SmartBoard Demonstration
Peggy Harvey, the media/technology teacher at the Harvard Elementary School, demonstrated the uses and features of a sample SmartBoard at the school board meeting on Jan. 28. SmartBoards are computerized, interactive whiteboards that help engage students and enhance teaching, Harvey told the School Committee. Each SmartBoard is roughly three feet high and four feet wide. There is now at least one SmartBoard per grade at H.E.S., paid for mostly by gifts and grants, and the schools hope to buy more. The boards cost between $4,000 and $5,000 each.
Harvey quickly put the SmartBoard to good use, displaying sample lessons, writing on it and having the SmartBoard convert her handwriting to text, and pulling up maps and satellite photos, then quickly enlarging and shrinking them.
“It can run videos, print pages, save things to a PDF file or convert them to HTML which you can post on the Internet,” Harvey explained to the board.
The SmartBoards use Notebook software and are also compatible with other software, she said. The students love using the boards, which helps engage them and motivate them to learn more, according to Harvey.
School board Vice Chairman Will Verbits asked Harvey how long it takes to train teachers to use SmartBoards. She replied that the learning curve for using the boards is not great, and that teachers and students can learn to use the boards together.
Quarry Lane resident Keith Cheveralls asked Harvey if there are any studies on how much the SmartBoards technology helps students learn. Harvey said she didn’t know of any, but could find out what data exist on the benefits of using the technology.
“Teachers are clamoring for them—that’s a good indication,” that they are helpful, said board member Stu Sklar.
Harvard Schools Trust Gifts
School Committee members voted unanimously to accept roughly $17,000 worth of gifts from the Harvard Schools Trust, $10,069 of which was a grant for “ongoing SmartBoard acquisition at H.E.S.” The Trust also gave the schools $229 for a third-grade star party, requested by teacher Judy Moore, and $6,629.50 for equipment for the elementary school’s Project Adventure, a new program being started by guidance counselor Christine Reale and physical education teacher Barbi Kelley. In the program students learn problem-solving and social skills, such as leadership and cooperation, through physical activities and challenges. After working on the physical challenges, students discuss the dynamics of how they worked together.
Bromfield to be a Mass Dispensing Site
Bromfield has agreed to serve as the location for an emergency dispensing site for vaccines or medicines in the event of a “large-scale communicable disease outbreak or bioterrorism event,” according to a memorandum of understanding signed by School Superintendent Tom Jefferson and the Harvard Board of Health. The memo, distributed to the school board by Jefferson, outlines what that designation entails, including permitting the use of school facilities in such an emergency and encouraging the Bromfield staff to become members of the Medical Reserve Corps “to ensure adequate training for personnel willing to serve as distribution clinic volunteers.” For its part, the Board of Health would provide such training, coordinate health and security professionals during the emergency, and ensure that the Bromfield School “facility and its contents are safe for students and staff to resume its use as a school facility.
