Time for a Shave
If you see me at school this week, you will notice that I am completely bald again. It doesn't look like I'll have to embarrass myself by getting a mohawk as I promised I would if we won the computer lab from Dell and Microsoft. It seems pretty clear that we aren't going to win by online voting. We have dropped to 21st place as of this morning, and there are only three days to go. It pains me to admit this, but it seems pretty clear that there's no chance. And I'm tired of having my receding hairline ridiculed.
I never did tell you the end of the story that I had hoped would motivate people into doing some networking, but it's actually a lot like what happened with us. (Here's the beginning.) After "warmin' up," the main character is still unable to lift the huge basin. He fails, and many of the guys around him seem genuinely surprised. (They thought he could do it even though it was clearly impossible.) As he storms off, kicking lockers and grumbling curses, he turns back long enough to say to the other men, "Well at least I tried. At least I did that much!"
Despite what Yoda says, sometimes we try and fail. There were a few people who genuinely tried to help us win that lab. They voted every day for the entire month; they didn't get discouraged when we stopped moving up as quickly as we did at first; they genuinely put their hearts into it; they allowed themselves to become obsessed with a project that seemed silly to so many others (and it is silly that schools have to stoop to such ridiculous levels to get the technology we need!); they weren't content to leave the work to someone else; and, sadly, their efforts came to nothing. I actually feel worse for those folks than I do that we didn't win the lab. They shame me because I feel like maybe I could have done more.
We got a lot of votes. Of all the schools in the nation, we were once ranked as high as #13, which is remarkable, but not good enough to win. Still, I don't think the entire thing was pointless. For a few weeks, the entire school was working together on something. I liked having people come and ask, "What place are we in?" To me, that is genuine school spirit. But there's more!
Because of those people who put their hearts into the voting, because of the "noise" we made about our need for new technology, the district agreed to get us a greatly improved computer lab. It may not be as cool and cutting-edge as the one they were giving away in the contest, but it's a lot better than the labs we have now. And thanks to the efforts of another good soldier, Mr. Rice, that lab will be ready for use at our school this week! Not in February, but this week!
So, thank you to everyone who helped. And to those who didn't, well, it's your loss because we did make a difference. Maybe it wasn't what we expected, but it mattered, and everyone will benefit.
Oh, and one other thing: I still haven't completely given up on winning some computers from Dell and Microsoft. There were two other contests besides the one for the $10,000 lab. One was a sweepstakes that only teachers could enter; there will be a drawing to see who wins the $75,000 lab, and all the teachers at Fairfield have entered (I hope). The other was an essay contest for school personnel. The prize is $250,000 worth of technology for the winning school. I sent my essay in this morning.
Don't laugh, you scoffers, or you'll be the ones getting mohawks when I win!
I never did tell you the end of the story that I had hoped would motivate people into doing some networking, but it's actually a lot like what happened with us. (Here's the beginning.) After "warmin' up," the main character is still unable to lift the huge basin. He fails, and many of the guys around him seem genuinely surprised. (They thought he could do it even though it was clearly impossible.) As he storms off, kicking lockers and grumbling curses, he turns back long enough to say to the other men, "Well at least I tried. At least I did that much!"
Despite what Yoda says, sometimes we try and fail. There were a few people who genuinely tried to help us win that lab. They voted every day for the entire month; they didn't get discouraged when we stopped moving up as quickly as we did at first; they genuinely put their hearts into it; they allowed themselves to become obsessed with a project that seemed silly to so many others (and it is silly that schools have to stoop to such ridiculous levels to get the technology we need!); they weren't content to leave the work to someone else; and, sadly, their efforts came to nothing. I actually feel worse for those folks than I do that we didn't win the lab. They shame me because I feel like maybe I could have done more.
We got a lot of votes. Of all the schools in the nation, we were once ranked as high as #13, which is remarkable, but not good enough to win. Still, I don't think the entire thing was pointless. For a few weeks, the entire school was working together on something. I liked having people come and ask, "What place are we in?" To me, that is genuine school spirit. But there's more!
Because of those people who put their hearts into the voting, because of the "noise" we made about our need for new technology, the district agreed to get us a greatly improved computer lab. It may not be as cool and cutting-edge as the one they were giving away in the contest, but it's a lot better than the labs we have now. And thanks to the efforts of another good soldier, Mr. Rice, that lab will be ready for use at our school this week! Not in February, but this week!
So, thank you to everyone who helped. And to those who didn't, well, it's your loss because we did make a difference. Maybe it wasn't what we expected, but it mattered, and everyone will benefit.
Oh, and one other thing: I still haven't completely given up on winning some computers from Dell and Microsoft. There were two other contests besides the one for the $10,000 lab. One was a sweepstakes that only teachers could enter; there will be a drawing to see who wins the $75,000 lab, and all the teachers at Fairfield have entered (I hope). The other was an essay contest for school personnel. The prize is $250,000 worth of technology for the winning school. I sent my essay in this morning.
Don't laugh, you scoffers, or you'll be the ones getting mohawks when I win!
posted by MRT at 10:38 AM
1 Comments:
Mr. T, you blow me away! You are so determined and it truely inspires me! I feel totally guilty for not voting more, but you know what? I can't do anything now but support our school in other ways, I guess.
Good job, Mr. T.
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