Good Idea, Bad Idea

Good Idea: Leaving detailed lesson plans for a substitute teacher.
Bad Idea: Leaving "Students, do such-and-such today" scrawled on the chalkboard and a stack of handouts separated by class period in lieu of detailed lesson plans for a substitute teacher.

Good Idea: Having a topic-related video as part of the lesson plans for a substitute teacher.
Bad Idea: Expecting the substitute teacher to show such a video without either
A) having the video projector already set up and properly connected,
B) leaving detailed instructions (or any instructions at all) on how to set up the video projector, or
C) leaving the name of someone a substitute teacher might contact to get the projector set up.

That pretty much sums up my day yesterday. I've substituted for this particular teacher before, and I knew that he was "organizationally challenged". But this was a bit more than I'd expected.

After arriving and not finding any lesson plans, I located and organized the worksheets he'd left for the day. (Thank Heaven his consultation was the first period of the day!) Then I set about trying to get set up for the video. He had a TV in his classroom for the daily ChannelOne broadcast, and he even had a VCR on the counter below it. But they weren't connected, and judging from the lack of any cables, they never had been. So I made my way down to the office for help. The lady told me that there should be a projector on a cart in his room, or maybe in one of the other rooms in that hallway. So I made my way back to the room, and sure enough, on a cart covered with colored pencils and other remnants from some prior day's projects, there was a projector and another VCR. And cables! I was in business.

Alas, when I connected everything, there was no picture or sound. So my next idea was to try the library. After some wandering around the school I found the library on the second floor, which I was only marginally aware even existed. I talked to the librarian, and she referred me to the school's media specialist, Mrs. B, who was most likely in one of two classrooms downstairs.

(If this adventure is starting to sound like the pursuit of undomesticated Anserini, you've got a pretty good idea what I was going through.)

Finally I found Mrs. B, who followed me to the room to get things set up. There were basically three issues to resolve. First, the VCR and projector needed to be connected properly. We found that I had hooked them up correctly, I just hadn't adjusted the input on the projector right. Second, the projector needed speakers. She had some in the media room and brought them down. Unfortunately, the VCR didn't have the proper output jack and the projector only had mono output, so only one speaker ever ended up working. But at least there was a picture and sound now. Third and lastly, there wasn't a projection screen mounted at the front of the room. The screen was actually standing in the back corner of the room. (What was mounted at the front of the room, curiously enough, was a map of France—labeled in French, no less.) Mrs. B called for a custodian, who mounted the screen with minimal difficulty. Problems solved, I was in business. And it only took an hour and a half to get it all set up. To show a 28-minute video to one of three classes.

Memo to self: NEVER make a substitute teacher do something like this once you get your own classroom.