Sometimes at work I have educational videos that I need to show. Unfortunately, that means I need something to show them on. We have a TV/DVD player for each floor here, plus an LCD projector. Wow, that makes it sound like we have a fairly tech-savvy school, doesn’t it? The only problem is, the LCD projector for my floor is broken, and everytime I go to reserve the TV/DVD player, either someone else has it reserved, or someone else has it hidden in their room and I can’t find it. It can get pretty frustrating, especially since these videos are part of the curriculum; it’s not as though I’m showing episodes of Family Guy.
A few of my coworkers have come up with a solution which I think is a pretty good idea. They’ve brought in their own TVs, and they just keep them in their own classrooms at all times. The lady who is in charge of the AV equipment for my floor was really helpful when I went in the other day looking for the TV/DVD player (but it wasn’t there, of course). I was slightly frustrated, because I had reserved the equipment, but someone else had taken it and left the broken LCD projector for me. So the AV lady (notice how I’m trying not to name names?) pointed out that there was an extra TV in her room that didn’t have a DVD or VCR attached, so no one ever used it. She said I could take it to my classroom and keep it for myself.
I’m thinking that’s a great idea. There is the fact that it doesn’t have a DVD player or even a VCR with it; that’s not too much of a hurdle though because those type of things are fairly inexpensive nowadays. I was checking out the sale at buy.com and they have a DVD player there for less than $30. They also have a DVD/VCR combo for less than $100.

Either of these would be great for my work – actually the DVD/VCR combo might be the best just because we are so far behind the times here that a lot of the videos I have to show are only available on VHS. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
It will be so nice to actually be able to get through my curriculum without constantly having to mount a search expedition through the school!