Monday, June 11, 2012

10

XO laptops, a big part of my classroom for four and a half years...That's a long story, perhaps most completely told with this link.

Now that I'm retiring, I had to decide what to do with all those XOs. First off, nobody in the school - or district for that matter - knows very much at all about them. I'm the man in Seattle, when it comes to the XO laptop in education.

So I decided to take them with me, and to redeploy them in another country, most likely in Latin America. Fine.

All was going well with that plan until an email came out from http://olpcnews.com/. Among other things, the message linked to a blog post about donating unused/unwanted XOs to my classroom:

In the three days that followed that post, I have received offers of XO laptops from three individuals wanting to donate their XO laptops to my classroom. This is what I have told them:

Wow, thanks for the offer! You should know that I am retiring in 2 weeks, after being a teacher for 31 years. I am taking my classroom’s 30 XOs with me, and I will be redeploying them in a classroom somewhere in Latin America, where many schools are still using the XO. If you would like yours to be included in that redeployment, by all means send it my way. I am making sure all the XOs are operating and in good working order, and would be sure yours had the latest operating system on it.
 If you can get it here by June 25, the mailing address is:
One more thing to do, but this one is special. I hope they come. They'll be going South, to do good work.

2 comments:

  1. Mark,
    I've been a follower of you and your students for a number of years now. Yet have never posted a comment.

    When I read that you are retiring I had to write to wish you all the best. I've enjoyed watching your students grow as writers and your excitement about your laptops as your collection grew from a handful- to a full classroom! Thank you for allowing me to peek into the window of a tech savvy teacher from the other side of our country!

    Best wishes to you and thank you for sharing your classroom and yourself with me!

    Jessica

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  2. Jessica, thanks very much! All the best to you - Mark

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