I went to work today. Well, I didn’t get paid, so let me rephrase that - I went to the school today. Not entirely by choice either.
Carol, one of our custodians, called me yesterday to let me know that there might be an issue with some of the new computers. Apparently, two brand new computers were moved into the head start room. They aren’t supposed to be getting any new computers. Also, one of the CIA’s requested a computer for her to use in the EBD classroom. So today I went in thinking I’d check on that situation and that’d be that. I was hoping to walk into my lab and not find a big mess. Well, it wasn’t a big mess, but there were some things that irrtated me.
For example, they installed the SmartBoard software but didn’t bother to hook up the projector and see if it all worked. Also, they stacked a junky old computer on top of my filing cabinet. Of course all of my cords were just jumbled up all over the place. (Colin is going to help me with that on Friday when he gets off work.) My teacher station isn’t getting internet and isn’t connected to the network printer. (I’d add the printer myself but it keeps freezing and won’t let me.) Also, I can’t log onto any of the lab computers as a student. It tries to create the profile and then freezes. Back to the head start computer issue- we took those two computers and brought them back to the lab. I decide I better check ALL the classrooms to make sure the computers are in the right place. Carol gives me the magic key that unlocks all the doors, and off I go.
For the most part, everything was okay. One teacher’s computer wasn’t moved to her desk like it should have been. One teacher only had one computer when she should have had two. A third grade teacher had four computers while the other two third grade teachers had two and three. Don’t know how she managed to get an extra one. I took those two “extra” computers (the ones from the head start room), and gave one to the teacher who was missing a computer and the other to the third grade teacher who only had two computers.
I sent about three or four emails to the director of technology letting her know I had to move computers (which is a no-no) and that I updated the change on rooms on the inventory (another possible no-no) and that I was have other issues too. Let’s see how long it takes to hear back from her. 
I decided to leave about 1:00 and go to Wal-Mart to get some poster board to make some signs with. Wal-Mart was all out of white poster board, so I went to K-Mart. I was in line to pay for my poster board when my phone rang. It was Carol. She said she had some bad news. A Kindergarten teacher, Mrs. P, wanted to know where her computer was.
Well, my first totally wild guess was that it was probably in her room, I mean, duh. Turns out, she was asking about a computer that was gone. To make a super long story shorter, it seems that Mrs. P was using a junky Compaq as her teacher station even though she has a perfectly nice Dell flat screen computer. All of her documents from the past however many years was on that computer, and it is now gone. Well, she was upset, of course, and wanted to know how this could happen, etc. She was out the last two or so months of school because she had a baby. Well, no one knew that the Compaq was her teacher station. I mean, who would have thought that? My inventory lists her flat screen as the teacher station.
(Trying to keep this short…) Mrs. P says she used her computer in June (after the new computers were installed and old ones removed). Carol and I remember leaving that computer in Mrs. P’s room. (We had to keep some of the Compaq’s.) Her using it in June just proves that. All computers we were getting rid of were moved to the blue pod hallway for crushing (Which, all the hard drives were removed prior to that). I checked my inventory, and her computer was on the list of computers to be retired. It was on the list because I didn’t know it was her teacher computer… So… why her computer was still there in June is a mystery. Anyway, someone finally got a hold of someone who was involved with the new computer installation and they said that the computer hard drives from our school haven’t been destroyed yet. Mrs. P is supposed to find out tomorrow if they still have her documents and such. I hope they do. Carol and I were pretty worried about it. I mean, Mrs. P was pretty upset (I don’t blame her), and I felt responsible even though really it’s not my fault. Hopefully they still have her hard drive so she can get everything back. This has happened at other schools too. A friend of mine who works in the lab at another school had the same thing happened to one of her teachers.
I spend months and months on the darn inventory. It looks like it could have gone more flawlessly.
