Cathy Nelson’s Professional Thoughts

created by CNelson

Barring any snafus tomorrow 6PM-ish (ET) I have a group of 8 students signed up for our first participation into the SWVBC (somewhat virtual book club.) We are connecting with seven other schools from all over the US via Skype. I use Skype at home, but at school, with our filter and firewall and who knows what else is used to block content, using Skype on campus calls for mega pre-planning and patience. I scheduled to use Skype for a practice session today and for the SWVBC meeting for tomorrow. I have my Skype on my office desktop up to date with the newest version, at least I think it is.  But I decided I probably should update the library laptop so we can set up out in the library instead of squeeze minimum nine of us in my tiny office.  Doable in there, but it wouldn’t be comfy.  (Of course that is if just the kids all show up.)

I knew I had scheduled my practice run for 2:00 today, so thought I’d check both.  Jane Lofton, a #SWVBC librarian liaison for a group from her school, Mira Costa High School in Manhattan Beach, CA had kindly agreed to work with me to test out my upgraded Skype AND a new webcam/doc camer (Aver U10) I wanted to try out.  Needless to say, all did not go as planned.

Despite my best efforts, the program Skype, which would load from online and would load up ready to “call” would NOT update, nor would it successfully make a call. Jane emailed me to say she could not even see me online.  My tech friends in my district were unresponsive, which doesn’t really mean anything–just that I did not have access to them for help.  One of them works right BESIDE the library, but I guess he was not on campus. Y’all, honestly, I get why schools would block some sites.  I even get Skype being blocked.  (Well, not really, but I accept that I work in an environment where content is blocked. Really, I do.) But each time I’ve wanted to use it I have been successful if I did my pre-planning, and “scheduled” the use. I’m not sure what magic happens at the hands that control the filter, but each time I’ve scheduled use, I’ve been able to use it. So I had no doubt that today and tomorrow would be issue free. WRONG.  And now I’m worried about tomorrow.

To say I was not a happy camper was an understatement. A frustrated Cathy does not a pretty picture make. I kept apologizing to my colibrarian for my negative attitude. I kept reminding myself out loud with “No, Cathy Jo, the world does not revolve around you!!” But I scheduled the time for this and everything! So for it not to work beautifully was infuriating. I can only hope all will work well tomorrow evening.

"Forever M&Ms" by Vern Hart

While eight students have signed up, if two or three make it I will be ecstatic.  If one other adult (teacher, other) who said they’d like to come shows, GREAT! My greatest fear though is that all will show, eight students, a couple of parents, all the teachers and friends that said they might come, and then we have the same problem tomorrow. NIGHTMARE. Working to plan activities for the group, things other than stuffing my face with the light refreshments–> M&Ms, Chex Mix, and lemon poppy seed muffins (homemade, well from pre mixed bag.) If things go bad, I’ll be in the corner, mouth full of M&Ms.  It’s the only one thing I CAN control.  I’m actually looking forward to the M&Ms.  Havent had any in months–not since September when I began my journey to healthier eating.  Tomorrow may set me back a pace on that front.

Tags: cathyjonelson, DormanU, SWVBC, TFIOS