Since the last episode:
The district may or may not have recovered the data.
Two colleagues and I presented to the school board about the problem (THEY we eloquent, me... not so much).
Classes chug along and now the district wants to talk about the advertising policy.
Yay?
Hmm.
Headache, a little tired, but still doing ok- hoping to smooth sail right out of the week and into a restful weekend. More stitching, less bitching. Possible?
We'll see.
More soon.
Thursday, April 29, 2010
Thursday, April 22, 2010
So I said to myself, Mabel I says,
Beware.
Just realizing that when I decided to take the plunge and start up a blog, I thought- what do I have to write about?
And about the same time, the server at school crashed. Hard.
And all the data is gone. Years of work. Student work. Disappeared.
The district explained that we don't back up the data. Ever. Other data, but not teacher or student or site data. Ok.
As a person who is somewhat technical (more in the past, less these days, soon a luddite with a kerosene lamp and a butter churn, but that's in the future), people have come to me and asked about the technical problems. In the middle of class, break, lunch, afterschool, texting me, etc. And for each, I get to explain, in comforting yet horrifying words, yes- all your data from the last five years is gone. And when the district personnel TOLD you it was BEING BACKED UP, and IT WAS SAFE, they were saying- well.
So I said to myself, Mabel I says, this is bad. Bad for teachers, students, admin, assistants. Awful.
But also this week my sister is off to Africa- UGANDA, to work with orphans and try to make the world a great place. She's like that, my sister. And I didn't tell her, but I am TERRIFIED for her. I looked up Uganda to get a read on the current situation, etc. and became a little short of breath.
This week, and next, I'm just humming a happy tune and trusting she'll be OK. She's in a more dire place than I am.
Also, a teacher on a listserve wrote to share about the death of a former student; gone at 23 from cancer. They're in a more dire place than I am.
Soldiering on- not my best skill, but one I'm going to try for the rest of this week (one day, OK...).
I do wonder- if I hadn't wondered what to write about, would I have so much to write about? I am living in interesting times...
Good news? Loving GoogleDocs for the Journo workload. THAT's cool. Wrote a page to upload the digital photography images, so the students can upload their photos from home. THAT's cool, too.
Ruthless Enthusiasm. Worth it.
Just realizing that when I decided to take the plunge and start up a blog, I thought- what do I have to write about?
And about the same time, the server at school crashed. Hard.
And all the data is gone. Years of work. Student work. Disappeared.
The district explained that we don't back up the data. Ever. Other data, but not teacher or student or site data. Ok.
As a person who is somewhat technical (more in the past, less these days, soon a luddite with a kerosene lamp and a butter churn, but that's in the future), people have come to me and asked about the technical problems. In the middle of class, break, lunch, afterschool, texting me, etc. And for each, I get to explain, in comforting yet horrifying words, yes- all your data from the last five years is gone. And when the district personnel TOLD you it was BEING BACKED UP, and IT WAS SAFE, they were saying- well.
So I said to myself, Mabel I says, this is bad. Bad for teachers, students, admin, assistants. Awful.
But also this week my sister is off to Africa- UGANDA, to work with orphans and try to make the world a great place. She's like that, my sister. And I didn't tell her, but I am TERRIFIED for her. I looked up Uganda to get a read on the current situation, etc. and became a little short of breath.
This week, and next, I'm just humming a happy tune and trusting she'll be OK. She's in a more dire place than I am.
Also, a teacher on a listserve wrote to share about the death of a former student; gone at 23 from cancer. They're in a more dire place than I am.
Soldiering on- not my best skill, but one I'm going to try for the rest of this week (one day, OK...).
I do wonder- if I hadn't wondered what to write about, would I have so much to write about? I am living in interesting times...
Good news? Loving GoogleDocs for the Journo workload. THAT's cool. Wrote a page to upload the digital photography images, so the students can upload their photos from home. THAT's cool, too.
Ruthless Enthusiasm. Worth it.
Saturday, April 17, 2010
Catastrophe; Day of Silence; NewSchool
Best of times, worst of times?
Good news:
The Day of Silence was a hit! 100 T-shirts (hand stencilled by tolerance loving students!) went quickly, the 500 red wrist bands were a hit, the balloon arch was wonderful and it went over great. Luckily, because this GSA advisor was down in San Diego doing a walk through of the NewSchool of Architecture and Design on the big day.
NewSchool is a wonderful little (600 student) architecture school in the heart of San Diego (the trolley splits the campus). The main building is the old "Hang Ten" warehouse building (if you remember Hang Ten- I do, loved my terrycloth shirt. Missing it right now!).
