End of the year

Like many of you, I am busy getting everything together for the end of the year and the inevitable drudgery of testing. In NC, we now have a Science end-of-grade test for 5th and 8th grades. I have inevitably changed some of the approaches I have used in an effort to cover the broad, shallow curriculum that we have and to try and prepare my students for the test. It is a little soul crushing, this testing protocol that seems so de rigeur these days...

Usually at this time of year I find that I am ready for a break, but this year all I can think about is how I want to implement all of the 2.0 approaches that I have been exploring in my off hours these past few months! I have been fortunate enough to rescue the beginnings of a mac lab from a senseless death at the hands of the surplus auction. I found 2 Powermac G3's (b&w) and 4 G3 iMacs at the bottom of several big piles of PC carcasses! They have no RAM, no keyboards and no mice, but so far, I have booted up 2 of them and I am in the process of getting the others online. I am really excited about the possibilities for a multimedia mac lab in my classroom next year. To share ideas, tips, tricks and troubleshooting advice, I created the Mac 2.0 classroom group within Classroom 2.0. If this interests you, I would love for you to join and share in this little subgroup of the classroom 2.0 world!

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Comment by Carolyn Foote on May 19, 2007 at 7:54am: I think it's outstanding that you are so dedicated that you have rescued these computers to use in your classroom.

On the other hand, I think it is a sad state of education that teachers and schools have to do that.

Yours is the second case in a couple of days I have read where a teacher is either limited in what they want to do technology wise because of a lack of decent computing power, or is having to scrounge for equipment!

So I'm throwing this comment out here in the hopes that someone with Apple or a tech company will see your efforts and donate to your classroom what you need!

Also, contact your Apple rep, let them know what you are doing....who knows, maybe you can get a "loaner" to use with your students next fall for a program.

Comment by Shawn Moore on May 19, 2007 at 5:49pm: Thanks Carolyn! The real travesty is that the IT Dept. took out all of the RAM, so I have to procure that myself, along with keyboards and mice (who knows what happened to them...). I am really excited about the potential that I have now, though.