We're doing a building-wide writing activity tomorrow at the end of second period. Basically we show the kids a video on the character trait of the month (responsibility) and give them the writing prompt and they go to it. It's all part of the 6+1 writing we do, and it really does give the kids more practice in writing.
The only problem was that the 10 of us who got lucky and had the LCD projectors installed in our room didn't have a way to show the video (our TV's on teacher work stations were loaned out to other teachers). Basically the tech folks simply installed the projectors and didn't bother installing everything else such as the the cable box, the VCR/DVD player, the microphones, etc. So I dash off an email to Mr. Enforcer, who's sort of our tech guru and let him know that we're in a bit of a bind.
Mr. Enforcer, great guy that he is, gets the tech geeks on the phone and asks how come the entire system didn't get put together and is informed that they're waiting for some shelf units they ordered (to set the equipment on) to come in. Well, we can't wait any longer so they come out and figure that we can move file cabinets around to set the stuff on and it will all work.
So, of course, the tech guys come down and hook everything up in the middle of my fifth period. The kids, of course, are paying more attention to the tech guy than they are to the Cornell notes which they are trying to learn to do so I'm having a bit of a time keeping them focused.
The tech guy apologies and says he needs to do some program checking and would I mind if he interrupted my PowerPoint for a moment? Well, there are copies of the notes on their desks (they haven't seen Cornell notes until earlier this week in Mrs. Language's class and they're completely confused), so I tell them to just copy the next section off as I discuss it. So I'm prattling away about how mass and weight are different and so forth and so on while Tech Guy is playing with my new toys doing his programming thing.
He hits a button and up on my big wide humongous screen is a television show.
It is a soap opera (the kids informed me later that it was All My Children).
It was also a bedroom scene.
The kids erupt in shrieks of hormonal glee and hysteria. Mr. Tech Guy turns absolutely beet red and starts hitting buttons to change the channel, but it's too late. The kids have already completely lost it.
Mr. Tech Guy is profuse in his apologies and rushes out of my room as fast as he can to do the installation next door in Mr. Social Studies' room.
I found out later that he made sure that Mr. Social Studies' cable channel was set to PBS before he did any major programming.
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5 comments:
Whaaa, haaaa, haaaa!!! :-) I'm sure the kids will be talking about it all year.
Hard to reel them back in after that one, huh?
Hey, I just came upon your blog while searching "board game clubs". I read your entry from 1995 that said you started one at your school. I've been thinking of doing the same at mine. It sounded promising from this early post. I was wondering if you could post (or respond in comments) and tell how it went over the long-haul. I need your insight! Thanks.
Oops - I meant your entry from 2005!
Oh, sorry. One other question. How do you think such a club would go on the high school level?
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