Calexico High School takes a new direction using technology to improve academic achievement at the district.

Calexico High School teacher Eliseo Cerros’ U.S. History Class has joined the transformation of a normal U.S. History review into a fun and interactive experience using integrated technology, engaging questions, music and movement to boost their knowledge and test scores.

“The engagement level and excitement level is so much higher in his classroom now.  The immediate feedback empowers the students immediately,” said Cerros. Last Tuesday, Mr. Cerros quizzed the students in world history focusing this time in the Cold War and Communism. Students received a devise where they answered to the questions similar to a cell phone where they “texted” their answers in this group dynamic.

The new interactive program has been implanted at CHS thanks to an Enhancing Education through Technology Grant given to Calexico High. This grant program provides funding for grades four through eight to assist eligible local educational agencies in using technology to enhance teaching and learning.

The new classrooms incorporate hi-tech teaching tools such as wireless tablets, digital “chalk boards”, educational video gaming and student response systems called “clickers”. The “clickers” are the foundation of our digital classroom and give students the ability to “text” their answers anonymously and provide instant feedback to the teacher.

Because only the teachers know the student’s answers, this technology gives even the “shyest” student a voice, boosting participation to 100%. This devise can tell the student if their answer is right or wrong and also tell them the grade they will receive after the assignment is done. The teacher will later collect the devices and transfer the information to his computer.

Cerros mentioned that this program has increased the level of student achievement in his class now that his students have gained confidence through student engagement. “With this system, students can privately answer questions without the fear being laugh at so it makes it easier for our students to increase their academic achievement.”  Most of his student are level 3 ELD students that have improved their English skills and are doing well in this class.

The program has been in effect for the last four years at the High School but now it has been expanded to other departments at the High School. –By Mario Conde

If you walk by a classroom at Brownstown Elementary School and hear the sound of race cars, it doesn’t mean that students in the class are watching a NASCAR race. It’s all of the students finding out how they completed a class exercise.

That’s one of the fun ways that students at the school are learning through the use of equipment that the school district has obtained through a grant program.

BES Principal Angela Reeter, Brownstown Superintendent of Schools Doug Slover and Regional Superintendent of Schools Mark Drone were among those on hand as BES Title I teacher Keri Buscher and fifth-grade students demonstrated the use of the SmartBoard equipment obtained through a federal Enhancing Education Through Technology grant.

The Brownstown district was awarded a three-year grant, and is now in its second year of receiving grant funds. Reeter said that to date, the district has been able to use “upwards of $500,000” of grant monies for educational technology equipment.

Through the grant program, the district has been receiving interactive digital chalkboards, desktop and laptop computers and a variety of instructional digital resources. The grant also allows teachers to participate in professional development sessions, during which they learn to develop and use the district’s new technology resources.

During the demonstration, each of the fifth-graders had a race car, and their position in a race was determined by how quickly – and correctly – they answered questions with their Qwizdom connect remotes during a class exercise.

Using the SmartBoard equipment, Buscher and the students were able to complete the class exercise in about 15 minutes. Doing the old way, with paper and pencil, used to take 30-45 minutes, Buscher said.

The time-saving aspect is just one of the many benefits of the new equipment, Buscher said.

Another is the immediate response that both teacher and student get. “They know right away how they did on a question or an exercise,” Buscher said.

“They don’t have to wait two or three days to find out their grade,” added Kathy Brown, Title I aid.

Buscher said the use of the equipment also “makes the students more attentive. It’s keeps their attention better.

“When we do exercises, they are ready for the next question, and excited about performing well against their classmates,” she said.

“The students love it, because everything is presented in a different – and fun – way,” Buscher said. “It also makes teaching more fun.”

And while the new equipment requires more preparation time, she and Reeter said, the grant funds have provided the equipment that teachers can use to do the prep work at home on nights and weekends.

Currently, students in grades 2-6 at BES are using the new technology equipment. At the end of each school year, however, students in kindergarten and first grade are exposed to it, learning how to use it.

And those younger students pick it up quickly, Reeter said.

“They are technology-surrounded,” she said, explaining that children are becoming increasingly exposed to a variety of
technology devices at all ages.

“Our students know how to use it without any problems,” she said.

And the SmartBoards and other equipment the district received this year is a vast improvement over that which was used last year.

During the last school year, BES classes used a “robot,” with students having to direct their remotes correctly in order to have their answers recorded.

“It was frustrating for the students, because they might have had the answer first, but it didn’t get recorded because they didn’t aim (their remote) just right,” Reeter said.

In addition to using it for many classroom exercises, she said, the district staff can use the equipment to prepare students for state tests.

“We can use it for every subject, and also for reward activities,” Reeter said. “We have found a way to use it in every aspect.”

But, she pointed out, that doesn’t mean that the faculty wants to use it all of the time.

