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News from Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation
For Immediate Release
Contact: Kay Brookshire, 483-4644, or Lila Metcalf, 241-3667

Education Foundation Grants Bring More Technology to Classrooms

From Kindles for reading intervention to iPads for special needs students, technology is bringing added tools to teachers' classrooms for students who need extra help and attention.

Grants awarded this spring by the Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation will bring more technology tools to classrooms, with several grants for equipment or software that offers new approaches for teaching children with special needs or who are falling behind in their work.

Education Foundation grants are also introducing more student response systems, or clickers, to classrooms, allowing teachers to make learning interactive and to instantly assess student comprehension of the material presented.

At Willow Brook Elementary School, Stephanie Hope's work with reluctant readers motivated her to seek a grant for $2,000 to purchase electronic readers. She will use the Kindles to engage third and fourth grade at-risk students in the reading process.

"It is appealing to kids who are not drawn to the book on the shelf," said Hope, a reading specialist. "It is another way to reach them, to motivate them and help make reading interesting."

She added, "I have a Kindle. My son has a Kindle, and the response from children around school when he brought it in for independent reading was that they are very curious and inquisitive."

The electronic reader allows students to highlight important parts of a book, share comments with discussion groups, and to look up words they don't understand in the built-in dictionary, Hope said. Reading specialists meet each day with small groups of at-risk readers, no more than six, who will use the electronic readers next school year.

With a $6,700 grant, Jackie Laney and Leigh Monger, fifth and sixth grade special education teachers at Robertsville Middle School, will have 10 iPads to assist special needs students in learning reading comprehension skills. Free apps, as well as use of the internet, sound capabilities through headphones, touch screen capabilities, and camera and recording features will be used to help students with their individualized needs.

"Throughout this year, in conferences dealing with technology in general or dealing with assistive technology specifically for special needs students, iPads have been the topic of conversation," Julia Kirk, who facilitates curriculum and technology integration at Robertsville, wrote in seeking the grant.

The Oak Ridge Public Schools Education Foundation awarded $30,513 in 10 grants, after the grants committee reviewed 24 grants requesting a total of $96,000. With a $30,000 budget for grants, the committee recommended grants focused on technology enhancements. Three Jefferson Middle School grants are for student response systems, or clickers, which are compatible with the assessment program that the Education Foundation funded for the Oak Ridge Schools.

Eventually, as more student response systems are added to classrooms across the district, teachers will be able to deliver benchmark tests simultaneously, allowing prompt remediation where student learning gaps are discovered.

Melissa Fox, Jefferson fifth grade teacher, tested a demonstration set of student response clickers this year and found the system to be a great advantage in her classroom, both in saving time and gathering immediate information on student grasp of the subject matter.

Previously, she had to take classes to the computer lab to use Study Island, a web-based tool for instruction, practice and assessment. With the clickers, she can use Study Island in the classroom, observing immediately on a classroom projection screen or her computer how students respond to material she is teaching or to practice tests. For tests, she can have student's grades immediately when they use the response system to answer.

Fox said she hoped students didn't think of the clickers as something to play with, and they didn't. "They are really good about following directions. It is exciting for them," she said. "They are very technology oriented."

Grants of $1,769 each will provide student response systems for Fox and seventh grade social studies teacher Bill Graves. A grant of $3,590 will provide clickers for Jefferson band director Dale Pendley for use in teaching music theory, notes and staff, and pedagogy of music.

Other grants were awarded to: