Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Random Memory #5: Keyboarding 11

A lot of my highschool memories are fuzzy. Not because of drugs (thankfully) or time (yet ;)) but highschool was something to be endured. I read books of people who have super clear memories of certain periods of their life and I wish I was the same. One thing that is clear is my Keyboarding 11 class.

To graduate in my district you had to take a "Career and Personal Planning" (CAPP) class. That course only lasted half the year and for the other half you could chose an elective like wood working, cooking or, in my case, keyboarding.

I had five very close friends in that class. We took up the back two rows (three computers one each row) which was weird for me because I almost always sat at the front of the room in my other classes. We started with file folders over our hands so we couldn't look at the keyboard while we typed. We had these excercise books that had built in stands and we would type "asdf jkl; asdf jkl;" over and over and over. I remember being excited when we progressed to the second row of letters "qwer uiop qwer uiop" because I could actually spell my name!!!

Our teacher, Mr. Spann, (affectionately called "Spam"...so original I know :P) let us listen to the radio during class. Now anytime I hear Celine Dion singing "My Heart Will Go On", Shania Twain's "Don't Be Stupid" or Savage Garden's "Truly Madly Deeply" I am instantly transported back to that hot stuffy corner classroom with the sound of keys clicking methodically.

When Mr. Spann left the classroom, much to the chagrin of our male classmates, we would CRANK the radio and sing at the top of our lungs. I remember having it so loud that I couldn't even hear my own voice! Good times :)

Each of us were given a 3.5" floppy disk to store our exercises on. During the spring of 1998 (when this class took place) the movie "Titanic" was the biggest thing going (hence the Celine Dion song). All of us had huge crushes on Leonardo DiCaprio and we would practice typing his name over, and over, and over. (The modern incarnation of doodling all over your note book I suppose.)

My paternal grandmother passed away that Easter and I remember calling one of my classmates from Alberta and asking her to delete the document with Leo's name before handing my disk in for marking.

I am so thankful for that class. It was a pain to learn but now, if I couldn't type correctly and as fast as I do, I wouldn't have this job or my current career. It definitely makes a difference. Thanks Mr. Spann!

1 comment:

Sherilyn said...

I'm not sure what it says about my age that I learned to type on an actual typewriter. It was electric, at least....although we had an old clunker at home that my fingers weren't strong enough to type much on. Took typing in 8th grade. Didn't use a PC until college.

I sucked at typing. i still do. i was doing good to get 35 wpm...while my best friend sat next to me doing 70. Yufen took pity and typed some papers for me in HS, LOL!

I'm all over the board when I type. I type fast, but have issues with accuracy and must look at the keypad. I can't even type my name without looking. I never use the same fingers for the same keys. Most people who watch me type are amazed I manage to communicate anything at all this way...:D