What single item, within your classroom, can you not live without?

Technology is here to stay. The one single item that more than half the teachers who took this poll cannot live without is their computer. Lesson-planning books received less than half the number of votes and attendance or grade books and class textbooks received half as many again. Teachers would miss their computer four times as much as the class textbook! Perhaps teachers think they can always borrow a textbook, but the computer can never be replaced.

Computers have become our lifeline in a sense for so much of our work life. Teachers can use them for research, lesson planning, and record keeping. No other single resource can do as much. Certainly teachers could use grade books and lesson books but having a tool that combines the features of everything and has research capabilities as well is invaluable as this poll shows.

With the advent of computers in the classroom teachers have been able to become more self-sufficient than ever before. Gone are the days when notices to go home were hand written on paper and then handed to the school secretary for typing and photocopying. Teachers simply fire up their handy dandy computer and produce the notice themselves. At many schools teachers do the photocopying as well and simply hand the finished product off to the secretarial staff for distribution.

Lesson planning is aided by computer resources that provide inspiration and ideas as well as fact checking websites. Teachers can copy and paste straight into a document and send it to the printer. As easy as 1, 2, 3 lessons go from conception to completion. No note taking, retyping or manual cut and paste required. Lesson planning isn't really as easy as that, but computers definitely expedite the process.

Student records can also be kept up to date with the aid of computer programs. Teachers merely need to enter the information and the computer will calculate percentages, averages, means and medians. Want to know what little Johnny got on his term paper? With a couple of key strokes the information is at the teacher's fingertips. Now if only students could access the same information so easily, and make a few minor adjustments. Hmmm...