to more than a couple digits, and I found it. 

Then I went back to the lesson. But, everything I had written on the whiteboard app, everything that was supposed to remain in their Google Classrooms, vanished. Poof.

Uh...

I attempted to write something on one of the slides, and the digital pen wouldn't work. 

I had less than ten minutes of class, so I pivoted to something else, and then had them get ready to leave class. 

But what was I going to do? Was I going to have to recreate the notes from class so it would remain online? 

After they left, I tried to troubleshoot. The digital pen wouldn't work, so perhaps rebooting the computer might get that going...

And when everything restarted, all my notes reappeared on the slides.

Whew.

But, all my scribbles (from when I was trying to get the digital pen to work) were there as well.

Deep sigh.

The digital pen also has a digital eraser, so that was fixable. And at least I didn't have to try to remember everything I had done with them in class.

(Ms. M left notes that I was mostly copying for them, but I also worked out examples in their books and such, so while I wouldn't have to recreate it all from memory, there was stuff I would have had to recall.) 

Cascading Failure

Wednesday. It had finally stopped raining, and it was likely to be an easy day. I got into the classroom, turned on the lights, and I headed for the thermostat. It was 58℉ in the room. I turned on the heat.

The heat switched on. Then BANG, and the lights cut out.

Uh oh... Power outage...

But wait. The clock was still lit.

So, not the whole school? 

I called the office. Nope, just my classroom was without power. They sent maintenance, and he managed to get the lights back on before the first class started. (It was the breaker, but it wasn't as easy as flipping the switch. He had to toggle it back and forth before the power came back on.)

He left. I got class started. I turned the heat back on. And then the thermostat went blank. (I called for someone to fix it, but it never did get fixed that day.)

Well, that makes for a good blog post. The day should be cake now, right? 

Fourth period. The assignment was in their Google Classroom. Only, it wasn't. I emailed the teacher. The assignment finally appeared. (I think the timing was just off; I don't think the teacher saw my email.) 

We had about a half hour left of class, and most of the students had finished their assignment. (It was a government class for seniors.) Good thing, as that's when the internet went out. 

I wasn't too concerned. Then. They were done. But when sixth period came in a half hour later and there was still no internet...

Sixth period was U.S. history for juniors. And their assignment was in Google Classroom. Which was inaccessible due to the internet being out. And I didn't have a backup assignment for them as I was the sub.

Deep sigh.

They were quite happy to entertain themselves. A group played Uno on their phones. 

The internet came back up about a half hour later. I informed them of this. They attempted to convince me that there wasn't enough time for them to do the assignment. I told them they could do the assignment and then go back to their game.

Hopefully most of them did that. (It seemed like they had.) Because just before the end of the period, the internet went out. Again.

(Luckily, by that time I had my note for the teacher in the drafts of my email, so I was able to sent it to her from my phone.) 

She had a prep period eighth period, so I happily left campus early as I didn't want to get slammed by any more technical issues.

Why did the internet go out on us? There was a power outage at another high school (and its neighboring elementary schools) in the district. That power outage knocked out the internet to the entire school district. Sigh.

Friday Late

I have a phrase I use when a morning kind of goes sideways. I wake up on time. I get out of my house on time. But then I hit every red light. Or I get stuck behind a garbage truck. (Or both...) And even though I should be on time, something caused me to be late.

Since it seems to be a Friday phenomenon (I don't know why), the term is "Friday late". 

Last Friday became a Friday late.

First the traffic lights. Then the garbage truck. (I had to wait for forty cars to dart around me before I could get around it. Even the school bus that I got stuck behind a block earlier was able to dodge the garbage truck.) 

And then on my way to the classroom, I ran into a fellow sub and we got to talking. I realized I should get moving as I knew I had technology to set up, and considering how the Friday was already going, I figured odds were good that things weren't going to work. But still...

So, instead of having nearly a half hour to troubleshoot, I had about ten minutes. Ish. 

I had seen Ms. S the previous day, and she showed me what I needed. She had a DVD player set up. But there were also a couple videos (on Costa Rica--it was a Spanish class) on YouTube, so I had to set up her computer. But it wouldn't let me log in. (This is a usual problem that I anticipated, but it took an extra couple minutes that I didn't really have.) 

As the students arrived, I was still setting up. Once class started, I started the video...

"I don't think we're at this part yet."

I checked the time on the DVD player. Ms. S had left the time code as to when they left off, and it was a good six minutes past that. But that was an easy enough fix.

