Technologically impaired

One of the school districts I sub for is going to an automated calling system. The system also has a web component where you can search for jobs that have been posted in advance. They held a training session this morning, which was pretty much a colossal waste of my time. I got two handouts which gave me all of the information I needed.

For some people, though, the training was obviously necessary.

There was one woman who I can only imagine must be incredibly resistant to change.

Producer: How would you feel about making a change?
Garth: We fear change.

She asked a question every five seconds, most of them displaying extreme assitudery. When we got to the part where you can press star-1 to have the system wait for you to enter your PIN…in case, for example, someone who is not you answers the phone, I thought she was going to have a coronary.

“Oh, that’s not going to happen in my house. Is there any way you can call the system back?”

Well, no. Not really. So she got all huffy. Because apparently, her family can’t handle pressing buttons.

She also couldn’t seem to grasp the fact that you can only enter one period of unavailabilty at a time…like for a vacation or somesuch…but that you can go BACK and enter another one AFTER that period has passed. Really, is it that hard? Good Lord. I wasn’t the only one who felt this way. I looked around and saw other people snickering and rolling their eyes every time she opened her mouth. *Sigh*

My classes at the community college started today, and they seemed to go well. The class they added for me is a “foundations” class for people who didn’t test into 101. It doesn’t seem like it’ll be too bad, and I don’t think I have any students with major attitude…but I do have one student who appears to have some sort of disorder. I would guess Tourette Syndrome, as he seemed to be exhibiting some verbal tics, but he also seemed sort of socially impaired. This should be interesting.

Oh, and in happy, happy news…

Yes, the Sept. 13 issue of Woman’s World, which features MY STORY, is out!!!!!

(please note, the above image is NOT the cover of the current issue!)

4 thoughts on “Technologically impaired

  1. Brother of the ex-boyfriend, The Ex-Boyfriend, has Tourette’s.

    Think about it: a magician/comedian/motivational speaker/agent who doesn’t always take his meds.

    (for those who don’t know me/him/erin; I’m in no way making nasty remarks about people with Tourette’s. Just this particular fellow!)

  2. Speaking as someone with not a few tics hisself, I just hope your Tourrette-ish classmate isn’t also the type who interrupts the lesson plan with a lot of questions…

  3. He’s not my classmate. He’s my student. And this being a college class and not a high school class, there’s no IEP to let me know what (if anything) he’s diagnosed with and thus give me clues as to how I might help him.

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