School board takes technology tour in elementary school

by Angie Asam-Staff Writer

The Onaway Area Community Schools Board of Education met Tuesday evening for a workshop meeting. The first item of business on the agenda was to take a technology tour in the elementary school.

Elementary principal Mindy Horn suggested the board take a look at the technology being used in elementary classrooms. Second-grade teacher Lisa Dean and fifth-grade teacher Jen Badgero took time to stay after and give the technology tour in Badgero’s classroom.

The first piece of technology they showed the board was the MimioVote system they use during math. The math series being used at the elementary is currently in a weekly reader-type format, where the students get packets of information instead of using a textbook. Last year teachers used document cameras along with laptops and projection systems to put the work on the board and teach students. This kept the teacher tied to the desk while teaching students for the most part.

The MimioVote has helped change that. “This was the math lesson that I did today. When I go into it, a video lesson automatically starts which pre-teaches the lesson. We always do that before we do the lesson. Following the lesson the system puts a quiz up on the board,” Dean explained.

Each member of the school board was given a keypad to key in their answers to the quiz, just as Dean’s second-graders had earlier in the day. The keypad has letter choices A through E as well as a check and an X for use on different styles of questions.

The quiz is instantly scored as each student, or in the case of Tuesday evening, board member had a corresponding numbered keypad. After each question the teacher puts the correct answer in and then can pull up a pie graph showing how students did on the quiz.

Once students are done taking the quiz the teachers can look at the gradebook to see how each student did as well as see how the class did on each question. The teacher then has instant feedback to know if the whole class struggled on one particular question that they need to go over it again. They are also able to immediately help those that may have struggled on the topic that day.

“We know who needs more work on a lesson right away and we can immediately take those students and work with them,” said Dean. In the past the teacher would have had to grade quizzes by hand and wait until the next day to help students who may have struggled.

“So in the time that it would have taken the kids to do it on paper it is already graded. The third grade, Erica (Gildner) was showing me, at the beginning of the year the students take math placement tests and they’re long. There is like four or five pages of math problems and it usually takes about a week to grade them. Well they gave the kids the paper tests and when they were done, gave them the clickers, and without even putting questions up, had the students input their answers. The tests were graded right away, teachers were able to graph results and they were able to meet with the second-grade team and let them know students were on top of everything but fractions,” said principal Horn. Normally, with those tests graded by hand and teachers having to do an item analysis to see which questions kids struggled with, it would have taken a couple of weeks to focus studies.

“Now they have had all this extra time, before the MEAP test even starts, to go back and reteach and review those fractions that they are going to see in a couple of weeks on the test. We wouldn’t have had time for that before,” said Horn.

Badgero offered another way the technology has helped her, “During guided practice I used to have the kids write on individual whiteboards but I always had kids looking at other’s whiteboards, just cheating, so I didn’t know who needed the extra help. With this system I have the kids hide their clicker so no one can see what answer they choose and no one can cheat,” she said.

“So, everyday students are getting their math lesson digitally first, it comes on and it is like a little cartoon. They watch that, they like that and they are engaged so the teacher can be floating around the room and as soon as the lessons are done, all the classrooms in grades two through five take their quiz that they would have taken on paper,” said Horn.

The board was interested in how the kids were responding to which the teachers and administration replied “they love it.”

Badgero also showed the board her interactive board and how kids can use it. Dean also showed them how Airserver works, as she can project her Ipad over her laptop and through the projector. “It gets me up from my desk, away from the document camera and interacting with the students. I take a photo of the page students are working on and we go through it with my writing answers on the Ipad,” said Dean.

New technology has also helped speed up Dibels testing that is done

three times a year with all students. A process that normally took two weeks took two days this year. “Usually we are scrambling to get any title time in before the MEAP, we are like a week and a half ahead of schedule right now. I think over the course of the year we will get a month of title time back,” said Horn.

All teachers in the building, including secondary, have laptops, document cameras and projectors in their rooms and all but two teachers in the building have Ipad’s they earned for completing a class. Horn said it is interesting as teachers continue to find new ways to use the technology.

The next step is to be able to use the MimioVote assessment tool in other subject areas as well. Teachers are learning to develop their own tests that can be used on the system. Math quizzes students are currently doing are provided as a part of the district’s math series.