“If we used it for every subject, I think it would lose something. If you use it, say, two times a week, the students know that it’s something special,” Reeter said.
–By Rich Bauer

Local elementary school students are learning in a brand new way.

Teachers now have instant access to student comprehension data, before moving on to the next lesson. Students are able to put video gaming and text messaging to use, while grasping a new concept.

At Gray Elementary, chalkboards and paper handouts are things of the past. Students and teachers are embracing new technologies like wireless tablets, digital “chalkboards” and educational video games.

“A lot of times it’s hard to get students to stay totally engaged in what they are doing, but when they come into the computer lab and work with the Qtopia and other computerized programs similar to this they are totally engrossed in what they are doing,” said Gray Elementary Principal Cecil Patterson.

The result is kids are more focused on their work, interested in the lesson and doing better in school.

“If you look around, you didn’t see anyone that was misbehaving, everyone was participating, everyone was on task,” said Technology Teacher Marty Harrington.

Keeping everyone on task is easy for Harrington with the help of some 21st century technology.

Click here to read the full post.

New interactive technology funded by Newbury Rotary Club will help encourage healthy lifestyle choices among pupils

Primary school children will be encouraged to make healthy lifestyle choices by new interactive technology funded by Newbury Rotary Club.
The new technology called Qwizdom will be taken to schools across West Berkshire by the Life Education Centres Thames Valley’s mobile classrooms.
Qwizdom is an interactive piece of technology that teaches children about health, including how the body works, the importance of healthy diet and exercise and the risks of tobacco.

Click here to see the full post.

WESTMORLAND — If one listened closely, one could almost hear a pin drop in a highly attentive classroom.

The sound of learning with mostly silent electronic gadgets keeps Westmorland Union Elementary School teacher Michelle Padilla’s class “focused and interested in what’s going on.”

The school has equipped all 24 of its classrooms with Eno interactive white boards and QWIZDOM Student Response Systems through federal Title I — or Student Improvement Grant — funding, said principal and Superintendent Linda Morse.

The boards give teachers easy-to-use tools for classroom management and enhance lessons and activities with interactive games, online media and various educational resources, according to a press release.

The QWIZDOM Student Response System, or handheld “clickers,” collects data and gives full-scale assessments of student performance based on their responses to questions given by the teacher.

The clickers also help teachers with everyday tasks like taking attendance, using seating charts and selecting groups for classwork on top of having interactive lesson-based games, according to the release.

“A lot of teachers use PowerPoint in math or language arts lessons so this interactive board allows you to mesh the two together,” Morse said.

“They’re so used to video games and technology at home, now they can use that in the classroom,” she said.

Just less than a month into using the Eno boards, Padilla is already seeing a difference with her class.

“There’s a tremendous amount of volunteers now,” she said, adding that the doodads will help improve her teaching.

Her students agreed.

“It’s new. It makes me feel like I want to pay attention more,” said 12-year-old Alyssa Allen as her classmates worked on prime number factorization.

“It’s kind of hard,” Christopher Garcia, also 12, said after his turn writing on the mobile Eno response pad.

“It doesn’t show you the words so it’s like you’re blind,” he said.

“It’s pretty fun,” he said.

Click here to read the original post.

Chalkboards, paper handouts and pencils are being replaced by hand-held remotes, wireless tablets and laptops.

The Gulf county school district is paying for this classroom retrofitting at Wewahitchka Middle School with a government grant.

“Gulf County received the EETT grant which is a large technology grant to bring schools really into the 21st century as far as instruction,” said Principal of Wewahitchka Middle School, Pam Lister.

The school received 100 laptops, the Quizdom response systems and smart boards for every classroom.

“As a teacher, this has helped me keep students actively engaged. It’s not only a learning process but they feel like they’re playing and they come in excited every day to learn and work,” said 6th and 8th grade teacher, Carla Dunn.

Dunn’s classroom is equipped with Quizdom, an interactive learning system.

Ms. Wood’s 8th grade math students next door are reviewing for a test. At first glance is looks like the students are playing a home video game. When in reality, they’re learning math concepts like mean, median, range and mode.

“It has just heightened learning engagement like nothing I’ve seen. We had really student friendly classrooms, lots of cooperative learning, lots of hands on projects, nothing has caused students to want to come to school, be involved and be excited like the use of technology which is something they use every day. It’s the language they speak,” said Principal Lister.

This new technology has made its way into all of Gulf County’s schools.

Original story at NBC-Panama City.

