Hand-held quiz machines help teachers know whether students have comprehended

Tag : hand tools
"It's a huge test case for the county," said GeorgeArlotto, the school system's chief performance officer, aftertouring the facility and chatting with teachers. "It's thefirst time we've had a school so top to bottom full of technology,but we believe this is the direction we're headed in."
The district spent $2.5 million to provide the school withfurniture and all the high-tech equipment.
Amid their preparations -- decorating classrooms and writing lessonplans -- teachers attended seminars all week to train on the newequipment.
Instead of traditional chalkboards, classrooms come equipped withwhite interactive Smart Boards -- essentially huge touch screens atthe front of the class that can be used to show videos, testquestions, Web sites and photos.
Every teacher has also been issued lanyard microphones to amplifytheir voices through their rooms' built-in speakers. The goal is tokeep students focused even when there are audible distractions suchas airplane flyovers and lawn mowers.
"It also means less sick days when teachers aren't strainingtheir voices, trying to be heard in a class full of kids,"Principal Diana Strohecker said.
Hand-held quiz machines will allow teachers to pose multiple-choicequestions to their students and see the results instantly, so theyknow whether students have comprehended the lesson before they moveon.
Another new gadget in Nantucket's classrooms is a document camera,which teachers describe as "an overhead projector on steroids." Thecameras, which beam images to the Smart Boards, allow teachers toavoid dealing with the kryptonite of school photocopiers:transparency sheets.
"Ugh . . . transparencies, the bane of our existence. I can'ttell you how many times they have messed up our copiers,"Assistant Principal Sara Pickens said. Now with the documentcamera, she said, teachers who encounter an interesting book ordrawing won't have to make a transparency so the whole class cansee.
Technology aside, the staff at Nantucket has also had to deal withthe logistics of opening a school.
"It's the little things you don't realize or think about untilyou've done it before," said kindergarten teacher Megan Spirk,25. "The school started out with no name, no mascot, not evena mailing address."
The mascot, a starfish, and the school colors, a bright teal andCaribbean blue, were decided by the teachers. And the school'sname, Nantucket Elementary, was voted on weeks ago by parents.There were already four area schools with "Crofton" in their name,Strohecker said.
"It gets a little confusing," she said, so parents decided to namethe school after its address on Nantucket Drive.
The school is expecting about 680 students, most from Four Seasonsand Crofton, two nearby schools that have been crowded.
As teachers spread throughout the school Monday for their firstofficial day of work, they talked about feelings of excitement andenergy. A few also admitted to some jitters leading up to the firstday of school Wednesday.
"I think there's a little bit of nervousness because as thenew school, everyone's going to be watching and seeing what happenshere and how we do," said kindergarten teacher Megan Taylor,25. "But that adds a lot of excitement to everything, too.It's going to be a really great year."