It could be worse...

Do you ever feel like you just can't win for losing? Like everything you touch will somehow go down in flames? Everyone has those days, I'm sure. Don't worry, I'm not hanging on to my sanity by a quickly fraying rope or anything. It's just Monday, and for some reason, it just always feels like everything that can go wrong, will...especially on Monday. I recently received an installation of really awesome teaching tools in my classroom. I've had the Interwrite board (AKA Smartboard, just by a different name) for about a week and I am already in L-O-V-E with it. It's so much fun to do activities on with the kids and they really enjoy the opportunity to play with it. Except that this morning, when I turned on the computer and tried to start it up, it wouldn't work. "Device not connected" to be exact. Ok...I'll click "connect device." Nothing. Click again. Nothing. Clickclickclickclickclickclick...oh good, now something is happening. Oh no, wait. Now it's frozen. (I have a problem with clicking too many times in a row because I'm not impatient at all...which often leads to a confusion inside the technology, which then leads me to wish my profession didn't involve being watched by ten year olds because many 4 letter words are running through my head...It's a nasty cycle.) Let's restart the computer. Tick tock tick tock. No learning happening. Well, except that one word I let slip that they hadn't heard before...JUST KIDDING! I've never let my mouth slip in front of my class, although now that I've admitted it out loud, I probably will tomorrow. Fantastic... Anyway....

Restart the computer. Device is still not connected so that pretty much takes us into 3 consecutive rounds of the above described events...I'll spare your eyes and my fingers from the repetition of it, but I assure you, it happened. So pretty much I just start clicking buttons, unplugging wires, you get the idea. 32 minutes into class, a 5th grade miracle occurs before our very eyes and a bubble appears proclaiming "device connected." Well, hallelujah! Too bad our classes are only 39 minutes....hhmmm. Teacher fail. This was only 2nd hour, so it really set my mood for the rest of the day. Nothing else seemed to go as bad as this episode, but still, it doesn't really put you in a good mood for your day. But as bad of a mood as it may have been, I really should be counting my blessings that my embarrassment for my technological inadequacies were only displayed for 4 ten year olds. Because when it boils right down to it, all I can say is "Man, am I glad I'm not her!"