Another madhouse of a day. At least in this one I had some acknowledgement of the absurdity of my position at work right now. The morning was spent interviewing people for the single tech aide position being offered in our district right now. We're talking a 0.8 position, delivering instruction to about 200 fourth and fifth graders, maintaining about sixty computers, supporting at least eight teachers, at four different school sites. And we pay about eighteen bucks an hour. Anyone want a job like that? You are the IT department at that point, at least for the lower schools.
At my site, right now, it's me. Hundred machine NT network, fileserver, print server, who knows how many hubs, two routers, not counting the library.... I have thirty machines in the lab, and three of them won't see the network at this point. I'm in charge, right now, of teaching four sections of Technology, support for the staff...about thirty people... purchasing, repair, curriculum development. Yup. And I have a Math class too!
The problem is that I run my ass off trying to keep the place above water so that people can use their machines, kind of, sort of, and I just get farther and farther behind. I've done no ordering yet, so I hope the damn toners don't run out any time soon. Make a note of that. Need batteries for the digital camera, to crack the password an old aide left on a notebook, check a few sound cards, go over all the Use Agreements, etc and so on.
I earn my paycheck, I tell ya. I'm pretty good at what I do, but if I had my choice, I'd spend all my time on curriculum design, I'd write websites for teachers to use with their kids. I've got one up on the school site right now, interactive, self-paced work on Pythagorean Theorem proofs. I'm pretty good with multiple learning styles, keeping all the kids interested and giving them ways to learn without boring their socks off, and giving them some responsibility for how they show me what they've learned. But no. I spend my time with wire crimpers and dust bunnies, under people's desks. Bitch bitch bitch. Been that kind of a day.