My, what an . . . ummmm. . . "interesting" day!

**Ima Teacher** · 01-28-2006, 02:24 AM

I debated putting this on the middle school forum, but I thought that all you "non-middle" people might want a reminder of why you DON'T teach them. :wink:

After all these years at the middle school I was beginning to think that there wasn't ANYTHING they could do that would really throw me for a loop . . . I guess that's what I get for thinking.

Kids have been writing all week, and they use the computers when needed. (I have 30 wireless networked laptops.) When they work my time is divided into troubleshooting the computers, monitoring all the writing pieces (5 for each of the 75 kids), fixing disks, sending kids here & there, and working on mini-lessons with individual kids.

Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum fuss and growl at each other all the time, yet they always end up right back next to each other. Neither of them has done much of anything this week. They just piddle their time away. I remind them all the time to get back to work. Several times I've had to fuss at them for wanting to play games or get cheat codes off the internet. Today was a pretty typical day. The only thing out of the ordinary was one kid yelling at another to stop touching his computer, and another who asked me what happened if someone was somewhere they shouldn't be on the computer.

Later in the day Kid from that class tells Principal that Dee forced him to give his log in information and then used it to look up 'bad' sites.

All computers have to be signed out by each kid, so I get Dee's computer and check the Internet history.

OH MY GOODNESS! I'm checking this while my 8th grade girls are watching a movie, and another teacher is in my room to be a witness that this is on the computer. And we pull up a web site complete with video & sound!

ops: I broke a nail trying to find the right button to push to get it OFF that page. Then the other teacher gets the giggles---partly from the shock of it all and partly from my reaction. Then I get the giggles.

I dismiss my girls and the other teacher and I work on getting the evidence printed. We take evidence to Principal, who turns red but also laughs with us after hearing the story.

Then we decide that Dum may be in on the scheme as well, so we go upstairs and check other computer. Dee is looking at the typical stuff, but Dum. . . now, ummm. . . his computer has stuff on it that, I believe, is illegal in many places.

Gee whiz! When I had to take THOSE papers to Principal, I didn't want him to look while I was in the room, so we gave it to Female Principal . . . who nearly fainted dead away.

I never in a million years thought they could view THAT stuff on the school computers. Heck we've got a proxy server that catches things that aren't even "bad" sites.

Boy, I can't wait for these parent conferences.

I'm glad it's Friday.

**JohnBoy** · 01-28-2006, 01:25 PM

Reminds me of a line from "Master and Commander"...

"What a fascinating, modern age in which we live."

This sort of thing was much easier to catch when it was only a magazine....

**NHbeacon** · 01-28-2006, 03:01 PM

What do you think the consequences will be? Will Dee and Dum be handwriting for the rest of the year? Please let us know. Do the kids know yet about the evidence?

The kids at our school found a code to bypass the cyberscout to be able to play games and do myspace at school. However, one of my Asperger's kids was so proud of having this knowledge that he was sharing with all, within my presence. With one quick email to the network guy, that got shut down pretty quickly.

We are lucky to have the network administrator in our building and between he and our tech guy, they are quick to catch the kids at different sites.

It was easier to catch with a magazine, and at home the visits to those "sites" on pc just cause so much spyware problems. Oh the trials and tribulations of our modern world.
Peg

01-29-2006, 02:28 AM

I like to see that kids are getting around the the restrictions. It teaches them that if they are dedicated to something enough they can overcome all obstacles. Also, those little kids can find some pretty enertaining sites that I can check out at home.

NHbeacon, can you give me some links to the sites those kids found?

**wag** · 01-29-2006, 11:42 AM

Obviously Sam, you must not be a teacher or you would not be making such a comment. Isn't this what lawbreakers do on a daily basis?

As teachers we have an obligation to provide an environment which promotes positve growth.

**wag** · 01-29-2006, 11:45 AM

Not smart enough to erase History, huh? LOL

In my school, their parents would have been called in by the principal and they would have been shown or at least given a list of what sites their children were on. Their password would have been deleted and they would be permitted to use the computers for word processing only.

**Ima Teacher** · 01-29-2006, 06:21 PM

Originally Posted by wag

Obviously Sam, you must not be a teacher or you would not be making such a comment. Isn't this what lawbreakers do on a daily basis?

I sent a note to Lucy about "Sam" since all of his posts are a bit. . . um. . . unprofessional in nature. Seems to be an instigator, not a contributing member.

**Tom (Houston)** · 01-30-2006, 04:29 PM

A number of years ago, I was aquainted with a fellow who was on retainer to many Banks and Businesses as a security monitor to oversee the local SysAdmins of the systems.
He was also aquainted with the SysAdmin of the FBI system in the area who told him of a case where a computer system in Langley, VA. was so important that it had it's password changed everyday by 2 fellows who left the building by different doors and were forbiden from being in the same part of town after they left. (We all know what's in Langley)
Well, one day, the fellow that left the front door dropped dead of a hart attack and the fellow that went out the back got hit by a car. The night shift tried for quite a while to crack into it and, during the process, one fellow told them he knew a 12 year old that could do it. They brushed him off and called IBM who flew a team in at midnight and worked on it for 3 hours. They told the locals that it was hopeless and would have to be re-booted. They responded that, for reasons they couldn't discuss, it could not be shut down.
They told the first fellow to call the dad of the 12 year old and 2 M.P.s went over to pick him up.
It took the kid 12 minutes to give them the password and he appologized as he was sleepy not being used to getting up at 4:00AM. He asked if they could take him home but they were concerned at him leaving with the password. The kid responded, "Oh, just go to the main menu, choice 5, and change it to what ever you want."
GASP!!!

.

**Ima Teacher** · 01-30-2006, 09:31 PM

Well, we should know the fates of Dee & Dum by Wednesday. The proxy report from CO came today, so we know every site each one was on every minute of the class period they were logged in.

I have to be at CO for a meeting all day tomorrow, so I'm going to miss the excitement when they find out we've got the goods on them. :twisted:

All kids and parents have to sign an acceptable use policy for Internet/Email usage, and that states that violations result in loss of privileges. I don't know what else will come of it.

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My, what an . . . ummmm. . . "interesting" day!

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