The Planetguy

                                                                                                                                                                        My name is Ben Baker, I have been a teacher for 9 years and I have one son and a beautiful wife.  I was born in Columbus, Ga and I have lived in Phenix CIty, Alabama most of my life.  I attended Phenix City Schools for most of my school days but transfered to Glenwood with a basketball scholarship.  For several years I was lucky enough to have a state record for rebounds in a high school game (31).  I graduated from Glenwood in 1988 and attended CVCC to play basketball for the coach- Doug Key.  After red-shirting my first year, I left at the end of my 2nd season to join the military- the Alabama Natual Guard.  I went to Missouri for basic and Maryland for advanced training.  Thanksgiving 1990 will never be forgotten withmy family.  This was the day I returned from Maryland and the same day my National Guard Unit was activitated for Desert Storm I.  I was on my way to war.  I served the country proudly for a little longer than 4 months in Saudi Arabia andreturned to attend the University of Alabama.   I graduated from Alabama with a degree in Interior Design and even played for an Intramural Sports Championship team 2 years in a row (softball).  After graduating, I moved to Birmingham andstarted working for Home Depot behind the Gallery Mall as a kitchen designer.  I loved that job.  But after several years of designing, and a move back to Phenix City where I helped open the Home Depot in Columbus, I tried my hand at something totally different.  I moved to Reliegh, NC to work witha friend that I have known since my military days.  I was now installing satellite systems and building and selling computers.  I realized I wanted to still design kitchens.  So I moved back to Birmingham and continued to work for Home Depot.  After another year- which was a very rough year personally, I moved back to Reliegh to try my hand at Financing and again, I was not very good at it and decided I was moving back home once more.  I worked for Lowes this time and was really enjoying myself then I met my wife.  She was very instrumental to me going to school to get my masters in education.  While going to school I began working with the Russell County School system.  After two years at Russell County Middle School, I moved to Dixie Elementary where I stayed for 4 years.  This is the place that I got started with the smartboard.  At first, we thought all we needed was the board, not realizing we needed a LCD projector as well.  The first year, we used it very little, actually we did not know HOW to use it.  The following year, we recieved some trainning and I never looked back.  I have been using the smartboard exclusively.  While at the Middle School and Dixie, I used white boards and even chaulk boards.  I now would have now idea how to go back to those tools.  Working for Russell County was a great start for me, but after 6 years, a new challenge presented itself.  This required me to move to PCIS- A NASA school.  Now I was in heaven.  I have been teaching 6th grade math, science and reading for 3 years and I work with some awsome people.  While working these past few years, I encourgaed my wife to become a teacher.  She also attended Troy.  While there, she asked if I would speak to her class at Troy about the use of the smartboard.  I was glad to do it.  This lead to me speaking to other intern classes and eventually to speaking in front of over 600 teachers in the Phenix City school system for inservice day 2009.  I have also given other trainning classes for Phenix City schools on the use of Elmo’s and Airliners.