Annandale students will be on the cuting edge when it comes to technology this school year thanks to the efforts of Annandale Middle School staff led by principal Tim Prom and school district business manager Rick Pullen. Because of them, the district will receive a $150,000 federal Enhancing Education Through Technology grant that will put Smart Boards in nearly every classroom at AMS and Bendix Elementary. When students go back to school Tuesday, Sept. 2, they will be greeted by the interactive white boards that are supposed to increase their engagement in learning. Giant touch-screen computers that link to the internet, Smart Boards provide information on practically any subject. At their fingertips "First of all, it gets kids more involved in their education," Prom said. "Second, they can get so much more in-depth on a subject and it’s all at their fingertips." District custodians started installing the Smart Boards last week. More will arrive in the fall until there are boards in every kindergarten through fourth-grade classroom at Bendix plus one in each of the art and music rooms. AMS will have one in every fifth- through eighth-grade core classroom, plus two in the special education department and one in art. The high school will get eight. Some of the boards will be purchased with money from the district’s capital budget. That’s a total of 53 new Smart Boards, 33 obtained through the grant and another 20 that will be bought with district funds. Added to about 14 boards already in use, the grand total is about 67. "Everyone is very excited," Bendix principal Tracy Reimer said. "Last year our fourth grade had Smart Boards and they just took off with it. They (teachers) were great about sharing with the other staff what they could do with them, including manipulating shapes and putting math curriculum on the boards. By the end of the year, everyone wanted one." Pullen and Prom took on the time-consuming task of writing the grant in December. In March they got word from the Minnesota Department of Education that they had been turned down. Four weeks ago, they got an e-mail from the state saying they’d like to reconsider Annandale’s application. ‘Pretty lucky’ "I feel pretty lucky," said Prom, who had never written a grant of that size before. The school district started investing in Smart Boards about three years ago. The first board it bought was for a computer applications lab at the middle school. Two years ago the district bought three more at a cost of around $3,000 each for the high school math department. Last year, Annandale got a one-time shot of state aid meant for technology purposes that put 10 more in the classroom. Several went to the Bendix fourth grade. In addition to the Smart Boards, every student at AMS and Bendix will receive a handheld student response system. Similar to a remote control with the look of a calculator with a screen, the handheld device allows students to respond to teachers’ queries quickly and confidentially without leaving their seats. Teachers can use them to quiz, poll, assess and gauge students’ understanding. Teaching aid "It allows teachers to check for understanding, to see if they need to go back and review a concept or move on," Prom said. Part of the grant money will go toward staff development so teachers can learn how to get the most out of the new equipment. Fourth-grade teacher Brian Atkinson, who had a board in his classroom last year, said in an interview last fall that he could store an entire day’s curriculum on the computer, and when it came time to access it, he could do it with the touch of a finger. He used the Smart Board in math to introduce students to tools like protractors and compasses without having to draw a crude picture on the board. When it came time for a lesson in geography, he had hundreds of maps at his fingertips that he could manipulate, draw on or enlarge. As for programs, the Smart Board comes with a variety that can be put on any computer without the district having to buy multiple licenses. Additional software can be downloaded for free from the Smart Board web site. Staff can also access lessons that other teachers have created for their classrooms using the Smart Board. Atkinson called it "a big sharing pot," and by the fall nearly every student and teacher in the Annandale School District will be privy to it. "What you can do with these is endless," Prom said.
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