9/12/96 Drummer Column, Gibbs, 697 words

Two weeks in

I sure have a great bunch of students this year. Everyone seems eager and ready to learn. It's only the second week and we've already covered a mountain of material.

I've been excited for the last couple of weeks because I'm doing a lot of new things this year, and nothing puts a teacher higher on his toes than new assignments.

Everyone knew it going to be a good year on the teacher in-service day before classes started. Often we're optimistic, though quiet and preoccupied with the weight of the coming agenda. This year we started the meeting with an enthusiastic, spontaneous standing ovation for the dozens of new teachers who walked to the front of the auditorium and took a bow.

A standing ovation? At a teacher in-service? Weird.

I don't know where this energy boost came from. Perhaps it was triggered by the infusion of all that fresh blood into our colonial organism. All those new ideas and ideals pixilated us with renewed potential. Perhaps it was the institution of reasonable class sizes at the elementary schools. Perhaps it was relief that the construction is over for most of us. Perhaps it was the excitement of having a new high school principal, a ubiquitous administrator with a gleam and a grin and a notepad. Perhaps it was a wave of satisfaction after a relaxing summer. Maybe it was all of that, rolled into one big Hurrah!

One? Do you believe we actually had two standing ovations. Our guest speaker, Michelle Karns, earned one. She was funny, insightful and kinesthetic - she pulled people out of their seats to create living examples of how adults help children grow up. She had them holding hands in circles of parents, family, teachers and friends and stuck other people, playing kids, in the middles. Then she moved the kids around, from circle to circle, and talked about influence and problem-solving. She told jokes about raising her own daughter; complimented audience members at random for having nice hair or great smiles; brought out props, posters, transparencies, and books. Michelle was a one-man band, except for the lack of cymbals on her knees.

I was excited for even more reasons. I was allowed to teach my freshman honors class again. For a while there it was on the chopping block because of a philosophical paradigm explosion that turned out to be caused not by a terrorist bomb or a Stinger missile, but by a few loose bolts in the wing compartment that we were able to tighten in-flight without crashing or dumping our fuel.

Also, each afternoon I teach a new class called the Language of Computers, where we research technical manuals and fix old, donated computers for use in the classroom. If you've been reading this column for long, you'll know how happy that makes me. I love tinkering with hard and software.

We don't have much in the way of supplies, yet, but we're making do with our three screwdrivers, three new tables, and dozens of discarded computers donated by local citizens. We don't have text books, or any technical manuals, but my copy machine has plenty of toner and everyone knows how to find the city library. Also, I have administrative support. Once we find out what this class REALLY needs, I'm sure we'll get it. In the meantime, if any readers have old, dog-eared technical manuals or computers lying around collecting dust, feel free to send them over. We'll add them to the circle.

I'm also busy as the technology mentor, a new position I was awarded last spring. So far I've made two house calls, both successful. One problem was a printer lid that wasn't properly closing, causing a shutdown. The other problem was more complex - someone's sound card wasn't working and his Windows kept crashing. It turned out to be the Jerusalem Virus, which had infected 19 programs, including his emergency boot disk.

With the help of a neighbor, a few hours of reloading drivers, and some dumb luck, we were able to get the system up and singing. Next up are two CD-ROM failures and a string of general protection faults. I'm in teacher heaven.