Parent/Teacher project

Dear Parents

Welcome to the TECH SPOT, our school’s industrial arts and technologies blog! The purpose of this blog is to inform and involve parents in the fundraising efforts that will be a huge help in the equipping of not only our technologies classes, but in all our classrooms. I’m sure there those of you out there who have concerns about the need and use of technology for our students in the classroom. I assure you that our desire to be “wired” in the classroom (connected to the Internet with the computers needed to use this resource) is not just to be like “every other school”, but is based in the true benefits to the educational experiences of your children. I would like to make you aware of the positive effects technology can have in the classroom when used appropriately.

An example of the equipment we are seeking is something called an electronic white board. Some of you will recognize the brand name, Smart Board! This is an incredibly useful device that works like a regular white board except it is connected to a computer, allowing students and teachers to communicate and contribute information in written form and also allows printing of information written on the board to be printed on a printer. The are many uses for this equipment, but one great use is to transfer notes that are written on the board to printed handouts for students to keep for studying.

To use the white board technology, portable computers are needed. As a technologies instructor I am convinced of the need of your children to be prepared for the advanced world of business and technology they will be moving into in a few years. Computers are a basic part of our world. Helping our students understand their application and the endless possibilities of their power, has to be a central part of preparing them for the real world outside our school and your homes.

Additionally, we believe that connection to the internet through a school maintained and monitored network is essential for reaching our technological goals. Beside the wealth of research and practical information available on the World Wide Web, the communication possibilities are endless. An example of a practical use of this communication power is the ability for parents to know exactly what is being taught in the classrooms their children attend. Since teacher will post each day the assignments for the class, parents can also know how better to help student with homework and, if their children have homework (no more “I forgot to write down the assignment” from your child when you ask him if he has homework).

Lastly, as the world we live in gets more technologically advanced, our children are more and more conditioned to salient information from the Media. Television, movies, and other media spend large amounts of money to capture the attention of our children. As educators, one of the tasks of teaching is to first capture the attention of our students. We compete with other media and interests. The proposed technologies for our classrooms can go far in helping us with this. Another current understanding about how students learn, contributed by the educational psychologist, Lev Vygotsky is called scaffolding. This is the process of finding out where a student’s developmental level is and teaching them from there. Technology in the classroom makes this much more possible. If you would like to learn more about the research and instructional use of technologies and why they work with students, the following web site may be of help to you. www.ndt-ed.org.

We are all working toward the same goal; to prepare our children for the real world and help launch them from our school and your home as competent and capable, ready to take on any challenge and carrying the skills to meet those challenges. Thank you for your support with this endeavor. I am honored to be on your team.

Thank you for your support,

Jonathan English

Industrial Arts and Technology Chairman