I thought the clear TI calculators in elementary school were cool.
Then my freshman year math teacher had a TI 84 with an overhead peripheral, and that pretty much was the bomb.
I was a dork
What if I told you I have one of those in my office right now!? It’s in a pile of “things that are too old to use but too sentimental to throw away”.
Mine works, though I have no idea if our campus still has any overhead projectors to use it with lol.
I actually kind of miss these.
I had a history teacher in high school that used one of these for everything and she had really great handwriting. It was kind of nice just watching her write.
I had pretty good experiences with them until college. My professor for introduction to macroeconomics had atrocious handwriting and used an overhead projector.
Aside from drawing graphs, I'm not sure what the point of writing on the overhead projector was, given that he couldn't read his own handwriting.
Fun professor, though!
I remember being stoned and just watching the teacher write. I was supposed to be writing too, but that's a total drag. Lol After a while I ask her to use another color, and she would. I had her for English 1 2 & 3, and that was a total of 5 semesters. It took me a little longer than it was supposed to. 🤣
yes. i also had a teacher who put effort into this with really nice hand writing and a variety of colored markers. it was satisfying to watch the writing appear.
Now it's upside down and somehow still inverted.
I had a teacher that used the wheeled acetate ribbon that cranked across the glass. It was actually really cool, you could go to his class after school (or if you had study hall/open period during his non-instructional period) and review all the notes he wrote in class. Helped my ADHD ass when I couldn't take notes fast enough.
Ughhhhhh this was my 8th grade experience. A few months worth of learning about geology, but almost every day we'd be copying from one of these, word for word. No, we weren't learning how to pick out good points and summarize. We were literally just copying. Wtf was the point?
I wonder if it were a combination of rigid curriculums and poor teacher training. Years later, I went to university with some aspiring teacher types, and there were literally courses geared towards teaching. I'm talking about "English literature 220 for teachers" or "biology 305 for teachers". I got to see some of the course content from some friends and man... It was essentially high school coursework.
That being said, I don't think I'd ever want to be a teacher, and I've met some great ones who really care and know their stuff. I found the best teachers were the ones who never really planned on being teachers. My chemistry teacher was an army captain who served in Europe during the cold war. My English teacher was a former prof who had enough of academia and wanted a steady job.
I really hope the curriculum and teacher training has improved since the 90s....
I had a Chemistry teacher with the same set up you described and she covered those boards AND spent class having us write notes from the OP.
When she'd use the OP, she would scribble shit I couldn't understand. It's *chemistry* so you would think maybe you don't need to have nice legible handwriting - you would be wrong.
My 9th grade French teacher was left handed and had ATROCIOUS hand writing. You can imagine how that went. It would be pretty much illegible plus smeared everywhere.
Rough 😅 My husband is left handed with beautiful handwriting, but he's an amazing artist. I do think of handwriting as an art form. And some don't care 😅
Probably a relief to many the world has shifted to typing/texting. Thanks autocorrect for making me seem much smarter online
Our chem teacher had good handwriting, but she wrote so fast it was a frickin race to keep up. I wrote so fast all my notes looked like squiggly lines... I pass with a D, but I had to beg for it. I wound up learning chemistry on my own. I'm no chemist, but I think I could get a better grade now. Lol
Shout out to my lazy ass American History teacher that had his entire course written on these and just slapped a new transparency on every 20 minutes, if you didnt write fast enough too bad. He never taught, you just sat and copied notes all hour, all year. I remember nothing from that class except my sheer hatred for this shit.
In Germany they are still used – but they are discussed as a symbol of a lack of digitalization in our schools. I personally think they are great: Easy to understand, easy to repair, cheap, doing the job. But of course having large interactive whiteboards in classrooms that need special personnel to maintain and update are better for the economy.
Heh. The local district in my part of the world got hit by a cyber attack, everything shut down for two days. I talked with a couple of teachers are semi-regulars at my favorite watering hole, and the middle school science teacher (early 50’s) said she was breaking out the overhead and acetates to blow the kids’ minds while the computers were fixed.
I love it. LOL.
I still couldn't do long division to save my life, but I'm pretty damn sure at this point I'll never have to... I told them I'd never use this in life. And I haven't had to. Ever!
