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The 21st Century Classroom
Elements of the 21st Century Classroom:
Click on an element to learn more.
Document Cameras and Projectors:
What is a Document Camera?
In a quick summary, it is a visual presentation tool that anyone can use. Not only is it easy to use, but set up is a snap as well. Simply connect the Document Camera with a projector or monitor and just turn it on. All that’s left to do is to place the desired object under the camera. The image size can be enlarged or reduced. Such a simple tool for quick, everyday usage is gaining popularity very rapidly in elementary and junior high classrooms around the world.
What are the Benefits?
- There is no waste of time to present almost any study material.
- Face-to-face teaching can create great class atmosphere and encourage comprehension.
- This increases a child’s ability to concentrate and peak their interest.
- Any study materials in the class, such as homework, projects or textbooks can be captured by the document camera and easily saved on an SD card or computer. All these wonderful materials can be easily found and showed as many times as needed without losing the quality of the original content.
- And of course, the benefit does not stop there; document cameras can be used together with an Interactive White Board or Interactive Digital Board to further improve the learning experience.
How many classrooms are equipped?
Thanks to various grants and your PTA 100% of La Mariposa classrooms are now equipped with a document cameras and projectors!
Student Response Devices:
La Mariposa's Next Step Toward State of the Art Classroom Technology
What is Student Response Technology?
 Student Response Technology is a broad term used to describe electronic devices that encourage interactive student participation. There are many different devices and components a teacher can use including: clickers, document cameras, smart boards, and other wireless devices. Thanks to your generous donations over the last two years, all classrooms, grades one through five, are equipped with document cameras. Our next step is to look at student response devices or "clickers" as they are called. To take a virtual tour of a classroom equipped with a full spectrum of Student Response Technology click here.
What are "Clickers"?
We could try to explain this, but the following excerpt from Education Weekly, June 2009 does it much better than we ever could. To see the complete article click here.
"Student-response systems, which equip students with portable devices known as clickers, are becoming a popular tool for elementary and secondary classrooms after years of use in college lecture halls. The clickers, which look a bit like electronic garage-door openers, feature buttons with numbers or letters that correspond with answers to multiple-choice questions from the teacher. If the responses show that students have not understood a part of the lesson, the teacher can reteach the concept or have students collaborate on finding the right answer. Clickers are useful tools for answering the question all teachers have: who gets it and who doesn’t..."
How many classrooms are equipped?
Thanks to your PTA we have 5 full class sets of clickers. These clickers are mobile and can be checked out by teachers one grade level at a time.
SMART Boards:
What is a SMART Board?
An Interactive White Board is a broad name for a device that, when used with a computer and some type of large video display, makes the surface of the display become touch sensitive in some manner and allows it to be used to control the computer.
What are the Benefits?
 Students love to interact with these boards, whether it is writing on them, watching the teacher use them, interacting with them by moving objects or clicking on interactive links, etc. This raises the interest level for each and every subject.
- Teachers compose lessons dynamically on these boards, never needing to "erase" what was written, allowing for time savings, consistency of delivery of information and more.
- The software is freely downloadable and usable on any computer (PC, MAC, and Linux) without having a board present (following of course the guidelines of use by SMART Technologies) allowing teachers and students alike to be able to work and create outside of school. Students can develop presentations using the software in our lab, then they present on the SMART Boards.
- SMART Technologies has a wealth of pre-designed lessons online, searchable by grade, standard, lesson type making it very easy to quickly download a lesson in an instant and either use it, or modify it to meet your specific needs.
How many classrooms are equipped?Thanks to PTA and school administration we have installed SMART boards in all our 1st, 4th & 5th Grade classrooms. A successful Dinner/Dance event means we can keep our goal of installing SMART boards in 1-2 grades worth of classrooms each year. Wireless Network:
La Mariposa is now wireless. Teachers are free to roam, classrooms have fewer cords, and wireless devices are now being tested all because of parent contributions to the PTA. Thank you for helping our teachers offer a true, 21st century education!
Mobile Computer Labs:
Once we have a wireless network, our next move is to create mobile computer labs. This would allow students to create presentations and reports while in their own classroom (or even outside in the fresh air).
iPad Pilot Program In 2012 we will begin piloting iPads in our Primary grades. We are very excited to bring this technology into the classroom as another teaching and learning tool.
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