All the teachers at the high school received cool laptops this year. They removed all the desktops, and we now use our laptops. They are a tablet, which means the screen swivels, I can close it and then write on the screen with a special pen.
It's really changed the way I grade papers. I now have the students submit their papers to me electronically. I have a site called Blackboard, which is what the colleges use for their online classes. The students turn their papers in, I download them to the desktop of my laptop, and grade them like that. I can use different colored ink just by clicking a button, edit and make comments on their papers. Then I hit a button and email it back to them. They open the attachment and see their grade. No paper involved.
Last night at the dance studio, while I was waiting for Macy, I was grading a paper like that. After I finished, I let Kaylin "draw" with the special pen. Even at 3 1/2 years old, she could changed the color of the pen once I showed her how. She had a ball scribbling all over Mom's computer.
Suddenly I was the coolest person at the dance studio. We had a flock of 12, 13, and 14 year-old girls watching Kaylin, and they were just mesmerized. One little girl looked up at me, and with awe in her eyes, said, "You are so lucky to have this computer." I just smiled and said thank you.
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