Phew. The videos worked. And while I spent the first class scrambling, the students didn't really lose any time. (We were missing a video worksheet, but Ms. S had forgotten to leave me those copies.) By the second class, everything was running smoothly.

Friday late got me again. But it's something that only bothers me before class starts. Once the day truly begins, the day tends to fall into place.

(In case anyone is curious, the Spanish II class finished the movie A Better Life. They watched it in Spanish with English subtitles. Then they saw "What Is Costa Rica?" and "Costa Rica: Animal Paradise of the World". Those were in English. The Spanish III classes watched Viva Cuba in Spanish with English subtitles.)

Texting the Teacher

I collect teachers' cell phone numbers. Nowadays, they'll leave the number in the lesson plan "just in case". I don't bother them during the day, though. They're out of class for a reason, so I try to resolve issues on my own so as to not bother them. 

But there are exceptions.

Wednesday. Chemistry, fourth period.

It was my first class of the day. (We're on block schedule, and the teacher had a second period conference period.) Their lessons were posted in Google Classroom. They were to watch a video and do an online practice on reading molecular formulas. 

They logged in. And my worst nightmare happened. They couldn't access the lesson.

This is clearly an exception to the don't-bother-the-teacher rule.

I texted Mr. U immediately. Then I got working on a backup plan, but Mr. U got back to me right away. 

He figured out a work around. Rather than having them log in via Google Classroom, he had them use a different portal (called Clever) where teachers can link student accounts to various educational apps. 

And... that worked! It took a bit for the students to figure out how to access the app as it wasn't posted to their accounts, but Mr. U has a page... It'll take too long to explain. It made sense, and once I knew how they could access the lesson, I was able to explain it to those who didn't catch on (and to the classes in the following periods because they were going to have the same issue). 

I texted Mr. U back to let him know it was working (so he didn't have to find another work around), and the class got to work. 

Gone are the days when teachers just leave a worksheet for the class to complete. It's more complicated on the computers, but it also engages the students more, so they're more likely to do the work. And at least everyone having a cell phone is good for making sure technical glitches can be fixed (most of the time). 

It's All Arabic to Me

Eighth grade history. Tuesday.

Before school, I had borrowed one of the classroom's Chromebooks so I could take roll and such. I opened the computer, and I was greeted by a sign in screen written completely in Arabic. 

I mean, that's a new one. I'm used to the computers having the wrong keyboard enabled (so when a student attempts to type, the wrong letters pop up). It's an easy fix, which is perhaps why I haven't seen it recently. 

Before that, it was rotating the stuff on the monitor either to the side or completely upside down.

It's like the kiddos figure out how to do something, and then they leave the computer like that just to cause problems for the person that comes after. 

But it's not a huge issue. Mostly, the next kiddo to get the computer puts it away and gets another. I occasionally get a complaint, but I can fix those issues, so it takes no time to have the student up and running.

But how do you change the language on the computer? 

It was a problem I could deal with when I had some time, as I didn't right then, so I set the computer aside to deal with after I had started class. 

Once the kiddos were working on the day's assignment (they had textbook pages to read followed by workbook pages to answer questions on), I had time to focus on fixing the computer. 

There was no way to change the language on the sign in screen, so I went to sign in. The keyboard was in English, so I signed in easily.

And then the computer self-corrected, putting itself in English and giving me a dialog box with the option of switching it back to Arabic.

I did not switch it back to Arabic.

Problem solved.

And I file that away so the next time that comes up, I'm ready. Because that'll come up again. Someone is going to do that until they figure out that it isn't causing anyone any problems.

Nailbiter

Wednesday was my last day in the English 9 classes. 

When I began the classes (oh so long ago--3 1/2 weeks prior) I had requested and received access to the class' gradebooks. (I had to set them up. Link them. And get all the grading that had been done input.) 

The one hiccup was in the transition, the seating charts that Mr. P had made went poof. I had to recreate them. (Usually I keep a copy on paper, but I hadn't had a chance to print out a copy with all the other things I was trying to keep up with.) Yes, there is a way to do seating charts in the attendance software, and it makes taking roll go so much more quickly.

Knowing this, I was a bit paranoid about the gradebooks. Would they go poof when Mr. V got full access? 

There was a way to make a PDF copy. So, Monday evening I did. 

But Tuesday and Wednesday... 

The progress reports had gone out. The students were suddenly very interested in what assignments they were missing. 

(The previous week, they had a good hour of class time--some had longer--to go through their grades, see what was missing, and talk to me about it. Some did. Most spent the time playing games on their Chromebooks.)

