GRRRR...ARGH!!!!
I had a long, strange day. I was supposed to spend the entire day running the Star Lab portable planetarium with another teacher, while I had moms come in and watch my class. We started setting it up at 7:15am. It was all inflated and ready to go fairly quickly, but the problem was with the projector. It would turn on for about a minute and then would turn itself off. We thought it just had to warm itself up, so I went upstairs to get the first group of students, the 8th grade boys.
They're all much taller than me, so it was weird walking them down to the gym. When the 8th graders saw the big blown up dome, they were all Wow! That's cool! They seemed genuinely excited which was amusing because they try to act so cool and whatnot because they're big 13 and 14 years old guys. They clearly think they are made of awesome, swaggering down the hallways and acting all tough. I had them sit outside the dome while I went in to see if the other teacher had figured out what the problem was.
After trying for maybe 10 minutes to get the blasted projector to work, we decided that it wasn't going to work. So I had to go out and tell the 8th graders that they wouldn't be visiting the Star Lab. Before I went out they were all rowdy and loud, but you could've heard a pin drop when I told them they couldn't go in. Their mouths dropped open and they looked like they were about 5 years old. They looked so disappointed that I felt really bad for them. I promised them that they would get a chance to visit once we fixed the projector. And off they went, back to their classroom, not quite so rowdy and swaggery.
I ended up calling the projector company and after talking to the guy for 6 minutes, he concluded that the bulb must be dying and the only solution would be to order a new one. When we had gotten trained for the Star Lab a couple months ago, the trainer guy assured us that we wouldn't need a replacement bulb because this bulb won't be burning out any time soon. We called several other people and I ended up taking a drive out to pick up the old school Star Lab, the one I visited when I was little a bit after 11am. 40 minute drive out and 40 minute drive back.
We were desperate to at least get a couple classes in, so if someone comes out to fix the new dome tomorrow (as the guy told me he would) we'll have a few less classes to try to schedule in for visits on Thursday and Friday. We set up the old dome (so bad compared to the new one) and we managed to get one first grade and both second grade classes to come visit. You couldn't see the constellations very clearly, but we made do. I told them the stories that went with the most recognizable constellations and while it was so cheesy compared to the new digital one, the little kids really enjoyed it. But I can't see doing the same presentation for the older kids. I was just winging it with the little ones, reading a couple stories out of some constellation books I have, and little ones don't notice you're winging it as much as the older kids.
So it was a long tiring day, but we managed to get three classes to visit the Star Lab. Here's hoping the guy will call me tomorrow and have a solution for me or come out and fix the projector so we can use the spiffy new dome with its lovely computer programs the rest of the week, as opposed to the old dome that's smaller, falling apart, and nowhere near as awesome as the new dome. If we do get the projector fixed, I will let the 8th grade boys be the first to visit the new dome. One of the 8th grade boys even asked us at the end of the day if the projector was fixed yet. Awww.
I'm not in school tomorrow again. This time I'm out at a teacher's house with the principal and some other teachers working on this thing called Middle States. These people are coming out in April to inspect our school and then report back to someone about how we're doing or something. It's really annoying and somehow I ended up on the committee. But if the guy calls me about coming to fix the Star Lab projector tomorrow, my principal told me that I can leave and go back to school to help him. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll come and make everything right so we can do the presentations on Thursday and Friday and be over and done with.
Technology is so frustrating sometimes. It's amazing how one little lightbulb can ruin the entire day.
They're all much taller than me, so it was weird walking them down to the gym. When the 8th graders saw the big blown up dome, they were all Wow! That's cool! They seemed genuinely excited which was amusing because they try to act so cool and whatnot because they're big 13 and 14 years old guys. They clearly think they are made of awesome, swaggering down the hallways and acting all tough. I had them sit outside the dome while I went in to see if the other teacher had figured out what the problem was.
After trying for maybe 10 minutes to get the blasted projector to work, we decided that it wasn't going to work. So I had to go out and tell the 8th graders that they wouldn't be visiting the Star Lab. Before I went out they were all rowdy and loud, but you could've heard a pin drop when I told them they couldn't go in. Their mouths dropped open and they looked like they were about 5 years old. They looked so disappointed that I felt really bad for them. I promised them that they would get a chance to visit once we fixed the projector. And off they went, back to their classroom, not quite so rowdy and swaggery.
I ended up calling the projector company and after talking to the guy for 6 minutes, he concluded that the bulb must be dying and the only solution would be to order a new one. When we had gotten trained for the Star Lab a couple months ago, the trainer guy assured us that we wouldn't need a replacement bulb because this bulb won't be burning out any time soon. We called several other people and I ended up taking a drive out to pick up the old school Star Lab, the one I visited when I was little a bit after 11am. 40 minute drive out and 40 minute drive back.
We were desperate to at least get a couple classes in, so if someone comes out to fix the new dome tomorrow (as the guy told me he would) we'll have a few less classes to try to schedule in for visits on Thursday and Friday. We set up the old dome (so bad compared to the new one) and we managed to get one first grade and both second grade classes to come visit. You couldn't see the constellations very clearly, but we made do. I told them the stories that went with the most recognizable constellations and while it was so cheesy compared to the new digital one, the little kids really enjoyed it. But I can't see doing the same presentation for the older kids. I was just winging it with the little ones, reading a couple stories out of some constellation books I have, and little ones don't notice you're winging it as much as the older kids.
So it was a long tiring day, but we managed to get three classes to visit the Star Lab. Here's hoping the guy will call me tomorrow and have a solution for me or come out and fix the projector so we can use the spiffy new dome with its lovely computer programs the rest of the week, as opposed to the old dome that's smaller, falling apart, and nowhere near as awesome as the new dome. If we do get the projector fixed, I will let the 8th grade boys be the first to visit the new dome. One of the 8th grade boys even asked us at the end of the day if the projector was fixed yet. Awww.
I'm not in school tomorrow again. This time I'm out at a teacher's house with the principal and some other teachers working on this thing called Middle States. These people are coming out in April to inspect our school and then report back to someone about how we're doing or something. It's really annoying and somehow I ended up on the committee. But if the guy calls me about coming to fix the Star Lab projector tomorrow, my principal told me that I can leave and go back to school to help him. I'm crossing my fingers that he'll come and make everything right so we can do the presentations on Thursday and Friday and be over and done with.
Technology is so frustrating sometimes. It's amazing how one little lightbulb can ruin the entire day.