NewSchool wins awards and is known for their intense students and focus- now they are adding a Digital Media Arts program (just right for my Digital Photography kids, I think). I've always wanted to be an architect, so finding out about the masters program was cool, too.
Rob and I stayed at the Britt Scripps Inn- a B&B that was very affordable, wonderfully done, right in the big middle of everything, and a great choice if you're visiting San Diego. The breakfasts are excellent- Rob recommends the colossal delightful bathtub.
The Catastrophe?
Our common drive went down over Spring Break at the school. So, all the teacher (and student, and administrator, and office personnel) data is gone. It wasn't backed up.
It just wasn't. Our technology department has told the staff that the server was 'safe', but it turns out that they knew the drive wasn't backed up. There was 'too much data' on the server to back up. So, the more we used it, the more we came to rely on it, the less safe it was.
Our school uses 'thin clients'; basically terminals that have the processing done on the thin client server. The only way to save anything is on the common drive. And, you guessed it, that was the drive that disappeared.
Teacher's whole worlds were stored, and lost. Lessons, tests, finals, PowerPoint's, video and audio for classes, prep for state testing, letters of recommendations- and so much more. Gone. We did what was asked of us, trusted the technology department, and we are now lost.
Student work also disappeared- college essays, portfolios of work for the year or all four years, etc. Gone.
Admin is also lost. I could go on, but I get a little panicky when I think about it. And more than a little angry. I'm really trying to keep this from being a rant about what goes wrong. Sometimes that's more of a challenge- today we'll see how I do.
There seems to be very little value placed on teacher product. Or, to be fair, our Technology Department appears to be out of touch with the importance of teacher work. Those files, gathered through the years, are our tools. We can't do our best work without these files- these tools. Taking away the hammer from the carpenter (or the scalpel from the surgeon) and expecting them to be as effective would be ridiculous.
The network, and the data ARE the curriculum these days. Teaching our students in this contemporary world requires these tools- stable and available. Yet, our technology department appears to feel that, while their data (which IS backed up) is important, our (and the students) is not important, and therefore can be lost.
There are industry standards for data security and recovery; our district didn't follow them. Now, the work is lost; hours are lost. No one, as yet, has stepped up to take responsibility for the loss. Or to propose compensation.
This has brought to light a fundamental misunderstanding about what teachers do, why it might be important, and why it might be valuable.
I really do hope the data is recovered- the drive has been at a data recovery specialist for going on a week now. A new drive is on its way to school- to be installed at some point.
Lost forever, I'm afraid, is the trust for the technology department. Lost also is a little more respect for the district- if this is how much they respect the teachers, if this is how they safeguard our hard work, if this is the plan for ensuring a functioning work environment... Disappointing.
Thanks for reading- I'll keep you updated. Sigh.
Good news:
The Day of Silence was a hit! 100 T-shirts (hand stencilled by tolerance loving students!) went quickly, the 500 red wrist bands were a hit, the balloon arch was wonderful and it went over great. Luckily, because this GSA advisor was down in San Diego doing a walk through of the NewSchool of Architecture and Design on the big day.
NewSchool is a wonderful little (600 student) architecture school in the heart of San Diego (the trolley splits the campus). The main building is the old "Hang Ten" warehouse building (if you remember Hang Ten- I do, loved my terrycloth shirt. Missing it right now!).
NewSchool wins awards and is known for their intense students and focus- now they are adding a Digital Media Arts program (just right for my Digital Photography kids, I think). I've always wanted to be an architect, so finding out about the masters program was cool, too.
Rob and I stayed at the Britt Scripps Inn- a B&B that was very affordable, wonderfully done, right in the big middle of everything, and a great choice if you're visiting San Diego. The breakfasts are excellent- Rob recommends the colossal delightful bathtub.
The Catastrophe?
Our common drive went down over Spring Break at the school. So, all the teacher (and student, and administrator, and office personnel) data is gone. It wasn't backed up.
It just wasn't. Our technology department has told the staff that the server was 'safe', but it turns out that they knew the drive wasn't backed up. There was 'too much data' on the server to back up. So, the more we used it, the more we came to rely on it, the less safe it was.
Our school uses 'thin clients'; basically terminals that have the processing done on the thin client server. The only way to save anything is on the common drive. And, you guessed it, that was the drive that disappeared.
