We’ve all heard the stories about how our parents had to walk to school uphill both ways when they were a kid. And those kinds of comparisons are bound to come out when you think about the school supplies kids use today versus what their parents had years ago. The Weekly asked local teachers about what they’re seeing in their classrooms nowadays, versus what they used when they were in school. 

“Where things are today is really night-and-day from where we used to be,” says Isaiah Thomas, a ninth-grade English teacher at Sierra Vista High School.

From Chromebooks to interactive whiteboards, the standard technology in schools is drastically different than anything older generations had. Case in point …

Pencil and Paper vs. Chromebooks

Chromebooks are becoming essential to the average school day. Students as young as kindergarten use Chromebooks for classwork, homework and enrichment games. The devices can store reference materials like a video going over a math problem.

“Especially nowadays, I think kids, because they’re exposed to so much screen time, they kind of value having something tangible in their hand that isn’t just on the screen,” Thomas says. “I don’t think we’re ever going to completely move away from analog.”

Elise L. Wolff Elementary School teacher Reina Dalton says the biggest disadvantage with Chromebooks is they don’t help so much with teaching spelling, thanks to autocorrect. She adds that it’s best to pair tech with paper and pencil to help with retention.

Trapper Keeper vs. Chargers Organizer

A Trapper Keeper might sound like some sort of spy device. It was essentially a binder with removable folders and a Velcro strap to close it. You may also remember the three-ring binder, which is still popular today.

With all the electronic devices used in schools today, organizers for chargers come in handy, Dalton says. “At the school I worked at, teachers are all given a chargers organizer.”

Chalkboards vs. Interactive Whiteboards

There’s a reason the expression goes “like nails on a chalkboard.” Chalkboards have several marks against them—the sound the chalk makes against the board, the dusty residue, and the fact that they’re not a digital touchscreen.

Whiteboards are still in classrooms, but they’re no longer the centerpieces they once used to be. “We usually defer to the electronic Smartboards,” Dalton says. Thomas says interactive whiteboards come in handy for annotating texts, and double as normal whiteboards.

Pocket Protectors vs. Bluelight Glasses

Made famous (or infamous) in ‘80s films like Revenge of the Nerds, pocket protectors were a symbol of advanced nerddom. But they sure come in handy for storing pens safely in your breast pocket.

Like pocket protectors, you might be hard-pressed to find someone who actually uses bluelight glasses in school. And maybe that needs to change. After all, protecting your eyesight is not as uncool as losing it from looking at screens all day long.

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