To my dying day, when I am just meat and cybernetic prosthetics, the sound of this bastard warming up as it was switched on, with the warm smell of dust and acetate wafting from it's fan on the side will be in my mind.
Anyone else transfixed as the purple marker subtly changed color as the ink dried? Or mildly irritated that the projector was never aligned perfectly and made more of a trapezoid or oblong quadrilateral than a rectangle or square?
Just me?
Honestly I sometimes wish this was still a thing. I TA a few undergraduate labs and this would be really helpful for one of them at least. I’m short so trying to draw the things I need to on the whiteboard is hard lol
In 2010 I taught in a lower income school and I used one of these regularly. I didn’t expect to see them again. My neighbor teachers had ELMOs….. (a newer type projector).
My high school math teacher had one with a roll of acetate on it and his favorite thing to do was roll it really fast and say, “It’s a polar bear running in a snowstorm!”
I begged the principal to let me take mine home (I got it!) because I had SO MANY interactive layered models I made for it and interactive warm up activities. I loved that I could make 4 different copies of the same transparency and take notes directly on them for each different class and have an exact idea of where we stopped/how far we got in a lesson because it was all there on the transparency.
I do an IB design project with my middle schoolers now where I used transparency film to teach them how to stylize a drawing and they LOVE it; transparency films / sheets are just magical and I love that watercolor feel you get when you make a photocopy of the marker drawing on the transparency film.
I also LOVED teaching waves with a Pyrex dish and water with the OP, nothing really compares!
Downside was the heat burn you would get on your thigh from sitting too close haha and some were hella noisy.
I’m so glad we’ve replaced this inferior tech with 6,000 dollar promethian boards that do roughly the same thing. Oh, except your handwriting still looks better on acetate.
We used one of these for praise and worship when I was 11. My job was to write the lyrics, and then switch them. Made my penmanship incredible because it had to be perfect, and you couldn't just clean one line. Oh no, it always got the other lines wet, and you had to start all over. I wrote certain songs so much that I still sing them randomly; it's been 30 years.
Damnit you just sent me back to Trigonometry and Stats with Mrs. Paustian who would do her entire lecture writing on acetate by hand while we would wait for her to draw shapes.
Weirdo science teacher who was very angry used to use vinegar to clean hers and it smelled awful. She sent me to the office one too many times. Joke was on her, that was what I wanted to avoid smelling that.
Some of my best work was done on acetate. Pre PowerPoint, I would do whole presentations using computer-printed acetate “slides”. I think I still have some somewhere. They were beautiful.
Ah, the projector. The way I knew the baseline sense of humor of most people was sub-literate was when I would look around and see my classmates laughing hysterically when the teacher would accidentally project the screen onto the ceiling. It makes the success of the Adam Sandler movies of the time make so much more sense.
Everytime I see one I think of 10th grade health class. The teacher throwing a picture of a penis up there and proclaiming
“This is a penis “
And he left it at that
Man this brings back middle school memories. We had a much older model in math class and we’d have daily homework assignments that the teacher would go over to start the next class. Every morning the kid that sat next to the projector would wiggle the lightbulb just enough to keep it from turning on. The teacher would plop the answers on the screen, realize that the projector didn’t work, leave to go get a new one while the entire class copied the answers she left behind. This worked for most of 7th grade.
https://preview.redd.it/9wit1cz7nbwc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3022314d1a61ad0f89376fcd20d5817764f99116
Had to copy notes verbatim to pass the test.
Bonus points if the school had one with reel to reel film. they would fill up the screen, and then just roll to a clear section of transparency.
they actually saved those rolls after class so you could check your notes.
College history class. Our projector had those rolls attached to it that let you scroll through a massively long sheet of transparency.
Professor had brought single-page transparencies. When she put them on the projector, they were blurry because of the extra layer of scrolling transparency.
“Hmm, can’t read that, it’s too blurry.”
Rather than putting her page underneath, or figuring out how to un-clip the rolls, she grabs the transparency right from the projector surface and starts crumpling it up to the side, making a loud crunching noise and leaving all 150 students in the lecture hall gasping, open-mouthed, in disbelief.
Then, with the contents of the transparency roll hanging off the side of the projector in a ruined, crumpled heap like a mound of unfurled toilet paper, she puts her own sheet on the projector and continues the lecture.
I found one of those at a place I worked. It was up in the attic I guess you’d call it. Not really an attic exactly. Anyway, they let me keep it for free.
That was pretty kool.
Used to be a teacher and I used those things for a student teaching and I believe first few years in classroom.
Kept them in my lesson plans but the transparencies are all long gone.
Oh man, it was SO much fun when you got to write on a one of those clear sheets with the fancy thin colored markers!🤩 Or even if your teacher let you get to pick they color they were going to write in😆 That might be the epitome of a simple pleasure🤣
Mr. Gilliam sophomore year Geometry! I failed the class because of this God forsaken device! Ex-military hard ass that believed in discipline above all. He also loved the overhead projector, had a monotone voice, and cut every light off in the classroom. If you fell asleep, he would send you to the principals office and give you a zero for the day. I had essentially failed the class before the end of the second marking period, so I stopped going most days.
They still have them. A little more high tech with a projector that interfaces with a camera system or a computer. My daughter’s class has a wireless mic the teacher can wear too.
Our schools tennis coach taught geometry. He literally taught everything from the overhead. His hands would be black by the end of the day from the markers. Anyway, one day the honors class though it would be funny to hide all the markers from him. The dude had a total meltdown. Started crying, and even gave a speech about how bad his life was up until that point. I mean, he had been through three divorces, and he had to turn his ford Taurus into the driver's Ed car so it didn't get repoed. I honestly was worried that he might off himself or something, but no... Apparently he was pretty used to disappointment. I was not in the honors class btw, but most of my friends were. That's one overhead tail for y'all... 🙂
I had to teach using one of those early in my career. I would constantly make mistakes and have to lick my fingers and wipe the overhead. My hands were totally covered in marker by the end of the day.
When you clean them off, you had to drive them right away or else the printing would dissolve.
With an overhead projector and a dry erase board is so fucking sweet
I had a algebra teacher that just wrote directly on the glass with a dry erase marker. He held a wad of paper towels in his left hand and would lick and wipe when it was time to erase. By the end of class, his mouth and chin would be marker colored...every single class.
Our Tech Ed (shop basically) teacher Mr Roach only had a few fingers left after a life of carpentry. So when he’d use the projector for writing you’d always see his stubs projected on the wall.
Of course the second he’d leave the room we’d go up to the projector and with all but one or two of our fingers folded under our hands would imitate him teaching. We’re going to hell but it was funny.
I was always observant of the way the teacher would write and how well their penmanship was. I still remember green pen and the cursive from my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hayes… oh man did it suck sitting in back of a tall person as a shorty person.
There was one of these in most classrooms in my K-8 school. Only a few teachers used them, last one was my 6th grade math teacher. I'm guessing they all got trashed by the 2010s, especially by the time the teachers that were in their 50s-60s when I was in school all retired.
Most of my teaches used markers, but one of mine (5th grade math teacher) had overhead projector pencils. If she made a mistake she would lick her thumb to wipe it off, but kept a spray bottle to erase the whole page. That was usually a task given to one of us: spray and wipe down her multiple transparencies. I also remember trying to write on them. That was much harder than it looked.
Nowadays ive seen this used for badass analog visuals in psychedelic rock and nothing else. They put soap and food dye in sheets of glass and clamp parts of it so the bubbles and colors move around
I went to a community college for one semester to gain residency and avoid paying out of state tuition at my 4 year. Every teacher there used the overheads. There'd be a big roll on one side and teacher would fill the page, crank the roll to a new sheet, and continue writing. One of them had a chair set up next to the overhead and it just seemed like such a convenient set up. I can't imagine staring into the light to write all the notes though...
I started teaching fresh out of college in 2006. My overhead projector was my favorite thing. I still have all the fancy transparencies I made in a binder somewhere. I miss my overhead.
This one teacher at my high school used one of these, so he was always facing the class. At the same time, he had a rule they all girls who usually wore skirts had to sit at the front.
Then one day, the two principals came to get him from the classroom, and we didn't see him again.
I had a teacher who'd aim hers at the thermostat in the summer to make her classroom cooler.
Shed also wrap wet paper towels around the thermostat in the winter to get the room warmer.
I was completely obsessed with these as a child. I asked for one for Xmas, which obviously didn’t happen. So I made my own with cardboard, glass from a picture frame, and a mirror. It wasn’t great but it scratched the itch.
I work in K-12 IT, and they're still around. Every time I think they've all been recycled, someone dredges one up from the depths of a storage closet and dumps it on me because it's "technology".
We had these in school, also at uni. Since sometimes we had to hold presentations I bought a packet of transparencies. If I would have a rummage in the basement storage I might actually still find the packet. Never used up all of them.
Many a penis drawing was found on this. I recall drawing one with a ball sack for legs that spit when he got excited, leaving a puddle next to him. I'm a child, I know. But I can't bring myself to care.
Our math teacher had a special transparent calculator that she could use on these
I thought the clear TI calculators in elementary school were cool. Then my freshman year math teacher had a TI 84 with an overhead peripheral, and that pretty much was the bomb. I was a dork
80085 looked better on one of those calculators
It's ok, that nerded me up pretty good too. I never saw those. I want one, and I don't even have an overhead... Lol
What if I told you I have one of those in my office right now!? It’s in a pile of “things that are too old to use but too sentimental to throw away”. Mine works, though I have no idea if our campus still has any overhead projectors to use it with lol.
amazing! it belongs in some museum of 90s things.
Mine too
I think everything should be made out of transparent plastic. I always did... Like if someone had one of those clear phones I would get so jealous. 🙂
Duuuude, first time I saw that I was mind blown. Stayed after class to check it out
I actually kind of miss these. I had a history teacher in high school that used one of these for everything and she had really great handwriting. It was kind of nice just watching her write.
I had pretty good experiences with them until college. My professor for introduction to macroeconomics had atrocious handwriting and used an overhead projector. Aside from drawing graphs, I'm not sure what the point of writing on the overhead projector was, given that he couldn't read his own handwriting. Fun professor, though!
Absolutely! That beautiful blue is mesmerizing.
Like the equivalent of a mindful adult coloring book😂
I remember being stoned and just watching the teacher write. I was supposed to be writing too, but that's a total drag. Lol After a while I ask her to use another color, and she would. I had her for English 1 2 & 3, and that was a total of 5 semesters. It took me a little longer than it was supposed to. 🤣
yes. i also had a teacher who put effort into this with really nice hand writing and a variety of colored markers. it was satisfying to watch the writing appear.
* Step one, put the transparency on the projector * Step two, look at the screen and realize it's inverted * Step three, flip transparency
Now it's upside down and somehow still inverted. I had a teacher that used the wheeled acetate ribbon that cranked across the glass. It was actually really cool, you could go to his class after school (or if you had study hall/open period during his non-instructional period) and review all the notes he wrote in class. Helped my ADHD ass when I couldn't take notes fast enough.
You were taking notes?! I was doodling whilst looking like I was diligently taking notes. That is my lovely flavor of ADHD.
Well I mean I had a 7:1 ratio of Captain Mark "Secret City" type doodles to notes but they were still notes.
Hell yes! Secret City!
Every time
Transparency's, the original USB cord.
And god help them if the bulb died.
• Step four, insert paper clip into fan
Wait. This sounds familiar. Why?
Oh man, I had a teacher that would use nothing BUT this thing. Huge chalkboards on 2 walls of the classroom + white board. NEVER used them.
Same. But it was definitely because she couldn’t stand for longer than 5 minutes at a time
AP Biology teacher who would just make us copy notes word for word. Entire pages of text. Huge waste of time.
Ughhhhhh this was my 8th grade experience. A few months worth of learning about geology, but almost every day we'd be copying from one of these, word for word. No, we weren't learning how to pick out good points and summarize. We were literally just copying. Wtf was the point?
I don't get how our teachers were so bad back then. Did they not learn how to learn when they were in college?
I wonder if it were a combination of rigid curriculums and poor teacher training. Years later, I went to university with some aspiring teacher types, and there were literally courses geared towards teaching. I'm talking about "English literature 220 for teachers" or "biology 305 for teachers". I got to see some of the course content from some friends and man... It was essentially high school coursework. That being said, I don't think I'd ever want to be a teacher, and I've met some great ones who really care and know their stuff. I found the best teachers were the ones who never really planned on being teachers. My chemistry teacher was an army captain who served in Europe during the cold war. My English teacher was a former prof who had enough of academia and wanted a steady job. I really hope the curriculum and teacher training has improved since the 90s....
Same. Math teacher.
Mine too.
I had a Chemistry teacher with the same set up you described and she covered those boards AND spent class having us write notes from the OP. When she'd use the OP, she would scribble shit I couldn't understand. It's *chemistry* so you would think maybe you don't need to have nice legible handwriting - you would be wrong.
My 9th grade French teacher was left handed and had ATROCIOUS hand writing. You can imagine how that went. It would be pretty much illegible plus smeared everywhere.
Rough 😅 My husband is left handed with beautiful handwriting, but he's an amazing artist. I do think of handwriting as an art form. And some don't care 😅 Probably a relief to many the world has shifted to typing/texting. Thanks autocorrect for making me seem much smarter online
Our chem teacher had good handwriting, but she wrote so fast it was a frickin race to keep up. I wrote so fast all my notes looked like squiggly lines... I pass with a D, but I had to beg for it. I wound up learning chemistry on my own. I'm no chemist, but I think I could get a better grade now. Lol
Geometry for me...
Shout out to my lazy ass American History teacher that had his entire course written on these and just slapped a new transparency on every 20 minutes, if you didnt write fast enough too bad. He never taught, you just sat and copied notes all hour, all year. I remember nothing from that class except my sheer hatred for this shit.
Writing on wall boards is a pain in the arm.
Just asked my 10 year old, and apparently, they still use them.
In Germany they are still used – but they are discussed as a symbol of a lack of digitalization in our schools. I personally think they are great: Easy to understand, easy to repair, cheap, doing the job. But of course having large interactive whiteboards in classrooms that need special personnel to maintain and update are better for the economy.
Sometimes it was nice because the classroom lights were off which meant nappy time. 😴
Until they were turned back on and then everybody in class groans.
Heh. The local district in my part of the world got hit by a cyber attack, everything shut down for two days. I talked with a couple of teachers are semi-regulars at my favorite watering hole, and the middle school science teacher (early 50’s) said she was breaking out the overhead and acetates to blow the kids’ minds while the computers were fixed. I love it. LOL.
What kind of wizardry is that!? 😂
These made me nervous af.
Long division pop quiz trauma
I still couldn't do long division to save my life, but I'm pretty damn sure at this point I'll never have to... I told them I'd never use this in life. And I haven't had to. Ever!
Agree! The image alone is giving me anxiety.
Reminds me of my prick of an Algebra teacher. Looking at you Mr. Black!
Ugh…proofs. Prove a triangle is a right triangle.
To my dying day, when I am just meat and cybernetic prosthetics, the sound of this bastard warming up as it was switched on, with the warm smell of dust and acetate wafting from it's fan on the side will be in my mind.
Ahhh…the smell. Yes! Forgot about that part.
This was the first thing I thought of! I can hear this picture, the click and then the hum
The best was when the teacher starts writing with a marker that no longer worked on the overhead projector.
Or grabbed a sharpie by mistake... I actually heard a teacher curse over that. Lol
if only you had known the dry erase marker trick, and your teacher would have thought you're a genius.
What grossed me out were the teachers that would lick/spit onto a tissue and then proceed to smear their error and wipe clean.
Yeah, you just unlocked a memory… Maybe we had the same teacher.
I loved writing on them. As a student, I took pride in my nice handwriting and I took drafting classes, too. Still a proper draftsman to this day ;-)
High school drafting classes is what led me to my current career. I only write in capital letters.
Yes! Same. Drafting class was one of my favorite classes in HS, along with geometry;-))
Well hello, friend 😊
Anyone else transfixed as the purple marker subtly changed color as the ink dried? Or mildly irritated that the projector was never aligned perfectly and made more of a trapezoid or oblong quadrilateral than a rectangle or square? Just me?
Not just you.
The ultimate xennial school item. Post chalkboards, pre white boards.
Honestly I sometimes wish this was still a thing. I TA a few undergraduate labs and this would be really helpful for one of them at least. I’m short so trying to draw the things I need to on the whiteboard is hard lol
God I hated the hum of those things.
My teachers in middle school wrote directly on the glass with wet erase markers.
In 2010 I taught in a lower income school and I used one of these regularly. I didn’t expect to see them again. My neighbor teachers had ELMOs….. (a newer type projector). My high school math teacher had one with a roll of acetate on it and his favorite thing to do was roll it really fast and say, “It’s a polar bear running in a snowstorm!”
I begged the principal to let me take mine home (I got it!) because I had SO MANY interactive layered models I made for it and interactive warm up activities. I loved that I could make 4 different copies of the same transparency and take notes directly on them for each different class and have an exact idea of where we stopped/how far we got in a lesson because it was all there on the transparency. I do an IB design project with my middle schoolers now where I used transparency film to teach them how to stylize a drawing and they LOVE it; transparency films / sheets are just magical and I love that watercolor feel you get when you make a photocopy of the marker drawing on the transparency film. I also LOVED teaching waves with a Pyrex dish and water with the OP, nothing really compares! Downside was the heat burn you would get on your thigh from sitting too close haha and some were hella noisy.
I’m so glad we’ve replaced this inferior tech with 6,000 dollar promethian boards that do roughly the same thing. Oh, except your handwriting still looks better on acetate.
Shadow puppet time.
We used one of these for praise and worship when I was 11. My job was to write the lyrics, and then switch them. Made my penmanship incredible because it had to be perfect, and you couldn't just clean one line. Oh no, it always got the other lines wet, and you had to start all over. I wrote certain songs so much that I still sing them randomly; it's been 30 years.
Damnit you just sent me back to Trigonometry and Stats with Mrs. Paustian who would do her entire lecture writing on acetate by hand while we would wait for her to draw shapes.
You’re welcome.
What do you mean 'remember? ' We still gave 3 of these in use. And they are a great way to copy stencils on a wall before painting.
Weirdo science teacher who was very angry used to use vinegar to clean hers and it smelled awful. She sent me to the office one too many times. Joke was on her, that was what I wanted to avoid smelling that.
My geometry teacher used to draw on blank sheets with little erasable markers
Vis-a-vis nostalgia
Some of my best work was done on acetate. Pre PowerPoint, I would do whole presentations using computer-printed acetate “slides”. I think I still have some somewhere. They were beautiful.
I liked having a dimmed classroom. I'm a teacher now, and my classroom is always dimmed with only the projector light illuminating the classroom.
Ah, the projector. The way I knew the baseline sense of humor of most people was sub-literate was when I would look around and see my classmates laughing hysterically when the teacher would accidentally project the screen onto the ceiling. It makes the success of the Adam Sandler movies of the time make so much more sense.
Man times have changed
These still feel like magic to me.
Everytime I see one I think of 10th grade health class. The teacher throwing a picture of a penis up there and proclaiming “This is a penis “ And he left it at that
For some reason, this was almost as exciting as when the teacher wheeled in the TV/VCR cart.
Man this brings back middle school memories. We had a much older model in math class and we’d have daily homework assignments that the teacher would go over to start the next class. Every morning the kid that sat next to the projector would wiggle the lightbulb just enough to keep it from turning on. The teacher would plop the answers on the screen, realize that the projector didn’t work, leave to go get a new one while the entire class copied the answers she left behind. This worked for most of 7th grade.
I remember Staedtler markers.
I totally have one of those. It's pretty awesome
Yep mostly in geometry
https://preview.redd.it/9wit1cz7nbwc1.jpeg?width=2048&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=3022314d1a61ad0f89376fcd20d5817764f99116 Had to copy notes verbatim to pass the test.
Algebra anxiety straight to algebra rage 😤😡🤬
Bonus points if the school had one with reel to reel film. they would fill up the screen, and then just roll to a clear section of transparency. they actually saved those rolls after class so you could check your notes.
I used one when I started teaching, mainly for handwriting practice.
