District Computer Lab Technicians

It was great to be able to put faces with names, (at least 8 of us)and get to talk together about what concerns us. We must do this again!!

For those of you not fortunate to get the time.. I will try to summarize.. When I miss something, please jump in with a new posting, not just a comment.

First of all.. the idea of a bag lunch didn’t work.. because we were all talking all the time!

(OK, I talked more than most..) Our agenda started off with introductions.. and went directly into more meetings and when was best.. and it was general consensus that we have to ask our principals to give us one/half day a month for TRAINING.. and they will probably be scheduled on a Fri. We will also be looking for a training day in May for E-dart, before report cards are due!

Quite a lot of discussion was on the cleaning and disk maintenance of the school classrooom computers.. with kids not allowed to use chemicals, a good duster and cloth will be a big start. My 6th grade Student techs will be doing this. It seems as if the lab computers will need disinfecting with Clorox wipes, or cloth and alcohol.. which means we have to do it, as often as possible.. especially on min days.

Which led to the realization that we all need to ask our principals to keep the lab closed the first week of school to give us a chance to go to all the classrooms, disk clean and defrag the disks, and check it all out. That will also give the librarians time to update SRI before all the teachers want to give tests.
Tracy asked for input as to what we found works well for management.. and the practice of having the kids stand behind their seats, and wait for directions before sitting down, then having them stand there again, and not be excused until everyone had exited the programs properly.. was accepted as VERY EFFECTIVE!

Also.. to keep a log (in whatever manner you wish) of what is done in each class, so that you know where to start at the next class. I keep mine in Excel and find it very helpful for substituting for each teacher that shares. I was asked to share so I will attach it to an email.. simply because I don’t know how to link it to this (yet). Which brought up.. we ALL need to keep checked in on our Groupwise Email.. for communication.

And I hope all of you will check into this blog to read, even if you don’t want to post.

We did talk about different programs:

• Deep Freeze, to keep lab and room computers free of junk, and at the same settings every day. The lab and/or District can control it.. and every school needs it!
• Larsen’s math: Contact Shirley B. at Rice
• reasons pro and con for open source software….

We also were given new flashdrives to have for the labs to move data from one computer to another for teachers. and were warned, they can crash!
All in all, VERY productive time spent, considering we only had an hour… Wow, what we could do with 3 hours! Thanks, Tracy and all who attended.

Now, I know there was something else and I can’t think of it. Please help!

from the 70 yr. old dwarf!