You'll also want to make sure your computers and audio-visual equipment are in good working order before your students arrive for the first day of instruction. You won't gain anything by procrastinating, except possibly the humiliation of loading an important video into a totally nonfunctioning VCR or trying to display a transparency on a burned-out overhead projector.

What follows is a discussion regarding some of the most important pieces of instructional equipment in your room and how each device functions. This information will help you ensure that everything's in working order before your little saints come marching in.

The Multimedia Cart

If you can arrange it, ask your principal to provide you with a multimedia cart — a wheeled, portable trolley, about four feet high, well stocked with modern audio-visual equipment. Perhaps not every school will have multimedia carts for every teacher, but talk to your teaching colleagues so that you can at least share whatever multimedia carts are available. Or, work with the computer-lab teacher to assemble at least one multimedia cart for your own use.

The top tier of your multimedia cart should feature a color television, properly fastened by the custodian or the computer-lab technician. You'll find your TV invaluable for playing educational videocassettes on the VCR, which sits on the cart's second tier, hooked up and ready to use. Get the computer-lab technician to help you with proper wiring or read the VCR's user manual. If your school provides a DVD player, that's even better, because the picture quality, sound quality, and ease of use are far superior to VCRs.

The bottom tier of your multimedia cart contains a standard desktop computer. Use your computer in conjunction with a focus box, a piece of technology that lets your computer display documents and animated presentations directly to your TV. If you're looking for a “magic lantern” that can get kids to sit up and pay attention, the computer/focus-box combination is your answer.

You'll also need a second wheeled cart, if you can get it, to hold your overhead projector — called overhead for short. An overhead is an optical device for showing enlarged images on a white screen. The overhead consists of a light source housed in a metal box with a fresnel lens placed over the light source. A vertical rod extends above the lens, holding an adjustable mirror arrangement that magnifies and projects images. You write or print out text or images onto a transparency, a piece of clear plastic, then place the transparency on the lens, and suddenly you've got something that can really capture kids' attention.

But check your overhead before you use it, or your brilliant visual presentation can turn out to be a resounding dud. Flip the power switch and make sure the interior halogen lamp or arc lamp isn't burned out. If it is, contact your librarian or the custodian to get the bulb replaced or to get a new overhead projector. Also, properly position your white screen and overhead projector ahead of time so that you won't have to spend class time doing it. Finally, experiment with the adjustable mirror lens so you can focus transparencies quickly, because while focusing isn't super difficult, it does require a bit of practice.

Other Supplies

If you intend to augment any of your lessons with music, you've got to have a portable stereo somewhere in the room. They generally come with two speakers, a radio, a tape player, and a CD player. Some newer ones feature a plug-in support for MP3 players such as the iPod.

Finally, here's a list of other miscellaneous equipment that you might want to round up: