The Crosby Chronicles: Teacher or handyman?

Each morning lately I’ve had to get to work 20 minutes earlier in order to set up the LCD projector in my classroom.

While I have a 25” tube TV mounted in my room, it is difficult for students from the opposite side of the room to watch anything on it. So whenever I want to show students a movie or writing lesson, I use a computer attached to an LCD projector.

This summer, all teachers had LCD projectors mounted in the ceiling. Not me, however. Because the administration thought I was going to use the projector only in the room next to me where we tape the school’s video program, I didn’t get one mounted.

So, I have to unlock the filing cabinet, pull out the projector, connect it to the power cable and to the computer cable, turn on the computer, select a “dual screen” mode so that the picture is on both the computer monitor and projector, gingerly move the projector tethered to the two wires, position it on a tabletop, inevitably never quite centered on the screen, with the image spilling over on both sides, with a couple of student head shadows enormously projected as well.

The whole process is done in reverse at the end of the day, and completely repeated the next day.

And this is the reason I earned a Master’s Degree in Education.

Brian Crosby is a teacher at Hoover High School and the author of Smart Kids, Bad Schools and The $100,000 Teacher. He can be reached at brian-crosby.com.