I feel the need to VENT

[mariahlullaby]

I HATE when people refuse to even remotely keep up with the times!! I am a high school student, and I'm sure this sounds trivial, but Monday I had a presentation due for my Chemistry class, so I brought a power point on my USB thumb drive (which I've done for all my other classes for similar things) and my teacher gave me this really disgusted look and told me she didn't think she had a place to "put it in the computer." I pulled open the panel in the front (we have Dells at school) and put the drive in, only to find her stupid computer didn't have the right driver. She got really irritated with ME and told the class to make sure they put their presentations on something "safe, like a floppy disk" (I decided not to mention that not only did I not have a floppy drive, but it wouldn't hold my power point). So I emailed the PP to her as soon as I got home, and she still counted it late. :mad: :mad: And what REALLY gets me mad is that last week I had asked her I could come in early to check to make sure everything worked out -- since my Mac is new, I just wanted to check with compatability and such. She got mad at me and asked if I even knew how to use PP, as it's not that challenging, and told me NOT to come in. :mad:

Ok, I'm done venting. But don't people like that make you so mad?!!!!! :mad:

*deep breath*

[mkrishnan]

I'm so sorry! Your teacher sounds like a major dork, dear. :(

[TreeHugger]

Wow. That is horrible. I was lucky to have a teacher in high school who encouraged Powerpoints and schooled us in them too. He was a mac user, and was more understanding when one of the school's Gateway's was screwed up or we had some technical difficulty...
Sounds like your teacher has some technical difficulty...

[Mr. Anderson]

Its a pain sometimes, but get used to it - it will happen again, more often than you probably would like. In the future, you should just make sure you know what format or data medium you need.

Good luck,

D

[skubish]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

[Mechcozmo]

Although I agree with you, I would have emailed it to her as a just-in-case thing. If you send it from something like Gmail then you could have downloaded it from the Sent Items folder.

So although I agree with you, you could have done some other things that would have allowed you to keep your points...

[CubaTBird]

i had a sci teacher one year who did all her lessons in nothing but powerpoint... freakin' awesome for note taking.. it was like a steve jobs keynote..daily... lol :p

[mariahlullaby]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

LMAO!! H. L. Mencken is a funny man :p

But yeah, next time I'll back it up on CD and upload it onto my webserver. Just irked me.

[broken_keyboard]

I think you were right to assume a USB drive would work, they are very common these days. If it was a million dollar contract I would have taken precautions such as sending an email or doing a test run, but for a school assignment it is a valid assumption.

I'm also quite shocked that a teacher would be so closed minded. You would think that someone who hangs around young people all day would find it hard not to be aware of things such as USB drives. I would assume she had a whole drawer full of confiscated ones! :)

[xsedrinam]

...But don't people like that make you so mad?!!!!! :mad: *deep breath*

Yes. There seem to be two distinct classes of "those people". Those who "don't" get it but at least want to learn, and those who "won't" get it and have their criteria of stagnation all piled up high and deep and ready to spew in the direction of anyone who challenges their status quoed world. Keep both chins up. You will eventually effect change.
X

[katie ta achoo]

Oofah, I know how you feel!
I've never had this EXACT situation happen to me, but once I brought a big presentation to school on a Zip Disk (they were actually common in the school! haha) and the teacher (who told me that the school had zip disks) looks at me like "What is this thing you're showing me?"

Turns out she meant I could put the file in a ZIP ARCHIVE not a Zip DISK.
Six different teachers later, I finally found one with a zip drive. Emailing the 1.5 MB file to her KILLED the HISD servers for about 20 minutes. (grr.. if only it was about .06 megs smaller! Boo!)

So, when I did a presentation today, I brought it on DVD, had the avi backed up several times on my HD AND emailed to my gmail account. It took 30 minutes to hook my PowerBook up to the projector, though. Stupid Panasonic projector... had to use S-video instead of the other one who's name I've instantly forgotten.

