My laptop <3 <3 <3 (and a QUESTION)
I hadn't used my new laptop a great deal during the summer, except to experiment a bit with downloading photos on our trip to Kitchener, but now that I'm within ten days of the start of the new school year I've started to ramp up exploring its possibilities and figuring out how I'm going to use it in this next teaching year.
I'm already madly in love with the possibilities.
First off I'm going to pretty much do all planning and marking I would normally record on paper on the laptop this year- day plans, long range plans, marks, anecdotals, etc.. I sat down with a laptop-experienced teacher this week and got her to show me how she uses Excel to record and keep track of all her marks. Her method is much simpler than I feared it would be! Simple enough that I should be able to handle it right from September. For my long range and day sheet planning I'd really like to figure out how to make templates in Microsoft Word, which hopefully I can figure out with a little bit of exploring.
I pretty much gave up school photography last year because it depressed me that such an important part of my photography hobby can only be shared with such a small group of people! (not being able to put school photos on-line, etc.) Also, for me, at least, it was very work-intensive to save up the photos on my home computer, make PowerPoint shows, transfer them to a school laptop to project them in class or during parent presentations, so after two years I stopped doing it. With the new laptop, though, I figure this year I can take school photos, download them into the laptop and make PowerPoint shows right in the classroom and even show them on the laptop as part of my displays during parent nights, classroom lessons, etc.
I've also asked the board computer expert for our school if she can set up a third Internet outlet for me (besides the two I have for my classroom computers) so I have ready Internet access for the laptop when I want it. Need to get myself an ether cable, though (is that how you spell it?). And, of course, I'm training myself well in security for the laptop and how to back-up everything constantly if I'm going to be using the laptop for compiling marks and planning. I know it's child's play for most of you, but I've never really had any reason for using thumb drives, etc., on a regular basis. I'm going to have to get really good at that really quickly.
Funny how having a laptop even affects classroom set-up. My desk has been set up across the room from my computer centre for several years now, but this week I dragged it over to the other side of the room so I have easier access to working on the laptop on my desk and being able to connect to the Internet, etc., too. It's all good- having a different perpective on the classroom from year to year keeps things fresh :). It means I no longer have an administrative bulletin board behind my desk, though (oops), but it'll all work out, I'm sure. Got to give thought to logistics, too, as to where to -keep- the laptop during the school day, so I'm using keys on my classroom cupboards for the first time in forever, since I can't lug the laptop around all the time. Need to find a locked place it can stay except when I need it.
And I've bought a special knapsack to make the laptop easier to carry around or carry home. And I've bought a mini-mouse to use since the mouse pad on the laptop was already driving me crazy. Still need to buy an Internet cable and a photo cable to keep in my knapsack. Still need to see if the thumb drive I bought two years back (and rarely used) still works or whether it's completely obsolete now. Debating whether I need to buy a second laptop battery.
Eeee, welcome to the 21st century, Mrs. Durno.
QUESTION: How many of you use a laptop computer as an integrated part of your job (or schooling)? Do you find yourself switching back and forth between your laptop and your desktop computer depending on where you are or what you're doing? Do you use a laptop now for everything or just when you need something portable or when you're travelling? If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting to integrate a laptop into their life for the first time what would it be?
I'm already madly in love with the possibilities.
First off I'm going to pretty much do all planning and marking I would normally record on paper on the laptop this year- day plans, long range plans, marks, anecdotals, etc.. I sat down with a laptop-experienced teacher this week and got her to show me how she uses Excel to record and keep track of all her marks. Her method is much simpler than I feared it would be! Simple enough that I should be able to handle it right from September. For my long range and day sheet planning I'd really like to figure out how to make templates in Microsoft Word, which hopefully I can figure out with a little bit of exploring.
I pretty much gave up school photography last year because it depressed me that such an important part of my photography hobby can only be shared with such a small group of people! (not being able to put school photos on-line, etc.) Also, for me, at least, it was very work-intensive to save up the photos on my home computer, make PowerPoint shows, transfer them to a school laptop to project them in class or during parent presentations, so after two years I stopped doing it. With the new laptop, though, I figure this year I can take school photos, download them into the laptop and make PowerPoint shows right in the classroom and even show them on the laptop as part of my displays during parent nights, classroom lessons, etc.
I've also asked the board computer expert for our school if she can set up a third Internet outlet for me (besides the two I have for my classroom computers) so I have ready Internet access for the laptop when I want it. Need to get myself an ether cable, though (is that how you spell it?). And, of course, I'm training myself well in security for the laptop and how to back-up everything constantly if I'm going to be using the laptop for compiling marks and planning. I know it's child's play for most of you, but I've never really had any reason for using thumb drives, etc., on a regular basis. I'm going to have to get really good at that really quickly.
Funny how having a laptop even affects classroom set-up. My desk has been set up across the room from my computer centre for several years now, but this week I dragged it over to the other side of the room so I have easier access to working on the laptop on my desk and being able to connect to the Internet, etc., too. It's all good- having a different perpective on the classroom from year to year keeps things fresh :). It means I no longer have an administrative bulletin board behind my desk, though (oops), but it'll all work out, I'm sure. Got to give thought to logistics, too, as to where to -keep- the laptop during the school day, so I'm using keys on my classroom cupboards for the first time in forever, since I can't lug the laptop around all the time. Need to find a locked place it can stay except when I need it.
And I've bought a special knapsack to make the laptop easier to carry around or carry home. And I've bought a mini-mouse to use since the mouse pad on the laptop was already driving me crazy. Still need to buy an Internet cable and a photo cable to keep in my knapsack. Still need to see if the thumb drive I bought two years back (and rarely used) still works or whether it's completely obsolete now. Debating whether I need to buy a second laptop battery.
Eeee, welcome to the 21st century, Mrs. Durno.
QUESTION: How many of you use a laptop computer as an integrated part of your job (or schooling)? Do you find yourself switching back and forth between your laptop and your desktop computer depending on where you are or what you're doing? Do you use a laptop now for everything or just when you need something portable or when you're travelling? If you could give one piece of advice to someone starting to integrate a laptop into their life for the first time what would it be?