A(nother) place to write

Sometimes you don't have time to write, but it is important to anyway.

The other day our server was down so I told people how to get on their computers without the server. They need to check a box that says workstation only. Today (after a long weekend of 4 days) this teacher comes in saying that she can't get to a certain program that is on her computer. It gives her a message that says "can't locate server". I told her to log off the computers and re-log in without checking that box. I saw her in the office while I was getting coffee, and she said it worked. What I'm wondering is, did she leave her computers on for the 4 days or did she log on the same way she did last week?

The service that we use to teach our students on-line is trying to set up a program for the students who are victims of Hurricane Katrina. I am wondering: With no power or computers how are these people going to get on-line. I'm sure he knows something I don’t. I have volunteered to help, but so far, I am getting no other takers from my school.
My principal has said "it's O.K". though.

I have a student who is trying to come back to this school. She is 16 and cannot read. She first came to this school when she was 12 and pregnant. She was my student then under our old program. I had difficulty teaching her in that situation even though the classes were much smaller. Her problem is not so much that she cannot read: it is that she has no motivation to do so. The high school sent her to us as a preventative to keep her from dropping out of school. I'm afraid it is not going to work. I've met her family. She is a FOURTH generation welfare recipient who just gave birth two years ago to what I'm afraid might be a fifth generation recipient. He's who we should be working on. She was thin when she came to this school and now she is very overweight. From her talks with me I found out that her grandmother had her mother at 14, her mother had her at 13 and she had her baby at 13. Talk about a cycle! When this young woman was in my class before she told me how they were going to be on welfare and how it would work out. I told her that welfare might be ending soon, and she didn’t seem worried. It makes one wonder.

On a brighter note I have another student who is 24 with 3 kids who is coming back and doing very well. She is obviously struggling to make ends meet at home, but her husband is very supportive and she is doing well in school so far. My enrollment is up and as a matter of fact I have more students enrolled than I have computers. I also have become "advisor" to several students, some of whom don't even have me as a teacher anymore. I enjoy this role, and if I thought I could afford it, I would go back and get my school counseling certificate.

After all these years I have become more cynical in believing what students tell me. I am amazed at how many people lie for no good reason. In some cases it is an attention seeking behavior and for others, I think they just might be delusional. I just had a student come to tell me that the local health community had advised her to put her two-year-old on ADHD medication. I believed what she said and told her the pros and cons of doing this, but I told her I found this hard to believe. I also loaned her a tape on discipline. Hopefully at least she will get something from that. After she left I realized that this woman has lied to me before and she is probably lying again for attention. It doesn't matter, my advice would be the same I guess.

You know, I used to think my old boss was so great. But then I became aware of an affair he was having on campus. It wouldn't have been so bad if it was totally off campus, but he let it affect his work. After the new boss came on (who I really admire and respect BTW) we found out how many things the other guy was letting slip. My new administrator is very professional and very efficient. He keeps on top of things and has many balls in the air. His only flaw would be of kindness. He gives everyone the benefit of the doubt, and sometimes it's not to the benefit of all.

Of course thinking my former boss was so good (at first) had a lot to do with the poor administrators that I had in Texas. Several of them could not even pass a literacy test. (Really, they failed, over and over; one was finally relegated to security.) Of course the schools there had some tough problems but really they were not any tougher than the ones here, just different.

Why is the time never right on this thing? Maybe I need to check my preferences.