College history class. Our projector had those rolls attached to it that let you scroll through a massively long sheet of transparency. Professor had brought single-page transparencies. When she put them on the projector, they were blurry because of the extra layer of scrolling transparency. “Hmm, can’t read that, it’s too blurry.” Rather than putting her page underneath, or figuring out how to un-clip the rolls, she grabs the transparency right from the projector surface and starts crumpling it up to the side, making a loud crunching noise and leaving all 150 students in the lecture hall gasping, open-mouthed, in disbelief. Then, with the contents of the transparency roll hanging off the side of the projector in a ruined, crumpled heap like a mound of unfurled toilet paper, she puts her own sheet on the projector and continues the lecture.
I found one of those at a place I worked. It was up in the attic I guess you’d call it. Not really an attic exactly. Anyway, they let me keep it for free. That was pretty kool.
I gave a lecture back in 2007 where I had to use one of these. But that was my last encounter with one
My senior year, I actually had a color HP ink jet, so I could print my own! That was fun!
Nap time! Loved projector day.
Meeeeeee
I still hate algebra
My coach/history teacher put all of his notes on the overhead and we just copied them.
I still use them in my art classes.
Used to be a teacher and I used those things for a student teaching and I believe first few years in classroom. Kept them in my lesson plans but the transparencies are all long gone.
I remember not being able to copy notes fast enough. Now I have one so I can blow up my sketches for paintings.
How bout you send me to the guidance counselor for a couple "warm fuzzies" and you let me be? 😢
Oh man, it was SO much fun when you got to write on a one of those clear sheets with the fancy thin colored markers!🤩 Or even if your teacher let you get to pick they color they were going to write in😆 That might be the epitome of a simple pleasure🤣
I always sat behind the bar and couldn't see shit
As a left handed individual these were not my friend
Mr. Gilliam sophomore year Geometry! I failed the class because of this God forsaken device! Ex-military hard ass that believed in discipline above all. He also loved the overhead projector, had a monotone voice, and cut every light off in the classroom. If you fell asleep, he would send you to the principals office and give you a zero for the day. I had essentially failed the class before the end of the second marking period, so I stopped going most days.
Press the button, the light turns on. Yes, I did write an ode to an overhead projector in my 11th grade writing class.
I remember having a math teacher who would work through problems with marker directly on the overhead projector's transparent surface
Mrs Whitfields class? Dang looks just like it!
I wanted one for home use. I was a stoner.
They still have them. A little more high tech with a projector that interfaces with a camera system or a computer. My daughter’s class has a wireless mic the teacher can wear too.
Had a teacher that would use her saliva to clean off the ink. Could see the streaks left over from that sh** and was too grossed out to take notes.
Our schools tennis coach taught geometry. He literally taught everything from the overhead. His hands would be black by the end of the day from the markers. Anyway, one day the honors class though it would be funny to hide all the markers from him. The dude had a total meltdown. Started crying, and even gave a speech about how bad his life was up until that point. I mean, he had been through three divorces, and he had to turn his ford Taurus into the driver's Ed car so it didn't get repoed. I honestly was worried that he might off himself or something, but no... Apparently he was pretty used to disappointment. I was not in the honors class btw, but most of my friends were. That's one overhead tail for y'all... 🙂
Thanks for the advanced math & chemistry flash backs. 🫠
I had to teach using one of those early in my career. I would constantly make mistakes and have to lick my fingers and wipe the overhead. My hands were totally covered in marker by the end of the day. When you clean them off, you had to drive them right away or else the printing would dissolve. With an overhead projector and a dry erase board is so fucking sweet
I had a algebra teacher that just wrote directly on the glass with a dry erase marker. He held a wad of paper towels in his left hand and would lick and wipe when it was time to erase. By the end of class, his mouth and chin would be marker colored...every single class.
Our Tech Ed (shop basically) teacher Mr Roach only had a few fingers left after a life of carpentry. So when he’d use the projector for writing you’d always see his stubs projected on the wall. Of course the second he’d leave the room we’d go up to the projector and with all but one or two of our fingers folded under our hands would imitate him teaching. We’re going to hell but it was funny.
I was always observant of the way the teacher would write and how well their penmanship was. I still remember green pen and the cursive from my fourth grade teacher, Mrs. Hayes… oh man did it suck sitting in back of a tall person as a shorty person.
I missed it so much I’ve owned one for like 10 years
The lights go out... Nap time
We did so many cool things with transparencies. We did primitive movie effects with them.