I also brought a thumbdrive to save some work on in the library and I asked the librarian if there were USB ports to plug into. I explained to her what a thumbdrive was, and she points at the floppy drive and says "that won't fit and I know it doesn't go in the CD drive!!" Hee hee.

If you want, you can have all 50 of the gmail invitations I get every day for back up. 100+ gigs! that's a bunch of PP presentations! :D


and whenever anything goes wrong, I roll my eyes and curse the day Windows was conceived!

[jeremy.king]

...(which I've done for all my other classes for similar things)...

*puts devil's advocate mask on*

Since you have done this before - why didn't you run down the hall to a computer that did work and just email it to the teacher then instead of waiting til you got home.

Did you arrange beforehand to present this on a thumb drive? Was the delivery medium explicity defined for the assignment? Does the school have a standard? Why exactly is this the teachers fault? I guess I fail to take pity for lack of planning in advance...

Can you tell my wife is a teacher?

[jeremy.king]

I think you were right to assume a USB drive would work, they are very common these days.

Bad assumption...Most thumbdrives won't work Plug n Play in Windows 98 environments....What do you think most schools are running?

[dotdotdot]

The last part bugged me: "Its very easy to use!"

Based on what you wrote, the teacher felt it neccesary to state that he/she KNEW something. What an idiot.

I hate teachers who get it that day but say its late - my teacher comes into any class 1st pd. to collect the HW so no one can copy anyone - but if you hand it in later, minus ONE FULL GRADE for: lateness and cheating

[jefhatfield]

when i was in graduate school, i had this class, in 1997, that required me to do a lot of research (which is normal for any graduate level class/assignment) but the professor told us we could not use the internet...of course, undergrads were allowed to use the internet all they wanted

that meant going out on foot to do interviews, hitting the libraries and other places to get photocopies of hard copy of material, and not trusting the internet

of course, this meant that we had to spend twice as much time, or more, finding stuff we could have found online through completely reliable online sources like harvard university or a major network news organization

the whole idea was to work our butts off, like they did in graduate school, so we could pass through the fire

i thought this to be kind of silly since the idea of research is to get information and present a paper/speech which is interesting and informative

so what if the computer revolution made research a whole lot easier?

[Roger1]

I feel for you . At the school where I work, we sometime run into issues like that, namely with kids bringing in floppy disks (we are almost entirely Apple based). The other issue we have is kids will make their report in WORKS, the put it on a floppy and bring it into print. Unfortunately, we don't have Works on any machines, so in that case, they are s.o.l.

Just a thought: Maybe talk to the tech people and tell them your predicament. Maybe they can load a driver onto the machine so your thumb drive will work, or better yet, ask them to take 5 minutes to burn it to disk. Even bring in your own, if you have too.

[PlaceofDis]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

i hate this quote and will not even go into it besides to say there is a lot more to teaching than you think

im sorry to hear about your problem, really i am, and to tell you the truth, things like this are going to just happen all the time, important thing to learn now is that you should always be over-prepared for situations such as this

[James Philp]

There is A LOT to be said for Hard Backups, either OHPs or Just the PPp printed out on paper as evidence.
- Lesson Learned!

I have had so many issues with windows in the last 4 years of uni, that I always like to have some infallible method.

Never assume (it makes an ass blah blah blah.) - you wont do it again anyway! :)

[James Philp]

i hate this quote
I hate it too because it basically breaks down to:

Those that can, do, and learnt it from some kind of teacher!

[wdlove]

I'm sorry about what you have just been through. Things can be very frustrating at times. Just have to live and learn. Hopefully tomorrow will be better mariahlullaby. Will be interested to learn what kind of grade that you receive.

[killuminati]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

And those who can't teach -- teach PE.

[sjpetry]

And those who can't teach -- teach PE.
What movie is that from?

Sorry to hear about your iPod. :(

[Sirus The Virus]

Almost the exact same happened to a classmate in my English class last semester. He brought a USB thumb drive with his Powerpoint presintation on it. The teacher who was in their late 20's didn't even know what a thumb drive was, let alone a USB port. Anyway, since we have IBMs at my school some running either windows 95, 98, and if your lucky 2000. In this case it was either 95 or 98. So then he put the drive in, there wernt any drivers for it then on top of that since its widows it of corse froze, then a BSOD poped up. So he ended up emailing it to her or something.

