All of my kids are very fortunate this year; because they all have FANTASTIC teachers; two of whom, happen to be friends of mine. Lyndzi is in my friend Lori's class and Kelsie has my friend Shannon. So yesterday I volunteered in Kelsie's class and Shannon asked me to go and make some copies. Shannon handed me 4 double sided worksheets and explained that she needed me to make 3 sets of 25 copies of each. Does that already sound as confusing to you as it did to me? She also handed me a workbook and a pile of cardstock and asked me to make 3 copies of as many pages as possible. OK, I won't lie I felt overwhelmed just by the instructions and considering I have a very poor Poker face, it could not have been a secret. Shannon assured me that it wasn't a complicated endeavor and I actually reminded her that I am NOT The Queen of TECHNOLOGY, so the task sounded daunting; but nonetheless, I was certainly going to give it a try. Shannon told me that if I needed to I could ask the secretaries for help.
I walked into the room where the copy machines were and there stood two behemoth machines like I had NEVER seen before. The machines had SEPARATE computer screens and three drawers for paper, not to mention that copies came out from both ends. Seeing the photocopy machine reminded me of "The WOPR" in the 1983 Matthew Broderick movie, "War Games;" it was just THAT intimidating. I approached the copier, I looked it over CAREFULLY; and I TRIED to make some sense out of it; but it was just beyond me. I knew that there was no way I was going to figure out the double sided job on my own and the secretaries were both on their lunch break, so I tried to add the cardstock and attempt the workbook copies, but alas, I was clueless.
I decided to go back to the classroom and admit my defeat, because I knew that Shannon had a break coming up and she could then go back to the copy room with me and show me what to do. Shannon seemed surprised to see me return so soon, but she did very well containing her laughter. A few minutes later, we went back to the copy room together and Shannon explained that I had to manually make individual copies of each page, then put the papers one on top of the other, face up and feed them through the machine. I was supposed to program some button that I can't remember the name of now (but I'll know it when I see it again,) and then set it for 25 copies. Once the 25 copies spit out, I was to feed the copies in again to make another 25, then another; and then clear the machine and start the manual copying process over again for the second worksheet etc. I managed to make all of the copies and TALK to Shannon at the same time; but there was DEFINITELY no way in hell that I would have ever been able to figure this out on my own. Shannon had to go back to class before I'd finished the job, but she said that she felt confident that I could handle it on my own. Of course as soon as she left, the machine advised me of a problem that hadn't occurred while she was there; but ultimately I got through it. I didn't make the cardstock copies, but only because I wasn't sure if I was supposed to take the pages out of the book or not; and I thought it best to go back and ask. Shannon seemed amused by my hesitance, explained that I could have made the copies without removing the pages (so I was glad that I hadn't removed them) and then she excused me from completing the rest of the copying. Shannon asked if I could come back regularly to assist with reading groups and I happily agreed; as copying doesn't seem to be my forte and as we all know, I'm A LOT better with the written word.
Till next time...
Queen of EVERYTHING
1 comment:
I can just "see" you there...and YES, I'm giggling with/at you!! It's probably humorous since I can relate...and to add to my puzzle would be that I actually work in the IT field!!!
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