All nine schools in Dillon School District Four -Dillon High School, Lake View High School, J. V. Martin, Lake View Middle School, Gordon Elementary, East Elementary, Lake View Elementary, South Elementary, and Stewart Heights Elementary received benefits from the E2T2 Grant this year. Dillon School District Four was one of 7 districts in the state to be awarded the Enhancing Education Through technology (E2T2) Grant for the 2011-2012 school year.
The process began with one District Based Coach, Monica Rappe, and 10 school-based coaches collaborating together for enhanced technology training for teachers and students.
The school-based coaches this year included Sarah Stubbs, Liz Herlong, Marcia Bethea, Barbara Ann Hawkins, Eula Page, Rebecca Coleman, Ann Carlson, Gail Carter, Perry Ford, and Ruthann Wooten who each worked with 2 or 3 additional teachers at the school level throughout the year “Putting the Pieces Together” to improve student achievement in literacy, increase proficiency in technology for all students and teachers, and to build community involvement in education through training and information sharing.
The teachers participating in this year’s grant include: Crystal Huckabee-12th grade, Mary Claire Wiggins-11th grade, Daniel Dale, Andrew Ford, Erica Wright-8th grade, Tamece Dunson, Gaye Graham, Sheila Gerrald-8th grade, Teresa Stephens-7th grade, Katherine Cooper-Shaw-6th grade, Shay Wallace-5th grade, Sandy Webster-4th, 5th, & 6th grades, Terry Thompson-5K, Marcia Bryant-2nd grade, Sandra Watson-3rd grade, Jay Alderman, Bonne Rasmussen, Missy Rowell-3rd grade, Melissa Buffkin, Courtney Scott, Melissa Rowland-2nd grade, Terry Grimsley-2nd grade, and Holli Strickland-3rd grade.
These school-based coaches, along with the District Technology Coach worked with teachers in their school communities to create technology-infused classroom learning environments.
Laptop carts were purchased with grant funds for five elementary schools and two middle schools enabling a technology-rich learning environment for both teachers and students. Projects were created by K- 12 students including Spreadsheets with charts and graphs using Excel, using email for project-based activities, brochures and business cards with Publisher, Microsoft Paint activities for 5K students, a wide-variety of presentations using PowerPoint, Word documents for research projects and graphic organizers, turning PowerPoint into PhotoStory projects for PASS review, podcasts using Pixie 2, Discussions, Blogs, and Wikis with My Big Campus to facilitate and inspire student creativity and innovation while providing digital-age learning experiences and assessments. Due to the grant our student technology proficiency improved by 27% as measured on the state’s technology assessment.
Here are some of the comments received:
Principal comment:
The students’ consistent use of the laptops helped them improve their computer skills and provided motivation and integration to the subject content.”
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Teacher comments:
—“I am learning along with my students.” Teachers feel the technology enriched projects are helping their students “get ahead” by preparing them for higher expectations in the upper grades.
— “The students were very proud of their creativity in producing brochures and business cards. As an instructor, I saw the creativity level of my student’s sky rocket.”
— “Our teachers participating in the grant have been very excited about the hands on learning experience for themselves and their students while developing assignments to enhance the textbook lessons.”
— “The best thing about it is that it has pushed us to collaborate together using technology. We did things we probably would not have done without the grant.”
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Student comments:
— “Awesome, I love computers!”
— When told they were going to make a podcast to report their research results on Native Americans- “This will make research a lot more fun.”
— “I really enjoyed learning how to use Excel and PowerPoint. I have learned a lot of new things this year, and hopefully I will learn a lot more next year.”
— “I have learned so much this year using the Microsoft Office programs. I just love all the technology we have.”
— “I love making PowerPoints, can we do this with every new subject we learn?