These pictures show the Qwizdom hand-held student response devices and an innovation station in use.

students using the Qwidom handheld remotes

]]> http://qwizdomnews.com/2010/10/community-event-at-austin-isd/feed/ 17 http://qwizdomnews.com/2010/07/meet-dorie-glynn-winner-of-qwizdoms-largest-tweetaway-to-date/ http://qwizdomnews.com/2010/07/meet-dorie-glynn-winner-of-qwizdoms-largest-tweetaway-to-date/#comments Fri, 02 Jul 2010 18:51:48 +0000 admin http://qwizdomnews.com/?p=408 Dorie Glynn, a 2nd grade bi-lingual Math and Science teacher from Cypress, Texas, won Qwizdom’s largest tweetaway to date during ISTE 2010. This promotion “tweeted away” over $4,000 in education technology prizes including a complete classroom suite of Qwizdom products. Dorie was the first educator to correctly answer the tweetaway trivia question, “What are the three ways to enter the ‘How Do You Q?’ Contest?”

This past school year Dorie was able try out several different kinds of student response remotes in her classroom at Kirk Elementary thanks to a friend in a nearby school district. She is excited to have her own Qwizdom set of remotes, especially because of the text input feature.

Dorie has been an educator for six years. For the past five she was the school campus liaison to the district and recently made the transition into the classroom. This was her first ISTE (formerly NECC) conference. She recently received her Master’s Degree in Education with a Focus in Instructional Media.

Her classroom already features a SMART board and she uses technology in the classroom regularly. She plans to use the Qwizdom student response system “to ask on the fly questions to keep students engaged and track their understanding during class.”

Dorie will be taking home a complete classroom suite of Qwizdom products including the newest student response system, the Q6, a Q7 Presenter Tablet, Qwizdom Document Camera, Wiz Teach Tools, Connect Software, and a year of Premium Service.

Garcia celebrates his win at TCEA last Thursday with Qwizdom's Gretchen Herzog.

Austin High School teacher, Gil Garcia, (@giltron on Twitter) won over $2,000 in education technology for his multimedia film-making classroom. Garcia and his 11th and 12th grade students were “in the field” at the Texas Computer Education Association Conference, shooting their own news segments, when he found out he had won. As the first educator to correctly answer a trivia question posted to Twitter, Garcia and his budding reporters headed back to school (just down the road) with a full suite of classroom technology.

Garcia’s winnings include 24 electronic student response remotes (known as Q2s), which students use to respond to questions. The teacher presents questions on a screen, verbally, or by using paper-based activities, while the students respond via their remotes. The teacher‘s computer instantly receives the responses and records the results, thus allowing the educator to gauge students’ overall comprehension or to zero in on a struggling pupil.

In addition to the remotes, Garcia received a Qwizdom Q7 presenter tablet for interactive whiteboard control and instant question creation anywhere in the classroom. Customizable WizTeach tools for teachers and Connect Software are also part of the prize package. Connect Software tracks student progress by recording which state standards a student has mastered, as well as gathering data on pacing, performance analysis, predictors of success or failure and early identification of academically at-risk students.

Garcia, already a tech-savvy teacher with a multimedia classroom, told us he uses an iPhone application to control his presentations in class, so he’s looking forward to taking the Q7 presenter tablet for a spin.

“The other awesome thing about Qwizdom is that I can get to the silent help-seekers who never raise their hand, but need the extra attention,” Garcia says. “I want to put a response system in the hand of every student in my class so that during my lectures I can check in throughout to be sure everyone is understanding along the way.

“Now, I will be able to see, ‘Did I miss something here?’”

For more information on Gil Garcia, visit his Austin High School media arts blog.

AUSTIN, Texas – Most American educators are familiar with Qwizdom’s interactive classroom technology, but only those attending the Texas Computer Education Association Conference this February will have the unique opportunity to squeeze in hands-on time with the company’s newest hardware release – the Q6 student response system.

Available for pre-order in late march of this year, the Qwizdom Q6 Student Response System is unique in that it offers more opportunity for collaboration than with any previous system, including an easy-to-use keypad similar to a cell phone, text input and a larger LCD screen to view full responses. The small, ergonomic radio frequency remotes allow each student to communicate with the teacher from up to 328 feet away and are durability-tested to withstand the rigors of the classroom.

As the teacher presents questions on a screen, verbally, or by using paper-based activities, pupils enter responses with their remotes. The teacher‘s computer instantly receives the responses and records the results, allowing the freedom to easily manage and control the format and speed of the lesson. The instant response also allows the educator to gauge students’ overall comprehension or to zero in on a struggling pupil. In turn, a student is notified when their response has been received and can silently signal the teacher for help, easing the fear of judgment by peers or falling behind in class.

The device’s 1.8 × 1.5” LCD screen allows for up to 116 character input per transmission. Multiple mark, numeric, sequencing, rating scale, yes/no, fractional/decimal, multiple choice, true/false, and short answer questions are all supported by the Q6. Battery life is a year on average.

Software used with Q6 remotes is both PC and Mac-friendly, integrating easily with PowerPoint® and Keynote®. Additionally, Qwizdom Connect software works with hundreds of thousands of pre-made curriculum resource slides.