Two days and counting. Just trying to survive. After lunch my biggest, loudest class comes in, and I set them to the task of "dropping" their essays to my laptop in-box (share file). But there's a glitch to my system as my computer has fallen asleep and will not wake up. I'm having battery issues, and after a few minutes of trying to bring it to life when the battery says it's charged but nothing's happening, I give up. Nothing's turning on.
So, I guide my students to move on to the main lesson, a website to explore, and I told them I would get back to them about turning in the essays after I had time to fidget with things. (I am at times a "computer whisperer" and can jump start dead student laptops.) The assignment sheet was in my computer "assignment drop" for students to retrieve, so that was yet another irritation, but we found enough hard copies (handouts) around the classroom to get by.
I wanted them to listen to an audio file first, and I had my secondary microphone sitting next to desktop speaker, as I had all day, but when I moved away from my desk, I realized that there was no sound coming through the audio enhancement speakers, so I dash to the back of the room to check plugs and wires, ready to brawl with the idiot kid who unplugged it. Nothing's wrong with the wires. What the heck? It has to be the batteries on the microphone. Not dead, but certainly dying. Quite worthless.
So, I threw up my arms in a mini tantrum: "Arg! I hate technology today! Well, you've found your way to the website. You have the handouts. The audio was much of the same information. So, just go ahead and get to it."
Nothing like a strong warm-up. Chaos. Technical difficulties. Whatever. Just get to work kiddos.
A few hours later, I have finally made it to that 20 minutes to myself when I am waiting in the car for my kids' school to get out. I usually read, but I finished the book yesterday, so I was looking forward to calling my best friend back home to tell her I'm coming to visit in two days. And guess whose cell phone was D. E. A. D.?
It's weird how there are those days when there are patterns. Today was the day of dead batteries. I'm sitting in the car connecting the dots of the day, and I realize that it's just not the things in my life that need their batteries charged. I need my batteries charged, too.
Deep, huh?
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