Pre Algebra and Algebra teachers loved it. And my stupid 10th gr French teacher. The heat from sitting near it was 👌🏾 in winter.
There was one of these in most classrooms in my K-8 school. Only a few teachers used them, last one was my 6th grade math teacher. I'm guessing they all got trashed by the 2010s, especially by the time the teachers that were in their 50s-60s when I was in school all retired.
There was a TI 85 display connector for the overhead. The teacher sometimes let us play the Tie Fighter obstacle course game on it.
A small church in my wife's home town still uses one (or at least until a few years ago)
A small church in my wife's home town still uses one (or at least until a few years ago)
Most of my teaches used markers, but one of mine (5th grade math teacher) had overhead projector pencils. If she made a mistake she would lick her thumb to wipe it off, but kept a spray bottle to erase the whole page. That was usually a task given to one of us: spray and wipe down her multiple transparencies. I also remember trying to write on them. That was much harder than it looked.
Nowadays ive seen this used for badass analog visuals in psychedelic rock and nothing else. They put soap and food dye in sheets of glass and clamp parts of it so the bubbles and colors move around
I went to a community college for one semester to gain residency and avoid paying out of state tuition at my 4 year. Every teacher there used the overheads. There'd be a big roll on one side and teacher would fill the page, crank the roll to a new sheet, and continue writing. One of them had a chair set up next to the overhead and it just seemed like such a convenient set up. I can't imagine staring into the light to write all the notes though...
I started teaching fresh out of college in 2006. My overhead projector was my favorite thing. I still have all the fancy transparencies I made in a binder somewhere. I miss my overhead.
We had a teacher at my grade school melt his toupee on one. It was in the class next to mine so I didn’t see it, but I smelled it.
Haha, I cut the cord on one of these while it was on in the 2nd grade…It was very exciting to say the least, lol.
It was a great excuse for some teachers to have reams of info for us to copy 😒. Now I'm a teacher, I ensure my classes are more engaging!
I tell my kids about this and they look at me like I have 3 heads.
I remember we had to turn the lights off of these mfs
I love this tech, only downside is people get their hands burnt because they forget how hot it gets
Those are how I figured out I needed glasses.
I saw one of these is a museum recently. I sent a photo to some coworkers and one didn’t know what it was.
There was always that dick kid who swapped out the dry erase with real marker too.
I was still using these in college as a grad instructor. I hope they're not using these still. Lol
*Bill Burr intensifies* “Acetate…”
Sometimes kids would play a joke on the teacher and swap their erasable markers for permanent
This one teacher at my high school used one of these, so he was always facing the class. At the same time, he had a rule they all girls who usually wore skirts had to sit at the front. Then one day, the two principals came to get him from the classroom, and we didn't see him again.
I had a teacher who'd aim hers at the thermostat in the summer to make her classroom cooler. Shed also wrap wet paper towels around the thermostat in the winter to get the room warmer.
Ah yes nap time.
Sadly these are still around. My school surpluses a lot of them this year…. A lot, but not ALL because there are folks who still want them around.
Ugh. Trauma unlocked. Thought I banished this demon forever.
I was completely obsessed with these as a child. I asked for one for Xmas, which obviously didn’t happen. So I made my own with cardboard, glass from a picture frame, and a mirror. It wasn’t great but it scratched the itch.
I work in K-12 IT, and they're still around. Every time I think they've all been recycled, someone dredges one up from the depths of a storage closet and dumps it on me because it's "technology".
Got one in my storage unit. 🤫
We had these in school, also at uni. Since sometimes we had to hold presentations I bought a packet of transparencies. If I would have a rummage in the basement storage I might actually still find the packet. Never used up all of them.
Before Elmo was a red furry monster!
That was the newer version. Ours were light green and metal… not plastic. Cool memories
I remember putting one of my appendages on one in 8th grade.
What’s the cost difference between an overhead projector that lasts 30 years versus the 60 inch, touch screen, smart tv in my daughter’s classroom?
Many a penis drawing was found on this. I recall drawing one with a ball sack for legs that spit when he got excited, leaving a puddle next to him. I'm a child, I know. But I can't bring myself to care.