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Middle Schools in Pajaro Get SWEET Technology
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Middle Schools in Pajaro Get SWEET Technology
Local Classrooms Go 21st Century with Online Curriculum
By Linda Fridy
In today’s fast-paced technology-driven world, writing is more likely to be done on a keyboard " or a cell phone " than on paper. Thanks to a nearly $1 million grant, five Pajaro Valley middle schools are giving both students and teachers the training and tools they need to learn 21st century communication.
Through a two-year program known by its acronym SWEET (Student Writing Enhanced by Educational Technology), PVUSD has trained 45 language arts teachers, bought 310 laptop computers and reached
2,600 sixth- through eighth-grade students. The goal is to blend proven writing instruction techniques with software and computers that give students more options and keep them interested in writing.
“We want to support the ongoing curriculum,” said Grant Coffin, SWEET grant administrator.
Familiarity with computers is also a job skill that will serve students throughout their lives, he added, and something that schools have not always been able to offer.
“A lot of our classrooms are still stuck in the ‘70s and ‘80s,” he said.
Lakeview Middle School teacher Bob Suess says the program is a success with his eighth grade students.
“Their writing skills have increased dramatically,” he said. “I see them writing twice as much as they did.”
Writing skills are not the only improvements Suess has seen. He trains the students who are most comfortable with computers first, then they mentor their classmates. In one instance, a boy who was previously a behavior problem became Suess’s right-hand tech man and improved his grades as well.
Enough Money to Make a Difference
The EETT federal grant program favors middle schools and targets those receiving Title I funds, which means that the school has a sizeable population of students from low-income homes. Pajaro has five participating schools: Alianza Charter, EA Hall, Lakeview, Pajaro and Rolling Hills.
The grant allows the district to choose the targeted academic area. With less than 3 percent of its middle school students scoring in the top 20 percent, PVUSD identified writing. After initially getting only a token grant, the district retooled its proposal and scored the $1 million award in round four. Only one other district in the region, in San Jose, also received funding that round.
Coffin, a former first grade teacher and admitted technology fan, oversees the program for Pajaro with help from integration coach Kathy Corcoran and tech support from Amee Chapman. Although this is the first year of the grant, they moved quickly to purchase equipment and set up trainings. Forty-five middle school language arts teachers attended two days of training in September, plus they get ongoing one-on-one support from Corcoran.
The new laptops are transported from classroom to classroom on carts that hold 30 computers. Since the majority of the schools use Macs in their classrooms, 210 of the laptops are Apple. However, E.A. Hall is an entirely PC campus, Coffin explained, so its computer carts feature new PC laptops.
The addition of these computers has helped the district achieve two of its goals from the grant already. It increased the amount of hands-on time students have with computers and significantly reduced the student-to-computer ratio, which dropped from 3.9:1 to under 2.2:1. That exceeds the year-two goal of 2.8:1, Coffin said.
The grant also allowed the purchase of software that helps with writing, vocabulary and publishing options.
The software’s built-in tutoring and feedback provides a surprising self-esteem boost to English learners, teacher Suess added.
“It’s great for students who don’t feel com- fortable asking questions. They are correcting their mistakes without being embarrassed about making the mistakes,” he explained.
Reaching Beyond the Classroom
While in-class computer time is valuable, Coffin knows that the more opportunities students have, the more comfortable they are with technology. To that end, SWEET purchased email service for all 2,600 middle school students through Gaggle.net, which also provides security screening for the kids. Software allows students to store work done at school and access it from another computer.
“They can send emails to each other and to me, and I can send them assignments,” said Suess.
Many students do not have access to computers at home, so the program partnered with the city of Watsonville’s three computer labs. Students can go to Ramsey Park, Marinovich Park or Enterprise Community Youth Network and sign up for a free user account.
SWEET also offers accounts for parents, so they can become more connected to the schools through technology.
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