My New Favorite Thing

At work I love using technology in my classroom. I have, in fact, gotten rid of the old school overhead projector. I now solely use power point with computer projector. I thought it was the best day ever when I got my "clicker." Which is a hand held device that allows me to change slides without having to walk up to the computer every time. It even comes with a laser pointer so I can point things out on the slides from the comfort of the back of the room. I thought it wasn't ever going to get any better than that.

Then came the Smartboards to our school. I've known about Smartboards since college and I look at the math teachers at my school with envy since they pretty much all have them. Thanks to tax payers money buying textbooks from the obviously well overpaid textbook companies, they get them "for free" for choosing their textbooks. But that is something we can discuss at a later time (textbook company rip-offs).

Then out of nowhere my department head says to me that she has this extra Mimio thing and since I like technology she thought she'd ask if I wanted it. I had no clue what it was, but all she had to say was I think it is like a Smartboard. I was gone with that thing before she could say more.

I stayed after school for an extra hour on Friday (which was probably a first for me, for Friday) just setting the Mimio up and getting acquainted to it. It wasn't until today that I got to use it for the first time (due to other lesson plans I already had for Monday and Tuesday). We are currently learning about food chains and food webs and I found some really cool interactive websites for the students to play with. They loved it! They couldn't volunteer fast enough. I had students that haven't raised their hands all year dying to get to come up and play with the mimio board! But when you think about it, we probably got excited when we first saw a powerpoint presentation projected on a wall. One day, mimios and smartboards will be old news and we will have moved on to bigger and better things. And I am excited for that day!

So, thanks Mimio, ActivBoard, eBeam, Webster and, of course, the original Smartboard (turns out there are several of these types of things). You are my new current favorite thing!

And a quick montage to my least favorite things: Time Warner Cable and the Gas Company. I come home today and none of our TVs have cable. I call the cable company and the earliest they can come out to fix the problem (well earliest unless you stay at home all day) is May 1st, nine days from now! Then the guy says, "so I guess your internet is down too?" WHAT?!? Sure enough, it was. They actually think it is reasonable for someone to go nine days without cable or internet? Actually, thinking about it, it's a bit ridiculous that I flip out at the thought of going without cable or internet for nine days. But anyways, my roommate decided she would rather have internet and cable than work or have a social life on a Saturday. So thanks Jessica!

So two things you may be wondering: 1) How did I post this with no internet, and 2) How was the gas company involved in this? First, since I live in an apartment with paper thin walls I have managed to hook up to someone else's wireless connection, thank you Belkin_G_wireless_B9F3D9 for sponsering my internet surfing for the evening. And second, I just hate the gas company. After they managed to make me suffer through two different weeks with cold showers because they couldn't get a guy out for 5 minutes to fix problem that was their fault, they are the reining champions of the number one spot of most hated in my book (I did report them to the BBB, but that did nothing productive). They also really irk me because they are a monopoly and I can't just go give my money elsewhere. I have to throw the gas company under the bus any chance I get, they do make time warner look like saints (and if you don't believe me, try taking just ONE cold shower, you will then understand).