in britannia

For three years, I have prided myself on being one of the more tech-savvy members of the P. school faculty. I don't know if that's actually been the case, but I was one of the first to put up a website, assign worksheets online, and post student work. I had figured that the use of powerpoint was an innovation that my generation of teachers could bring to the classroom. When I told my mom what I was doing, she said that teachers for hundreds of years had gotten by without powerpoint, and that my attempts to teach with computers was mere reinvention of the wheel. Only in my second year did I realize that my reliance on computers was masking something deeper: an inability to deliver a coherent chalkboard lecture. With the help of my mentor, Mrs. K., I was able to overcome this deficiency, but I maintained my affection for powerpoint assisted lectures and online learning.

Well, that's all changing now. Five minutes ago, I handed in my P. school supplied Dell Lattitude computer. I was extremely reluctant to accept their Dell, as I have been a Macintosh user for my entire life. I will say that in the one year I used the Dell, it was a decent machine: it was relatively fast, powerful, and only twice did it crash and lose everything. So here's to my (former) Dell Lattitude. That said, it's already aged quite a lot this past year: it's already too slow to handle certain functions, and its software is kind of out of whack. So here's also to whoever inherits that computer: may you take care of it well, and may it take care of you well.

My time in New Jersey is ticking away very quickly now. As of tomorrow, my P. school email address won't work, and I'm leaving for good on Saturday morning. The days when the title of this blog, in britannia, will be accurate are coming into being very soon.