Lost Art

"Hey there, John!" I hailed the tech guy as he wheeled the laptop cart into my temporary office. The other substitute testing coordinator and I had been hard at work organizing the lists and materials for the district assessment next week.

"Sorry, this is late," he apologized, "but I just got out of a two-hour meeting where they told us that all middle school kids are probably going to get a laptop instead of a tablet next year."

We all groaned. "This is their plan for managing screen time?" I shook my head.

What followed was a 20-minute commiseration about the downsides of technology for young learners. I shared my theory that many kids actually resent having to use a device they consider recreational to do work. "Technology is not as engaging as it used to be, because it's so ubiquitous," I shrugged.

John nodded. "In the summer, I go to the high schools to help distribute laptops to the rising freshmen," he told us. "I bring copies of directions with me so the kids can set them up once they're issued. It's like three steps." He sighed. "You would not believe the number of students who tell me that they can't read on paper!"

Slow on the Download

"I don't have the desktop version of Excel," I informed my colleague. "This is my personal computer, so..." I trailed off. "I couldn't actually figure out how to do it," I confessed.

We spent the next 30 minutes or so looking for workarounds to the complicated directions we had been left for printing testing rosters from an enormous spreadsheet. I booted up the loaner laptop that the school's Instructional Technology Coordinator had provided, but personalizing its settings and familiarizing myself with another brand was also very time-consuming. 

Finally, through a combination of converting, sharing, saving, and YouTube research, we completed the task and printed the 80 testing rosters they would need to prepare the bins starting tomorrow.

"Everything takes longer than you think it will in this job," my colleague sighed. "Thank goodness there are two of us!"

"No kidding," I agreed and thanked her heartily for all her guidance and help.

It wasn't until I got home that it occurred to me to just download Excel from the App Store. The days when you had to buy installation discs are long gone, and nowadays you just pay for a subscription to use the software you download for free. 

And, DUH! I already have a subscription through school!

Much Ado

I was beyond dismayed yesterday when I discovered that our internet and cable services were out, but I followed all available guidance to try to remedy the situation on my own. After restarting the modem and all network devices without success, I checked the provider's website for outages, but none were listed. Then I consulted the neighbors, but their service was up and running. So, as a last resort, I called the provider and scheduled an appointment with their automated help line. 

The earliest a technician could get out here was this afternoon, and although I understood that 24 hours was a relatively quick response, spending a day without wifi seemed impossible. In addition to the online work I had for both jobs, what would we ever do for entertainment without cable or streaming? I spent a few disregulated minutes before setting up my phone as a hotspot, which allowed me to do some work. 

A while later, I experimented with using an HDMI adapter to stream content from my phone to the TV, and frankly? The results were amazing! The only thing missing was a remote, but I guess a slightly longer cable may have been sufficient, too. It wasn't long before I was wondering why we even pay for high-speed service, because it seemed like we could do everything we needed to with our data plan. 

Even so, I adjusted my plans and left school early this afternoon to meet the technician. I was a little flustered from my quick departure and commute when he rang the bell, but he seemed understanding. 

"Before I do anything," he said to me once he had his booties on over his shoes, "do you happen to know if your service has been restored? I think they were doing some work in the area."

"What?" I replied in disbelief.

Do I really need to tell you that everything was working exactly as it should?

Yup.

Bowling Season 1: Wrap Up

Today was my last bowling day of the season. I started in September with a 96 average and ended with a 110. I'm happy with my progress, but disappointed that my final game was an 85, which is actually my lowest. Clearly? Consistency will be my goal in the fall-- and by that I'm not talking about that 85!

Here are a few more of my league stats:

Games: 90
High Game: 158
High Series: 406
Total pins: 9858

And I have all summer to practice!

Faith in the Profession

And in the Pendulum meet Swing department, I received an invitation to the following webinar:

How Worksheets Support Active Learning in Ways That Screens Can’t: Myths, Busted!

It's funny, but it connects to a conversation I had just the other day with our 21-year-old house guest. "What has your experience been with Gen Alpha?" I asked the Zoomer.

"I think they're annoying," she answered predictably. (Oh, hey there, Millennials.) "And very different from us."

"How so?" I asked with interest.

"When I was born," she began, "not everyone had a screen 24/7. I mean, my baby pictures are actually printed out in an album. That's not true of younger people. Their pictures are all on somebody's phone."

I nodded, thoughtfully. "Did you have a tablet?" I asked her. 

"Not of my own. There was a family iPad, and we had to share it," she answered.

"So watching movies and other things was more of a communal experience for you," I said. "That tracks. It used to be very engaging to use short videos in a lesson, but in the last few years, kids have found them boring. Maybe because they watch short videos of their own choice all the time."

"Probably," she agreed. 

"It's not a novelty anymore," I added. "And they also hate doing skill drills on their devices. It's as if such platforms are a desecration of their screens." I laughed. "I guess teachers are going to have to figure out something else." I paused. "I'm sure they will!"

Once a Teacher...

"You should put the top down on the Jeep," I suggested to Heidi at breakfast this morning. She and Delaney were going to go shopping for a bit before we headed back up to Carlisle. 

"It's not supposed to rain, is it?" Heidi asked. Then her eyes widened. "What about the crows! They might poop in it overnight!"

We agreed that that would be extremely gross, but the weather is amazing, sunny and not too warm, so we decided to put the top down anyway and just make sure it was back up before nightfall. 

It's been several months, however, since last we put down the top, and the procedure eluded us. After digging out the manual and watching a couple of YouTube videos, we managed to convert the vehicle, though. 

As we returned to the house, I was dreading putting the top back up in just a few hours, but I bucked up thinking about the fun of riding in a convertible on a beautiful day. "You know what we should do?" I said. "We should take it down and put it back five times in a row! We need to build that automaticity."

Last to Know

Our 21-year-old goddaughter is visiting from college this weekend, and as happens whenever she is here, this evening found us lingering around the dinner table chatting long after the dishes had been cleared. "Do you know what?" she asked as the conversation meandered through the family. "I had no idea until recently that my grandparents were divorced!"

We nodded sympathetically, knowing that her grandmother had passed away the day after she was born. Her grandfather was already remarried, but she was unaware of the timeline.

Well," I laughed, "you are officially an adult now. You're going to get all the dirt now."

A little while later, we made good on that. We were reminiscing about her mom and Heidi coming to Virginia together for a summer job. "That's how I met Larry," Heidi told her, mentioning a mutual friend.

"How did my mom know him again?" she asked.

"They were dating!" Heidi said.

Her eyes widened. "So that's the guy before my dad," she replied, connecting the dots. "I have questions!"