Engaging Students Where they Live

Sprayberry High School's students live in Cobb County, Georgia, but this is not what Alison Coker, Vice-Principle means when she says this. She and her colleagues are all involved in a pilot for the whole county that involves using interactive technologies in the delivery of the curriculum to make the learning process more in keeping with the 21st century student's environment. When asked why Sprayberry was chosen she replies that demographically Sprayberry represents Cobb as a whole in terms of the differing abilities and backgrounds of their intake.

"If it works here it can work in Cobb as a whole."

In each of the 106 classrooms in Sprayberry High School is a Computrac Classroom Solution including interactive whiteboard, projector and wall controller enabling the teacher to easily control the classroom projection system. Installed last fall, 'heavy-duty' use of the technology really began in January, explains Alison, with even the most reticent teachers at the beginning now stating that they 'cannot do without it'.

Sprayberry are now taking their Interactive Classroom Solution to the next level through use of tools and content for any brand of interactive whiteboard/slate from RM Education.

RM Math Framework is a supportive interactive digital curriculum for high (and middle) school Math and the Math department at Sprayberry are enjoying searching for resources by state standard and interweaving the thousand plus activities created using the dynamic Geometer Sketch Pad and RM Easiteach into their current curriculum. Having interactive content like RM Math means that teachers can focus on how they want to deliver resources like 'Transformations of Flags and Fish' with their students rather than having to create resources from scratch every time they want to use their interactive whiteboard. It was designed to help schools like Sprayberry to see a return on their investment more readily and encourage teachers to use technology when it is the best medium for delivering a lesson.

Further down the corridor, English and Social Studies teachers and students alike are excited to be using RM Podium, the all-in one podcasting solution for education. Poems, book reviews and play readings are all being podcasted because sometimes the written word is not always the best medium for presenting these things and by embracing podcasting Sprayberry are reclaiming technology for the classroom and engaging their technology-minded students. Alison also talks of their English as a Second Language students and how they are benefiting from listening to podcasts created by their teachers/peers on unfamiliar vocabulary and how they can listen to the pronunciations over and over again, anytime, anywhere using their mp3 players. She talks of students 'blooming' and about them 'taking over the learning process in a positive way'.

There is no doubt that Sprayberry is cutting edge when it comes to educational technology and by standardizing on the tools and content being used, the school can be assured that whatever hardware piece they add in the future, RM software provides them with an agnostic platform that will work with any brand of interactive technology.

There are over 100,000 students in Cobb County and RM Education together with its local partner Computrac look forward to helping each and every teacher to maximize opportunities for interactivity and engagement in the classroom by providing them with innovative and interactive content solutions designed by teachers for our discerning learners of today.

After all, as Alison quite rightly concludes 'this is all about increasing the engagement of our students' and reaching out into their world, a world where technology is integral to their daily life and perhaps more importantly, how they choose to operate.


With thanks to Alison Coker, Vice Principal of Sprayberry High School, GA.