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TIPS
Volume 3, No. 4
Grade Level Key |
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Elem, 
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Middle
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High, 
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Teachers
The Editor's Page
Technology
Applied
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It’s 7:05 AM. School begins at 8:00 AM at Yates Elementary, but the first
STLP students begin arriving early to put together a PowerPoint for the
daily announcements. They’ll report such things as the vocabulary word of
the day, "this day in history", breakfast and lunch menus, holidays,
general announcements, staff and student birthdays, staff baby pictures,
daily schedule, Accelerated Reader updates, student recognitions, PTA
reminders, CHAMPs, Pledge of Allegiance, and the Yates Pledge. Students
import graphics, key in text, check spelling, refine grammar, and tweak
page layouts – always with one eye on the clock so they can make a
50-minute deadline. The pressure is on because 450 students and 50 staff
will soon be viewing their work – relying on the information to get their
day started. At 7:55 all the teachers turn on their TVs, the video
announcements begin, and the STLP students breathe a sigh of relief,
knowing that they have provided a valuable service for their peers and
teachers in every classroom at Yates. Morning announcements are just one of the
many activities the 16 Yates STLP students are engaged in every day. Beth
Drake and Cathy Meccariello, the STLP Coordinators, have their students
divided into four teams: Announcements Team: You’ve already had a
glimpse at what this team does. They are responsible for announcements
every day. Photographers and Videographers: These
students are responsible for chronicling class activities, field trips,
and other instructional activities. They work closely with the
Announcements Team and provide them with pictures for their PowerPoint.
They also take staff pictures for ID badges. Even special education
students benefit from this team’s work. Some students with communication
disabilities use "communication boards" to converse with adults and
peers. They do this by pointing at pictures on the board. STLP students
take the pictures that are used on the communication boards. Mouse Patrol: This team performs basic
maintenance and computer assistance tasks for teachers. They change ink,
clean computers, and provide basic hardware and software support. This and That Team: STLP students are
becoming increasingly indispensable at Yates. Staff members have begun
seeing a variety of jobs these students can do, that were never
conceived of in the past. The purpose of the This and That Team is to
take on some of those jobs. So far this year the team has worked on
identification tags for staff, developed an inventory of equipment,
created sight word PowerPoints for special education teachers, made ID
tags for equipment, coordinated a "Thanksgiving for the Lexington Humane
Society" – collecting over a ton of dog and cat food, toys, blankets,
etc., and marketed and printed address labels as a community
service/fund raiser. Mrs. Meccariello and Mrs. Drake have found
there’s almost no end to these students’ inventiveness, creativity, and
entrepreneurship. During the annual Yates fall festival, for example, STLP
students volunteered to take digital pictures of younger students on a
pony ride. The STLP students printed out the pictures, mounted them, and
sold them to parents for $2.00 each. Altogether, they earned $124.00. As
impressive as the monetary benefits might be, the leadership and
communication skills these children learned are invaluable. Five minutes after seven comes early in
the morning, but not too early for 16 dedicated Yates STLP students to
begin developing character traits that will serve them well throughout
their lives. |
Submitted by Beth Drake |
Yates
Student Technology Leadership Program