School Names
Emerson Elementary
Spring Lane Elementary
Blessed Sacrament School
Principals:
Emerson: Dan Bergman,
Spring Lane:Vicki Rickets
Blessed Sacrament: Matthew Devol
Classrooms visited:
Emerson Elementary: Amy Nelson – She is the Library Technology Teacher (which includes media specialist). She must care for all of the technology that teachers can check out and make sure they are in good working order besides regular library duties and teaching every class every week for 45 minutes. She usually teaches some kind of technology lesson.
Spring Lane: Byron Bath - 4th grade teacher.
Blessed Sacrament: Rob Luke - Computer & Technology teacher; Melody Franco – 2nd grade teacher.
Overall View of Technology
Emerson
Amy’s perspective on current and future use of technology in the classroom:
Amy feels that technology is the future. Students are growing up with all of this technology, they know how to use it, and employers are going to want them to know how to use it. It is the expected norm now. Students need to be technically savvy.
Spring Lane
The more a teacher can incorporate technology into instruction and learning the better. As is the case with instruction in general, it is pretty much up to individual teachers to teach the curriculum in the manner they wish (or are capable to). So, the use of technology is teacher specific. Some are able to go crazy with it and others not much at all. I personally am using more and more all the time, as are the students. I teach 4th grade and by the end of the year they will have worked with Word, PowerPoint, Photo Story, Movie Maker, Poster Forge, Touch Typing, Publisher, and in the future it is hoped that our class with be chosen to have I-Touches for each student.
Blessed Sacrament:
Blessed Sacrament school has a high value of technology. The school harnesses various technological tools to enhance the education of its students and communicate with its parents. The Board of Directors, Principle, Teachers and Staff all recognize the importance of computers and technology. Therefore, the school makes it a point to continually upgrade its technology and provide computer education to its students.
Does the school have its own website?
Emerson Elementary:
Yes it does and the district maintains the main site. The principal, the computer aid, and the media specialist. The URL is emerson.slcschools.org
Spring Lane Elementary:
Yes, maintained by a tech-savvy teacher.
Blessed Sacrament School:
Blessed Sacrament has its own website that is maintained free of charge by a parent volunteer. This volunteer is responsible for creating and maintaining all the aspects of the site. The website is a valuable tool for parents. It provides an overview of the curriculum for each grade, enables them to sign up for volunteer hours, monitor upcoming events, view the monthly newsletter and sign up for parent/teacher conferences. The school views the website as a powerful tool for communication and uses it for its main source of
information. Parents know if they need to learn about an upcoming event, policy, or expectation they can find it on the website.
Do teachers have classroom blogs?
Emerson Elementary:
The district blocks blogs, but UEN has a blogging feature. Amy uses this as a feature of the library. “What is Your Favorite Book and Why?” Students can enter their favorite book and tell why. She checks all of the entries to make sure they are appropriate.
Spring Lane Elementary:
No, but each teacher has a website that the students may access.
Blessed Sacrament School:
The Middle School Language Arts Teacher is the only teacher using a blog. The blog’s primary purpose is to provide information on school awards, recognitions and upcoming events. This teacher also has a website. The site provides a recommended reading list, a list of Catholic High Schools and other things pertinent to her students and classes.
Do all classrooms have computers in them?
Emerson Elementary:
Every classroom has a teacher computer and one student computer. The school does have a classroom set of laptops that teachers can check out. There are two ‘Engaged Technology Classrooms” ETC, in the building. The teacher who teaches here must commit to two years of taking the ETC training where you learn the fundamentals behind technology. You teach in the classroom that has a computer for every student and you must teach the ETC curriculum.
Spring Lane Elementary:
Most, but not all. A few teachers have only their teacher computer. Others have only a couple of PC’s. Most have 4-6 PC’s. Three teachers have a half classroom set of laptop computers. And one teacher has about 8 mac laptops.
Blessed Sacrament School:
All classrooms have computers, and generally there are about 3 in each room. Each teacher uses the computers differently. Some classes use Weather Bug, a web based weather monitoring tool, other’s use computers for science or social studies topics. Many teachers use the computers as a reward for completing work in timely manner. Students who finish early can use the computers in the classroom to play educational games.
Is there a computer lab?
Emerson Elementary:
The library has 40 computers and there is another lab in the school that the teachers visit once a week. The teacher does whatever she wants in the lab. Amy’s library computers are sued for her lessons in research. She teaches a research unit in grades 4-6 where they come everyday to the library for three weeks and she teaches them the whole research process. She has the students do projects such as a photo story, power point and a fact flipper.
