My sister in law had a phone support job at one time (newspaper staff
had trained on new software) and she called herself a "hand holder."
That sounds like a good definition for many of the things that we do
(or did back when we were the only ones with tech background.) Now
many of our younger faculty members (not all) have the skills and are
not afraid to use them.
We have a "real" technician only 3 hours a week (and for many years
it was a monthly tech visit. So I do the basics (keep everyone in
ethernet cords, etc.), troubleshoot what I have time for and then try
to diagnose the harder issues and e-mail a synopsis to our tech guy.
But I enjoy the tech side of things and I think that doing quick tech
fixes has provided good PR for my library program and helped me to
get to know our teachers better. I do agree with Tony that we start
over (not just with tech issues) each time we have a new principal,
new secretary, new teacher in the building. We are constantly having
to prove our worth because our jobs are more likely to be cut than
those of homeroom/subject area teachers.
I also believe in that "can do" attitude that someone else mentioned.
I had three schools once. I don't want to go back to those
frustrations. I'll keep the tech.
Deb Hendrickson (who has done tech support since unpacking that
TRS-80 in the year 1980!)
Deborah J. Hendrickson
Teacher-Librarian & Technology Leader
Westernport Elementary School
172 Church Street
Westernport, MD 21562
301-359-0511(phone) 301-359-0411 (fax)
DHendrickson@allconet.org
http://boe.allconet.org/wt/
On Jan 11, 2008, at 12:58 PM, Genevieve Gallagher wrote:
> I was going to stay out of this as well, but this brought to mind
> the time a teacher called me at HOME during a weekend because she
> was at school and couldn't figure out why the printer wasn't
> working. LIKE I COULD FIX IT FROM MY LIVINGROOM!!! Or the teacher
> who called me at home over a vacation to ask about transfering her
> home videos into iMovie.
> For the people who call me to their classrooms with "broken" TVs or
> VCRs, I just smile and nod and amaze them with my technological
> expertise when I jiggle the plug and suddenly the equipment springs
> to life!
> Genevieve
>
> Genevieve Gallagher
> Librarian
> Buford Middle School
> Charlottesville, VA
> gallagg1@ccs.k12.va.us
>
>>>> "Cowell, Michelle" <cowellm@WAVERLY-SHELLROCK.K12.IA.US>
>>>> 1/11/2008 12:20 PM >>>
> I was going to stay out of this until.... a teacher called me to
> hook up a printer since her computer was updated over the weekend
> and not quite right. As we are going through it, the printer she
> wanted was already there. She never actually tried to print!
>
> I also feel the pain.
>
> I sometimes wonder who turns on their tvs at home. I get calls
> becaues they can't remember what button to push on their remote or
> what channel they need to play their vcr.
>
> I Try to be patient and helpful but sometimes it is so hard.
>
> Michelle Cowell
> Media Specialist
> Waverly Shell Rock Junior High
> Waverly, Iowa
> cowellm@waverly-shellrock.k12.ia.us
>
>
>
>
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