This Is Why I'm Like This: Technology

      I am world famous in Littleton Public Schools for having computer issues that nobody else has, and that require a professional. That professional always enters, believing it to be something silly and operator error, and always exists, befuddled and somewhat amused.
      For years I thought it was me, everything was operator error. But once I exhausted the help of my colleagues, and then tech savvy students, and then administrators, I developed a relationship with our in building tech expert, LaDonna. I would send an email "Help", or if my computer had crashed completely, I would send a smoke signal. She knew who it was. When she moved to the district level and the person replacing her in the building was not ...well, they were not...so I had to call the district to get help. That meant other people up there began to learn about me. I had a guy who had to come down to disentangle some sort of debacle on my desk top, who had been working in the district for two years and had never entered our building.
      Until me.
      Now, they want us to do this assessment stuff on RANDA, which is not going well for me in any capacity. In the first place, I cannot remember the password. In the second place, the administrator asking me to do The Thing is not using the same wording as the Button For The Thing, and that took up an hour of my life, and it's been a shit week and I started crying in frustration because we don't have anybody who can help me, any more. I spent an hour a month ago trying to figure out how to upload a document to stupid RANDA, and ended up having to print it, fill it out, take a picture with my phone, send the picture to my email, download it to my desk top and then upload it to the site. And now they think I'm going to get on the website and get into some shennanegin to sign my contract this year?
      This is where I exit teaching.
      Not the school shooting this week, not the entitlement. Not the school shootings, plural, or the crappy pay. Not being vilified for the failure of students while simultaneously expected to protect them from bullets. Not parents, not administrators functioning in fear.
      Technology.
      I almost quit two years ago when I had to renew my license, which is now done entirely online. And I mean ENTIRELY, they won't let you mail ANYTHING. I know. I called. It took me two weeks to upload all the bullshit, and right before it was finished I said out loud "This is it. This is why I will leave teaching."
     I'll keep you posted regarding the contract signing.