I Learned a Valuable Lesson...

I dodged a bullet today and learned a valuable lesson at the same time.

I got to school this morning, plugged my laptop into my docking station, hit the switch and typed in my password. Exactly the same way I do it every morning.

However, today things didn’t go as planned.

I went about my business getting papers and things in order for the day, looking over my lesson and making sure I’ve got all my ducks in a row. After a couple of minutes I mosey back to the computer, open up Word and discover that all my files are gone.

Mild annoyance changes to panic, which in turn changes to disbelief, which in the end settles in on depression.

We’re talking about over eight years of documents, pictures and other irreplaceable files all gone without a trace.

I tried to continue with my day, but sitting there trying to recreate my morning assignment page, I found myself sinking deeper and deeper into depression. It seemed every file I thought of that would be almost impossible to remake, reminded me of yet another file.

So there I am, sitting motionless at my computer in stunned silence when Elizabeth, my teaching partner, walks in.

I somehow manage to blurt out what has happened and her jaw hits the floor. What I had forgotten was how many of the grade level’s files I had on my computer. I’m telling you this was rapidly becoming a major disaster.

Elizabeth suggested I call the district help line. I had thought of that, but really kind of figured it wouldn’t do any good. However, at her urging I made the call.

Let me tell you what, Ann at the RISD help desk, is my new best friend!

I told her what had happened and she didn’t even pause to think...she knew exactly what to do.

She told me my computer didn’t recognize me as an authorized user and so it opened up for a new user who couldn’t access my files. I simply shut it down, waited for about 30 seconds and rebooted. When it came back up everything was right were it was supposed to be. And I was elated!

As it turns out, the district has had this problem happening about 5 times a month with random computers throughout the district…of which there are hundreds.

They can’t figure out why and my guess is they really aren’t trying all that hard.

She said, “I think you should think about backing up your files, because you almost leaned that lesson the hard way!”

Like I said, I dodged a bullet and learned a valuable lesson

I hung up that phone and thought, “I bet this wouldn’t happen on my iMac!”