We all hope for a world where everything that goes wrong can be resolved like our fictional friends on television. Imagine having a bad day, with accompanying melodramatic music at the height of your frustration, followed by a few commercials -- and, apparently, a magic wand spell or two -- that allows the perfect resolution to your distress. All followed by a wonderful "lesson learned" message for everyone around you.
As I mentioned earlier this week, I've gone several rounds with out internet provider, who conveniently advises me to "log on to their website to report my connectivity issues." This, along with Apple advising me that "all Genius Bar appointments must be made on line" leaves me scratching my head as to how we ever got along without the interweb, let alone how one REPORTS difficulty accessing it when it can't be accessed.
Yes, it's a treadmill kind of day.
Nowhere fast.
The bulk of the steps recorded on my fitbit this evening were related to the troubleshooting prompts of a guy named, I'm not kidding, Adonis, at Comcast. "Check your router," "Try to log on," back to the router, watch the lights, report the blinking, and rebooting. Seventeen trips up and down the stairs. Oh, and still no connectivity. A trip to the mall, assurances that my computer is working fine, and back to Comcast, who assured me it is the computer that is at fault.
How often does this same cycle happen in the heads of our students? As teachers, we've all seen the glazed-over faces that are silently screaming "DOES - NOT -- COMPUTE", as we attempt to connect new information to existing or past knowledge. Today's frustrations have me ready to crawl into bed with a coloring book, abandoning the technological world in the hope that it will magically cure itself and all make sense tomorrow.
Alice in Wonderland once commented, "It would be so nice if something would make sense for a change."
Oh, Alice, I do so agree!
The next few weeks are dedicated to testing. It makes little sense to teachers, and even less sense to the learners. We all know it's important, but why it is so important, well, just - does - not - compute. We try to connect. We try to understand. And the treadmill continues to take us on a journey of inches while we cover miles.
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