Just Published! RM Education's First Full Line Catalog

Spring Forward with a New Catalog A new season, a new catalog. We are happy to announce RM Education’s first full-line catalog, Transforming the 21st Century Classroom. Just in time for Spring, the catalog features NEW products including the most comprehensive interactive whiteboard and interactive software offering in the educational technology industry!

Throughout the catalog you will find a wide range of transformational solutions and services that will bring your classroom to life; making teaching more effective and learning more fun. We invite you to explore our catalog to learn more about our company, the innovative products and services we offer, and the ground breaking initiatives we’re implementing to help educators bring the 21st century classroom to life.

Request a copy today at www.rmeducation.com/catalog

RM Classpad - Best New Writing Pad

We are pleased to announce that the RM Classpad has been chosen as a January/February 2009 Teachers’ Pick by Scholastic Instructor magazine! Giving teachers the mobility they want and allowing them to engage with students from anywhere in the classroom, The RM Classpad allows educators to create and deliver engaging lessons from anywhere in the classroom.


Instructor magazine leads the way with Teacher-Leaders – the teachers who sit on purchasing committees, make product recommendations and are in charge of allocating school funds. Instructor is the most read, most trusted teaching magazine in the field, reaching the hands of more than 900,000 Teacher-Leaders. Every product chosen as a Teachers’ Pick has been carefully evaluated by our teacher testers. Learn More..

Another Satisfied Elementary School in Georgia

This is an e-mail that Rich Alder received from a very satified customer, Shallowford Falls Elementary School.

Hi Rich (Alder),

The installation went well. You should REALLY be proud of your installers and how professional they are. Lee, Mike and Josh were a joy (yet again) to work with. I look forward to working together again! I also appreciate the extra time you take with us to make sure everything is to your high standards. I know with your new job your time has been limited and yet you still took care of Shallowford. We REALLY appreciate it.

Have a nice, long weekend!

Brenda

Brenda Ku

Secretary

Shallowford Falls Elementary

CREATING MULTIMEDIA CLASSROOMS IN CLEBURNE COUNTY, ALA.

A Project Funded with Community Service Grants

Recently Cleburne County School Superintendent Scott Coefield, state Rep. Richard Lindsay, and state Sen. Kim Benefield announced a technology initiative in Cleburne County Schools designed to engage students by creating 64 multi-media classrooms in grades 5-12 and 6 media centers. Each classroom received a mounted projector, wall controls, mounted speakers, a mounted screen and a QOMO wireless pad with RM Easiteach software.
“We want to work on course relevance – making the content relevant for the students so they become more engaged in what they are learning. We believe one way to do that is to get more technology in the classrooms.” said Superintendent Coefield. “Today’s kids are all about technology; we have to adapt to that and make sure we are presenting the material in a fashion with which they identify.” Coefield believes some teachers will adapt quickly to their new resources while others will need more time and professional development. We know that we have good teachers and our kids are as capable as any others, but teachers have to have resources, and we have to constantly look at the most effective ways to engage kids. We want the teachers and students of Cleburne County to have the same resources as kids in any other school system, and we believe after this project our schools will be ahead of the curve. I don’t know of another school system around us that will have any better set up as far as technology,” he said.
Most classrooms have already received their equipment and teachers have been trained on the Easiteach software and QOMO pads. Peggy Collum, district technology coordinator, notes that teachers are enthusiastic about using these new resources and many began using the equipment from the first day. Rep. Lindsey was especially impressed with Easiteach’s ability to read text that had been translated to Spanish. The projects will be completed this fall at all schools except Ranburne High School, which Coefield plans to equip in 2009-2010. When completed, Coefield expects the total cost to be around $200,000 and says the projects will be funded by different grant sources. However, Coefield says the greatest fund source will come from community service grants provided by Rep. Lindsey and Sen. Benefield. “We are extremely grateful to our legislators, without their assistance this project would not be possible,” Coefield said.


Scott Coefield, Superintendent

Peggy Collum, Technology Coordinator

RM MECH-RC LAUCHING AT FETC 09

RM Education will be launching the NEW RM Mech-RC at FETC 09, January 21st -24th. The RM Mech-RC is a fully assembled, programmable humanoid robot has been developed from the original MECHRC™ to provide an ideal solution for engaging and teaching ICT to children aged 14+. It’s out of the box solution makes it quick and easy to get this robot up and running. The robot provides amazing agility and has been designed with transparent panels to enable easy viewing of the servo motors as it moves. With its programmable software and remote control it allows teacher led and small group activities that both challenge and engage. Please visit http://www.rmeducation.com/mech-rc for more information & videos.

RM Sonica ESL To Be Implemented District-Wide In Highlands County, Florida

RM is pleased that Highlands County Schools has chosen RM Education’s English Language Learning software, RM Sonica ESL, as an innovative addition to their current English for Speakers of Other Languages curriculum. Highlands County Schools services over 11,000 students in 16 schools with a staff of over 750 dedicated educators.

RM Sonica ESL is an extremely interactive and engaging program, designed to encourage students to develop a love of English language learning at an early age. RM Sonica ESL takes into account multiple learning styles helping to build the confidence of every student and pushes the boundaries of kinesthetic learning. Instantly engage even the most reticent of learners with interactive games and even dance mat activities. Students can practice listening and responding with interactive presentations while identifying and learning with the RM Sonica ESL family who are used throughout the program.

