Paperless Classrooms/PowerPoint/Early College

The presentations this past Friday were very interesting. The powerpoint one I already had a general idea of the pros/cons, how to make it "work", etc. The paperless classroom was hillarious, I loved their presentation. I was pretty familiar with their material as well, since our topic is 1-1 computing/laptops for every child. They touched on a few things that we've been digging up in our research. I was impressed at both groups' presentations, as they were both entertaining. (Especially the game show/candy part).

I also enjoyed learning about Early College, since I've never heard of this before. It sounds like a neat opportunity for many kids, it'll be interesting to see how that works out for them as the schools get more established. I'm not sure if teaching in a school like that would work for me- I'd have to learn more about that aspect of it. But I do really like the idea, especially if it helps students who are "underserved". When someone brought up "Why Oakland County since they're so rich", that kind of hit close to home. I went to school in Oakland County, and definitely at one of the best ones. But there are COUNTLESS students I graduated with (or maybe not graduated WITH) who have just as many problems as students in urban schools; teen pregnancy, drugs, alcohol..... so many people I used to be friends with are in jail or have dropped out/been kicked out of college, or didn't even make it through high school. And then there is Pontiac. But I think this will be a great opportunity for those students to get back on track and become a success story. It doesn't completely matter how good a school is if the student has other issues going on that their school doesn't/can't address.

Anyway, who knows, maybe some day I WILL end up at a school like that!