Teacher's whole worlds were stored, and lost. Lessons, tests, finals, PowerPoint's, video and audio for classes, prep for state testing, letters of recommendations- and so much more. Gone. We did what was asked of us, trusted the technology department, and we are now lost.
Student work also disappeared- college essays, portfolios of work for the year or all four years, etc. Gone.
Admin is also lost. I could go on, but I get a little panicky when I think about it. And more than a little angry. I'm really trying to keep this from being a rant about what goes wrong. Sometimes that's more of a challenge- today we'll see how I do.
There seems to be very little value placed on teacher product. Or, to be fair, our Technology Department appears to be out of touch with the importance of teacher work. Those files, gathered through the years, are our tools. We can't do our best work without these files- these tools. Taking away the hammer from the carpenter (or the scalpel from the surgeon) and expecting them to be as effective would be ridiculous.
The network, and the data ARE the curriculum these days. Teaching our students in this contemporary world requires these tools- stable and available. Yet, our technology department appears to feel that, while their data (which IS backed up) is important, our (and the students) is not important, and therefore can be lost.
There are industry standards for data security and recovery; our district didn't follow them. Now, the work is lost; hours are lost. No one, as yet, has stepped up to take responsibility for the loss. Or to propose compensation.
This has brought to light a fundamental misunderstanding about what teachers do, why it might be important, and why it might be valuable.
I really do hope the data is recovered- the drive has been at a data recovery specialist for going on a week now. A new drive is on its way to school- to be installed at some point.
Lost forever, I'm afraid, is the trust for the technology department. Lost also is a little more respect for the district- if this is how much they respect the teachers, if this is how they safeguard our hard work, if this is the plan for ensuring a functioning work environment... Disappointing.
Thanks for reading- I'll keep you updated. Sigh.
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Saturday
Nice to keep up here. I've been trying for a while to get back in the habit of writing.
Perfect Saturday here- warm, sunny, breeze, excellent. Really nice, it's going to be difficult to learn to love Astoria and it's rain. But, by then, maybe I'll be ready. And, unless I get a whole new dermis, the idea of a little less sun on my easy-to-burn skin isn't a bad idea. We'll just have to see, won't we?
Franken-dog (Whoopi) doing better- still moving slowly and keeping herself quiet. Nice to have her better, when any of the dogs are down it just breaks my heart. A great reason to have dogs instead of kids, though. Actual kids of my own? My heart would never stop breaking.
Playing a little with fabric embellishments. Today is dye-na-flow and neopaque testing on muslin. Fun! Excellent to have the time to play around before the school machine turns back on and my every extra thought is school related. Will I ever get a clue and work less? Maybe. Or, maybe I'll lust try to retire early! And we're back to Astoria, Oregon.
Off to play with paint!
Perfect Saturday here- warm, sunny, breeze, excellent. Really nice, it's going to be difficult to learn to love Astoria and it's rain. But, by then, maybe I'll be ready. And, unless I get a whole new dermis, the idea of a little less sun on my easy-to-burn skin isn't a bad idea. We'll just have to see, won't we?
Franken-dog (Whoopi) doing better- still moving slowly and keeping herself quiet. Nice to have her better, when any of the dogs are down it just breaks my heart. A great reason to have dogs instead of kids, though. Actual kids of my own? My heart would never stop breaking.
Playing a little with fabric embellishments. Today is dye-na-flow and neopaque testing on muslin. Fun! Excellent to have the time to play around before the school machine turns back on and my every extra thought is school related. Will I ever get a clue and work less? Maybe. Or, maybe I'll lust try to retire early! And we're back to Astoria, Oregon.
Off to play with paint!
Friday, April 9, 2010
Friday!
Spring Break coming to a close, a little sorry but happy to get back to work, too.
Nice to love my job.
New sewing machine came- awesome. Commerical Singer that sews super fast- yay! It's a little thing, but great for me as I find the stitches can't come fast enough when I'm peicing. But of course I'm talking to the choir on this one- you feel the same, right?
Whoopi (older dog; sweetness) had surgery today. De-lumped. As a lab, she grows lumps like crazy. A little spooky, though, having our 13 year old dog go under the knife. The good news? Only fat lumps, nothing more serious. Whew.
Got lots of supplies for the coming weeks- things to work on, things to read about, so with the last few crazy weeks of school I can keep busy. Yay? I think so.
OK, so that's enough interesting stuff for today, I guess. Whee! Two more days of break! Oh, and dinner with Mom tomorrow.
Nice to love my job.
