“If we teach today’s students as we taught yesterday’s, we rob them of tomorrow” -John Dewey; this quote encompasses the heart of what Yankeetown School believes and strives for.
Within the first 9 weeks our changes have been monumental to our success in the day to day motions- we have increased rigor, heightened behavior and performance expectations, increased student engagement and interaction, structured instructional time to meet the needs of all, and created a feeling of pride in and on our campus. But now we must begin to make changes for tomorrow.
Our children are entering a world where technology is the teacher and tester. NYTimes reports that 97% of careers open to high school and college graduates require the mastery to learn, perform, and interact with others on some form of technology. In order to meet these needs, we must begin to teach, interact and perform using technological platforms. With that hurdle in mind Ms. Wade, Reading Coach, has brought YTS to a whole new digital age.
As of October, Yankeetown has been deemed a Google Education School. This means we now have the ability to offer all of our students a platform to learn from their teachers, interact and collaborate with each other, and perform to high standards through technology. Within the coming months each student will receive direct instruction on expectations, procedures, and rules for professionally interacting with technology. Each child will also be given an email address through our school. These email addresses will allow students to log in to multiple GoogleEd platforms.
One of the most exciting platforms YTS can now offer is Google Classroom. As of right now, on our campus, we have 2 Google Classrooms up and running. One is being utilized by the staff, to become familiar with the program and all it has to offer in respect to communication and collaboration. The other is being utilized by our Student Council, who has really taken off with implementation. This platform allows for each participant to interact by posing questions, posting and editing agendas and assignments, commenting to add ideas, and collaborating to create designs, documents, and presentations. Soon, we hope to implement this platform with all of our 4th-8th grade students in some of their classes so each child can become familiar and comfortable with the integration of technology and education.
Another exciting platform we have gained access to and implemented, that our staff has taken off with, is Google Drive. This platform is a web based storage folder where all of our staff store, share, edit, and collaborate using uploaded resources. Many of our staff now use this as a tool for, not only school, but personal use. As a Google Education School we now have the ability to not only shape our school’s approach the technology, but our staff and community’s as well.
What you see on this campus is different, and changing every day. Our success is a fluid evolution and requires everyone involved to move forward. Will Rogers once said “even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there”. On a daily basis we continue to push to find the right track and to move at increasing speed down that track. We refuse to rob our students of tomorrow, instead we want to prepare them to be as successful as we can. Being a Google Education School is one way we aim to not get run over or robbed. The others are quickly approaching...stay tuned for what’s next.
Within the first 9 weeks our changes have been monumental to our success in the day to day motions- we have increased rigor, heightened behavior and performance expectations, increased student engagement and interaction, structured instructional time to meet the needs of all, and created a feeling of pride in and on our campus. But now we must begin to make changes for tomorrow.
Our children are entering a world where technology is the teacher and tester. NYTimes reports that 97% of careers open to high school and college graduates require the mastery to learn, perform, and interact with others on some form of technology. In order to meet these needs, we must begin to teach, interact and perform using technological platforms. With that hurdle in mind Ms. Wade, Reading Coach, has brought YTS to a whole new digital age.
As of October, Yankeetown has been deemed a Google Education School. This means we now have the ability to offer all of our students a platform to learn from their teachers, interact and collaborate with each other, and perform to high standards through technology. Within the coming months each student will receive direct instruction on expectations, procedures, and rules for professionally interacting with technology. Each child will also be given an email address through our school. These email addresses will allow students to log in to multiple GoogleEd platforms.
One of the most exciting platforms YTS can now offer is Google Classroom. As of right now, on our campus, we have 2 Google Classrooms up and running. One is being utilized by the staff, to become familiar with the program and all it has to offer in respect to communication and collaboration. The other is being utilized by our Student Council, who has really taken off with implementation. This platform allows for each participant to interact by posing questions, posting and editing agendas and assignments, commenting to add ideas, and collaborating to create designs, documents, and presentations. Soon, we hope to implement this platform with all of our 4th-8th grade students in some of their classes so each child can become familiar and comfortable with the integration of technology and education.
Another exciting platform we have gained access to and implemented, that our staff has taken off with, is Google Drive. This platform is a web based storage folder where all of our staff store, share, edit, and collaborate using uploaded resources. Many of our staff now use this as a tool for, not only school, but personal use. As a Google Education School we now have the ability to not only shape our school’s approach the technology, but our staff and community’s as well.
What you see on this campus is different, and changing every day. Our success is a fluid evolution and requires everyone involved to move forward. Will Rogers once said “even if you are on the right track, you will get run over if you just sit there”. On a daily basis we continue to push to find the right track and to move at increasing speed down that track. We refuse to rob our students of tomorrow, instead we want to prepare them to be as successful as we can. Being a Google Education School is one way we aim to not get run over or robbed. The others are quickly approaching...stay tuned for what’s next.