[James Philp]

What movie is that from?

School of Rock, but he says "Gym" not PE.
It's kinda true too.

[ham_man]

I have this problem too. I often times will try to transport files to and fro school with my USB drive, but sometimes it will not work. So, if I have a major project due, I will e-mail it, burn it to a disk, burn it to another disk, print it out, and put it on my thumbdrive. I guess iti s kinda overkill, but who cares?

On the teacher bit, most of mine recognize that we are pretty comp literate, me especially. Heck, one of my teacher's even advocates the use of thumb drives, and another advocates the use of Macs. Damn, I have some cool teachers... :cool:

[sjpetry]

School of Rock, but he says "Gym" not PE.
It's kinda true too.
Thanks! I love that movie.

It's true. :)

[mariahlullaby]

*puts devil's advocate mask on*

Since you have done this before - why didn't you run down the hall to a computer that did work and just email it to the teacher then instead of waiting til you got home.

Did you arrange beforehand to present this on a thumb drive? Was the delivery medium explicity defined for the assignment? Does the school have a standard? Why exactly is this the teachers fault? I guess I fail to take pity for lack of planning in advance...

Can you tell my wife is a teacher?

I did try that (went to the library and the computer lab) but as luck would have it, the school's email/Internet was down TOO (at least according to the tech's)
The medium for the presentation wasn't specified before hand, but I did ask if I could come in before it was due because I didn't want to run into any problems, and she told me it would be a waste of her time.
Also, I wasn't the only one who brought it on a thumb drive that day, but as far as I know, I was the only one who was penalized for it (don't know this for a fact). I think she assumed I didn't do the project (I did, of course -- I even volunteered to go first). I just think she was being a bit unfair considering I a) asked to try it out first and b) there were two days of presentations, so it wasn't inconvenient for me to go the next day (like I said, I volunteered to go).

I have an immense of respect for teachers (not this one in particular, but that's another story) and I despise students who try and blame their teachers for everything; I am certainly not one of those kids. I understand it's my responsibility to do the work and have it ready on time.

[killuminati]

What movie is that from?

Sorry to hear about your iPod. :(

Umm, I'm not really sure. I'v just known it as a common phrase that I'v heard from a lot of different people.

And thanks :(

[Les Kern]

I'm in education, and I see this a lot, but differ on the analysis that's seems to be the majority opinion here.
1. You can't change everyone. Pick your fights. This one is pointless.
2. She is the teacher. It's her class, so RESPECT that. Next time, ask.
3. Instead of ranting (and NEVER rant AT them in public) perhaps you should look for alternative ways to bridge the gap.
4. Your paper was late, period. No excuses. I remember my dad said that there is NEVER a reason for being late to anything. "The snow was really coming down" to him says "Leave for work a lot earlier, dumbass". And he was right.

Now go do your homework.

[Sirus The Virus]

Almost the exact same happened to a classmate in my English class last semester. He brought a USB thumb drive with his Powerpoint presintation on it. The teacher who was in their late 20's didn't even know what a thumb drive was, let alone a USB port. Anyway, since we have IBMs at my school some running either windows 95, 98, and if your lucky 2000. In this case it was either 95 or 98. So then he put the drive in, there wernt any drivers for it then on top of that since its widows it of corse froze, then a BSOD poped up. So he ended up emailing it to her or something.

[JonMaker]

I don't know about you guys, but when I do OpenOffice presentations, I use my own laptop: I don't trust computers with public access, especially Win boxes.
I have seen Powerpoints created on one eMac in our lab that won't work on other eMacs in the same lab. Curse these presentations for not being self-contained!

[5300cs]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

"Those who can't do, teach. Those who can't teach, teach gym.."

-Woody Allen, 'Annie Hall'

[MongoTheGeek]

And those who can't teach -- teach PE.
Matt Groening did a life in hell themed around that which went on for the full strip.

