Sargent
Park School Joins the Network of
Innovative Schools
In 2002-2003 Sargent Park School joined 11 other Manitoba
schools as a member of Schoolnet’s Network of Innovative Schools.
As a member we received $10 000 to further the integration of
Information Communication Technologies at our school. As well we have an
opportunity to network with other NIS schools across Canada, share expertise and
ideas, collaborate on projects, and be promoted locally and nationally by the
NIS committee.
In October of 2002 our principal Fatima Mota, our assistant
superintendent Ruth Suderman, and our school librarian Donna Dawson traveled to
Mississauga, Ontario to attend the NIS national conference. At the conference,
they had the opportunity to attend many sessions and workshops on leading edge
technologies, to promote our school with a display at a sharing session, and to
make contact with teachers from across Canada.
The NIS website at http://www.schoolnet.ca/nis-rei/e/
now displays the event as a Virtual Institute with streaming video/audio
archives of some of the main speakers like Richard Worzel, Dr. Willard Dagget,
and Dr. Michael Fullan.
Trip Report
In November of 2002, the Sargent Park technology committee
submitted to Network of Innovative Schools a plan detailing our school’s
project for NIS this year, indicating how the grant money would be spent.
Bill Belsey the western area coordinator visited our school and assisted
us with developing our plan. NIS requested that our project showcase successful
models of ICT learning, that our school act as a mentor to at least 3 other
schools, that our teachers participate in professional development and that our
school be involved in research to assess the impact of ICT learning. Some
schools in NIS have planned a specific project such as a piloting the use of
PDAs in a classroom and researching the impact on student learning. Our school
decided that we would have all staff and students participate by each classroom
teacher naming a classroom project they would complete that would focus on
raising their own and/or their students’ technology literacy.
In conjunction with this most staff received time to attend professional
development in the area of technology. Teachers
have been attending inservices on Front Page, PowerPoint, Word, Digital Cameras,
Image Management, HyperStudio as well as learning software designed to assist
our special needs students such as Co-Writer and Write Out Loud.
Go to the chart above to find
details of the projects we have completed in the years we have participated in
the NIS grant program. For a preview take a look at these exciting examples.
http://www.wsd1.org/sargentpark/Communities2002/community.htm
http://www.wsd1.org/sargentpark/Cookbook2002/connecting_countries.htm
Trip Report
