Some days you just have to revert back to what got ya’ here, paper and pen, chalkboard and chalk, talk and more talk…phone was ringing as I walked into my Journalism class…I’m primed to give them their weblog baptism, to set off on our kewl technological adventure…BUT, on the phone is Ed, my tech guy…”No weblogs today!” he half-chuckles, and I say “Wha?”…see, we’ve been trying to fix this gems issue, and Sarah offers her tech guru (who fixed a similar problem) to help…he e-mails instructions…Ed goes through the steps, entire weblog system blows up, Ed calls me, I get pale…(gets it back an hour later after resetting the configs which he got from tape backup)…Plan B…set up their e-mail accounts…kids try to login to the e-mail client, only half are able to…other half get “access denied”…back on phone to other tech gurus; they’re stumped…Plan C…visit some other weblogs to get the idea of what’s up…you guessed it, connections die…turn off computers…Plan D…pull history of journalism lecture from deep recesses of brain and feel lucky that it didn’t happen in my other class where there was not even a Plan B…Ah, but tomorrow is another day!
Will,
My sympathies. I teach drama and I call these moments my little fiascos. They lead to great successes because they teach students grace under fire and ability to roll with the punches. They also provide teachers with a sense of gratitude for weekends and nearly frozen quarts of brew. Hell with it. Have a beer. Problem will be there tomorrow (and probably Monday, too).
Terry
P.S. Check out this cruelly funny segment from “This American Life” called “Fiasco”.