[Phobophobia]

I hate it too because it basically breaks down to:

Those that can, do, and learnt it from some kind of teacher!

Those who can often learn things for themselves. Mozart, Beck, Danny Elfman...

Grades/education, success in life and intelligence are unrelated. It is unclear to me why the government pushes the idea that you will get paid more for going to college so aggressively.

[MattG]

Are they running Windows 98 or something?? Anything 2000 or higher should recognize a Jumpdrive without any drivers...at least they do here.

But anyway, yeah...your teacher sucks :-) "Use something safe like a floppy disk." She's driving technology backwards!! At our school, we're trying to DISCOURAGE people from using floppy discs. We put USB hubs on all of our gen-ed computers to make plugging in a Jumpdrive easy.

I'll be happy when Dell follows suit (aka copies Apple) and stops offering floppy drives. They're slow, easily damaged, don't fit much, and are an all around pain in the ass.

[jeremy.king]

Grades/education, success in life and intelligence are unrelated. It is unclear to me why the government pushes the idea that you will get paid more for going to college so aggressively.

Interesting opinion, since there are thousands of independant unbiased studies that support the fact that college grads earn more on average. Of course earning more doesn't equate to success in life, but having more money usually helps...So let me guess, you are going to argue the exceptions like Bill Gates, Paul Allen,Steve Jobs, Larry Ellision and Michael Dell as prime examples?

Wait a minute...I should have dropped out of college :eek:

[scem0]

I don't blame your teacher - it didn't open with the USB thumb drive, did it? Doesn't that make your teacher right? Whenever I have assignments that I need to move around I always email them to myself and put them on a thumb drive (and sometimes even upload them to my server).

Sorry, but you brough this upon yourself.

scem0

[Applespider]

I remember my dad said that there is NEVER a reason for being late to anything. "The snow was really coming down" to him says "Leave for work a lot earlier, dumbass". And he was right.


For the most part, I'd agree with him. But having the Tube break down in a tunnel for 2 hours (on what should be a 10 minutes journey) should be an exception ;)

[Applespider]

Grades/education, success in life and intelligence are unrelated. It is unclear to me why the government pushes the idea that you will get paid more for going to college so aggressively.

I don't think they're entirely unrelated but there's a difference between going to a good college to study a course that will help you succeed in life (through content, learned skills of research/debate/presentation) and going to college to do a mickey mouse degree or the bare minimum to pass. Good college degrees and skills will lead to a higher income. Too many college graduates with mediocre skills leads to average salaries but debts to go along with them. Motivation to succeed is more important than just intelligence.

At least in the UK, there are lots of skilled manual jobs with shortages (plumbers, electricians etc) which are highly lucrative (because of the shortages) - £60K for a London plumber! There are a lot of kids who would be better being pushed to be apprenticed than going to college for the sake of it.

[xsedrinam]

I don't blame your teacher - it didn't open with the USB thumb drive, did it? Doesn't that make your teacher right? Whenever I have assignments that I need to move around I always email them to myself and put them on a thumb drive (and sometimes even upload them to my server). Sorry, but you brough this upon yourself.
scem0

I think the original post mentions he asked the teacher if he could come in early to prevent what happened and, she refused his initiative. Education, higher, lower or the lack thereof is not the issue as I see it in this thread. The teacher is partly to blame for blowing off a student who wanted to go beyond the job description. I look to reward that kind of incentive in an employee. The student was confined to the cursed "a" word: "assume", and we all see what resulted. The teacher and her mindset cannot be applauded. For all who prepare any kind of video/media presentation it's usually overkill, but always have two-three backup plans in your arsenal and be armed with paranoia. Once burned, twice shy. ;)
X

[mactastic]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

While this is certainly true of some teachers, it is a highly unfair characterization of many of them. Most people have no idea how difficult teaching is.

