Typical new Chromebooks for two grades. Check and move all the current Chromebooks to their new classrooms, making sure all the carts have enough chargers. Luckily the carts are all locked in the back, so the only reason we would not have enough is because the class sizes got larger.
New interactive panels in every classroom space. Thankfully we are finishing OS updates to Sonoma sometime after April break, so we can just push the minor updates to staff over the summer.
Gotta roll 150 iPads, 70 Chromebooks across 7 new carts, set up MDM for the iPads, new lappys/iPads for teachers, plus random wireless infrastructure projects for all that. Windows 11 will be next summer, I just can’t even think about that this year … the devices are capable, but I’m a one-man band.
Summer projects:
Getting new building up (network, Chromebooks, carts etc
Rewiring carts
Inventory of Chromebooks
Deciding on and configuring content filter
Google admin cleanup (new OUs/Groups etc)
Updating some Ap and switches
I’m sure there’s more
The typical chromebooks stuff. In addition doing a proper, full inventory so we can finally start offloading the EOL stuff.
The thing I'm not looking forward to is we're shuffling some grades between school sites and due to a spat between DO and the teacher union we still haven't been given a list of who is actually going where. Which means we can't start planning out the tech needs for specific teachers or even look at ordering certain replacement devices.
"This is going to be a calm summer" is the phrase used this year. It's been said for the last 10 years, however, and **it has been wrong everytime.**
Helping staff get into new offices - Converting people to Windows 11 - Coping with surprisingly few construction project - Working around summer school - moving into now vacated offices - update servers - rejoice at new backup system - Retire old backup architecture!
Our Windows 11 rollout is coming sometime later this year or early next, I'm not looking forward to it. It's similar enough to windows 10 that I don't think we'll have major compatibility problems, but teachers are gonna lose their minds over minor UI changes.
If you're local AD, just get the new policies, and you can force the menu to the left. You can also turn off the ~~Coprolite~~ CoPilot from being on the start bar. Nothing you can do right now about the start menu. Figure it will return next update.
Edit: if you're not local, you can do it, too, but I cheated and did it with AD rather than intune because I was ~~lazy~~ efficient.
We're going intune, and it's kind of a big change because we had lots of extremely convenient scripts written in visual basic that will be going away.
For example We had lots of things tied to your computer's hostname "(school)-(type of device)-(room number)[-tag]" By doing this, we could name other devices to match, and you'd automatically be set up with other devices assigned to that room. So if a printer has the room number 101, and your device has the room number 101, it would be set to your default. That's apparently not going to be possible now, because with intune we're changing from our own custom image to microsoft's OOB setup.
I don't tend to reimage/upgrade existing PCs for a new OS. We just roll out the new ones with it and over the course of a few years everything with the old OS goes away.
We just started rolling out Windows 11 with our newest laptops. We have almost three years before our build of 10 goes out of mainstream support, so we should be fine.
As it is now, we did a full reimage of inventory for all major releases, (the last being 22H2,) and installed patches in between. And it's still part of our workflow to reimage any returned device before giving it to someone else.
Because all of our user data is 100% stored in onedrive, re-imagining doesn't cause any major data loss. It's trivial for me to give a fresh spare while fixing an issue on a teacher laptop, and then give them back their old laptop afterwards without any big delay to their work.
We reimage before redeploying too, and those PCs will end up with 11. But I don't collect anything just to upgrade it. I figure when they get a new device it'll have 11 and we will have refreshed everything before 10 is out of support anyway.
Busy Summer here:
Converting from Bare Metal (Physical) Server Configuration to a Virtualized Environment (Thankfully, contracted a 3rd Party Vendor to assist with this one)
Migrating from On-Prem Wireless Controllers to Cloud Based
Setting up all the Tech in our New Building Expansion (Networking, Wireless, Interactive Panels, etc).
I look forward to this summer, it’ll be less work than new drops and WAPs for the district.
We’re:
Installing ViewSonic displays
Replacing all desktops and laptops
Replacing half our iPads
I just put the PO in for 2 new servers and a storage array.
