Upcoming Events

The second Weekly Writing Inventory will be passed out on Wednesday. I hope to have some results to share with you on Friday. The questions will stay the same, but I hope that all the positive stats will provide some clear trends.

Today was the first day after our October break and when the bell rang it was a feeding frenzy around the typewriters. I guess they were deprived over the break and needed to type. I know the feeling. I hadn’t used my HH in a while. Feeling the snap of the keys brought me back to a very happy place. 

The SC Skyriter is airing out at home. I’ve gone through and replaced the felt on most of the machine. The only felt that I had was electric . It’s ended up looking zany and cool. It looks neat and it might inspire a new color scheme.

Travel-Riter

On the way to Target to do the daily shopping, I happened to stop by a yard sale. I am never very hopeful that I will find anything, but this time I found a Remington Travel-Riter for $1. It's in pretty good shape, but I am considering repainting it something outrageous. It has a nice shape and it would be a lot nicer if it was a little shinier and a different color. It's very snappy to type on. The platen might be a little hard, but if I am disassembling it to repaint, I might send it to Ames for recovering. I've never have had a platen recovered. I've read that a new, soft platen is a joy to use.

After some sprucing it will enter into the classroom rotation.

New Look and Skyriter

The old themes from Blogger were getting a bit old, so this is the update.

The Skyriter arrived and I am amazed at the size of this typewriter. It is tiny. It really is the smallest typewriter in our classroom collection. I got it and decided to spruce it up a little. I replaced all the felt on the inside just in case we have some kids allergic to that old typewriter smell. The margin stops are acting up. I think that something worked loose in transit. I have a feeling that the spring that holds the margin stop bar (not the official term I feel) is a little weak. I'm going to go ahead and replace it with something a little stiffer. This may be a job for the wife's unused hair rubber bands.

Donations

The Classroom Typewriter Project needs more than just typewriters! We need ribbons, Ko-Rec-Type tabs, erasers, and small type brushes. If you can't donate a machine please conciser donating some supplies. You will be listed with our other donors and we could definitely use the supplies.

Please send any ribbons, correction tabs, brushes, or erasers to:

Alhambra High School
Attn: Mr. Adney #34
3839 West Camelback Road
Phoenix, AZ 85019

Did You Know

We have had 3 wonderful gentlemen donate machines to the Classroom Typewriter Project? Click on the link on the left side-bar. There you will see who donated what. It is a testament to the kindness of the typewriter community that we have so many wonderful machines to use in class.

Coming Soon

There is a nice SC Skyriter zooming its way on over. A few weeks age I got a pleasant email message from a pleasant fellow named George Petersen of Eugene who saw the bog and decided to send a typewriter. I mentioned that we are on October break until next Monday, but he said that he'll ship it to my home address. According to the tracking number, it should be here tomorrow. As soon as it gets here I'll take some pictures. From all that I gather it is a 4Y Skyriter. It was made during the early 60s in Britain. I am not familiar with these machines in detail, but from what I can see they look very compact. I am waiting with baited breath.

Typewriter Rules

1.    No paper, no type.
2.    Carry with both hands.
3.    On the desk!
4.    Press, don’t punch.
5.    Ask for help.
6.    Remember, this typewriter is 3 times older than you are.

As more kids get jazzed about the typewriters (three weeks and going strong) I felt that there needed to be some more clear ground rules on the typewriters. This is what I came up with. They're funny and true!