[SFVCyclone]

i think he should have asked before hand, cause you know what assuming does. and as far as the dropping out argument, just check out this months edition of MONEY magazine, there is a graph showing what the average person with certain diplomas made. no high school diploma = 19k, high school diploma = 28k, BA = 51k, advanced degree = 75k.

[revenuee]

is she over 30? i don't trust anyone over 30

since most teachers are --- they are not to be trusted


aslo you mentioned that she said something about floppy's and her computer not having a floppy? i would of explioted that infront of the class.

this teacher clearly made it a point to make a fool of you infront of everyone, you should of done it right back.

this is definitely a battle worth fighting

[SFVCyclone]

is she over 30? i don't trust anyone over 30

since most teachers are --- they are not to be trusted


aslo you mentioned that she said something about floppy's and her computer not having a floppy? i would of explioted that infront of the class.

this teacher clearly made it a point to make a fool of you infront of everyone, you should of done it right back.

this is definitely a battle worth fighting

I have to disagree, if he belittles her then she will have resentment towards him, when the grading period comes around she is the one with the last word so it wont work in his favor.

[James Philp]

Those who can often learn things for themselves. Mozart, Beck, Danny Elfman...

Grades/education, success in life and intelligence are unrelated. It is unclear to me why the government pushes the idea that you will get paid more for going to college so aggressively.
Mozart learnt from his dad. And there is a MUCH longer list of people in education who did great things. You have listed 3 people, and beck? C'mon!
Newton, Bohr, Boltzmann, Cauchy, Chezy, Coulomb, De Moivre, Bessel, Euler, Fourier, Faraday, Helmholtz, Gauss, Hall, Hooke, Jacobi, Kepler, Laplace, Legendre, Lorentz, Maxwell, Moody, Nyquist, Planck, Rayleigh, Stokes, Tresca, Van der Waals, Young.
Without all these people modern physics, mathematic and engineering (in particular) would not be possible. You wouldn't be using a computer were it not for a lot of these people (and many others)
Most people who have done amazing things have been taught at some level.

[calyxman]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)

Menken was brilliant. That's one of my favorite quotes.

Hey I feel bad that you had to deal with an ignorant teacher. I remember back in college I used to bring my iBook into class with me and do the presentation via television with my trusty A/V cable. Of course they had a windows machine right beneath the TV on the cart, but I opted for my machine. :D

[jefhatfield]

Thanks! I love that movie.

It's true. :)

what movie was that? i do remember the quote

we have all heard that those who can't do teach, but i thought the line "those who can't teach, teach gym" was very clever

also remember mr. man, the girls' gym teacher?

[mac-er]

She got mad at me and asked if I even knew how to use PP, as it's not that challenging, and told me NOT to come in. :mad:


You should've asked her if she knew how to use a computer, as it is not that challenging.

[MarkCollette]

I'm in education, and I see this a lot, but differ on the analysis that's seems to be the majority opinion here.
1. You can't change everyone. Pick your fights. This one is pointless.
2. She is the teacher. It's her class, so RESPECT that. Next time, ask.
3. Instead of ranting (and NEVER rant AT them in public) perhaps you should look for alternative ways to bridge the gap.
4. Your paper was late, period. No excuses. I remember my dad said that there is NEVER a reason for being late to anything. "The snow was really coming down" to him says "Leave for work a lot earlier, dumbass". And he was right.

Now go do your homework.

Your advice is pragmatic. I would recommend that the original poster reads this and realises that in the education system, with the power that teachers hold over students, this is the best advice.

But, the advice is also asinine. Teachers don't automatically deserve respect. No one does. Respect is earned. If that teacher exhibits a pattern of behaviour like this, which is blatantly in the wrong, then they are to be held in contempt.

The paper was not late. The fault was the teacher's. Your analysis is flawed.

So,

1. Choose your fights. This might not be the best one.
2. Act like you respect you teacher, whether or not you do. Otherwise you will lose grades.
3. Don't make your feelings to well known, or it may get back to the teacher.
4. Your paper was not late. Politely ask for a compromise in the amount of grades you lost. Do not be adversarial.

[MontyZ]

Those who can -- do. Those who can't -- teach.

