2009-2010

When I began teaching, the year was 1979-80. I drove from Wellston to Stroud every day for my first year. I'm beginning another new year tomorrow--2009-2010. I thought by now we would have flying cars.
The changes in technology boggle my mind. Back then I had to type tests on a stencil and run them off on the funny smelling purple ditto machine. It took forever to figure it all out. We did have a machine that would make a stencil out of a worksheet, but it was expensive so not available for everything.
Jason was four, so he rode with me to Stroud and went to the Clownhouse Daycare around the corner from my school. He slept all the way over there and back because if he didn't, he got carsick. We had to turn around and go back home a couple of times before I realized that he shouldn't eat at home in the morning. I had to take his cereal to Clownhouse to stop that madness. I was pregnant with Allison for the second semester, so that brought new challenges. I had to get up really early so the morning sickness would go away before I had to leave. YUK! That wasn't fun.
This year I will begin the year with plain paper copiers that allows me to mass produce anything I can type on my laptop. I have a Smartboard in my classroom, and the projector will be installed in my ceiling. I can pull up anything I have saved on my computer and post it on the Smartboard. I can put internet sites on the screen. If someone sends me an email with something I think will benefit my students, I can show them on the Smartboard. I have a cart in my classroom with 30 laptops in it that my students can use to write papers or do research.
I don't think I could have imagined how things would change.
We've gone from video on a huge reel to VHS to DVD to downloads. What will come next? Will I be able to keep up?
We've gone from IBM selectric, to Apple II, to desktop, to laptops.
We've gone from landlines, to cellular phones, to cellphones that connect to the internet.
What has stayed the same? 17 year olds. They are more savvy than they were in
1979, but they still are between childhood and adulthood. They still make me laugh.
They still don't necessarily want to be in school, but they come in anyway and sit in my classroom and wait for me to teach them something they can use. I have one week to get ready for a new group. I will begin by praying that I will see them as I wanted my children's teachers to see my kids. They are individuals, they are not like anyone else, they are special.