Hail to the IT Department

We recently started a Makerspace Club in our school. Last week, we had MinecraftEDU installed by our IT technician so that we could use it for our Makerspace. The kids were so excited. But yesterday, when the students went to use it, we noticed that someone had inadvertently deleted the pathway. These types of glitches can be so frustrating and they happen all of the time.

For reasons I often rail against, we don't have administrative rights over our school technology. In my more frustrated and impatient moments, I can rant against the imposed limitations of not having administrative rights over the technology we use and the dependency on a "middleman". However, in my more rational moments, I understand the logic behind the school board having some control over what goes onto our computers. 

So this morning, I emailed our IT technician to tell him about our issue with the MinecraftEDU pathway disappearing and the kids not being able to log onto it yesterday. He answered my email within ten minutes, ON A SATURDAY MORNING! That made me think about how much I truly depend on our IT department. I call or email one or more of them several times a week. They must get so tired of  all of the calls they get, but they are always so polite and accommodating. It must be difficult to have a job where most of the people contacting you are contacting you because they are frustrated. (Of course, we could have a whole other conversation about why they are frustrated, and what needs to be done proactively so that no longer happens... but that is a for longer conversation another time.)

Our IT department is full of unsung heroes. They are pretty much at our beck and call. And we don't ever really acknowledge all that they do for us. We have "Secretary Appreciation Day", "Educational Assistant Appreciation Day", and "Teacher Appreciation Day". I believe we need an "IT Department Appreciation Day". In fact, I don't even know what we are supposed to be calling them. They are usually referred to as the "IT Guy" or "IT Person". I think "IT Technician" is probably the more accurate term, but I am not even sure. 

I would like all of the IT support people from our board to know how truly grateful I am to each and every one of them for all of the help they have given me over the years, the patience they've shown, and the openness to supporting all of my requests (even the seemingly crazy ones!). Thank-you Wayne, Bill C., Melba, Ryan, Paulo, Bince, Roger, Saleem, Victor, Beverley, Joanne, Mike B., Brad, Jason, Mike A., Bill B., Dan, Jeff, Carl, Todd, Martin, Jordan, and Tim! (That isn't even the whole team, but I've never worked with the Secondary folk). I hope I didn't miss anyone because you are all rock stars in my book!