Summary

Sylvan Union School District was awarded a competitive EETT grant for the 2005-2006 school year. Our program focuses on enhancing student learning in the areas of science and social studies, at grades seven and eight, through the use of technology. Our goals are to improve the students’ abilities in identifying concepts and retaining those concepts. To insure success our program focuses on professional development, access to resources, and utilizing current technology’s ability to share information in a wide variety of formats. Our efforts involve changing the way teachers teach in and out of the classroom, the work students produce, and the way we communicate between, students, teachers, and parents. We started our program with teachers who had minimal experience using technology in the classroom. However, their enthusiasm and hard work has resulted in a very successful program that is spreading to other teachers and schools within the district.

Our professional development program includes utilizing certificated grant coordinators at each site, one from science and one from the social studies. In addition, we have a strong partnership with our CTAP6 (California Technology Assistance Program – Region 6). We have provided them with valuable insight into the successful application of technology in the classroom, and in return, they have conducted over 50 hours of professional development for our targeted teachers. Finally, there is dedicated support for the program and complete agreement with the program vision from our Superintendent, Dr. John Halverson and our Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction, Martha Gausman.

Our 29 teachers and over 1700 students in the target classrooms are using cutting-edge technologies which include wireless mobile laptops, LCD projectors, and blue tooth technologies that allow teachers in the classroom to control their teacher station from anywhere in the classroom. Every day teachers are using digital presentations in the classroom that include animation, video, and audio to support the adopted state instructional materials. Finally, students, teachers, and parents have begun using the new technologies to communicate, share, and provide instructional materials in and outside of the regular classroom day. All targeted students have email accounts and access to their teacher’s online Moodle course. Moodle is an OpenSource online learning system that provides an avenue for teachers to provide presentations, resources, and other learning materials. In addition, teachers are publishing classroom information and individual student grades which are accessible via a web browser, an Internet connection, a password and username. Teachers continue to invest considerable amounts of their time designing instructional resources for their students. They are sharing these resources with their peers, and are seeing positive results of their efforts including, most importantly, the learning taking place by their students.

We ARE Enhancing Education Through Technology!