CALL OF DUTY OF A PUBLIC SERVANT (TEACHER)

JUST MY RANDOM THOUGHTS FOR TODAY PUTTING IT IN #ULOG

I went to school today to do some work, even if it is Sunday. I am not sure in other country but here in the Philippines, teachers spent their weekends just to ensure that everything is prepared for the benefit of the students. Sometimes you might think that this is a time management issue, but it is not. There are individuals who really commit themselves as public servants sincerely by heart, and I know some of them. Even the newly hired teacher who hasn't receive any salary yet goes to school to prepare their assigned classroom using their own money to buy some materials, just to make the classroom ready for the pupils.

THE DEMAND FROM AN ORDINARY TEACHER

A photo of the school's computer room

I happen to be the new computer guy(ICT coordinator) in the school, this is an extra task aside from my teaching load. One of the obligations I am responsible for is to ensure that ICT facilities of the school is in good working condition, and is being used according to its purpose, as an educational tool to enhance learning for teachers and most especially for the students. Currently, the computers are operational but not yet ready to be used as a tool in the classroom because the new computers that were delivered to the school are not yet fully configured so that students won't be distracted while a lesson is being delivered.

A picture where I temporily setup and quickly configure 4 PCs to be used in a seminar for teachers

The previous ICT coordinator which is also my mentor is always bombarded with work, she works as a Grade Leader, which literally acting like a team leader in a corporate, and is handling delicate tasks like as an administrator of a web-based system for learners, a class adviser, report generations, organizing school events, and in-charge of multiple committees in school, and a lot more that I cannot mention at the moment, while I was writing this article. Yep, she is like a superwoman. She goes home late in the afternoon most of the time, the last one to go home. So, if ICT facilities are not fully utilized it is because there were just too many tasks to handle.

SOME THOUGHTS ABOUT THE SCHOOL’S COMPUTER ROOM

All computers only have one account which is the admin account. If students use this account, they might be tempted to visit sites that are not educational or any sites that they are not supposed to visit, they can install games and apps which is not supposed to be the case, students nowadays tend to be keen on technology and can do work around with computers due to the availability of technical information on the internet. So as a new in-charge with the computer lab this is one of my challenges. I know what I have to do to implement all the windows policy, system restrictions and all that windows administration stuff… to configure these computers to make it secure and shielded from unauthorized use but this is not my only concern, my primary concern is my teaching job, which is the most important one over other duties and responsibilities. My teaching job as my priority will eat at least 90% of my official time including the preparation of teaching materials, religiously doing a lesson plan itself will consume a considerable amount of time. With this in mind, balancing the time at work and family/personal time will surely become one of my challenges that I will have to go through.

A screenshot of my teaching load

Set of computers still needs to undergo configuration for security, maintenance and for educational purposes

TO TEACH OR TO TECH

While the pupils are my primary concern I feel like it is also equally important to work on the ICT facilities and provide technical support to my fellow teachers, what is making it hard is the time that I need to perform both duties effectively.

Today 6-3-2018, I personally attached this banner at the gate of the school after I designed it in photoshop and print it from a nearby tarpaulin printing shop.

My teaching job is the most important part of my duty, I feel like I am obliged and it is expected from me also to do something to improve the utilization of ICT facilities, also I ask my fellow teachers if they will be interested to attend a computer training and I didn’t expect that a considerable number of them are willing to be trained. In my one year of stay in La Paz Elementary School, I have seen a lot of opportunities for improvement when it comes to computer skills of my fellow teachers, most of them are still having a hard time with the basic computing skills such as word processing, e-presentation and most importantly with the use of excel spreadsheet. Also even in my first year in this school and I was not yet assigned as ICT coordinator, my fellow teachers often call for help from because they frequently encounter problems with their laptop that they used in teaching, things like USB virus that hides files, office related errors, operating system errors, corrupted operating system, and sometimes a completely dead device, such as no boot or no power. Sometimes I give them a heads up that I may not be able to check their computers right away because of other more important duties that I have to prioritize.

These are just few of my layouts that were printed in tarpaulin for school's advocates campaign, I borrowed some vector arts from other artists online.

In my personal estimate 90% of the banners that you will see at our school are my designs. When some of them gets outdated, part of my duty is to replace them with a new one.

I also do layouts for all the tarpaulin banners for the school’s campaign on different activities. I remember my father a very hard working man, who was also a teacher, he does all the carpentry, gardening, painting, and even doing construction works for the school. Most of the time he sacrifices his own time for the school working during Saturdays and Sundays, he built a kitchen near to his classroom and sometimes he slept there.

THE NOT SO FRIENDLY BIOMETRIC DEVICE

This school year the school where I am assigned will start to implement a biometric login system, I have lots of work on weekdays, so even if it is Sunday I went to school today. I wanna make sure that this device will be operational at the start of class tomorrow June 4, 2018. The device doesn’t have a very informative manual.

First page of the manual.

Second page of the manual.

I can easily set this up if all of the teaching personnel and staff have the same schedule and in only one shift for all. But there is a challenge, the device settings have preloaded template for shifts that cannot be modified according to the timeout and time in. Every shift has lunch in it, but we don’t need to time in and time out during lunch. What we need is only time in and time out. The manual doesn’t have any information on customizing shift.

This are the templates for the Shifts under the settings of this BIOMETRICS DEVICE

Also, our school has two shifts for teachers in the morning as well as for the afternoon session. The schedule of this two shifts overlaps the morning session will start at 5:30 am to 3:00 pm, then the second shift will start at 11:00 am – 6:00 pm. Using the biometrics default shift template the teachers in the afternoon will appear late in the system. Again, the manual if you will check the screenshot, there is no information on how to go about configuring two shifts that overlaps in a one work day. It doesn’t even have a step by step instruction on how to generate reports and on how to work around it. I just figure it out myself by tinkering the settings. Well if you know this device I would really appreciate if you have some information to share so I can configure this device fits our school's type of schedule. The model number can be seen on the screenshot of the manual.

When you select 1 shift this is what comes out.

Our school only need time in for the start of shift and then time out for the end of the shift, but it doesn't mean we don't have lunchtime, it's just we have different schedules.

With all of these, I cannot afford to not prepare for my lesson plan for tomorrow.

A screenshot of my lesson plan for tomorrow.

With my busy schedule, one of the things that I’d love to do to relax is to make new robot prototypes using the Lego Mindstorm EV3 Education Set. I invite you to visit my recent blog to see my robot hand build. I would really appreciate even just your comment on my post.

https://steemit.com/philippines/@jerome-morales/wearable-robotics-my-own-version-of-cyborg-hand-using-ev3-lego-set

I get the inspiration of logging these thoughts by @surpassinggoogle who initiated and invented the word #ulog.

Please support @surpassinggoogle, you can vote for him as a witness or you can set his username as a proxy just like what I did.

I think that’s all for now. Sorry about the flow of thought it is kind of messy, yeah these are just random thoughts. I apologize for some grammar issues. Although I teach, the English language is still my second language. Peace.

I hope that this has been interesting to you, and I'd like to thank you for reading!

You may check out my Microsoft Certifications here.