background

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Back to School

It's the fourth week of August, and we are in our second week of school. (To be fair, the first week was just Thursday & Friday)
This year, because apparently it is very hard for me to stick to the same thing for more than a year, we are trying something new.  I decided to save us money, and try to save a bit of my sanity, so we went with an online charter school.  I chose this school because I have a few friends who have used it for years and say they have no real complaints about it (there is busy work, but it's only busy work if they kids already know the skill, otherwise it can be helpful.)  Also, this school has an on-site day.  That means I possibly have 3 hours a week to myself (well, along with my little man, because it will be a while before he is ready for Kindergarden).  The other option is helping, and putting K in the nursery room (I called it preschool when I showed him the room, because why not?).
It's been a bumpy start, with a computer that didn't work (provided by the school).  The first problem was ridiculous but simple enough to fix.  The PCs (that might be the first problem) they send out don't come with a built in wireless signal finder thingamajig. So, I had to go out & find a wireless adapter. I didn't even know that was a thing.  At the end of the first day of school, I ran (drove) to Target & came home to install the wireless adapter.  The PC couldn't just figure out what to do with this thing, we had to install the CD that came in the box.  Um, okay then. Apple 2, PC 0. Once we managed to get online (which is a lot more work than on my Apples; that's 3-0), the school site wouldn't open for me.  The one that tells us what each girls assignments are, and let's us mark attendance.  Technical support tried to say the entire system was down, but that was a pack of lies. Lies! I knew this wasn't the problem, because the school site was working perfectly on my computer o_O
I kept getting a DEBUG popup, and told the technical support person this.  He tried to get me to uninstall IE. I told him he literally had to walk me through the steps/clicks/screens because I don't do PCs.  There was no way to uninstall IE. Of course. (4-0, though Apple should get bonus points because it doesn't even play with IE).  He said they would send me a new computer & a return shipping label for the one that didn't want to work.  I was okay with this, especially when I remembered L1 has a new, old Apple that was given to her by my mom/sister. (Remind me to order the RAM for her, yeah? And make a genius bar appt to have them install it, because I could use a dose of nice computer people/geniuses.)
Today I got a call from the technical support people, but I didn't recognize the number, so I didn't answer.  They left a voicemail saying blah blah troubleshoot your computer blah blah call us back blah blah blah. So I called back.  And those customer service people are so on top of their jobs... they opened a second ticket (possibly a third) for the same issue.  Then they transferred me to tech support, where a crazy lady decided to yell at me for not remembering exactly what the problem was when I called Friday. (It didn't et me onto the school  site was not good enough for her, and she either had no notes from my previous call or no desire to read them).  I asked her if she had the notes from my previous call, and she yelled at me that SHE WAS A DIFFERENT TECH SUPPORT PERSON AND DIDN'T KNOW WHAT HAPPENED LAST WEEK.
In case you missed that, the school tech support lady yelled at me.
She yelled at me.  Um, I don't think so.  I had to raise my voice over her & ask her to please not yell at me.  She yelled at me again to not yell at her. I said she really needed to stop YELLING at me & could she please get me a supervisor? She yelled at me and I asked again about her supervisor, and she hung up on me.
Now, if I wanted to possibly deal with crazy, rude school staff... I could put my kids in the regular public school and risk catching office staff on a bad day (although the office staff where I went to school, at least k-8, was always so nice).
I really didn't enroll the girls in this school for drama and stress.  I called our "Homeroom Teacher" and ended up leaving a very angry, trying to be controlled, emotional message about what happened. Then I emailed our teacher (I had a spelling question, and then told her that I might be pulling the girls out of the school because I didn't need this type of treatment from a school).  A little while later I got a call from the homeroom teacher, and she managed to make me feel better. (The situation is being escalated, the supervisor of the person who answered my call and yelled at me will be notified...)
So, that horrible thing aside, I think we can like this school.  I think we can manage to have a really good year.
And, L2 totally got 100% on her math assessment today. *high five*

Once we find a new groove, I think it will be a good year.
I think it will be a good year.
I think it will be a good year.

(If I say it enough, maybe we can make it happen)

Oh, and I haven't taken any first day pictures. We were too busy (gah!) but I will try to remember next week when they have their first official on site school day, and that will totally count.

No comments:

Post a Comment