Author: kathleen

There has been article in several papers, about how teachers are starting to sell lesson plans over the internet.

Our district policy has been, if you make money while working with the district, you must share the revenue.  I'm not sure how it is worked in other cases, but I am familar with one.

One of our CS teachers came up with the "Texas TAKS Web Tutor".  Basically, it's a series of math problems for students to solve, does some profiling, etc.  He found a web host, set up a company, etc.  Here's how he had to share the revenue — in his case he had to provide it free to the district and otherwise was left alone.

I know that I get paid to write curriculum for the district.  All of that work product is owned by the district and it would certainly be wrong of me to sell that product and I would probably get into deep trouble if I did.  When people have asked me about what I have produced, I refer them to the curriculum department who I worked for.

I'm guessing I would have to come up with a totally different set of lesson plans if I went to work for another district, but they might be nice to me.

This is going to be an ongoing post, that I update as I go.  I'm going to try to be as anonymous as possible.

Monday – 1st Period – trying to give students time to work so that they will pass my class, and helping them as we go.  Middle of the period, clerk interrupts because her printer hasn't been working in a week and TAC wants some things checked. 

Monday - 2nd period – again giving students time to work, they need supervision as pretty immature.  Security guard comes to watch class so that I can help administrator logon to Chancery.  Not sure why but resetting his password helps.

4th period is my official time to do tech support.  I went to the closet to see about the request made during 1st period.  There were techs there working on the internet in the portables and I asked him about the port.  It seems everything is number MDF A/11, B/11, C/11 and I had MDF 11 and MDF 12.  I double checked in the office and yep, those were the right numbers.

So I came back to my room, looked up the original ticket where the clerk's workstation was not on the internet, and the printer ticket, wrote an email and asked the tech helping us what happened and she said she'd send a tech out.  By the way, once the tech put the clerk's workstation on the internet, the printer stopped working, and I'm fairly sure it's because her workstation was plugged in the printer and the printer was in the wall and now it isn't.

Also had a parent stop me in the hall and ask me about making a link to the musical site from the main website, and I said I would be happy to.  School website is at http://www.hillcresthsdallas.org and is written in Visual basic.  By the time I got to my room, had an email with the link, tweaked the website, and then published it. 

Tuesday

Before school

Someone had let themselves into a locked classroom, used the computers and left porn on them.  Put Powerup passwords on two of the computers, left instructions for a third, but could not do the same with the administrative computer.  Sent an email to the principal and to TAC about the matter.

One of my coworkers brought me a laptop that needed the virus software updated.  He left it with me and I ran the program during class.  However, couldn't log back in, as I don't have his password and didn't want it.  He's going to pick it up 4th period which is my lunch/tech support period.

During 2nd period, the techs came by to fix Monday's printer.  That was easy, in and out.

Two things were driving me nuts about Windows 7 and the Lenovo — the USB Webcam won't work and I  can't find the drivers.   Also , I couldn't get iPrint to work.

SO, I backed up the Windows 7 install to the HMS, and put the XP back on.  There are several issues on that OS bothering me, so I have fixing them.  There is a file that wouldn't let me shut down the computer automatically, and a couple of other programs that automatically load that I have to shut down each time, or they are in the way (Lanschool and SmartBoard). 

I've also fixed an Outlook issue.

All in all, it does make the experience much more pleasant!

My district uses Computrace — note I am a teacher tech and am not at any decision level at all, and I am relating what I've been told by the powers that be.

I've been with my district 17 years, and over the years, I've seen various lock down devices.

The first set of computers in my room were bolted to the tables with a very long bolt that had to be undone with a special device if you had to work on the hardware.   I've seen computers glued to various types of  lockdown pads and combinations of security chains.   

All of these had some common problems — techs had to have a special device to unlock the security devices before they could work on them, usually requiring different keys or wrenches.

BUT the computers were still stolen, often theives would take the whole table with the computer(s) and monitor(s) still attached and detach them at their leisure.

All that changed when we started issuing laptops to teachers.  They all had CompuTrace installed on them and I remember one of our adminsitrations relating stories about how the laptops were found — one even involved in a child porn case, investigators found the alleged pedophile in the hotel room where the suspect was hiding out.

All of the district computers are now protected with Computrace or the like.  The laptop I am working on right now has one, and you know it when you go into the System setup — it tells you.

Monitors are so cheap, they don't worry about their theft, they just send out new ones.  We buy in bulk so get a better deal. Same with mice and keyboards.

In March, I will have had this tablet notepad for two years.  LOVE IT, but it was getting slow and old. 

I decided to load Windows 7 Ultimate (oh, and it had Windows XP on) last night and see what it was like. 

I've gotten on the DISD software to work, VPN, Groupwise, etc.

I still don't have the volume buttons working, but I don't have the latest drivers, had to download new software for the ATT aircard, but it's working now, and

I'm loving my tablet again!

Thanks Microsoft, and I'll probably be buying another copy of Windows 7 from Journey Ed, though I could load the Professional version for free.