So, I was getting late work. Some students hadn't started the class with everybody, so they had assignments that they weren't responsible for. (That's an easy enough fix, but they had to tell me as I only knew who was in the class when I started. I didn't know if they started the first day or later. If later, some of Mr. P's assignments didn't count.) 

By Wednesday I had made multiple adjustments to the gradebook.

Mr. V got his district account set up Wednesday. 

Because of computer access, I couldn't back up the gradebook again from school. I planned to do it from home. I got home, only to find that the classes had been removed from my account. 

And now I was worried. Would I be able to recall every change I had made since Monday? Or did the gradebooks make the transition to Mr. V intact? 

Luckily, I had his cell phone number, so I texted him.

It turned out, they had. And I breathed a huge sigh of relief.

Fully removed from the class, I no longer had to think about it at all. Yay!

(Although, Mr. V doesn't have the right access to take the Google Classrooms for the classes. Yet. That's in process, and I can hold onto them until I can pass them over. He just can't give them digital assignments until then.

And, on Friday, I learned that one lone student hadn't been transferred out of "my" class with the group. I only learned this when the attendance clerk chided me for not submitting attendance. On a day I did not work.)

Oh, the Drama

And so, it begins again.

School doesn't officially begin until August 10th. But, the continuation high school had been in session for a week. The class was "Adult Re-Entry". I have not covered this class in years, but I am familiar with it. (I wrote about it many times, but here are three posts from back then: one, two, and three.)

(Re-entry is a class for young adults who just missed graduating from high school. The class is four hours long, and they spend their time working on whatever credits they are missing. It's a very chill day.)

The students don't arrive until 10 AM, but the continuation high school starts at 8:30, so I was very early. (We're supposed to report to the school site a half hour before class begins.) So, I got into the classroom and I was prepping for the day (read: checking my personal email and reading blogs).

At 8:40 there was a knock at the door. Duke informed me that Mr. G lets them come in early if they arrive early. As I had nothing better going on, I didn't see the harm in it.

Duke got a computer and attempted to log in. Alas, he couldn't remember his username and password. He had saved them on his phone, but alas, he had left his phone at home.

He asked to use the classroom phone to call his sister. 

It took him a couple tries to call out. (They have to dial a number before to indicate an outside line, and then we have to use 1 + area code to dial all phone numbers in our area. But as I knew all this, I was able to help him get the call to go through.) He got a hold of his sister, but she was unable to help. 

I know their user credentials live in a screen I don't have access to. But I know who does. She gave me Duke's username and password, and Duke was able to log in. To the computer. But not to the program.

While attempting to get a hold of the counselor who has access to the program's data, Duke got a call back from his sister. 

I only heard Duke's portion of the conversation. "Bruh... Why'd you have to tell me this?"

He was clearly upset. He wanted to know why his sister had to call him to tell him whatever it was while he was at school. He wondered why she couldn't have waited until he got home. Then he informed me that he wasn't going to be able to concentrate, so he was going to leave. 

I was once again alone, but class hadn't started, so that was no surprise. 

There's a reason why these students didn't graduate "on time". But at least they're making the attempt, distractions notwithstanding.

A Recurring Theme

A new week, a new showing video disaster story. 

(It's the time of year. More teachers leave videos as we finish up the year, and inserting tape and pushing play is not how it works anymore.) 

It was still the last Monday of the school year; same teacher's class I talked about yesterday. Ms. A had two periods as the co-teacher of a biology class and three periods teaching her own self-contained special ed science class. 

For Ms. A's two biology classes, we were finishing up a movie. The lesson plan stated that Ms. A's aide would set things up.

Cool. No problem.

Only, while in Mr. B's class, he got a text from Ms. A. The aide was also out sick...

Sure, I could set up the video. What could go wrong?

Well, Ms. A wasn't logged in. The video she had rented from Amazon Prime had expired. And I didn't have her password.

Luckily, Mr. B's prep period was the first period I had to show the video, so he came by to set things up. And everything worked great.

The following period, I just had to do it again. I left everything set up. But, unfortunately, between those two classes was lunch, and during lunch, Ms. A's computer went into sleep mode. 

(I really should have known better. I always go into the power settings and change the time out from the standard ten minutes to five hours, so it won't sleep on me in the middle of teaching. But Mr. B logged into her computer and started the video, so I never did that one little fix.) 

Well, it was lunch. I called Mr. B again... (I'm sure he was sick of hearing from me.) 

Once he logged in again, I immediately went into the power settings and fixed the time out. 

I guess I'm learning all things that can go wrong with showing videos to classes. Next year I'll be an expert.