Disaster Recovery Planning for Teachers

November 2, 2009 - By Justin E. Gehrke

Recently, my son’s school was forced to close for several weeks due to damage sustained from an explosion at a nearby company. While the first few days were negligible in importance, the continued closure for a week raised concerns about student’s progress and the retention of key skills.

As an IT and INFOSEC professional, I am all too familiar with Disaster Recovery Planning (DRP) and Continuity of Operations Planning (COOP). I am also familiar with the concept of a calculable, Maximum Tolerable Downtime (MTD), which indicates the point at which a financial recovery becomes improbable. While I have given thought to DRP and COOP as it applies to a school’s network assets and operability, I had never really given much thought to the effects of an extended school closure. More specifically, I never really stopped to consider that schools and their students could have an MTD, themselves. Their MTD, though, had nothing to do with IT and network assets. Their primary concern deals with the most important (and often overlooked) component…the real person at the end of the chain. I considered these things after the fact, which is all too often the case for IT managers and staff!

Fortunately, in this case, the school had considered it. I learned that each grade had its own emergency plan, which was designed to be provided to parents via email. The plan contained URL links and descriptions for websites that covered each major area of the curriculum. Coursework was both printable and web-based. The intention was to provide parents with resources to ensure their children stayed up-to-date with their peers in other schools.

While this type of plan is dependent upon parents having a computer, internet connection, and printer (which could preclude low income families), it at least constitutes a concerted effort by the school, to mitigate the impact of the time lost. Ultimately, no DRP or COOP can cover every eventuality, so the most important part is that a well-thought out and comprehensive plan is developed, period.

Below, I’ve included a few examples of the links suggested, by category. With a little Google magic, you’re bound to find a thousand more. So whether your are an educator whose institution needs a plan or just a loving parent who wants to help their child get ahead, take advantage and use them. Remember, too, that anyone can possess knowledge, but a person with wisdom passes their knowledge (and links!) on to and share with others.

1. Language Arts: Guided Reading Story - http://www.roythezebra.com/guided-reading-story.html

2. Spelling: Word Builder – http://www.eduplace.com/kids/sv/books/gr2/wordbuilder/

3. Math: Addition & Subtraction – http://www.kidport.com/Grade2/Math/NumberSense/

4. Science: Online Stories & Activities – http://www.storylineonline.net/

Justin E. Gehrke (CISSP, CIWSP, MCSA, CompTIA Security+/Project+/A+) is the founder of Geek Shui Living. As a right and left-brained geek, he regularly blogs on IT and Information Security related issues and is available for consulting in the areas of Information Technology, Network Security, and creative web design and development. He really does appreciate feedback from the computing masses, so feel free to transmit your packets to him, via the Geek Shui Living Contact page.