Spring Lane Elementary:
Two computer labs, 35 PC’s each. All teachers are required to have students work on Math/Language/Reading programs weekly. Some teachers sign up for extra time to work on class projects (PowerPoints, research, etc.).
Blessed Sacrament School:
The school has one computer lab with 15 computers. It is used by all the grades. Each grade is given 1 hour of computer instruction per week. From an early age students are introduced to computers. Kindergarten, First, and Second grade classes are taught basic keyboarding and point and click skills. As they get older, students learn how to utilize the internet for research and how to use a variety of MS Office products, including power point and word. Once in middle school, students are encouraged to learn how to write on computer, meaning that they start expressing their thoughts through typing. According to the computer teacher, this is an acquired skill and students must be taught this to be successful later in life.
Some of the software programs used include: Mavis Beacon, Typing Tutor, and MS Office.
What kind of computers and equipment are in the school?
Emerson Elementary:
There are Smart Boards and Document Readers in every class, as well as projectors. Teachers have microphones. They use Smart Board Notebook, Word, Power Point, Fast Math, SRI, UEN, Reading.
Spring Lane Elementary:
The school has PC’s mostly, some laptops. Each classroom has a projection system and a big screen and speakers. All teachers use a voice enhancement system as well. Some classrooms have document cameras, based upon who actually uses them.
Blessed Sacrament School:
The school uses a combination of PC’s and Mac’s. All the computers in classrooms are P.C.’s, while the computer lab and library uses Mac’s. Due to a grant given by a private donor, Blessed Sacrament just changed their computer lab and library computers to Mac’s. As a result of this recent change, the school is learning the best way to use these new computers. Starting in second grade, each class room has a smart board. Each teacher has a PC for his/her own use in the classroom. There are also laptops on rolling carts. These laptops can be rolled in and out of classrooms on an as needed basis.
Can teachers use the Internet in their instruction?
Emerson Elementary:
They are starting to. Amy uses it all of the time. Students do their research using it with Google search, UEN, Pioneer (an online library the state has developed which has data bases like culture grams where you can search the states. SIRS, which is a magazine for kids to research topics.
Spring Lane Elementary: Some do, some don’t. The projection system is a fantastic resource for showing what is on the teacher’s computer, a number of teachers use it expressly for this purpose.
Blessed Sacrament School:
Absolutely, and they do.
How does a teacher get further training to use technology?
Emerson Elementary:
The SL District offers summer day classes on word, Excell, Smart Board, and they are free. The principal can pay for training, but with the low budget the technology specialist trains the teachers.
Spring Lane Elementary:
There are sometimes in-service professional development opportunities, especially on newly rolled-out district programs. However, the teacher is responsible for seeking out most professional development through other means.
Blessed Sacrament School:
Most of the teacher training is done in-house by the technology manager, Rob Luke. Some times teacher will seek outside instruction on their own.
What is the % of students who might have a computer in their home:
Emerson Elementary:
Amy did a questionnaire of one class and only 4/28 did not have computers. It is not a Title 1 school and is in a nice neighborhood.
Spring Lane Elementary: The teacher believes it to be between 40-60%.
Blessed Sacrament School:
About 90% of the students have computers or multiple computers at home; although, the computer teacher pointed out that not all students use computers at home. He acknowledged that there is a notable gap between the students who use computers at home and those who do not.
Did I observe students using technology?
Emerson Elementary:
They just finished using a flip camera to video skits that they created showing themselves breaking the library rules. The best videos will be made into a show to show to the entire school.
Spring Lane Elementary:
Students at the school participated in mandatory computer programs that they work through in Math, Language, and Reading. In the classroom, students would use a few computers to play instructional games during free time. Beyond that, it was the teacher who mostly utilized the computer based tech. to further deepen the level of instruction.
Blessed Sacrament School:
No.
Summary:
After discussing the technology available in the various schools, our group determined that technology varies not only across schools but also within a specific school. Some schools find it vital to have computers in every in class and available to every student, while others do not. Also, within the individual school the level of access a student has varies depending on the teachers comfort level with technology and computers. Based on our research, it is apparent that there is no standard for technology in the classroom and what children should be taught regarding computers. We wonder if there will soon be a need to develop a core curriculum for computer education.
