INMAN- Take a tour of Kim Herron’s sixth-grade classroom at Inman Elementary School and you’ll likely find a classroom of students with their faces in laptops.
The students aren’t surfing the Web or chatting with one another, they are building light shows, PowerPoint presentations and class videos all using individual Apple Laptops made possible through the Inman School District’s one-on-one computer initiative. The laptops, and technology available through the computers, have become a way of learning and doing for Inman students and for teachers like Herron, they have opened up endless possibilities for instruction and learning.
“We still do paper and pencil things, too,” Herron said. “It’s all the pieces. But we want to teach to each kid’s learning style and stretch each kid’s learning style and we can do that with technology.”
The Inman school board approved laptop computers for elementary classrooms in 2007. Through a two-year, Technology Rich Classroom grant, the school was able to purchase accessories and support for the laptops and during the past three years, computers have been made available to students in the high school as well.
The district has become a model for technology-rich classrooms and teachers have found new ways to integrate the computers and technology into every subject and lesson.
“The computers don’t replace my teaching, they simply enhance it,” Herron said
Before leaving for Thanksgiving break, students in Herron’s class completed a project on the Revolutionary War, starting with basic research on the time period, speaking with time period experts through Skype, a free, Internet-based phone system, and compiling bibliographies using Web sites such as easybib.com.
Much of that segment involved text books and basic research skills, Herron said. It was the next part, the group presentations, that provided the students the freedom to use their technology skills. Once the projects are completed, the students will make Web pages showcasing their completed projects.
Herron said she is always trying to incorporate different skill sets and subject matters into each lesson and project. The projects are also opportunities for students to flex their problem-solving skills as many of the programs and applications are new to Herron and the students.
Fifth-grade teacher Linley Voboril said the district’s school board and the parents have been extremely supportive of the laptops and their uses in the classroom.
Read more about Herron’s class’s activities online at http://web.me.com/inmanelementary6h/6H2010/Welcome.html.
Inman, Kan. —