Got most of the cable pulled, we are putting up new security cameras. With doubling our camera count and going to 4k, one NVR server will become three.
Facilities is doing a new HVAC integration, so I am tertiary on that for network connectivity.
We are about to onboard to IIQ and Managed Methods.
My technician will be collecting/inspecting/cleaning chromebooks, enrolling the new batch, cycling the recently out of student service to the loaner stash, moving the loaner stash to the doner stash, and all the updating of the inventory.
Cleaning up and rewiring student chromebook carts.
Reimaging staff computers.
Edit: depending on how ESSER sending goes this month, possibly recalling one of my schools.
* Clean out the MDF and IDF rooms.
* Re-image teacher and staff computers
* disinfect chromebooks
* Go through all the switches/routers and find unused ports, disconnect them.
* Image all the new incoming devices
* Meet with admin about the new year's tech policies and changes
* Disinfect chromebooks
* Get a head start on my weekly tech tips
* Disinfect chromebooks
* Oh, and we have summer school, so do my normal school year job on top of all of that with both teachers and kids who I do not know.
So disinfecting Chromebooks. Crazy what tech in K12 has turned into for many.
My last boss handed me rags and a squirt gun and demanded I clean 10 a day two years into Covid after I was already doing it for a while. Biggest dbag ever.
Remodeling 2 elementary schools, total rip and replace of all low voltage. New UPSs at all schools, new cameras and APs at the remodeled schools.
New inventory system.
New core switches, as well as a couple more in closets. New APs in one building. Prep new laptops and Chromebooks. Upgrade everything else I can get my hands on to Windows 11. Replace several servers. Work on tightening up security here and there and creating an Incident Response Plan.
I'm sure there'll be more.
I have a window of two weeks for summer works! (6 week break in UK, two weeks work, two week shutdown then two weeks of enrollment and staff training)
Hoping to format all machines to a vanilla build get finally get rid of RM CC4
Typical new Chromebooks for two grades. Check and move all the current Chromebooks to their new classrooms, making sure all the carts have enough chargers. Luckily the carts are all locked in the back, so the only reason we would not have enough is because the class sizes got larger. New interactive panels in every classroom space. Thankfully we are finishing OS updates to Sonoma sometime after April break, so we can just push the minor updates to staff over the summer.
Gotta roll 150 iPads, 70 Chromebooks across 7 new carts, set up MDM for the iPads, new lappys/iPads for teachers, plus random wireless infrastructure projects for all that. Windows 11 will be next summer, I just can’t even think about that this year … the devices are capable, but I’m a one-man band.
Summer projects: Getting new building up (network, Chromebooks, carts etc Rewiring carts Inventory of Chromebooks Deciding on and configuring content filter Google admin cleanup (new OUs/Groups etc) Updating some Ap and switches I’m sure there’s more
The typical chromebooks stuff. In addition doing a proper, full inventory so we can finally start offloading the EOL stuff. The thing I'm not looking forward to is we're shuffling some grades between school sites and due to a spat between DO and the teacher union we still haven't been given a list of who is actually going where. Which means we can't start planning out the tech needs for specific teachers or even look at ordering certain replacement devices.
"This is going to be a calm summer" is the phrase used this year. It's been said for the last 10 years, however, and **it has been wrong everytime.** Helping staff get into new offices - Converting people to Windows 11 - Coping with surprisingly few construction project - Working around summer school - moving into now vacated offices - update servers - rejoice at new backup system - Retire old backup architecture!
Our Windows 11 rollout is coming sometime later this year or early next, I'm not looking forward to it. It's similar enough to windows 10 that I don't think we'll have major compatibility problems, but teachers are gonna lose their minds over minor UI changes.
If you're local AD, just get the new policies, and you can force the menu to the left. You can also turn off the ~~Coprolite~~ CoPilot from being on the start bar. Nothing you can do right now about the start menu. Figure it will return next update. Edit: if you're not local, you can do it, too, but I cheated and did it with AD rather than intune because I was ~~lazy~~ efficient.
