DI Community Fund re-ups generosity to DIS tech program with $25,000 grant
An effort to put transformative technology in the hands of hundreds of elementary and middle school students is a worthwhile one, to be sure. But it is not without its cost, and a lofty one at that.
Beginning in 2014, Daniel Island School embarked on a new technology initiative, launching a pilot program incorporating Dell Chromebooks and the Google classroom. The test run was successful, and DIS classes adopting the platform became the envy of those stakeholders – teachers, students, and parents alike – hearing about its benefits second-hand.
“It has been amazing to see the growth of our teachers,” remarks DIS principal Marty French. “Technology definitely engages the students attention and the online resources are endless.”
For the 2015-16 school year, the program was rolled out on a wider scale. To fund the initial supply of Chromebooks, as well as hire a full-time technology instructional coach, the school’s PTA launched a targeted campaign. The Daniel Island Community Fund took notice and, impressed with the forward-thinking aim of the DIS tech initiative, agreed to match funds raised through the membership campaign, up to $50,000. The PTA met (and exceeded) that goal, and received the check from the Community Fund in September 2015.
“The $50,000 that DICF gave to DIS was quickly spent,” relates PTA vice-president Rindy Ryan, “and the Chromebooks purchased with that money have been enthusiastically integrated into the learning of both the students and families of DIS.”
As the technology program proved to significantly enhance the learning of students in grades five through eight, the school began turning its attention to equipping those in younger grades with the Chromebooks and access to the program’s resources. To that end, the DIS PTA inquired of the Community Fund’s interest in helping to further “feed” the tech initiative. And again DICF made funds available to help the students at DIS, with a check for $25,000 gifted to the PTA on April 13.
“Since the inception of the current technology program, the PTA has worked to fund DIS’ goal to have a Chromebook in front of each third- through eighth-grader,” attests Elizabeth Perkis, DIS PTA president. “The support of the DICF has accelerated this technology timeline by a year.” Perkis also says the initial DICF matching grant rallied PTA memberships beyond “wildest expectations.”
Stated Jane Baker, Vice President of Community Services for the Daniel Island Property Owners Association, “The Daniel Island Community Fund resident grants committee recognized the impact that our initial Chromebook technology contribution has made to the students and teachers at Daniel Island School, and felt that additional funding was warranted to put even more Chromebooks in the classrooms. We feel that this technology initiative makes our Daniel Island students even more competitive and prepared as they leave to go to High School.”
It is this recognition for which Mrs. French is especially grateful, to the DICF and the greater community, stating, “Thank you, Daniel Island, for your support of education. You are helping us provide a technology rich experience for our students. We are working with the best and brightest, and you are helping us ensure that they are ready to take on the world.”
THIRD GRADE MATH CONCEALED INSIDE CHROMEBOOKS AND CODING
Daniel Island School’s 2016 Teacher of the Year, Wendy Smith, has enthusiastically integrated the DIS tech initiative into her third grade classroom. Her students use the Chromebooks each day, their at-home work is done via the Google Classroom, and she has embraced her modern-minded students’ fascination with technology.
For instance, math is no longer just math. Her students are actually writing their own coding instructions as part of the curriculum, using a program called “Scratch.”
“It’s helping us with math in, like, a fun way, because it uses coding, which is really fun to do,” observes third grader Jill Piwowarski. “And we have to figure out the math problem to be able to do it.”
A few of the students have used Scratch in outside coding camps and courses, but for many, this was their introductory year. And they are lightning-fast learners. In short order, they were not only coding to create their own animated math problems; they were also adding music and voiceover.
“If you ever walk past our room, you might hear strange noises,” warns Smith of the audio added on what is known as Tech Tuesday. “They show me how to do some things! It’s kind of like, I knew a little bit, and gave it to them, and then they can learn it so much faster than I can.”
Students appear to be making a real connection between an interest – or even future career – in coding, and the need for a solid foundation in math. Underscoring this relationship, third grader Tyson Hollond points to his Chromebook, remarking, “If you go to the operators part, it says ‘blank number plus number, something minus something, something times something, or something divided by something understanding.’”
Mrs. Smith concurs with her young coder, and reminds the entire class of the far-reaching benefits of their “back-end” tech experience: “You do a lot more than you even realize, which will be awesome when you get to middle school, and when they talk about something you can relate to it. You can just pull back from Scratch, ‘oh, yeah, that’s when we had to do x-value and y-value.’”
This is truly shareable learning, as the students not only craft their own arithmetic mini-lessons, but also search those created by their peers. “You can choose ‘top Scratch projects’ or ‘top Scratch studios,’ and the studios have a whole bunch of different games in them, or projects,” explains third grader Cullen Sweeney, adding that this has changed how he practices math. “You’re not just writing or typing in answers. You’re putting in lines of code.”
Does it even feel like they’re doing math when they’re doing this? The resounding reply from the class: “NO!” (Well, one student said, “kind of.” It is still school, after all.)