Highlands also opted to implement within a number of schools in the district RM Podium, software designed to produce podcasts strictly for K-12 education. Easy to use, RM Podium is designed to allow even the youngest of students to be up and running producing and publishing podcasts in minutes. Among the many uses of podcasting in education, Highlands County Schools also recognized the value of this fast growing medium for use in their ESOL program and its objectives.

Jackson Intermediate School recently purchased Easiteach Software

Jackson Intermediate School recently purchased Qomo Boards and Easiteach software for every classroom in our school. Teachers have enjoyed the resources available to them. Along with the whiteboards, each classroom has a mounted projector and speakers plus wall-mounted controllers.


The support team and staff associated with Computrac and Easiteach are outstanding! They are always available to assist us when we have questions. The people with which we have dealt are also friendly and courteous at all times.

Easiteach is available for our teachers at home and at school which makes life a little easier for our teachers and staff. The two days of training helped to ease the transition to Easiteach and the Qomo boards.

The school’s music teacher says, “I love what I can do with the Qomo Board in music. It is great to be able to put a piece of music up so we can all see it. It helps me teach young musicians about their role.” A fourth-grade teacher added, “They are wonderful, and I can’t imagine teaching without them!” In the computer lab, the technology teacher says she uses hers daily. “The students absolutely love it, and so do I! Our fifth-graders are working on Powerpoint presentations now. They can’t wait to show them on the boards!”

This technology is allowing Jackson Intermediate School to be able to prepare our students for the future. Our school is on the cutting edge of technology in our area.

Thanks, RM Easiteach and Computrac

With thanks to Michael Bedsole, principal of Jackson Intermediate School in Jackson, AL

Implementing an Interactive Classroom in KY

Superintendent of Oldham County Schools, Paul Upchurch, presented to the Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative, representing 15 school districts, on the importance of implementing an interactive classroom solution. Mr. Upchurch emphasized to his fellow superintendents that utilizing technology in the classroom has significantly impacted tests scores among the 17 schools in Oldham County. Oldham County Schools currently leads Kentucky in student achievement. The presentation also included ways in which superintendents can fund interactive classrooms.

Fort Payne City Schools Find New Ways to Engage Students

FORT PAYNE, Ala. – Of the 132 school districts in Alabama, Fort Payne City Schools may have the most engaging classrooms of all. Believing it would produce dramatic results in student achievement, last year the school district decided on a bold course to deploy interactive classroom technology across the entire school system.

Fort Payne School Superintendent Jim Cunningham, along with his Technology Coordinator Greg Titshaw, other central office staff and the members of the board of education, chose to raise the funds necessary to supply almost every classroom with a ceiling-mounted projector, an interactive whiteboard, a document camera, a wireless presentation slate, a student response system, and a teacher microphone. The school district chose Computrac Interactive Solutions (now part of RM Educational Software) to do the job.

Last May, Computrac’s installation team worked during the evenings in Fort Payne for more than two full weeks to complete the job, which encompassed 150 classrooms in four schools.

Mr. Cunningham expressed his delight over the way the project was handled in a letter to the CEO of Computrac. Here is what he had to say. “A wise man once stated, ‘You never get a second chance to make a first impression.’ While I believe this statement has merit when evaluating individuals, I feel that it is also true for businesses. I wanted to take just a moment to tell you that you and your company, Computrac, have definitely made an unbelievably positive impression on myself and the other members of my staff which were involved with your recent installation project. The installation of 150 Mitsubishi projectors, 125 Light Speed sound systems and 150 Elmo document cameras was accomplished professionally and within the prescribed time frame. Your entire installation team was very accommodating and flexible in working within the conditions and time parameters which you were given. While these conditions, dictated because school was in session, could have and probably did on occasion cause stress and frustration it was never evident in the attitudes or actions of your staff. You are to be commended for assembling such a hardworking, dedicated and professional group of individuals. I have been involved in public education for 26 years and have never encountered a group that was so determined to do things the right way!

“Again, thank you for all your help and the wonderful job you did for us. Please be assured that I will gladly recommend you and your company. Best of luck in your future endeavors and please know that I would welcome the opportunity to work with you again should the situation arise.”

With thanks to Jim Cunningham, Fort Payne School Superintendent, Fort Payne, AL.

myeasiteach.com launched!

RM is pleased to annoucene the launch of myeasiteach.com, a free service that allows teachers to download RM Easiteach interactive lessons and also upload their own lessons to share with the RM Easiteach community.

There are over 100,000 licences of RM Easiteach in the US, and this service as been provided to users to increase the library of interactive lessons available and share good practice of incorporating RM Easiteach into the curriculum.

Please register today to access myeasiteach.com and browse the free of charge lessons already available and also to upload any lessons other teachers would enjoy using in their classroom.

In addition to the free of charge lessons on myeasiteach.com, RM Easiteach Content packs for Math, English Language Arts, Science and Games are also available for Elementary Schools and a Cross-Curriculum Secondary School pack is also available from your local RM reseller.

For more information go to www.rmeducation.com.