Thread: Did you hear a boom around 2:15?

Originally Posted by Ima Teacher

That was the sound of the top of my head coming OFF after the way I was talked to by someone right before my last class began.

I'm sure my blood pressure is through the roof. I've got a headache, and I'm taking cold medicine . . . so I'm sure his tirade pushed me over the edge.

I bet that your last class was pretty well-behaved given that you feel lousy and the wrath directed toward your right before that class. :wink:

Poor Ima

I'm taking it that you got fronted out needlessly. Remember, you have RIGHTS to be treated fairly. So I hope you are not in what they call a "hostile work environment."

CSW

Not exactly conducive to a good beginning of school. Hope something terrible happens to the offending person.

OK . . . here's the story . . . long-form, to help me keep venting.

I have a set of 30 laptop computers in my classroom. One of them is in use with my SmartBoard . . . and we don't have any classes of 30 anyway.

They call me last week to tell me they'll be coming to get the laptops to set up the testing lab. (They did this last year, no biggie.) They come to get them today. I remind Nice District Tech Guy that they're not connecting to the network AND all the batteries are gone because of the Dell recall. He says no problem.

About an hour later . . . and right as my kids are coming in for my last class, I'm confronted by Evil District Tech Guy who says, "Did you know one of the laptops is missing?" No, it's with my SmartBoard. "Well, we need it." No, they didn't take it last time. "Well, looks like they won't be testing more than 29 kids in THAT lab." Nope, guess not.


Let me back up to say that this guy is ALWAYS a major . . . well, I'll not say it in a public forum . . . with everything. I hate to see him coming to fix anything in my room because no matter what it is, it's always MY FAULT that it's not working correctly. Several years ago my thermostat went on the blink, and I complained about it for a MONTH before arriving at school one morning to find my classroom at a balmy 106 degrees. My kids and I have class outside in the hallway on the nice, cool tile . . . and he tells me that I've been "messing with the thermostat" and if I'd called when the problem first happened, it wouldn't have gotten that bad. :evil:

I've tried to steer clear of him since then, with pretty decent luck. I try to direct my questions to Nice Tech Guy or Evil Tech Guy's Wife, who's really nice and knows a lot about computers. So, back to today.

Had he just shut up and walked away, I'd have been fine. But NOOOOOO.
He turns back around and says, "So, are you the one who's been giving the kids the administrative password?" 8O No, but the kids often use the computers with administrative priviledges. "Now don't lie to me if you've been the one telling them."


First of all, the laptops will boot up with the message that the computers have been LOCKED, and require a password. A password, mind you, that I've been ASKING FOR SINCE WE GOT THE COMPUTERS TWO YEARS AGO. They won't give it to me. They did, however, give me the administrative logon information. I can use that to log the kids in, but they're in with administrative powers. I, of course, don't tell them this . . . and I'm sure that some of the kids figured out the administrative password by watching me type it in a blue million times. And what are they gonna do, really? I tried rebooting them, but it doesn't work.

He says, "There's tons of stuff downloaded on those computers and the IP addresses have been changed on three of them. You've obviously done something to them. And the keys are off several of them, too." I'm not the only person in this building who uses those computes. They are stored in my classroom. Every time someone uses them, they come back in worse shape than when they left. That is why I took the over completely at Christmas last year. No one uses them except the two language arts teachers in 7th grade. We know there are problems with them, but we don't have the time to come in and get them all reset and working properly and get NO HELP IN DOING SO. And using the administrative password does NOT cause the keys to pop off! The keys are off because some people don't monitor the kids that well . . . and someone didn't bother to order our keyboard covers until May of last year, two years after we get the computers. The day you brought the computers to me, one of them booted to the "locked" screen and all I did was turn it on, so I couldn't have "done something to it". If you don't believe me, you can go to the lab and check one of those computers because it does the same thing, and I've never even been in there--someone called to ask me how to fix the problem and I told them I couldn't.


I know that this is just the personality . . . or lack of personality . . . of this guy, but he still gets SOOO under my skin it's pathetic. By the time he left, I was a mess. My mouth was dry, my eye was twitching, and I was hot. Several teachers commented on how red my face was . . . I'm sure my blood pressure was through the roof.

I really felt like tell him to take the computers and stick them where the sun doesn't shine . . . and giving him my SmartBoard computer to boot. However, I rethought the issue. I never lock my equipment cabinet, even though it has FOUR locks on it. Well, tonight it's locked down tighter than Fort Knox, and if they want it . . . or my laptops after testing, they'll have to pry them from my cold, dead hand.


Thanks for reading. I feel better now.

Just a comment. Nothing that people use in the way of tools stays in pristine, like-new condition forever. In fact, if something is used often, it breaks, pieces fall off, and it wears out quickly. So do laptops, as I found this week.

Also, if you have a group of 30 people, there are going to be several who are doing something other than what they are supposed to be. So you are always going to have something downloaded, broken into, or otherwise messed up. Tough on folks like Evil Tech Guy- it means he has to work. Incidentally, how is it you have the same guy working on your computers and your thermostat? Is he that good?

Originally Posted by JohnBoy

Incidentally, how is it you have the same guy working on your computers and your thermostat? Is he that good?

Apparently it's because he invented both the computer and the thermostat.

Sorry, I'm still not fully "vented" just yet.

He's in maintenance . . . which grew to include "techie" stuff over the years. His wife, a really, really nice woman . . . and one of my favorite teachers when I was in school, is the district head honcho with technology. Which is, I'm assuming, a part of why he works on the computers.

Sorry, I'm still not fully "vented" just yet.

I didn't hear anybody object.

Actually, I was thinking he sounds more like one of our maintenance guys than one of our tech guys... Sounds like a bad combination. Sorry you got one of these around.

What a yechie the techie is!

I usually ask our tech guru why I am having the problem, and I have NEVER been told that it is something I did. I get suggestions to try, and our gal comes and fixes it as soon as she can. She always has a smile on her face, and our requests are never a problem! Maybe just from my one colleague who will ask the same question three times when everyone else got it or knows now is not the time.

The Blame Game is a nasty route to go and seldom accomplishes anything. Shame on him! Sounds like you need to put things in writing for him and keep copies.

By the way, in our old building, the one with the bathrooms 2 1/2 flights down and the sagging stairwells joisted up for support, our cranky, old boiler went kaflooey like your thermostat. Our temp was 120 in the entire building until a teacher came in on Saturday, called the principal, and the boiler was turned off. Fish were fried in their tanks, plants died, etc.

JohnBoy is quite right, as usual. We are hear to listen and share the load. We are all in this together.