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New Brighton Elementary students reach their full potential
Overview
New Brighton Elementary School is a low-income school with a population of 730 students. The classrooms are organized into open pods, each comprised of three to four smaller classrooms. The special needs students are in mixed, co-teaching classrooms with one mainstream educator and one special needs educator, one of whom is Jodi Zuchelli. While funding may be lacking, there is no shortage of passion for educational excellence in Jodi’s special needs class.
The challenge
Each of the students in Jodi’s special needs class learns in a unique way due to varying disabilities that range from autism to speech impairment. Jodi was challenged in connecting with so many types of learners at once while keeping them focused on lessons. Since Jodi’s special needs classroom is an open pod, the learning environment was very distracting, especially for the students with attention deficit disorder. Jodi said, “Every time a class left the pod or a student walked by, at least one student was sidetracked. Constant interruptions made it very difficult to make progress with our lessons.”
Everyday, Jodi’s students were also challenged to fit in with their peers. Since the classrooms were mixed, the special needs students were often too intimidated to answer questions out of fear of embarrassment in front of their classmates.
The solution
When asked about the decision to purchase interactive technology, Rob Lee, Director of Technology for the New Brighton school district, said, “We’ve wanted to implement an interactive whiteboard solution for some time now. But, funding is always a challenge. The Classrooms for the Future grant gave us the jump start that we needed to get the ball rolling with PolyVision.”
While evaluating the different interactive technologies available, Rob listened to presentations from a variety of vendors. He said, “We knew that this was going to be a major investment for our district and we wanted to make the right choice. PolyVision, without a doubt, won us over. The ēno interactive whiteboard is an effective solution that is extremely user-friendly. As a former classroom teacher, I knew that ease of use could not be emphasized enough. Our district needed a solution that all staff and students could use and, based on our research and recommendations from colleagues, we felt that ēno was the best choice. The board’s Forever Warranty™ gave us additional confidence in our decision to invest in eno.”
Dr. Marjory Warnes, Director of Student Services, and Rob worked together to effectively utilize stimulus funds and provide teachers and students
with the opportunity to experience 21st Century teaching and learning. PolyVision ēno boards were installed in half of the classrooms in New Brighton Elementary School, with plans to outfit every classroom in the district with ēno by 2012.
The benefits
From the Technology Director’s point of view, the best part about ēno is that it requires no cables or wires and the technology is driver-based. Thanks to eno’s Bluetooth® enabled stylus, installation was effortless for the New Brighton School District. And, according to Rob, PolyVision has become a long-time partner rather than a one-time vendor. “With PolyVision, support continues long after the sale. They have provided one of the best hands-on training and professional development experiences I have ever participated in as a teacher or an administrator.”
From Jodi’s point of view, she witnessed dramatic changes in her classroom from the first day she started using ēno, or “Polly”, as her students call it. She said, “The first time we used Polly, my students didn’t know what to expect. They had never seen anything like it before. As I navigated through the tools, making a few mistakes along the way, I was surprised by how captivated they were. When I would touch the wrong spot on the magnetic strip, they would immediately point out where I needed to touch the board. Their increased attention and unwavering focus was remarkable to behold.”
Jodi has found that it’s much easier to differentiate instruction using ēno.She creates lessons with just a few clicks by grabbing images from the Internet and dropping them into RM Easiteach® software. Jodi keeps the entire class on-task by calling students up to work on Polly together while she practices skills with another small group. She said, “Every morning, I display the lunch options on Polly. The students vote for their lunch choice and then we turn that information into a graph. We interpret the graph and do some problem solving with the data. We also use RM Easiteach to count coins on Polly. Students come up to the board, draw the touch points on the coins and count to find the answer.”
Jodi has never seen her students so eager to participate. The children who used to be reluctant to answer questions are now more confident and willing to try new things. “We pull names to decide whose turn it is to come up to Polly,” said Jodi. “If students are not paying attention, which is now very rare, they will lose their turn.” She continued, “All eyes are glued to the lessons because every student wants a chance to come to the board. Before ēno, my students couldn’t run out of the classroom fast enough when the final bell rang! Now, they beg to stay after school daily so they can use Polly. They are eager to practice spelling and math all of the time.”
Jodi’s students delight in the opportunity to use Polly to share what they know with their classmates. Most importantly, they come to class each morning excited to learn and they maintain a positive attitude throughout the day’s lessons. Jodi concluded, “PolyVision technology has transformed the way teaching and learning takes place in my classroom. My special needs students are much more engaged now that we have tools and resources that allow me to cater to their individual learning needs.”
In Jodi Zuchelli’s class, ēno is so much more than technology—it’s Polly, the teacher’s pet and the students’ best friend.
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