A Laptop for Every Junior High Student

School Rationale

Why incorporate a 1:1 laptop project in junior high? 

Today's children and youth are immersed in technology.  Their worlds involve cell phones, video games, PDA's, podcasts, photo editing and printing, videography and editing, internet chat lines, blogs, wikis, and email.  There is a large disconnect between how students interact with information while they are in school compared with their time outside of school.  2 or 3 classes per week in a computer lab for junior high students is not enough.  "For younger people there is a danger that they will increasingly see school as a turn-off, irrelevant to their identities and to their lives (Attwell, 2007)."  We need to ensure that we are engaging and motivating students about learning and this disconnect in technology is a barrier in our students' growth.  As a citizen of the 21^st Century our students will be performing jobs that haven't been created yet.  How do we prepare them for a world of work which does not yet exist?  They need a variety of skills to draw upon. Students must learn how to learn.  Students must be able to work individually and also collaboratively within a group.  Instead of hearing about different schools that are embracing technology we will strive to be one. 

Community Rationale

While today's youth embrace technology and eagerly search for new ways to incorporate it into their lives, people of the previous generation are feeling even more removed from our youth.  As our technology implementation plan moves forward, we will be providing adult education classes that will provide opportunities for parents to learn about the technology that their children are already using.  Some of these classes will be for adults only and others designed for students and parents to join together.  As well educating our parents on how to raise a "Cyber Citizen" will be the recurring and underlying theme throughout our evening adult classes.  These classes will be open to all parents and students within the Wetaskiwin Regional Public School Division.

Vision

Students in grades 6, 7, 8, and 9 will enter their classrooms in the morning and log on to their own laptop.  Students will have the option of purchasing their own laptop or using one from the school.  The laptops will be in groups of 4 - 6 with a larger 21" screen monitor in the middle and a digital camera shared between each pod.  Students will engage in a combination of teacher and self-directed lessons that involve them using technology as a tool to learn the curricular outcomes prescribed for their grade.  "The 21^st Century classroom should be a context that is enquiry stacked and project based - where teams of people are working together, then coming apart to work individually (Peat & Allen, 2008)."  The internet will be delivered using a wireless system and the teacher will infuse instruction using the digital projector and smartboard that are also in their classrooms. 

Students in grades K - 5 will enter their classrooms in the morning and see their morning message on the classroom smartboard.  A mobile lab of laptops will be available for teachers to sign out and bring to their classroom.  Digital cameras and photo editing software will be accessible for classroom use.  As well, an elementary student response system will be used for checking students' understanding of curriculum covered.  Elementary classrooms will have more access to our computer lab as they are sharing it with fewer classes and teachers will be building technology skills in our elementary students to build the basis for our junior high.   Teachers will also have access to a class set of Ipods to sign out for research based classes; this handheld technology will access our wireless internet in a compact easy to use format that the students are already familiar with.

This vision will be implemented over the next 3 - 5 years and will be accomplished through a joint effort of CB McMurdo School staff and CB McMurdo School Council.  There will be large initial start up costs at first and then the anticipated increase in student enrolment will make our technology programs sustainable from the school based budget.  Our goal is to accept only enough new registrations to make single classes of grade 6, 7, 8, and 9 students with 26 students in each.  Students already in enrolled in CB McMurdo's elementary program will be the first to receive spots in our junior high. 

Questions

Will CB McMurdo still be a Year-Round School? We will
continue to offer an alternative school-year calendar.

Will class sizes increase? The goal is to accept only enough registrations to make single classes of: 21 in K-gr. 3; 24 in gr. 4-6; and 28 in gr. 7-9. Students enrolled in grades K to 6 at CB McMurdo will be the first to receive spots in grades 7 to 9.

What kind of CTS courses are offered? 8 / 50 classes in junior high are career and technology studies courses.  We are in the process of determining exactly which courses will be offered in 09/10 These courses may be offered:

• lego robotics
• video and media
• rec & sport

Will there be an extra cost involved to enroll my son or daughter in this program? There Is no added cost to families other than the standard WRPS Instructional Materials Fee.  Some CTS courses may have an added cost depending on which course.

How do I find out more? Call the school at 780.352.3655 for more information and registration instructions or email the school at cb@wrps.ab.ca.