MIDDLE SCHOOL TRADES PENCILS IN FOR LAPTOPS.Byline: Jeff Munson Munson can refer to: People
When the morning bell rings signaling the beginning of class, many school children routinely line up at the pencil sharpener Noun 1. pencil sharpener - a rotary implement for sharpening the point on pencils sharpener - any implement that is used to make something (an edge or a point) sharper; "a knife sharpener" pencil sharpener n . Every morning the steel teeth of the contraption continuously grinds away, annoying teachers and disrupting class. ``The sound of a pencil sharpener drives me nuts,'' said Kathy Sublett, an eighth-grade teacher at Anderson Anderson, river, Canada Anderson, river, c.465 mi (750 km) long, rising in several lakes in N central Northwest Territories, Canada. It meanders north and west before receiving the Carnwath River and flowing north to Liverpool Bay, an arm of the Arctic Middle School. This school year the pencil sharpener has remained idle in Sublett's classes. When the bells rings, children head straight to a cabinet filled with laptop Same as laptop computer. laptop - portable computer word processors. Each student plucks a small computer from the cabinet and sits down. For teachers, the sound of fingertips "Fingertips" is a 1963 number-one hit single recorded live by "Little" Stevie Wonder for Motown's Tamla label. Wonder's first hit single, "Fingertips" was the first live, non-studio recording to reach number-one on the Billboard Pop Singles chart in the United States. tapping on keyboards is a welcome sign of the times. In fact, school officials are working toward a goal that would replace pencils and notebooks with computers and disks. ``The future in education and everything we do is really is toward technology,'' said Anderson Middle School Principal Rene Lawson, who lobbied her school district to come up with enough money to buy the computers. ``We saw this as a practical and affordable way to jump on board,'' she said. In September, the school purchased 180 portable laptop word processors for students. Each AlphaSmart Pro keyboard cost the school $199, a bargain when compared with the retail price of $300, Lawson said. The word processors are limited in what they can do. That's why the school made sure that the laptops they bought were compatible with the personal computers found in each classroom. When students are finished writing on their laptops, for example, they can connect their machines to the personal computers, which download To receive a file transmitted over a network. In any communications session, "download" means receive, and "upload" means send. The download/upload often implies a big/little scenario, in which data is being downloaded from the "big" server into the "little" user's computer. the material into files. The large personal computers are able to store the student's work, making it ideal for teachers to grade papers after class, Lawson said. ``Instead of rifling through papers and three-ring binders and trying to read handwriting HANDWRITING, evidence. Almost every person's handwriting has something whereby it may be distinguished from the writing of others, and this difference is sometimes intended by the term. 2. , the teacher can go straight to the computer,'' Lawson said. With more than 600 students enrolled at the school, Lawson said it is about two years away from meeting the goal of having enough laptops for every student. ``When we're finished, we will be known as Anderson, the laptop school,'' she said. For now, however, teachers who have laptops are using them for writing assignments. Students are expected to compose com·pose v. com·posed, com·pos·ing, com·pos·es v.tr. 1. To make up the constituent parts of; constitute or form: reports using the equipment. The school hopes to one day allow students to check out the word processors overnight but for now, the laptops remain in the classroom. |
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