Apple Computers, Steve Jobs and me.

Apple IIe. I have 15 in my classroom today.

   Steve Jobs and Apple Computer offered a free Apple IIe computer to every school in California in May of 1983. I was the principal of San Lucas Union School in the Salinas Valley. I ordered one. Then I ordered another, and another until there were ten in the little school with only 150 students. Every student in the school used those computers. They never were idle.

   Twenty four years later I partially retired, but still am a teacher in Porterville, California, and I still have 15 Apple IIe computers in my classroom. They are still working, and eighth grade students are still banging on them and abusing them and learning from them.

MacPlus - Under my desk

   In 1985 I bought a personal Macplus. I used it for writing. I still have it, and it still runs, it doesn't freeze.

Two MacMinis. I'm using these as I write.

   I'm typing this on a Mac Mini, in fact I have another Mac Mini one inch away that I use continually.  They sit here humming along in tandem, hooked together and linked to the internet. I make movies, dvds, and blog using them, as well as doing everything everyone else does. They have everything, and they don't freeze, or get viruses.

   At school, also in my classroom, I have five Power Macs from about 1990. They run every day, and the students bang on them and abuse them and used to steal the little balls in the mice until I upgraded to laser mice.

PowerMac. Using 5 at school.

   I wrote many programs  for the IIe's in BASIC (simple computer language). I learned to use HyperStudio and wrote many programs for the Power Macs and the ten IMac's (from 1998) I also have in my room at school. They are still working and they don't freeze.

  The IMac's also are hooked up to the internet and we use them, the IIes and the PowerMacs  for learning United States History and Science which I teach to eighth graders. My students are almost always engaged in their learning.

   I don't have an IPod, but I've taken many away from students who keep trying to play them during class.

   I've also taken many IPhones from students and delivered the phones and the IPods to the office. The students get them back after a few days the first time they are taken, and their parents have to come in and get them the next time.

I Mac. Ten at school.

   I've tried to use Dell's or some other kind of Windows computer, but I can't believe how difficult they are even now almost 30 years into the computer revolution.  I've got a Dell sitting here only six feet from me. It keeps turning itself on at night and making noises, and it did that from when it was new. I finally turned it off, and it is gathering dust.

  I've also got a Dell at school because the district scrapped all their Apple computers (that's why I've got so many, I kept scrounging them from the trash). That Dell keeps giving me fits. I use it to take roll and follow group interconnected work with other staff members. Windows and Dell don't do that, Google does. But the Dell keeps adding windows doing things I don't expect.



   Microsoft has copied  the Macs as much as they can, but my 10 year old Macs still are more intuitive than they. Google is helping, but they're not there yet.

   I've got Steve Jobs to thank for most of this, though he was gone from Apple when some of these were built. Because he went back and developed the IPhone and IPad, the company is now one of the strongest in the world, and I don't have to worry any more about being forced  to use a Dell more than just to humor the administrators.

   Thanks Steve