New sewing machine came- awesome. Commerical Singer that sews super fast- yay! It's a little thing, but great for me as I find the stitches can't come fast enough when I'm peicing. But of course I'm talking to the choir on this one- you feel the same, right?
Whoopi (older dog; sweetness) had surgery today. De-lumped. As a lab, she grows lumps like crazy. A little spooky, though, having our 13 year old dog go under the knife. The good news? Only fat lumps, nothing more serious. Whew.
Got lots of supplies for the coming weeks- things to work on, things to read about, so with the last few crazy weeks of school I can keep busy. Yay? I think so.
OK, so that's enough interesting stuff for today, I guess. Whee! Two more days of break! Oh, and dinner with Mom tomorrow.
Thursday, April 8, 2010
Day One
Howdy.
I've been meaning to set up a blog for a while- a year or so, in fact. Today's a good day- Spring Break, a cancelled doctors appointment for my mom gives me a little free time before I zoom down to LA for some shopping, and it just seems like a good day.
"Nother Day"
When I was growing up, years ago, in Oregon, my brother and I shared a stuffed dog. We already had one or two stuffed dogs- and when we got another one, we named it "nother dog." Of course, the first stuffed dog was no big deal, nor all the others. But Nother Dog, he (or she- we were very young and not that gender-concerned or aware, I guess) became THE stuffed animal of choice. And of course, the more one brother wanted it, the more valuable it became to the other brother. For years (honestly, still) we battled over Nother Dog.
I have Nother Dog's ear. Maybe I can clone him? I think my brother has the rest of Nother Dog.
'Nother Day' is a way to remember how valuable something can be, even when you have more than one.
A little biographical info: I'm 43; a Journalism, Yearbook and Photography teacher in Ventura, CA. I work at Ventura High School (go Cougars!).
For the last few years I've been married to my husband Rob- we've been together for 22 years now; we met in the US Navy- we worked on the same submarine (the USS Francis Scott Key- long since chopped into razor blades). Our long courtship is because it was only legal for us to marry a few years ago. And now it's illegal again. Makes me feel a little scandalous.
It's Spring Break here- a beautiful Thursday with temps in the 70s, light breeze and so much sun that the roses in the back yard are exploding. It's the kind of day that says 'optimism' and that's a great day for starting a blog, I think.
My goal? Posting weekly, maybe more often as I can, less often when school gets busy. We'll see how I do. If you're reading this? Keep me honest, I guess.
I don't hope my blog becomes a book, magazine, film, miniseries, recipe, clothing line, reason for tea partiers to attack with pitchforks and torches. I do hope it helps me to organize my thoughts and improve my writing. I really do enjoy writing.
Off to LA now- thanks for reading.
I've been meaning to set up a blog for a while- a year or so, in fact. Today's a good day- Spring Break, a cancelled doctors appointment for my mom gives me a little free time before I zoom down to LA for some shopping, and it just seems like a good day.
"Nother Day"
When I was growing up, years ago, in Oregon, my brother and I shared a stuffed dog. We already had one or two stuffed dogs- and when we got another one, we named it "nother dog." Of course, the first stuffed dog was no big deal, nor all the others. But Nother Dog, he (or she- we were very young and not that gender-concerned or aware, I guess) became THE stuffed animal of choice. And of course, the more one brother wanted it, the more valuable it became to the other brother. For years (honestly, still) we battled over Nother Dog.
I have Nother Dog's ear. Maybe I can clone him? I think my brother has the rest of Nother Dog.
'Nother Day' is a way to remember how valuable something can be, even when you have more than one.
A little biographical info: I'm 43; a Journalism, Yearbook and Photography teacher in Ventura, CA. I work at Ventura High School (go Cougars!).
For the last few years I've been married to my husband Rob- we've been together for 22 years now; we met in the US Navy- we worked on the same submarine (the USS Francis Scott Key- long since chopped into razor blades). Our long courtship is because it was only legal for us to marry a few years ago. And now it's illegal again. Makes me feel a little scandalous.
It's Spring Break here- a beautiful Thursday with temps in the 70s, light breeze and so much sun that the roses in the back yard are exploding. It's the kind of day that says 'optimism' and that's a great day for starting a blog, I think.
My goal? Posting weekly, maybe more often as I can, less often when school gets busy. We'll see how I do. If you're reading this? Keep me honest, I guess.
I don't hope my blog becomes a book, magazine, film, miniseries, recipe, clothing line, reason for tea partiers to attack with pitchforks and torches. I do hope it helps me to organize my thoughts and improve my writing. I really do enjoy writing.
Off to LA now- thanks for reading.
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