No Circuits, No Juice: Zen and the Art of Blogging

I may as well be trying to do some sort of transcendental mind work with the power box and the portable laptop lab. It might render better results than a work order or an appointment with a superior. This morning I started class with a "think aloud" poem ("The Incident" by Cullen). We brainstormed and wrote. Then kids free wrote about incidents in their lives...or the lives of others...or any connections they could make. I had hoped that we could then use the portable laptops, but as soon as we got plugged in, the power blew. Ironically, an electrician was drilling the power box next door, adding circuits for the two xerox machines that have been moved to the office nextdoor. Oh, I asked if there was a work order for the rooms on my end of the hall...anything turned in by either of my principals since I started this quest a year ago. The electrician told me no...that he was only here for the xerox machines. In fact, he came in and looked at my room and then laughed, commenting that since a teacher had been moved this year into the office next door to use as work space complete with computer and so forth, he felt that that alone would blow power in my room, nevermind the laptops and other stuff I drag in. Oh, well. This presents another problem. The laptops are now being supervised by the A+ people, but there really isn't a clearinghouse for control of the mobile units. Since I was signed up for the A+ computer room, but it is still under construction and can't be used, I'm out of luck and have to squeeze into one of the two labs which were already signed up for. It really didn't do any good to sign up for the lab last summer. No one seems to know what's what. There so much paperwork floating around it is mindboggling (my favorite word lately).

I started out this morning with the big laptop lab, but it didn't matter because we couldn't get power or internet. Someone was signed up for it second hour, so I began to search for the small lab, but no one knew where it was. I actually found it by the end of second block, and we were able to get up and running. By the time my third class came in, I had to think about forgetting the think aloud because the computers were working. So...we went with it. Most kids are blogging right now as I write, and the rest of them are reading. Maybe after lunch we'll look at poetry.

I had an interesting discussion with Belle in 3rd block. She's reading Jay's Journal an anonymous work about the occult, drugs, etc. She posted her thoughts and linked to sites about the occult. She asked me to collaborate with her about what might be appropriate...I was so grateful. One of the sites was a wiki about the occult and the other was a link to a site about religion and tolerance...the occult as religion. Her whole table and I talked about parents, the blog, problems facing us in legislation and the blog, and how we are perceived. The kids decided that it might be misunderstood, even if her intentions were to try to understand the boy in the book. It was a very interesting discussion of censorship and responsibility....we even discussed OJ's book! It was truly a teachable moment.