Schedule Build in progress, Clear the sawdust!

One of the great things about working with a web-based product is you can actually work anyplace you have a wireless internet connection. As I’ve learned many times before, a scheduling workshop does not have to be in a training room, computer lab or school conference room. On a recent visit to George Stevens Academy in Blue Hill, Maine the only place available for the entire day for us to work uninterrupted on the 2012-2013 master schedule was the industrial arts teacher’s office. Well, I really shouldn’t say “uninterrupted”, since students were coming and going looking for various tools and pieces of projects in progress, but it was a place we could set up for the day.

Working in the industrial arts teacher’s office for the day

After brushing away some saw dust to make a space for my computer, and inspired by the unfamiliar surroundings of drill bits, wood glue and vises, I started thinking of all of the unusual places I’ve worked over the years with various school staff building schedules. Listed below (in no particular order) are some of the more memorable:

The lobby of the Homewood Suites I was staying in when the school district lost power. (Also many other hotel lobbies for similar/various reasons)

The patio of a Mexican restaurant on Cinco de Mayo

The loft of a chateau in Belgium

My kitchen table at home

Starbucks on Santa Monica Blvd/Hollywood (talk about distractions!)

Poolside (also in California)

Food court in a mall

The back of a FACS kitchen classroom while students were in class baking all day

Picnic table at a seaside seafood restaurant

An Irish pub

A German brauhaus

A fishing charter boat in Alaska

Although working in a traditional computer lab/training room setting is by far the norm, the exceptions that surprise me once in a while help make my vocation more rewarding and interesting than it already is! Any schools in Hawaii (or any tropical location, I’m not picky) need me for scheduling on a lenai next January?