--(HL Mencken)
That's just snobbery, IMO. Granted, not all teachers are top-notch, but that has more to do with the value placed on our teachers in our society, and in America it's quite low. That quote reflects these low values.

[anubis]

These things happen. My experience with Powerpoint presentations has ALWAYS been to have several backup plans. NEVER, EVER go into a presentation with only one option. If that option fails, then you're screwed.

Take the powerpoint presntation and save it onto USB drive, CD-R, floppy (if it can fit), email it to yourself, post it online, etc. Save it in several different formats (Office 97 compatible, for instance).

When you get there, you may find that the computer refuses to run your Powerpoint, or the projector breaks, or something. Unless you've presented on the exact equipment a thousand times before, always print up transparencies of all of your slides if you know there will be a regular overhead projector available. (transparency packs avialable at staples cheap). Lastly, it's a good idea to print out about 20 hard copies of all of your slides to hand out to all of the sutdents/teachers in case all of the technology fails. Even if everything goes fine, your teacher may appreciate a hard copy of the slides to follow along with your presentation.

You need to chalk this one up to experience. You should NEVER, EVER assume that the computer will accomodate your thumb drive, or that that particular computer's version of powerpoint will open your presentation, or that anything will work exactly the way you want it to. Always have a back up plan for your back up plan when it comes to Powerpoint presentations.

I know all of this sounds really paranoid, but I wouldn't be saying all of this if it didn't happen to me or someone I know. I've done presentations that are more important than just class assignments I guess, so I have to be paranoid.

Once I was at conference when I was in high school. It was a state-wide year-long high school computer programming competition. Teams are required to present a half-hour presentation of their work at the end of the competition. Although our presentation went fine, I actually saw a team go up there and none of their CDs or floppies worked with the computer. So they tried one of their laptops, but it wouldn't properly interface with the projector. So they went to plan B: transparencies. As soon as they started their presentation, the bulb died. Everyone thought they were doomed, until they busted out about 10 hard copies of their powerpoint presentation and passed them out. Their presentation was a success and everyone was amazed at their level of planning and preparedness.

Going to class with one copy of your presentation on a USB drive that you had never tried on that particular computer before with no backup plan was probably a mistake. It's frustrating the first time, but at least you know now. ;)

[MontyZ]

She got really irritated with ME and told the class to make sure they put their presentations on something "safe, like a floppy disk"
LOL! Since when has a floppy disk ever been safe? I've lost more data on floppy disks in the past than just about any other kind of media, including Zip disks. Besides, who uses floppy disks any more?!! Do new computers even have floppy disk drives still?

[leekohler]

Your advice is pragmatic. I would recommend that the original poster reads this and realises that in the education system, with the power that teachers hold over students, this is the best advice.

But, the advice is also asinine. Teachers don't automatically deserve respect. No one does. Respect is earned. If that teacher exhibits a pattern of behaviour like this, which is blatantly in the wrong, then they are to be held in contempt.

The paper was not late. The fault was the teacher's. Your analysis is flawed.

So,

1. Choose your fights. This might not be the best one.
2. Act like you respect you teacher, whether or not you do. Otherwise you will lose grades.
3. Don't make your feelings to well known, or it may get back to the teacher.
4. Your paper was not late. Politely ask for a compromise in the amount of grades you lost. Do not be adversarial.

I agree with this. Respect is a 2-way street. Just because someone is called "teacher" doesn't mean they deserve it automatically. This one in particular seems vindictive and somewhat whacked. This person should find a new line of work if he/she can't work with you or anyone else-especially when you asked about it in the first place.

[JesseJames]

Your teacher sounds like one of those dried up, used up bitter people.
One of those teachers who are more concerned with keeping order in the classroom than expanding students' minds.
I feel sorry for you bro.

[killuminati]

Menken was brilliant. That's one of my favorite quotes.

