Freeport School District technology questionnaire

These are the replies from some districts to the Newsday questionnaire regarding the use of new technologies in their classrooms.

Some of the answers are elaborate, and have not been edited or reduced. Some districts did not answer the questions directly.

Smarttables- Freeport is piloting two Smarttables for use in special education classrooms with a plan to deploy them in more classrooms in the future. The table supports learning thorough a different method by allowing several students to actually touch the screen to move objects, words and pictures for classification, completing sentences and solving math problems. Teachers have begun training in both the use of the content that has been created by Smart Technologies and creation of their own specialized lessons. Smartboards-We have focused on placing Smartboards in all FHS and Dodd core subjects, ESL classrooms and Special Education classrooms.

Some Smartboards have also been placed in elementary schools. This was done to support student learning though varied delivery methods. Professional development for infusing this visually rich medium into lessons which can support all learning types has taken place and continues to take place. Using the Smartboard has fostered collaboration among teachers.

They participated in collegial learning groups to share expertise and curriculum ideas for Smartboard use. iPod Carts-The district purchased 3 iPod carts consisting of 25 iPods, audio recorders, speakers and a Mac computer placed in each cart. They were placed at Atkinson, Dodd and FHS. The first group of students to use the carts were those students who needed support to develop proficiency using English language.

Teachers were in either the ESL or the ELA departments. Students were taught how to create multi-media podcasts. In creating the podcasts, students were required to make a plan for their podcast, create the product and then reflect for themselves on the quality of the product. Doing this allowed students to hear, review and then revise the podcast focusing on increased English language skills as well as the classroom curriculum. This year the use of the iPod cart is being extended to teachers in other subjects.

Document Cameras-Document cameras have been placed in many classrooms throughout the District. The cameras connect through an LCD projector and allow a teacher to show a document such as a textbook, a real object, or a sample of student work to all students at the same time. Use of this device has created a collaborative classroom where all students can easily view first-hand resources.

Classroom Response Systems-Classroom Response Systems, or "clickers" have been placed in all elementary, middle and high school buildings. These systems allow teachers to present a question to students and get an immediate response from each student. The results based on student "correctness" can be shown in a graph form to the class. This not only allows students to see how they did in an anonymous way, but the results of these responses can be used by teachers to inform instruction. Student online testing for math- This is the third year that students from pre-K through grade 3 have used computers to assess their math ability. The product we used was Children's Progress. For grades pre-k through 2, we have been able to assess students in both English and Spanish. Teachers have been trained to use the results to inform teaching, place students in groups and look at student progress for the year.

Fastt Math- For the past two years, the District has used the Fastt Math computer program in classrooms from Grades 1-6. This program is used to track a student's progress in attaining the basic math skills of adding, subtracting, multiplying and dividing. The program is based on research which shows students must reach an "automaticity" level when using math facts in order for them to be successful at a more advanced level of mathematics. Teachers were trained to monitor results for each student who needs support in these areas. Students go on the program 2-3 times per week to work in their own area of need.

Teacher webpages-This year the District will begin work on every teacher in the District creating a webpage.