While I Am Ranting About School

Technology is supposed to make life easier but in this house, that is not the case. I ranted on here a little bit ago about how annoying it was that all of my fourth graders' projects and summaries had to be typed. At the time, I didn't have a working printer. Nico has a big project due in Social Studies and had to get online last night. As you all know, my computer is slow and temperamental. It was a flipping nightmare. Each time he tried to log into his Edline account to get his report, the computer would freeze. Once he finally got into it, when he opened a new tab to look for pictures to add, the whole computer froze. If he hadn't saved what he was doing, he lost the part he didn't save. He was smart to save it every once in awhile even though he wasn't done so he didn't have much to retype but can you imagine how annoying that is? What if we didn't have a computer? What do the kids do that don't? I didn't ask Nico if he could write it. It didn't seem like it was an option. He had to have pictures but I would have had to run around looking for pictures that reflect life in the 1950's if we didn't have a computer. Again, it was assumed that we had one. Nico was up until 10:45 and he started at 7:30 (he had practice until 7:15). He was in tears by the end of it...tired and frustrated.

My sister told me that in high school, all of the texts are online. With a shaky Internet* connection, I dread the day that he has to study for a test and can't because his book is online and our Internet goes down. She said that there are text books but the kids rarely use them because they are big and everything is online. Anyone want to bet that the one time Nico needs a book and forgets to bring it home, our Internet will be down? I know they have to buy the memory stick things but things are really going to have to change around here in order for that to work. I have threatened over and over again that if I don't get my computer back in a week, I am walking into Best Buy and buying the first computer that has everything I want. Since I am getting the short end of the stick in the travel department this year, I think I can justify the cost. It's pretty sad when my phone is a better tech gadget than my computer. I can use my phone for virtually everything except blogging (fat fingers make it frustrating to type anything long), Nico's research paper on the 1950's, the twins' book reports and summaries, and the book I am writing (and for some reason, Pinterest). Jerry, if you are reading, I am sure you know a way to still do all of what I just said on your phone but that is because you are a tech genius and I am not. :)
*I never realized that "Internet" was supposed to be capitalized. Learned something new.

Speaking of phones, I must have the worst luck with batteries or I am doing it wrong because my phone is less than a week old and it seems the battery life isn't that long. It was at empty at 9:00pm. I charged it, took it off the charger when it was done before I went to bed. It's only 9:30am and I've only checked my email, Facebook and sent a few texts and it is already at half. I thought it was bad to have it charge overnight and it was better to take it off when it was done charging. Am I wrong?

Anyway, I'm sure it seems like in the age of technology, text books online, research papers and book reports seem easier since everything is in one place on a computer or online. The problem is what happens when it doesn't work? Where does that leave the students? I have a feeling it will end up with the parents running around like crazy trying to find a working computer and a working printer.

Maybe I should change the name of this blog to Rants from the Queen of Chaos. :)