Classrooms For the Future Grant Provides $215,000 to Equip CHS with 21st Century Technology
Parents, you are absolutely right. You weren’t anything like your teenager when you were that age. And now there’s research to prove it.
“Students today learn differently because they have been ‘wired differently,’ points out educational consultant Dr. Willard Daggett of the International Center for Leadership in Education. “The….technological environment in which they have grown up and engaged in for their entire lives has had a profound impact on the way they think, learn and interact.”
So, given the time, financial, professional development and student attention restraints facing schools and teachers today, how can the individual and collective learning needs of this “Generation Videogame” best be addressed?
Central High School is taking advantage of one statewide strategy in the effort, recently rolling out the first evidence of a $215,000 Pennsylvania Classrooms for the Future grant. The program is to being used locally to equip a cohort of seven teachers with student laptops, smartboards, digital and web cameras, printers, projectors and all the other technological wizardry needed to provide students the latest in learning opportunities. But even more than the hardware, the grant is aimed at bringing about a change in instructional strategies, with each of the cooperating teachers committing to complete, and then integrate into their classrooms, an on-line 30- hour graduate level course in “21st Century Teaching and Learning” through Wilkes University. “Classrooms for the Future is to transform the way teachers teach and students learn by infusing technology into high school English, Math, Science and Social Studies classrooms,” trumpets the schools’ CFF website. “ In addition, participating teachers receive intensive professional development in order to harness the power of technology to bring subject matter to life, engage students and ultimately raise student achievement.”
“For the kids it’s going to enhance learning by providing additional resources,” noted Social Studies teacher Joe Logan, who was the first of the CHS seven CFF cohort members to have his classroom go on-line with the grant equipment. “It’s not just about textbooks and notes anymore” he continued as he supervised an Economics class work together in groups to complete a business start-up simulation. “This technology will allow for more collaboration, more communication and more up-to the minute research. It’s a chance to have students using the hands-on technological tools they will need to be successful in the 21st Century”.
Language Arts instructor Tabatha Griffin gets just as animated in discussing the changes she sees coming in her classes. “We’ll be able to use many resources beyond the classroom,” she explained a literary database her students are accessing. “That will make it possible to individualize more and allow students to develop their own projects. We’ll be able to edit on the screen in real time. I can see that this will help a lot with the teaching of writing.”
The integration of hardware and professional development supports or directly addresses all of the nine goals listed in the Districts’ strategic plan. But more importantly to the teachers is that the effort to incorporate such data-driven teaching and learning strategies will ultimately aide the students. “The bottom line in all of this is that the students will benefit” noted math teacher Aaron Hileman. “Whether it’s because of the new strategies or the new hardware or that they just feel more comfortable in a technological world, we hope this effort helps more students achieve at higher levels.”
The current cohort of CHS teachers involved in the project include John Fitzpatrick, Josh Wolf, Aaron Hileman, Tabatha Griffin, Jill Dean, Joe Logan, and Stefan Grill. The Districts’ Technology and Maintenance Departments have been working hard to install the necessary wiring and software to ready additional classrooms. District Instructional Technology Specialist Arlin Roth is serving as CFF “Coach” and professional development coordinator for the effort, while Technology Director Cathy Schimminger was instrumental in writing and obtaining the grant. An additional five CHS teachers have stepped forward to request inclusion in round two of the grant, which could bring an additional $115,000 worth of hardware and instructional change into the school for next year.
More information on the effort, links to involved teacher websites and updates on progress is available on-line at http://springcove.schoolnet.com/outreach/central/cff/.
Mr. Fitzpatrick, Mr. Grill, Ms. Griffin, Mr. Logan, Mrs. Dean, Mr. Hileman, Mr. Wolf