Achievements:

In September Daryll Gervais from Manitoba Grassroots was invited to visit our school for a lunch hour meeting with teachers. With a large turnout, many teachers who had never done Grassroots projects in the past committed to trying at least one this year.  Teachers who had completed Grassroots in the past decided to try using different technologies in their projects this year.

Our school website displays the numerous Grassroots projects completed this year. These websites include:

Selected teachers attended the Manitoba Science and Technology Achievement Lunch, which acknowledged our schools participation in the Grassroots Program this year.

A technology display case for Technology Awards was set up in our school library. Display award letters from Network of Innovative Schools, Prime Minister Teaching Awards, and Grassroots Congratulations letters can be found on display,

Our school newsletter and website have regularly kept parents in the community informed about our involvement in NIS and the projects which students and teachers are developing.

Two students and their teacher attended the Minister’s Forum on Diversity and Culture in Ottawa. Students were invited to share their cultural history and family story with other students from across Canada and the many delegates from all levels of government. Our students showcased their PowerPoint projects on their Family’s Heritage. At this forum, which was held at the Museum of Civilization, Senator Laurier LaPierre, Secretary of State Jean Augustine, and the Honourable Sheila Copps, Minister of Canadian Heritage, talked with our students and were impressed by the students, projects which explored their own family’s heritage. These students have been asked to post their electronic projects on the National Histoica website. Students will be sharing electronic projects at the Canadian National History Association dinner in Winnipeg which Duff Roblin will be attending. Students  will be displaying projects at the Regional Heritage Fair at the Caboto Centre May 8^th.

This year our NIS plans focused on increasing the technology skills of all students and staff through professional development, migration to Microsoft Word for word processing, and by encouraging teachers and students to design and complete an increased number of classroom projects in an electronic format such as PowerPoint. Upgrading classroom computers, adding projectors and larger screen monitors, scanners, and digital cameras have all contributed to the growth of technology in this school year. During the past year there has been an increase in both quantity and quality of the technology which students and teachers are using in their classroom curricula this year.

Next year we hope to change the focus to specific areas while continuing to support the staff and students as a whole in the growth of technology skills. Some projects being explored presently are using PDA’s in the classroom, video production, increased use of programs for special needs students such as Co-Writer and Write Out Loud, and developing our research into our students’ progressive development of technology skills. 

Innovation:

This year the purchase of two digital cameras capable of capturing mpgs and gifs, allowed students to easily make claymations and to insert videos into PowerPoint and Web Page projects. Sound files of students reading and talking were inserted into several projects. Three classes made electronic portfolios to share with their parents during Student-Led Conferences, which used video and sound in some capacity.

The purchase of two new scanners including one for the Grade 7 classroom enhanced the students PowerPoint presentation about their families immigration to Canada for this year’s Heritage Fair.  The number of family photos scanned this year quadrupled over the number used in last year’s projects.  This allowed for more dialogue between students and their family members about their families’ heritage.

Half of the Grade 5 students presented science fair projects with PowerPoint at the school level. Of the seven students going on to the Divisional fair, four PowerPoint presentations were sent.  There were few other projects at the Division fair who used the computer to present their projects.

Front Page 2002 was installed on two library computers and this enabled the librarian and students to begin making web pages in the Library for the first time.

This year all 8 classes of Grade 7 and 8 students presented Heritage Fair Projects using technology. The gym, which in previous years was a sea of backboards was changed this year into a sea of computers plus 2 viewing stations and 2 projector viewing stations. Networking 55 computers in the gym, which had challenges in terms of electrical and network drops, demonstrated the change to new technologies at Sargent Park.  Two students with their presentations on laptops went on to present at a Regional Fair in Ottawa in April. Several students will be presenting their electronic projects to the Canadian National History Association Meeting in Winnipeg on May 1.

Four students are taking their electronic projects to our local Regional Fair on May 8.

A Grade 7 Math Lab has been added to the school consisting of 35 networked computers running the TLE program. These computers were acquired from Computers for Schools and Libraries and were networked by the school technician. Both the Grade 8 and the Grade 7 math labs were improved with additional electrical drops provided by our School Division this year.

Newer computers were added to most classrooms this year. These computers allow faster connection to the Internet for research and email. As well, the Office program in each computer allowed students to work more efficiently in the classroom. Thirteen new Dell computers were added and 7 new laptops. These computers went into classrooms which previously only had 386 and 486 computers. Network cards were purchased for the laptops and several hubs were purchased so that teachers could continue to run both the older and new computers on the limited number of drops in the classrooms. These hubs were also useful in networking the gym for the Heritage Fair.  The laptops were refurbished computers purchased through Computers for Schools and Libraries. There was limited availability of refurbished laptops this year but it is anticipated that more will be purchased next year. Eventually the laptops will be pulled together into a COW, Computers on Wheels that can be used when and where needed by classrooms. Two large screen 29” monitors were set on trolleys and to be easily moved and borrowed by teachers who have students presenting projects in the classroom.  A portable second LCD projector was purchased along with a portable sound system.

A media fair was held in March to enable students to make improvements in their PowerPoint projects under more individual guidance in small groups. An introduction to Video was attended by interested students. An article in the school division’s newspaper stated that “students spent the afternoon attending workshops on such diverse media forms as Video, PowerPoint presentations, Web page production and newspaper publishing.

Three Palm Pilots and keyboards were purchased. The school technician uses one for to-do lists, inventory notes, future planning notes, beaming notes or schedules to and from other Palm users. One of the teachers piloting the Palm Pilot uses it for taking minutes at her Grade Team meetings. Next year she hopes to do a project with a small group of Grade 9 students and use the PDAs in the classroom. She excited to research the effect this will have in terms of student motivation and learning.

Last year our school piloted the Junior High Electronic Report Card for the Division. This year the report card was  fully implemented and the teachers served as a  resource for other schools implementing the report card for the first time. Last year only 4 Elementary teachers used the Electronic Report Card. This year all 14 elementary teachers at Sargent Park completed reporting using the Elementary Report Card.

Previously Microsoft Works for all word processing. This caused problems with compatibility between versions and conflicts when sending homework between school and home and as attachments to other students and schools.  The entire school shifted to Microsoft Word this year. This was a big change for teachers and students alike but has allowed more mobility of files between classroom, library, computer labs and home computers. 

Promotion:

For the Heritage Fair a 2’ by 8’ banner was designed  which proclaims Sargent Park School as a member of the Network of Innovative Schools. The banner was displayed in the gym and will be used at functions in and out of the school in the future. Promotional pencils and pens were given out to visitors to the school, at meetings Sargent Park teachers attended and will be given out at the NIS conference in the fall.

Sargent Park kicked off its membership into NIS at the Heritage Fair on April 14, 2003. Media Releases were sent out and a reporter from the Winnipeg Free Press attended and interviewed students and teachers. The subsequent article in the local paper entitled Heritage Studies Surge in Schools: Sargent Park Fair Showcases Projects stated that “Politicians from all three levels of government were at the school to honour Sargent Park as a new member of the SchoolNet Network of Innovative Schools-which brings  $10,000 a year in technology for three years from Industry Minister Allan Rock.” Teachers were quoted as saying, “linked technology training to the curriculum to help students develop a wide variety of skills. They make a PowerPoint presentation which I consider almost life skills now.” “Students made great use this year of a new scanner that let them upload family photos into their computers…..the number of family photos  has tripled or quadrupled.”

This article has prompted phone calls and email to the school from other educators inquiring about how they too can become a member in the Network of Innovative Schools.

An open house for parents and community to view the Heritage Fair projects was held in the school gym and library. Parents and community members viewed the projects and commented positively on the shift to electronic projects.

We just received a call from another reporter at the Free Press today, April 29, and they will be coming out soon to shoot pictures and do an interview in order to write an article for the Community Review insert in next week’s Free Press. The article will focus on Sargent Park as a member of the Network of Innovative Schools.

Sargent Park was featured in the Winter issue of the Manitoba Association of Computer Educators (ManACE) Journal in an article written by one of our teachers. The article was entitled “Sargent Park School Joins the Network of Innovative Schools” The article described the experience of attending the NIS conference in October as well as school plans for the year . In the article it stated that “more information about our NIS projects are displayed on our school web site. However if you have a professional development day and would like to visit our Nursery to Grade 9 school please email me and we can set up a day for your to visit. lgentes@wsd1.org”

The MYRCA club, which involved email between schools, was written up in the Manitoba School Library Association Journal. 

Research:

This year it was decided to do research to determine whether students were really acquiring the technology skills that were necessary for their Grade level. Checklists were developed to determine students’ skills. The research is fully reported on the school web site.  It was found that the research raised more questions than it answered and next year research will be done to address the questions raised and the observations made. Basically it was found that a list of skills for each grade level needs to be decided on by teachers at the beginning of the year based on their plans to integrate technology and curricula as well as developmental skill levels. It was found that the focus of student skill development was much broader than just the word processing skills that were being tested.  It was also found that it was important to revisit the skill throughout the year to ensure skills were not forgotten. Teachers will meet in early September to set the skill checklist for next school year and pretests will be done.

A teacher who was using the computer lab for personal journal writing with a Grade 5 class noticed that it appeared that the students were more eager to write using the computer and she felt that by March their writing had greatly increased. She decided to do some research on this.  Writing samples at the beginning of the year were analyzed and word counts taken.  Student writing samples were resampled in April.  Significant growth was apparent for most students. The graphs and information about this can be found on the Sargent Park web site.  Next year the teacher hopes to have a Grade 5 class who is doing traditional journal writing be a control group for her class in which she will continue to do personal journal writing on the computer.

One of our Resource Teachers plans to use the programs CoWriter and Write Out Loud next year to research what improvements in writing these programs can affect in her students.

An evaluation of our participation in Network of Innovative Schools and Technology this year is in progress. The questions are related to what teachers see as the impact our involvement in NIS this year on their own and their students learning in the area of ICT. 

Mentoring:

The grassroots projects allowed teachers to mentor other teachers in technology skills and being involved in Grassroots Program made this possible. Many emails back and forth as well as in person meetings generated mentorship when doing the projects such as Community Places Across Canada, Connecting Countries with a Cookbook, MYRCA Buddies. In the project A Novel Approach to a Child’s Understanding of War the lead teacher at Sargent Park conducted a Literature Circle between her class and a first year teacher at another school using email for the students to dialogue back and forth. A second teacher was introduced to Grassroots and the electronic presentation of a Literature Circle when his 4/5/6 alternative class did a website evaluation for this project and dialogued through email.

Teachers at Sargent Park continued to sit on two key Divisional Technology Committees: The Technology Advisory Committee and The Technological Education Advisory Committee as teacher representatives. The Jr. High Computer Teacher chaired the Central Division Computer Facilitators Group and is the WebMaster for the Central Group’s website. He regular keeps computer facilitators in the Central area (which consists of 21 schools) informed of technology related happenings both in the Division and out in the World. The teacher representatives on this committee find this mentoring invaluable.

Teachers from several schools have chosen to spend PD days with our teachers. A teacher from Seven Oaks School Division spent a day with the Grade 7 Math Teacher in his Math Lab learning the program The Learning Equation and observing how the teacher used the software and the Math Lab to teach the Grade 7 Math Program. A teacher from Fisher River who teaches computer in a rural school spent the day in the Elementary Computer Lab observing the software and teaching that occurred at our school. A group of teachers from Sargent Park and other schools attended professional development in the area of image management in order for them to serve as mentors for their collegues. Several card readers and image management software ACDsee and Photoshop Elements were purchased to help facilitate this.

The school’s involvement with the University of Winnipeg Advancec Multimedia class this year continued this year. Student teachers were linked up to a Sargent Park teacher through email and the student teacher designed a Web Quest for the classroom teacher and their class and came to Sargent Park to present to the students. These web quests are available for viewing on the school web site.

The school’s two computer facilitators spoke at the school’s February Parent Council Meeting on the topic of Internet Safety for Children.  The presentation was accompanied by handouts, website references, as well as hands on for the parents. Many questions and concerns were addressed. This session appeared to open up more of a dialogue between school and parents on this topic and several calls and questions have been received on this topic since the presentation.

The Jr. High Computer teacher continues to teach courses for Life Long Learning at the school evenings. He also mentored a local area high school staff on setting up email for staff and students.  Training for administrators and teachers throughout the school division was offered at Sargent Park in conjunction with School Division Professional Development activities. 

Networking:

A Sargent Park teacher sat on the Board of the Manitoba Association of Computer Educators this year and will continue to sit on that Board next year. The Board allows networking with a wide range of educators across the Province. This teacher was involved in a subcommittee for ManACE which developed a curriculum and technology  toolbox which will be hosted on the ManACE website. The toolbox has entries that say “If I had a _____________ I could ________________.” If I had a digital camera the students could take pictures of the structures they have made and put them in their electronic portfolio” for example.

Two teachers from Sargent Park presented their website Community Places Across Canada at a ManACE members night in March.

Sargent Park often receives requests from other schools because the it is known for its knowledgeable staff and abundance of technology equipment. The school technician was borrowed by another school and was able to set up several classroom computers with suitable programs so that the classrooms could make use of previously unuseable computers. Laptops were borrowed by other schools for school trips and Heritage Fairs when their own school had none available. Computer microscopes were also borrowed this year for workshops at another school.

More projects which involved networking between students and teachers at different schools were completed this year.  Examples are the email project called MYRCA Buddies, which involved Bairdmore (a NIS school) as well as 2 other Winnipeg Schools and several in the United States, the email Literature Circle Project: A Novel Approach to a Child’s Understanding of War, The Communities Places Across Canada web site which compared photos of communities across Canada (most of whom were NIS schools) and involved email letter writing between Grade 3 students, the Artifact Box and Kountries by Kalman which involved participating schools in the United States and the the Connecting Countries with a Cookbook project which involved schools in countries such as Finland, Denmark and Chile and also involved some personal email writing students between students to learn about each other.

The librarian took part in a NIS sharing session on school libraries in which she shared ideas with other NIS schools. 

School Web Site:

http://www.wsd1.org/sargentpark

The school web site has grown this year to include a web for our school Library to highlight the programs it delivers. This site was designed and written by the school librarian. The school website also has new areas to showcase the Grassroots projects and the school’s involvement in NIS and research. There was a large growth in the number of  Junior High Projects displayed on the web page this year.

The web page consistently receives comments from around the globe from students, teachers, and parents who have visited the site and found it very informative. Changes to the website are uploaded on a weekly basis to keep it as current as possible. Projects which students have done such as the Community Places Across Canada website are used by several classes in the school to study community and other curriculum related topics. At a computer facilitator’s meeting this website was shown to other educators who took it back to their schools to share with students there. 

The Intranet has been an excellent complement to our school web site this year allowing us to showcase and share work within the school that is not appropriate to put on the WWW. The schedules of the three main computer labs were put on the Intranet this year and this allowed teachers to more easily find and book lab time. Use of the Intranet will be expanded next year.

Next year there are plans to review our website and work with a group of students to redesign the main page for our school web site.

Students regularly send homework to either their own school division email or the school email address which can be accessed on our school site.

The school calendar is displayed on the site for parents and students to access at home. 

Professional Development:

One of the major areas for the NIS grant this year was professional development for teachers. Approximately $3400 of NIS funds was spent on teacher PD. Each teacher was offered up to 3 days this year to use for professional development in the area of technology. Some of the workshops were offered internally and others were offered by Divisional Staff or software trainers.  The workshops offered included:

 A representative from Betacom gave a workshop on Co-Writer and Write Out Loud to teachers who work with special needs students in the areas of reading and writing.

Some teachers also spent PD time researching web sites that could be used in class with students. Several teachers received PD in the area of image management so they could act as “Photo Mentors” for others on staff.

During the Manitoba Special Area Groups Day in October many teachers attended PD sessions on topics such as Photoshop, Grassroots Projects, Electronic Portfolios, Making a Digital Collection, Flash, Curriculum Navigator, Using Digital Cameras, and Web page design.

Last summer many teachers attended Mindset PD on topics such as Office XP, Video Editing, and Virtual Reality.

One of our teachers presented a session on the Curriculum Navigator which is a website developed by teachers and Manitoba Education to allow teachers to access lesson plans which link the curriculum and technology.

Teacher Assistants received more training in technology also this year and became proficient with the digital camera and scanners.

Additional Info and Success Stories:

An Intranet was added to the school network this year. This Intranet is available for students to share projects done within the school which are not appropriate for presentation on the World Wide Web.  As well the Intranet was used for a Drug survey which the Grade 5’s made and for a Bullying survey. The Intranet will be hosting templates teachers can access and use with students from the Literacy initiatives our school was involved in this year.

A color printer for the Library and several classroom printers were purchased this year as well as a second scanner for the library and a classroom scanner for the Grade 7 students who were doing PowerPoint presentations on their families’ immigration to Canada.

Multiple copies of the program Swish have been purchased for the labs which will allow students to do more animations on the web page.  Investigations are being made into setting up a wireless network which will assist in doing multi-computer projects such as the Heritage Fair.

The school Division will be supplying the school with 20 new Pentium IV workstations in the fall of 2003.  These will be placed in the Elementary computer lab, the computers currently used there will be moved to another room and reconfigured.   Plans are being made to buy 5 more identical workstations from school funds to make a complete lab of 25 computers.

Student Teachers were involved in Technology projects and helped produce several such as a Grade 6 “Sell Your Planet” PowerPoint and a Grade 5 Autobiography using PowerPoint, a web quest on Atomic Theory for Grade 9. Other student teachers were involved by assisting their supervising teachers with projects already in progress. An electronic version of his reporting form was set up for the Student Teacher Supervisor from the University of Winnipe so he could complete the student assessment forms electronically instead of paper and pen. 

This year Elementary Student-Led Conferences were held April 24.  Parents were impressed at the sophistication of the student projects this year from Grade 1 to 6. The introduction of sound, scanned pictures, digital photos, and videos into their work was greatly increased over what parents have observed in the past. One Grade 2 teacher commented that the short video clip of the students doing the Bunny Hop in Gym that was included in her students’ electronic portfolios was well received as parents don’t often get a glimpse into their children’s gym classes.

The new lab in the Library was used by all Junior High Classes. Several teachers (such as the Grade 9 French teacher) brought their class into the Lab this year for Research and/or word processing. All students in Grades 7, 8 & 9 did at least one PowerPoint project this year.

 An additional copy of Adobe Pagemaker to facilitate the making of the school year book.  With printing costs rising  putting the yearbook on CD next year for those interested will be investigated.

A school license of a second upgrade of the program Cross Country Canada was purchased as this program is invaluable for students learning about their country.

The school piloted the new version of All the Right Type and the Career Cruising web site for the Division. Reports on these were given to the Technology Advisory Committee.

The school is beginning to use Front Page 2002 for web site design as the pricing makes it feasible to multi copies. 

A laptop was purchased for one of the administrators to enable her to take work between school, meetings, and home and allow her to preview the electronic report cards at her desk. She also serves as a model for students of technology in action. 

Comments:

A teacher new to school this year has commented that “student access to computers/network/Internet at Sargent Park surpasses that in any other school she has worked.” “Students want to expand their technology skills/knowledge because teachers are excited about doing the same.”

2008 -- © Sargent Park School 2008  
Last modified:  January 30, 2008