Season 2 Begins (Written 1/29/07)

Today was the first real day of teaching for me, which also meant that the timetable for this year has been set. Right now, I am set up to teach 2 Year 12 classes, 2 Year 13 classes and a Year 10 class – but that's probably going to change at some point this year. For the most part, the day went extremely well – dealing with the year 10 class is going to be interesting, because usually I see students after they've had a few years of computing at Chanel and now I'll be dealing with kids who just started computing last year. The most interesting part is that all the kids in my Year 10 class took computers last year – it was the first time I think I've had a class where everyone took computers before meaning they had some basic knowledge that I could work off of. If I do keep the Year 10 class, then it will be interesting to see if I can get them to participate in class like I do with the senior kids because they are use to the teacher writing things on the board, copying it down and not talking during class. Not exactly a good method of learning at this level – so we'll see. My Year 12 classes are just overflowing with kids right now. Instead of putting a cap on the number of students allowed to take computers, Kevin is letting anyone who asks to have computers into computers – meaning that we now have classes that have 22-24 kids in them (with only one computer lab having 26 computers and the other two having 20 computers). This has created something of a scheduling nightmare because we now are having to split the Year 12s into two simultaneous classes (unlike last year where all the Year 12 classes ran at different times) but even that won't solve the problem because with two Year 12 classes taking up 2 labs, that only leaves one lab free for the junior classes (Years 9-11) who are very often split into two groups because they are so large. How do we solve this problem? If you said 'Create a 4^th computer lab' you won a cookie! That's right, because of this overflow Kevin has now come to the conclusion that we need to have a 4^th computer lab ASAP and we're going to transform a classroom to use as the lab. This means a few things: A) At some point I'm going to suffer from sleep deprevation because of installing the operating systems on these computers, keeping the other 60 odd computer running AND making sure the overall program is running smoothly B) I'm not going to be able to focus on the computer studies program like I wanted to do this year. Last year was hardware, this year was suppose to be making sure the program works and working out any kinks – throw that out the window C) We are going to have to install power cables, fans, windows, locks (and also, get the necessary computers) in just a few months time.

And you might say 'Well, there's no rush right – because that sounds like a lot.' It is a lot and there is a rush – because Kevin has set the timetable with the idea that the 4^th lab will be used. Before one thing has been set in place for this lab to work, he's already presuming it is – if that's not a rush, I don't know what is. So if there is a Peace Corps that comes after me they won't have to worry about building another computer lab – we will basically have one row of the school dedicated to computer studies with over 80 computers here. That's just crazy – when I came here, there were barely thirty that worked. So Year 12 will be the bane of my existence this year. But Year 13 will be a pleasure because of me dealing with these students last year in Year 12. The biggest difference between the Year 12 and 13 class is that I don't have to tell the Year 13s to talk to me in class and raise their hands, they know that from last year. Those who had me last year in year 12 know that as long as they try in class, that's all I care about. Unfortunately, I had to spend about 10 minutes in my year 12 class getting that point across – it doesn't matter if you get a wrong answer, as long as they speak up and participate. It'll all work out in the end…in one of my Year 12 classes I can already tell which students I'm going to have to slow down a bit so they don't answer all the questions and shut everyone else up.

As you can see, it was quite a full day on my first real day of teaching. But that's not all. After school, Kevin and I went down to the freight company that has an order of computer we got from The Ark over the holidays. Unfortunately, Kevin wants to use these computers as part of the 4^th lab but they were intended to be used as backups for the computers we already have (a lot of the computers and monitors survived the holidays but a few didn't and there are a few monitors in the labs that could use replacing) so we're going to have to find some way to compromise – can't keep stealing from Peter to pay Paul, it seems every time we get computer parts to use as backups they're put into action for a different purpose! Once we got back, I took a nap to try to shake off this flu I've got but being the determined person that I am, I didn't let it stop me from trying to accomplish part of my task for the afternoon – which was connecting the 2^nd lab to the 3^rd lab (using network/CAT5 cable). This meant I had to climb into the ceiling of the classrooms in order to run cable from one lab to the other – I hard ordered a cable from The Ark which measured in at 30 meters (98 feet) which I thought would be enough but it wasn't so now I have to get some more cable (which I would have to do anyway to wire the mythical 4^th lab). So we're on what – day 1 of Season 2 and I'm already behind? Just can't get ahead but at least when I'm done here my legacy will be felt for years to come. BTW, I also found out that we are now splitting yet another Year 12 class – so Kevin is supposedly going to pull me out of the year 10 class, it's a very fluid timetable if you hadn't guessed already. L8r.