Schuylkill Valley School District hosted its annual Technology Showcase on April 19, which included a student and teacher panel discussion and tours to see technology used in classrooms at the elementary, middle and high schools.
“The showcase provides an opportunity for us to show the community how we’re utilizing technology many different ways,” said Michael Billman, SV Director of Instructional and Information Technology.
Tours included a visit to the advance placement computer science class, technology education classroom where students were working on a CNC router, and a biology class where students used Quizlet all at the high school, as well as a visit to the Discovery Learning Classroom at the elementary school and the STEAM program at the middle school.
Schuylkill Valley instructional technology integration coach Tod Witman moderated the student and teacher panel.
“We want community members to be able to see what kids are doing here with the technology, that we’re making a pretty sizeable investment in,” said Witman, a high school social studies teacher who teaches AP psychology and AP world history. “Every year we have positive progress to report and show.”
The technology showcase has been held the past three or four years, welcoming school board members, business representatives, community members and parents.
Through the one-to-one program, every freshman and sophomore has been issued a Google Chrome Book which is set up to use Google Apps for Education. Also every student has access to their own Google account through Schuylkill Valley. Next year the goal is to issue Google Chrome Books to students in grades 5-12.
Witman explained that Google Classroom is a platform teachers use to assign and collect work from students electronically, as well as grade, give instant feedback and update parents on progress. Also, he said any of the Google Apps available to the public is also available in the school suite of programs.
“We can use it safely in our little Schuylkill Valley tech bubble without worrying about outsiders having access or kids being contacted from outside forces,” he said. “It’s a controlled atmosphere that allows us a lot of flexibility.”
Even while out sick, teachers can use Google Hangouts to talk to their class, upload notes and answer questions about assignments. In class, students can collaborate with one another by sharing online documents and make comments online. Students do not need to print out assignments; they can hand in assignments electronically. Witman said simply not having to hand out papers in class saves a lot of time and paper.
“We’re trying to provide a very rich technological environment with a lot of flexibility for teachers and students to work in ways that are effective and efficient for them,” said Witman. “Every teacher does it differently. Every student has their own preferences and we’re trying to give them the tools to do all those tasks in the way that they see most educationally beneficial.”
High school teacher Stacy DeMott said she was never one to get too excited about technology.
“I jumped on because this is where it’s going and if I want to stay relevant with everything that’s happening, I need to speed up my own learning,” said DeMott, who learned from Witman how to use the Google Classroom in her lesson plans and daily interactions with her students. “I’m a history teacher so it’s crusty old dusty books and the old library systems. This is a huge transfer for me.”
Dramatically reducing her paper consumption in her classroom, DeMott uses Google forums to give quizzes to students in class. Notes on a PowerPoint were once shown on the SmartBoard are now uploaded to Google Classroom. Imbedded within her notes are related videos.
High school math and science teacher Tom Evanosky makes short videos of mini lessons so that students can review online and on their own time.
“They do appreciate being able to catch up on things that they didn’t get in the classroom,” he said. “They do want to hear their teacher do the lesson. I could find other sources that have lessons but students seem to like me doing it.”
High School math teacher Michelle DeStefano said the use of the Chrome Books is “motivating students to be self-responsible and self-reliant learners… The whole movement is going toward more self-reliant learners which is something you need to have in any field.”
“The teacher is never going to go away. This is just another tool. It’s a pretty cool tool,” Schuylkill Valley School Board President Kevin Raudenbush said. “In lesson planning for teachers, it’s a different world. You’re doing different things in your lesson plans which is good.”
“It’s a great tool to have because you can upload videos and all of your materials,” said Witman.
“It keeps students in the loop of communication,” said SV junior Colby Stichter. “I’ll know what the assignments are and know what to do.”
Stichter likes the idea of being able to turn in assignments at the click of a button, versus having to print out a paper.
“It’s so much easier and my backpack is so much lighter rather than carrying home two textbooks and a binder, just to look at one page of a textbook. I just go online and look at it,” said Stichter.
Raudenbush said every year he sees more and more technology being used in the classroom.
“It’s almost in every single classroom,” said Raudenbush who works professionally in the technology field. “The creative ways it’s being used is astounding.”
“I feel like our school is on the cutting edge of (technology),” said SV freshman Austin Witinski, who is a member of the Student Tech Advisory Group. “As the world’s continuing, it’s going to become the expectation of everything, so the fact that we’re getting this stuff ahead in technology I feel like it’s making us the students better (prepared) towards the world we’re going to go into.”
Schuylkill Valley Superintendent Dr. Warren F. Mata was pleased with the showcase.
“Teachers are volunteering to be part of it, they want to be opening their classrooms,” said Mata. “This is the first time we’re going to elementary and middle school.”
During a classroom visit at the elementary school, showcase participants observed how fourth graders created their own inventions using an iPad. The Apps helped the students during the engineering design process.
Schuylkill Valley fourth graders Cody Dissinger, Olivia Wilhelm, Kowen Gerner and Gaven Machemer talked about making their own invention, a stretchy arm to help a person grab their drink sitting across the room.
“It was really fun and interesting,” said Wilhelm. “We got to go online and look up famous inventors and then we got to come up with ideas and invent something of our own.
“You can use the iPad to overcome problems and you can use it to create a slideshow of what you did,” said Dissinger.
In class that day, Machemer was making a diagram of their invention.
Their teacher, Mary Kate Raytek, teaches in the Discovery Learning Classroom for students in kindergarten through fourth grade.
“I use technology a lot as a collaboration tool. I really use all of the Apps that we have in order to help us with the engineering design process,” said Raytek. “We found with this program, we’re really opening the door to all of our students to be able to experience not only the science and technology field but also the engineering field as well. This program really makes a well-rounded student in our building. They’re not only learning the reading and math and writing but they’re also getting to explore science, technology and engineering.”
Raytek has seen a difference in the students’ creativity since introducing the use of technology in the Dclassroom.
“At the beginning of the year, I was having to try to pull information out of them, getting them to think of things in different ways. But now their expectations are beyond. They come to me with different things that I never really thought of before,” said Raytek. “At the beginning of the year, we really found they had trouble tapping into that creativity, they stayed very much inside the box. Now the sky’s the limit for them.”