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Finger Painting (positive)
I have really wonderful memories of finger painting with my mom. The paper was glossy and it was so much fun drawing pictures in the smudges of paint. Practiced writing my first letters through this medium as well. -
Learned Cursive Writing (negative)
and I completely suck at it. So so so wanted the girly handwriting with pretty loops of my classmates. Still dont know all my letters. -
Party Line (negative)
As a kid phone calls were billed by the minute. My stepdad, having grown up during the depression, decided to sign us up for a party line which meant that we shared the same phone line with several other households You never knew when the phone would be free and it was always odd to pick up the phone and hear private conversation on the other end. I was always afraid someone was listening in on my conversations. -
Tape Recorder (positive)
My parents divorced when I was very young. This tape recorder was my father's attempt to allow us to talk to each other for longer periods of time. He would send me a one hour tape of his latest activities and thoughts and I would do the same for him. In later years my sister and I sent each other tapes. -
Sony Walkman (positive)
Take a walk WHILE listening to music. Pure bliss. I took it everywhere. Exchanged a lot of music tapes with friends. -
Apple II Plus (positive)
My stepfather was an early devotee of Macintosh/Apple. This was my first introduction to a home computer. I mainly used it to play pong, packman, and asteroids. There was also a "virutal" game where you went on an adventure to save a princess--this was different as you would write in suggestions, press return, and see what happened. I also learned to program the computer so that when my older stepbrother turned it on it would read you're a jerk over and over. This was very satisfying. -
Brother Word Processor (positive)
Having taken advanced typing in high school this was the machine I used to write all of my papers in college. You could read a full paragraph before pressing return. Amazing. -
Answering Machine (mostly positive)
Somewhere in the mid eighties I got my first answering machine, along with pretty much everyone else I knew. Being able to leave messages opened up a whole new can of worms. Social relationships were illuminated by messages left and returned. On the bright side, it made it easier to ignore the phone. -
Macintosh Performa (positive)
My first computer. Floppy disks and all. Clarisworks!! Used it to write hundreds of lesson plans. -
First Cell Phone (mostly positive)
I live and work in a town with almost no cell phone service. This has kept me a little behind with cell phone technology. First recognition of how amazing it was was taking the kids to Disneyland and being able to keep track of each other.
Cell phones give you a sense that you can always be in touch but I have a habit of forgeting mine and my kids never seem to have theirs so it's a cause of frustration as well. -
Digital Camera (positve)
Instantly share my personal experiences with everyone I love. No more limiting which pictures I take. -
Email Account (mostly positive)
Immediately fell in love with email. Husband and I used it a lot to send romantic notes in the early years. Now I send him links and to do lists. Cannot imagine life without email, but it means I work much longer hours. -
Joined Facebook (mostly positive)
Joined facebook wtith my sixth grade son. Didn't really know what it was. Went from accepting all friend requests to being more selective. Decided not to friend students. Facebook has made me think about what footprints I want to leave for others to follow. My son unfriended me last year. Made a deal that as long as he was friends with his aunt and uncle, it was fine. Unfriended aunt last summer. No longer care. -
Macbook Pro (mostly positive)
I spend about as much time with my macbook as I do with my husband or kids. So valuable but ..... -
iphone 5 (projected to be positive)
Have to wait until October to get mine. Have been wanting one for a long time. A little worried about the time suck aspects. Also hate it when I am with someone and they are checking their phone. Might become that person...
