My Journey started in the First Grade...

I tried to remember what the first technology was that I had access to in my classroom as a student.  The earliest technology that I can remember was the SR-80 (if that is even the correct name?).  I was an "early reader".  Back in 1981, students were taught to read in the first grade.  Kindergarten was more about the letters and the sounds that they make.  Anyone remember the Letter People...Mr. N had a Noisy Nose, Mrs. M had a Munching Mouth?  So, when we entered the first grade and everyone else was learning to read, I already knew how.  I had taught myself with some help from my mother, who was an elementary school teacher. When my reading group, The Bluebirds, was done with our reading assignment, we were allowed to go on the SR-80 to complete a reading program.  According to my memory, the SR-80 was a huge computer with three large buttons, a yellow one with an A on it, a red one with a B on it, and a blue one with a C on it.  Seeing as the only high tech device that I had at my home was a VCR, I was highly impressed with this hulking piece of machinery and made sure that I completed my reading assignment correctly before anyone else did, because there were only two of these precious machines in our Catholic school classroom.  Talk about a motivator!  Even in 1981, technology was used to motivate a student to learn!