Hey I feel bad that you had to deal with an ignorant teacher. I remember back in college I used to bring my iBook into class with me and do the presentation via television with my trusty A/V cable. Of course they had a windows machine right beneath the TV on the cart, but I opted for my machine. :D

I do the exact same. My school has these rolly table set up things that have a projector with a pc underneath. But I would much rather do my presentation in Keynote and bring in my PowerBook. And people go ooh and ahh when I use the cube transition.

[SFVCyclone]

I do the exact same. My school has these rolly table set up things that have a projector with a pc underneath. But I would much rather do my presentation in Keynote and bring in my PowerBoob. And people go ooh and ahh when I use the cube transition.

where did you get your computer from? are they still selling them? ;)

[killuminati]

where did you get your computer from? are they still selling them? ;)

Hahaha, :o thats an interesting typo.

[SFVCyclone]

Hahaha, :o thats an interesting typo.

LOL, just had to do it.

[Dr.Gargoyle]

I am a high school student, and I'm sure this sounds trivial,..
Well, I am sorry to say that it won't get any better later down the line. I am a Ph.D. student and whenever I fly away to another University to make a presentation about my research I always do as follows:

1. Make a PP/Keynote presentation

2. Get the entire presentation in pdf-files

3. Create a hidden link at my work homepage where I have all the files can be downloaded incase something goes wrong.

4. Print out transparants of the pdf files

Well at the conference you just have play with what they got. You never know in advance what system they might have working that particular day.
If they tell you that they have a projector, you can be almost certain that if it is there it won't work or some technical glitches will have you play around with it for a 10-15 minutes. Since you only have about 25 min in a specified slot to do your presentation you better have a back up plan... and a back up plan to the back up plan... and so on... :rolleyes:
I am sorry about your experience, but the sorry fact is that it wont get any better after high school... :(

[MarkCollette]

All of this reminds me of a French course I took a while back.

I was doing a power point presentation of my trip to Paris, with text and scanned photos. Since I couldn't be sure what resolution the projector would be, either 800x600 or 1024x768, and I wanted it to look as good as possible, I had to make two versions of the whole presentation.

Then I saved it in as many versions of powerpoint as possible, and put it on CDROM and the web.

I didn't bother with transparencies thought, since color transparency printing is pretty expensive, and black would have just looked crappy.

Anyways... The projector and computer that we'd booked from Com Media simply didn't show up. Instead of using our fallback plan of handing out the pictures, my TA simply allowed us to present during the next class, so we could have the full effect. No BS about late marks.

When we did present, we took almost the full class time, instead of the minimum 10 minutes. My partner read facts, and I adlibbed stories about my experiences. The TA loved it, and so did the class. It was clearly ahead of everyone else's presentations, which consisted of people standing and reading from notes.

So, yes, we could have resorted to our backup plan, but a little flexibility from the TA allowed for a much better experience for everyone.

[ejb190]

I am sorry about your experience, but the sorry fact is that it wont get any better after high school... :(
Right on there! I do a LOT of talks and have seen just about every possible problem you can think of. I carry a "save-a-talk toolbox" with me when I go to do presentations. Try to explain to your boss that you lost a $10 million contract because your PowerPoint wouldn't work...

I have a bit of a rant. I get a bit tired of the air of superiority I see from a lot of people when it comes to technology. If a teacher doesn't know what a USB port is - so what? Let me put it bluntly - you can't know everything. So you have to pick and choose what you spend your time learning and hopefully it will be something you are interested in and can use to earn a living. Personally, I find growing plants really interesting. When I need to solve a computer problem, I come to you. When you need to figure out why your maple tree is dropping its leaves, you come to me. I had a high school teacher everyone hated. That was until he finally opened up and we discovered his hobbies included entering theoretical math contests, teaching night classes at Notre Dame, and riding his Harley cross country! All the sudden we had something to connect with him about. So rather then complain about what your teacher's (co-workers, bosses, etc.) don't know, forgive them and find out what they do know!

anubis, your story about that high school group hits the nail on the head. But I bet there was a teacher in the background grinning ear to ear because he/she taught them to be prepared!

