At my school, my fellow teachers and I have been going through hell as our online grade system - known as PowerTeacher - had a recent meltdown. The district's techie people described the situation as "PowerTeacher threw up all over itself."
For almost two weeks, the teachers at my site were not able to enter any grades while the techies tried to work the problem. They finally did get it working again, but much of the system had to be reset. This included wiping out all the individual passwords that we teachers use to access the system.
The other day at our site's staff meeting, a district techie gave us an update on what was going on with PowerTeacher. He told us that we would need to get back on to the system using a generic password and then once in, we could change our password to something more personal.
So what was the generic password given to us by our district office?
Change2012
As soon as the techie uttered it, the Republican/conservative teachers in the room all winced and glanced at each other. I began to say something, but one of those fellow teachers said, "Plant your flag on another hill today, lads." He had a point - would it have made any difference to say something?
I realize that most people who work in public education are Democrats/statists, but must they be so blatant about it?
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." -Thomas Jefferson
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free... it expects what never was, and never will be." --Thomas Jefferson
2 comments:
Regardless of politics, there is another question at hand. It's the district's program, and it's the district's problem. However, the district's teachers are expected to put in the extra time and effort to straighten out the mess. I bet you won't be compensated in any way for the extra time and inconvience, and I bet if you ever need to have a bit of extra time as a group, the district will tell you to go fish and follow policy.
How do I know? The same thing happened in my district after grades were entered and the system then crashed. We were told to reenter everything again in two days either early in the mornig or late at night. There was no sorry or anything else from the district office. They figured it wasn't their problem. We didn't call the district office "Never, Never Land" without a reason.
temperThe early Greeks, some of the greatest educators the world has known, sat under a tree and imparted the vast wisdom of the ages. What do we need computers for? Even I taught for 20 years before electronic interference, and got the job done. Resist!!!
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