Georgia students, teachers, administrators, and other members of the learning communities use media and technology to access, construct, and share information. All teachers have equitable access to the media and technology resources available to facilitate and enrich their daily work, and they are supported in using those resources to help them meet their goals.

Accessing Information
Georgia students and teachers use all forms of media as sources for information including print, video, CD-ROMs, and laser discs. These resources are accessible to students investigating essential questions, engaging in authentic activities that involve research, and developing products that demonstrate their understanding. Teachers and other adults consult various media as they seek to learn more about the practice of teaching, about a particular subject, or about the field of education in general.

Constructing Information
Students use media and technology to help them build and manage their knowledge. Technology can facilitate the manipulation and analysis of data and the creation of a variety of products. Productivity told such as word-processing, desktop publishing, database, spreadsheet, and multimedia composition can help students and teachers effectively organize, process, and present information. Video is helpful in ongoing reflection of teaching and learning.

Sharing Information
Good communication is critical. Newsletter, telephones, and electronic media are useful for the exchange of information in the learning community. Electronic mail and bulletin board systems provide a forum for exchanging ideas and student work, collaboration of specific projects, and sharing resources.

The staff of Georgia Elementary believes in the importance of the use of technology to improve our instruction and the learning of all our students.

• The school has licenses for many software programs that are installed on the network server. All teacher stations have Microsoft Office and the library card catalog installed.
• The school subscribes to Know Zone, which supports the Scott Foresman reading program.
• Teachers in grades three through five are enrolled in Homeroom.com and utilize electronic gradebooks.
• The school has an actively maintained website.
• Leapfrog equipment and materials are in use in Early Childhood, Kindergarten, and First Grade.
• Lightspan, which operates on playstations, is used in the after school program with a couple of teachers making limited use during the day.

   

Georgia Elementary utilizes technology throughout the school. Currently all rooms have six computer drops with network and Internet access. Presently all classrooms have teacher workstations with computer, big screen television, VCR, printer, and scanner. All classrooms have at least two student stations and several have four.

S.T.A.R. is a computerized reading assessment which scores and assesses a student's reading level in 10 minutes or less, provides instant norm-referenced results, monitors individual and classroom progress with easy-to-read reports.

All students in grades 2-5 are tested at the beginning of the school year so that instruction can be planned more effectively for each student. The test is taken in the computer lab. The test helps determine the range for the level books a student reads for Accelerated Reader. First grade students are first tested in December.

Progress in reading is tracked by the use of midyear and end-of-year tests.

The tests have been seen to be an accurate indicator of a student's reading level.

S.T.A.R. scores represent how students performed on the test compared with the Spring 2000 performance of a nationally representative sample of students. As with any test, it is important to remember that test scores give only one picture of how a student is doing in school and that many factors affect a student's test scores.

Accelerated Reader is part of the Reading Renaissance Program which also includes S.T.A.R. and strategies for helping students improve their reading.

Locke began the Accelerated Reader program in the spring of 1997. With this program students earn points by reading books and then taking the computerized test with the Accelerated Reader Computer Management Program. There are incentives for students reaching their goals per six weeks and the number of points earned.

Students have enthusiastically participated during the 2001-2002 school year. Interest in reading is high. The school now has over 4000 tests and many more books have and are being purchased for the library and the classrooms.

Georgia staff members continue to attend workshops and conferences to enhance their technical skills so that Georgia is able to implement a variety of technology in the classroom in addition to computer technology. Video cameras are used to record classroom instruction and review for reflection. Students record their presentations on video/or tape to critique themselves.