[Dr.Gargoyle]

I do a LOT of talks and have seen just about every possible problem you can think of. I carry a "save-a-talk toolbox" with me when I go to do presentations.
As you correctly pointed out, most people that has done the presentation "thingy" oaway from home, eventually realize that sometimes people just have no idea what they are talking about when you ask about their facilities. In the unlikely event they might give you the correct information about what they have, you are far from "there" when it comes to making a presntation. You never know what kind of outdated system they have, missing/lost/broken cables, no usb, no video in, broken projectors, or someone grabs the projector 2 min before your presentation (yup, it has happened).
The bottom line is: when you make a presentation, be prepared for everything. Make sure you have the presentation ready in different formats PPS/keynote/pdf AND transparents. I haven't been to any place (yet) where i haven't been able to use one of the above.
As a last note, always keep these files downloadable online just incase something weird should happened. I lost my entire presentation flying from Marseille, France to New York when the airline company lost my luggage. I was unfortuately stupid enough to leave my presentation in the check-in luggage, but thankfully lucky enough have created a link on my homepage so I could download retreive it again.

[mariahlullaby]

Your advice is pragmatic. I would recommend that the original poster reads this and realises that in the education system, with the power that teachers hold over students, this is the best advice.

But, the advice is also asinine. Teachers don't automatically deserve respect. No one does. Respect is earned. If that teacher exhibits a pattern of behaviour like this, which is blatantly in the wrong, then they are to be held in contempt.

The paper was not late. The fault was the teacher's. Your analysis is flawed.

So,

1. Choose your fights. This might not be the best one.
2. Act like you respect you teacher, whether or not you do. Otherwise you will lose grades.
3. Don't make your feelings to well known, or it may get back to the teacher.
4. Your paper was not late. Politely ask for a compromise in the amount of grades you lost. Do not be adversarial.

I have asked my teacher about the grade, and she has since taken off the late penalty :) :). So, happy ending! :)

Anyways, when I posted this story, it was more about the fact that my teacher was still stuck on flooppy drives and had no idea what a USB port was, but this has become quite the interesting discussion.

Like I said, I respect teachers so much. They do a HECK of a lot of work, from the time they get to school and then have even more work to do when they get home (grading, etc.). And they're expected to every student's needs, make class fun but educational, deal with teenage rudeness, and still be cheerful. Students think teachers should bend over backwards for them just so they can do well in the class, when they don't even put the work in. And teachers are HIGHLY underpaid in my opinion.

The teacher in this story has given me problems all year, and students before me. There have been several letters from students requesting she be removed (not from me). She teaches very, very little, and gives out worksheets for her students to do while she sits on her computer and plays solitaire/browses the Internet. She recently announced she would be teaching the AP Chemistry course next year as the old teacher was retiring, and everyone switched to a different science (they almost had to cut the class because so few people signed up) because she offers no preparation whatsoever. If you ask her a question or for help, she gets angry and tells you to figure it out yourself. Everybody exempts her exam because none of us know how to do chemistry because she does NOTHING to help; I asked a friend who had her last year (and is No. 3 in the class, a very hard worker) if she took her exam and she laughed and said "What, do you think I'm stupid?" She has no respect for her students -- I'll be talking to her, looking her in the eye, and she literally walks out of the room in the middle of my question/conversation. I could share countless stories :p.

But anyways, that's just life. You can't always get great or even just ok teachers, and I can deal with that. Only one more week of school!

[sushi]

Well, I am sorry to say that it won't get any better later down the line.
So very true.

Used to be in the Quality arena. We were doing an offsite 4 day conference for our Commanding General (3 Star).

I wanted to be prepared. Took two of everything (Project, bulbs per projector, laptops). Burned copies of the briefing on CDs.

And everyone of the conference attendees had their own notebooks with a copy of all the slides.

You can never be too prepared.

BTW, my boss thought that I over did it a bit. That was until projector one died, two bulbs burnt out, and one of the laptops quit working. After that, he just told me good job and was a happy camper.

Sushi

[Dr.Gargoyle]

You can never be too prepared.
Hear, hear...