TechBytes

For at least half the summer, my alarm has gone off at 6:30 in the morning. Even on Sunday. Don’t ask me why. It just does. Most days, I even wake up before the alarm goes off! Still, I try to lie in bed as long as I can, savoring the fact that I don’t have to leap up, hurry through my morning routine, and rush off to school.

When I finally get up, not really all that much later, I shower, dress, eat breakfast (while watching GMA or the Today show, something I can never do during the school year), and (yes, at the same time) turn on my laptop and spend the next 30-45 minutes checking e-mail, reading blogs, and writing an entry on my own blog.

All too soon, it’s time to go. I pack my laptop, make sure my digital camera is in my bag, grab my new cell phone (complete with “better” camera and a keyboard so I don’t embarrass my nieces with my “terrible texting”), and go off to work (two hours later than during the school year). Once in the office, I turn on my laptop again, check my e-mail, glance at the RSS feeds, especially the Facebook ones (have to keep up with all my children, you know), and get busy with the work at hand.

All of a sudden, a flash at the bottom of my screen catches my attention. It’s Ed on Yahoo “chat,” needing advice on how to flesh out the 10 page paper he’s writing for a “head start” college English class. No sooner do I put his mind at ease, than I see that I have 8 new e-mail messages. There’s one from Astrid (director, not cousin) asking if I’d help her with an in-service for Northeastern Conference, one from Gary telling me about a schedule change for the SNEC in-service, one from Ron suggesting some changes to the PowerPoint Presentation I’d sent him, three from Edwin (replying to my five different messages of the night before), one from VistaPrints telling me they have something special “just for me,” and one from Martha asking if I’d write an editorial for the first issue of TechBytes, SNEC’s new quarterly technology newsletter.

I answer the other messages, but ignore Martha’s. Sisters can get away with that. Sometimes. I go back to work editing the Staff Handbook, periodically checking the notice bar to see if I have any more messages. The phone rings. It’s a prospective parent. We talk awhile, and then she asks “do you have a website where I can see more about your school?” I tell her the URL and give her LeeHan’s e-mail address as well so they can work on financial registration without either having to step foot in the school.

As I’m hanging up the phone, I happen to see the date on my calendar: August 6. I pick up my new phone and press 9. “Happy Birthday, Mom!” I say. (It’s her 80^th.) I’ve caught her out running errands, so I don’t keep her long. “I’ll call you later and see how your day went” I say.

My notice bar indicates I have another message. It’s from Martha, sending me a draft of TechBytes, showing me how much space she’s left for “your editorial." I read through the document, and am impressed by the extensive list of technology “help” out there for educators. She’s even annotated it! I resolve to go on a “field trip” with the EW/GBA faculty at some point during our Pre-Session. I ignore the obvious nudge regarding an editorial.

A flash of red outside my office window catches my attention. I grab my camera, press the 5X zoom lever and snap a perfect picture of the cardinal I’ve been watching throughout the summer. The 8.0 pixels show every detail!

It’s a brief interlude, but enough to revive me. Back to the Handbook. I come to the page about GradeQuick and Edline and am reminded that I need to nail down some serious in-service time to insure that the bugs are worked out of this helpful-but-frustrating program. I go to Windows Messenger and send Martha an urgent request for help. Within seconds, she responds. “I’ll do your in-service if you’ll send me your editorial.”

Ain’t technology grand?!