Another great day in edumacation....

Another great day. I had a BLAST of a day today. There were problems, but overall I left the campus and headed to my car with a huge smile on my face this afternoon.

The virus followed us to another lab this morning. This new lab had no air conditioning, which made for a stuffy day with computers that did not work. My old boss and her staff worked furiously to fix the problems... the viruses didn't go away, but it was wonderful to see effort from people in a world where no effort is expended.

She, the old boss, was sure to hear my thanks. We didn't part on the greatest terms when I left. Long Story. Over time I've thought her to be weird and crazy... but a little misunderstood. Her heart is gold. And I think that she thinks fondly of me. And that makes me smile. So I was sure to give her and the IT helpdesk staff working on the computer problems mad props (yo) in front of all the students and when they left was sure to let the students know that in the future, making friends with the IT staff gets results. As Professor CM showed. One phone call and boom. They were there working for us. Sweet.

All the students are so good at what they are doing. I taught basic design with Netscape Composer to them (it's not the best tool, but it is a free tool, and sometimes that makes a world of difference to a cash poor middle school teacher) and they dove right in and were tearing up the place. They have great ideas for what they want to do, and for the next two days they will work on their designs for their webpages and powerpoint presentations, and then Friday we'll view them, grade them, and CM and I will go out for a beer.

I built a BNL themed website for them to show how to do it, repeatedly informing them that BNL aren't just a boy band for old ladies like me but are elder statesmen, peace makers, and party animals, representing all that is good and pure about Canadian Culture. Thus, it turned into a Social Studies website. They laughed their asses off at me. In a good way.

Doug made a ton of buffalo wings for dinner, we have beer, life is good. I have a ton of stuff to do for Professor 2, but will hold off on it. She and I have a meeting tomorrow afternoon by phone and I think that she isn't going to be able to teach the class online afterall due to problems with the technology provider of the webcam chat host. They said they could do it in the spring of 2003 for us, but not fall 2002.

She's going to cry, but I saw this coming, and we will figure something else out. I have a feeling we'll do something that is partially online, instructor led, using one of these virally infected labs this fall. She's reserved the one we were in today, and I may just be there as the technology facilitator for the semester while we figure out what to do with the course for spring 2003.

Accepting defeat but not giving up is something I'm really good at.

Alright. I have to get Geoff ready for bed. I have beer to finish drinking. I have a resume to fax and an application to complete. I have a lot to do, but I'm smiling. The other day I was a stress mess, but today. It's all good. And I don't think that's the beer talking. Have a great night all y'all. More later.