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(purely as an aside - saw a mimeo machine not long ago - the ink smell brought back so many memories)
I loved that smell. I can remember sitting in elementary school sniffing the papers we'd just be given. I guess a lot of us were doing it because I can also remember the teacher telling us to stop.
We had closed circuit television in my school. The school district produced its own programs. This was in the 60's and it was way ahead of its time. They used to bring in tours of educators from all over the country to stare at all of us watching television to learn things like Spanish and science. It was fabulous. I'd like to thank the taxpayers of the state of California.
(purely as an aside - saw a mimeo machine not long ago - the ink smell brought back so many memories)
I spent most of my second grade school year working in the office running the mimeograph machine. I had finished the school year's curriculum and all schoolwork by Columbus Day and they did not know what to do with me. So I ran the mimeograph machine for all the classes.
Oh, Dear!!!! this post really makes me feel my age. The Biggest invention that effected the school day was the Ball Point Pen. We had projectors, movies and such that did the job, but a pen, that actually used ink and didn't have to be filled, that was WOW!! The early ones were real expensive. I think about $20 for one pen.
My mom was a Girl Scout leader and her troop had some copier that was even more primitive than a mimeograph machine. You used this special ink, and made an impression on a gel pad, then made the copies. I used to help her. It was cool.
I loved that smell. I can remember sitting in elementary school sniffing the papers we'd just be given.
It was the socially acceptable alternative to sniffing glue.
Quote:
Originally Posted by DewDropInn
I guess a lot of us were doing it because I can also remember the teacher telling us to stop.
It did usually end when the teacher told everyone to stop, but I recall one time when the teacher took a different approach: "All right, now, everyone pick up your papers. Hold them up to your noses. Now, one, two, three, sniiiiff. Okay, done. Now put your papers down on your desks."
I graduated in 1997. A few things stand out from Elementary school. In 3rd grade, I walked into my classroom and it was like it was from the future. My teacher had a chalk allergy, so he had the first white board (dry erase) that I had ever seen. He also had a projector that he would write on the plastic sheets and it would show up on that same while board!! It was amazing!!!
We would sometimes watch the shuttle launches on TV, but most of the time, we would walk out to the PE fields and watch the shuttles that way. I remember correcting one teacher who was telling us to look North instead of East (I always had a good sense of direction).
In 4th grade, I typed a 1 page paper on a computer. Very exciting. Then it took several people a long time to figure out how to print it out on that green and white paper with the tear off sides. This paper soon replaced our dittos that they would normally hand out (fantastic smell). I miss dittos.
In 6th grade (middle school), I took a computer class. We had to buy our own floppy discs (actually floppy) and it took forever to find them because not many stores sold them yet. I created my own dos based game.
In middle school, a few people started getting dial-up internet. It is driving me nuts that I can't remember the provider, but it was before AOL was well known.
In 9th grade, still very few people had a computer at home, much less internet. I shocked everyone with my cutting edge project on Djibouti that included recording the national anthem on a greeting card that could record your voice!! It was on display in the school for a full year. lol My dad helped me with that project and it is still in a closet in his house.
When I graduated High school, pagers were the rage and everyone had their own codes to put in after sending a number. I bought my first pre-paid cell phone (which only made calls) during that summer after graduation. It was the coolest toy amongst my friends. We could order a pizza on the way to someone's apartment! We didn't have to wait until we got there.
It was the socially acceptable alternative to sniffing glue.
Which everyone was doing before someone realized all the 10-year old model makers were getting stoned when they put together their model of a WWII P-51 to hang in their bedroom.
Seems like a lot of us are around the same age! I started kindergarten in 1992 and graduated from high school in 2006. We always had computers, which now seems strange because in the early years my district was not particularly wealthy. We had computers in my 1st grade classroom in addition to a computer lab. By 2nd grade, we were in the computer lab for "specials" at least once a week. In middle school, in 1999-2002, we had laptop carts, a computer elective (that everyone took for at least a quarter a year), and most classrooms had at least one or two computers. I remember needing to make websites (on Angelfire - those were the days!) for many gifted class projects.
By high school, we had smart boards in all of the classrooms and my high school had programming, CISCO networking, and other advanced computers courses. All teachers had laptops, which I thought was a nice touch to help with grading. When I graduated in 2006, teachers still hadn't really moved to emailing their classes and Facebook didn't pose the issues it does to teachers today. Some of the older teachers never got used to the Smartboards and instead used them to project movies with really great surround sound on down days. I'll never forget sitting in an AP government exam when all of a sudden the entire room started to shake. The teacher next door's (who retired the next year) AP environmental science class had finished their AP exam and final projects, so he played Jurassic Park for them on the last day. Any time the dinosaurs roared, the walls would shake. Most teachers were much more educational in their uses - like PowerPoint presentations about Spanish art or using Google Earth to study geography.
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