Alex Carr's The Jaguars' Spot column for Wed., Feb. 24, 2010

Doughnuts with the Principal!

          Principal McCowan is hosting a breakfast event for all interested parents. The purpose of the breakfast is to show parents the many new technological advances that have been seamlessly incorporated into daily use by VCHS teachers in just about every subject.

          There are really some cool new toys available to teachers. A device called an Elmo allows a teacher to project any sheet of paper or any other physical object onto a screen in the front of the class. The Elmo is very similar to an overhead projector except you don’t have to use sheets of transparent plastic. For example, my math teacher, Mr. Reidy, is uses it to project the screen of his graphing calculator. It saves a lot of time because he doesn’t have to show it to kids one at a time.

          Another cool tool is a tablet that allows teachers to operate computers connected to overhead projectors from any location in the room. They can do just about anything from the tablet: show a Powerpoint presentation, give a quiz, browse web pages, etc.

          And that’s just the beginning (Hey, if I give them all away, you won’t go!). Since many of you parents drop your kids off at school anyways, why not take a few minutes to learn more about these great new tools. Free coffee and doughnuts; how can you lose! The breakfast will be scheduled in a few weeks. I will report back to you when I learn more.

Tell me about it!:

          Principal McCowan also told me something about yearbooks that every kid and parent is going to want to know. Most years, about 800 kids preorder yearbooks (which, by-the-way, you can still do now for $60-$70), so the school orders about 200 more figuring around that many kids extra will buy them after seeing their friends’ copies or just because they’re not preordering types. They’re rebels. They make their own rules. They stick it to the man!

          Well, this year, the man is going to stick it to the rebels, because the school will be ordering almost no extra yearbooks. So make sure you preorder yours today because you won’t want to be left out.

          Got a great item for this column? Tell me about it! Catch me on campus or go to my web page and shoot me an e-mail (www.carrfamily.com/alex).

          Read all of San Diego Press Club award-winner Alex Carr's columns at www.carrfamily.com.