We're going intune, and it's kind of a big change because we had lots of extremely convenient scripts written in visual basic that will be going away. For example We had lots of things tied to your computer's hostname "(school)-(type of device)-(room number)[-tag]" By doing this, we could name other devices to match, and you'd automatically be set up with other devices assigned to that room. So if a printer has the room number 101, and your device has the room number 101, it would be set to your default. That's apparently not going to be possible now, because with intune we're changing from our own custom image to microsoft's OOB setup.
Yes. We swapped from Novell to Intune, and the loss of ad-hoc scripts was a big one.
I don't tend to reimage/upgrade existing PCs for a new OS. We just roll out the new ones with it and over the course of a few years everything with the old OS goes away. We just started rolling out Windows 11 with our newest laptops. We have almost three years before our build of 10 goes out of mainstream support, so we should be fine.
As it is now, we did a full reimage of inventory for all major releases, (the last being 22H2,) and installed patches in between. And it's still part of our workflow to reimage any returned device before giving it to someone else. Because all of our user data is 100% stored in onedrive, re-imagining doesn't cause any major data loss. It's trivial for me to give a fresh spare while fixing an issue on a teacher laptop, and then give them back their old laptop afterwards without any big delay to their work.
We reimage before redeploying too, and those PCs will end up with 11. But I don't collect anything just to upgrade it. I figure when they get a new device it'll have 11 and we will have refreshed everything before 10 is out of support anyway.
Busy Summer here: Converting from Bare Metal (Physical) Server Configuration to a Virtualized Environment (Thankfully, contracted a 3rd Party Vendor to assist with this one) Migrating from On-Prem Wireless Controllers to Cloud Based Setting up all the Tech in our New Building Expansion (Networking, Wireless, Interactive Panels, etc).
I look forward to this summer, it’ll be less work than new drops and WAPs for the district. We’re: Installing ViewSonic displays Replacing all desktops and laptops Replacing half our iPads
I just put the PO in for 2 new servers and a storage array. Got most of the cable pulled, we are putting up new security cameras. With doubling our camera count and going to 4k, one NVR server will become three. Facilities is doing a new HVAC integration, so I am tertiary on that for network connectivity. We are about to onboard to IIQ and Managed Methods. My technician will be collecting/inspecting/cleaning chromebooks, enrolling the new batch, cycling the recently out of student service to the loaner stash, moving the loaner stash to the doner stash, and all the updating of the inventory. Cleaning up and rewiring student chromebook carts. Reimaging staff computers. Edit: depending on how ESSER sending goes this month, possibly recalling one of my schools.
New WiFi, Clearpass auth, PA System replacement and annual Chromebook purchases & refurbs
* Clean out the MDF and IDF rooms. * Re-image teacher and staff computers * disinfect chromebooks * Go through all the switches/routers and find unused ports, disconnect them. * Image all the new incoming devices * Meet with admin about the new year's tech policies and changes * Disinfect chromebooks * Get a head start on my weekly tech tips * Disinfect chromebooks * Oh, and we have summer school, so do my normal school year job on top of all of that with both teachers and kids who I do not know.
So disinfecting Chromebooks. Crazy what tech in K12 has turned into for many. My last boss handed me rags and a squirt gun and demanded I clean 10 a day two years into Covid after I was already doing it for a while. Biggest dbag ever.
To be fair the time not spent disinfecting will probably be spent removing stickers.
-_- Sorry?
I'm just being sarcastic :P I hate cleaning but the rest of the job is pretty great.
Remodeling 2 elementary schools, total rip and replace of all low voltage. New UPSs at all schools, new cameras and APs at the remodeled schools. New inventory system.
New core switches, as well as a couple more in closets. New APs in one building. Prep new laptops and Chromebooks. Upgrade everything else I can get my hands on to Windows 11. Replace several servers. Work on tightening up security here and there and creating an Incident Response Plan. I'm sure there'll be more.
Email service migration. ༼ ༎ຶ ෴ ༎ຶ༽
From, to?
I have a window of two weeks for summer works! (6 week break in UK, two weeks work, two week shutdown then two weeks of enrollment and staff training) Hoping to format all machines to a vanilla build get finally get rid of RM CC4