Diary of a laptop school pupil

Sarah Murrin is a student at Empire High School in Arizona that is swapping school books for Apple laptops. Here she describes a typical day in her school life.

Students pay more attention when using laptops

Ring! Ring! It's 6:30am and time to get ready for school.

Brush my teeth, comb my hair. Hmm, what to wear? Polo, jeans, and flip-flops, perfect! Get dressed and get ready to go. Oh! Don't forget my laptop! Off I go!

8:40am at Empire High School. Time to do to my first class of the day.

Algebra 2 with Mrs Jensen - factoring today. I'm so relieved we still use paper for math.

An hour of Algebra and on to Second Period, Life Connections with Mrs Medivil. This class is great! It really prepares us for the real world and teaches us who we are.

Period Three, Honors English with Mrs Flom, what adventures will this class behold today? Movies, vocab, essay, maybe a short story. Time to type our vocab for the week.

It's really great having laptops not only because of the extra organization but also because students are more interested. It is so much easier because you have access to resources on the wireless internet for your assignments.

Next, Graphics and Animation with Mrs Ogle. Time to work with Flash and learn how to put sound effects in a movie. I love this class!

12:40 pm and it's time for a lunch break! Lunch here is still a little hectic, but our cafeteria is coming along.

Lucky students have swapped books for laptops

The thrill of only two classes left. Chemistry for Fifth, and teachers aid for Sixth.

I wonder if we are burning anything in chem? Nope, just taking notes off a PowerPoint presentation. I love the sound of the clicking and clacking of the keyboards. Dr Frank sure catches our interest with atomic mass and isotopes.

Sixth Period, Teachers Aid for Mrs King in freshman English, its not too bad. I pretty much use this class as a study hall.

3:20 pm rolls around and its time to go home and do homework. When leaving the school, we get a good-bye from the fabulous office administration and Mrs Lee, one of the best principals that I've ever had.

Empire High School is great!

The Vail school district is really starting a tradition with Empire. The first school to be laptop based. This school will forever be looked upon and remembered and I am more than happy to be part of it.