Thursday, October 22, 2009

After my morning crossing guard job...

I walked our pyromaniac student to his classroom. That's no joke, he was caught lighting a fire at a local Wal-Mart.

I signed the form showing I still have my college degrees. They have my transcripts on file, but the government makes me sign this form every year.

I received the new dongle from IT, and sent back the one that was dying. I keep a spare in the lab, and one of the teachers needed a new one on Tuesday. I switched mine out for the teacher's and am getting mine replaced. This is so that it doesn't interfere with the teacher's instruction time. By the way, the dongle is an adapter that allows the computer to be hooked up to a projector.

I mailing the printouts from the online calendar I have for the mobile cart, the Smartboards and the Document cameras. The district is wanting to know how much of these are getting used in each of the schools. At my school, I have an online calendars set up within our email system, that way everyone can readily see what has been reserved. The teachers then email myself (for the mobile cart) or the librarian (for the SmartBoards and Document Cameras) to let us know when they would like to reserve the technology.

I just finished assisting a teacher with a powerpoint activity they made on their home computer using the latest version of PowerPoint. The problem is that we use an older version of PowerPoint that is not compatible with the new one. Thankfully I also have the latest version on my laptop here at school, so I'm able to use one of my external hard drives to retrieve it off the teacher computer, take it to mine, open up the PowerPoint (I've also done this with documents) and save as the older version. Then I give the older version back to the teacher so they can work it off of their laptop. It takes longer to explain than to do it, but I try to explain to the teacher why their file isn't working.

Attempted to get the alternate A/V and VGA to project, but it is not working. Submitted ticket online to the IT Dept.

Taught some formatting basics to a 6th grade class.

Updated the librarian's computer.

Sent 2 emails to IT, one with the list of student ID#'s that won't log in, another for a couple of students ID#'s that will not open MS Word.

Updated a first grade teacher, the teacher also requested updates on Firefox and Macromedia flash.

Printed all new class lists. We've had some of our kinders sent over to Head Start - those who were not ready for kinder, but have also added new students, including a family of 5 who have moved into the area.

Received phone call from one of the administrative staff saying they could not change the background. I verified what they were doing was right by using mine, and then called IT. They are looking into why some of the laptops are working while others are not.

I set up the computers for the third grade class, their teacher wants them to use the BBC dance mat typing web site.

I competed with the third grade kids (and the teacher) on Dance Mat Typing. Yes, there are some perks to my job.

I logged the students off the computers and checked my emails.

I did my afternoon crossing guard duty.

I checked to see if the appointment I had for after school was ready, turns out she was in a meeting she must have forgotten about.

I spent some time talking with the librarian and she called the full time music teacher for our school to schedule some planning time for the three of us for after early release on Friday. We already have a game plan for music class #2 tomorrow.

I had some last minute emails to take care of after that, and by the time I shut everything down and locked everything up it was 4:45 when I left the school.

I drove to Costco and put gas in the car.

I still have to go to Office Max and get some folders for the class tomorrow. Something I forgot for Wednesday's class.

I'm tired, but after having eaten some mini pizzas I'm feeling better. Off now to Office Max.