Kristens Krazies: January 2009

This morning I was on the phone with W (name changed to protect the innocent) and the conversation turned to school and live tv in the classroom for the upcomming Enauguration. Of course the conversation directed itself. (bold little conversation it ws ) about when we were little and I seemed to recall the first time that Television was allowed in our classroom live television that is, was when the Challenger Exploded back in 1986, and if I remember correctly it was the first and last time that we were allowed to watch tv. But then we remembered something even better than television, better than DVD's I of course am talking about The Filmstrip!!!

God I loved filmstrips, I can remember my teaching mentioning in passing that we would have a filmstrip that week, walking into the classroom each day and automatically looking to the back of the room for the projector, rejoicing when the day finally came that it was there. I can remember being on my best behaviour that entire week ,( filmstrips were usually on a Friday afternoon, although it didn't stop us from looking every day.) Because on the best behaved got to work the projector. I can remember waiting and waiting until it was finally my turn to be the Master of The Filmstrip. No just anyone can be the Master, you really had to pay attention. I remember feeling excited and slightly nauseous at the prospect. What if I made a mistake, lost track, or God Forbid, the filmstip melted into the projector (which could at any given moment happen because we are talking about 20-30 year old equiptment). Not only did you have to pay attention, you also had to have a little bit of common sense, the knob turned towards you, not forward like you may think, and you didn't want to be the kid that turned it forward, because then the teacher had to come back to you and pull it all out and rewind the tape, although she would never say anything, I am sure that there was a certain level of annoyance as she walked back to towards you and all the kids in the class made sure that you knew you blew it...Big Time... It didn't matter what the filmstrip was about, although I do remember a particually horrifying anatomy one, which by the way thank you Mrs. Anderson as you changed my entire outlook on boys and girls. It was that magic machine at the back of the room, the hum of the cooling fan and If I think really hard I can remember the ding, the noise that let you know it was time to advance to the next frame, it is a noise I think you only hear on filmstrip tapes, because I have never again heard it. It was simply a magical time when you felt like the special class ,because everyone else was learning in their classes (HA HA ) and you were being entertained by the life cycle of a tadpole or even better a book on filmstrip. (but that only happenend if you were REALLY REALLY GOOD.

So as I sit here surrounded by all my modern technology wonders. I can help but wish for just one more filmstrip. One more magic simple time.......