Presented by Caleb Cooper, Garden Montessori

1. Managing Classrooms
with Puppet
Caleb Cooper

2. Garden Montessori School
“Plainly, the environment must be a living one,
directed by a higher intelligence, arranged by
an adult who is prepared for his mission.”
-- Maria Montessori

3. About Me
● Started at 18.
● Grew with the school's IT infrastructure.
● Worked while in college.
● Became overwhelmed.
● Found Puppet.
● Learned to automate.
● Handed off the torch.
“Such experiences
are not just play….
It is work he must
do in order to grow
up.”
-- Maria Montessori

4. Overview
● Starting off small.
● Trying something weird.
● Trying something
ambitious.
● Freedom to expand.
● Better than the parts.
● Too much of a good thing.
● Building blocks.
“The child becomes
a person through
work.”
-- Maria Montessori

5. Starting Off Small
Puppet is really good for
installing programs and
running services.
But is it worth the effort?
“The greatness of
the human
personality begins
at the hour of birth.”
-- Maria Montessori

6. Trying Something Weird
Adding bookmarks is
cumbersome, but
Chrome configurations
files are flat and human
readable.
Can I automate this? “Growth comes
from activity, not
from intellectual
understanding.”
-- Maria Montessori

7. Trying Something Ambitious
Golden images don't
grow and evolve.
Can I bootstrap from
Puppet? “Growth is not
merely a
harmonious
increase in size,
but a
transformation.”
-- Maria Montessori

8. Freedom to Expand
Making new users was
easy, but keeping them
up to date was hard.
Can I manage them all
at once?
“To assist a child
we must provide
him with an
environment which
will enable him to
develop freely.”
-- Maria Montessori

9. Better than the Parts
BTSync runs as root and
Puppet can't sync files
efficiently.
But together?
“The child builds
his inmost self out
of the deeply held
impressions he
receives.”
-- Maria Montessori

10. Too Much of a Good Thing
Now that I am managing
everything with Puppet,
runs take way too long.
Too much? “The child is an
enigma… He has
the highest
potentialities, but
we do not know
what he will be.”
-- Maria Montessori

11. Building Blocks
Crafting mines is a
popular pass-time and
can even teach cool
stuff.
Can Puppet install
unpackaged apps? “Never help a child
with a task at which
he feels he can
succeed.”
-- Maria Montessori

12. Questions?
Caleb Cooper
caleb@caleb-cooper.net
Alex Bulkhak
alex@bulkhak.com
“Since it is through
movement that the
will realizes itself,
we should assist a
child in his
attempts to put his
will into act.”
-- Maria Montessori