A relationship between an elementary school in Cockeysville and an area medical supply company has borne unusual fruit -- high-tech learning tools.

When students return to Padonia International Elementary School this fall, they'll enjoy the benefits of two interactive whiteboards.

The whiteboards allow teachers to display photos and videos as if it were a computer, with the added benefit of being able to interact with the screen via a hand-held stylus that functions as a computer mouse, drawing tool and writing utensil.

"This generation of kids is so plugged in that if they can interact with anything electronically, they're so much more engaged," said Molly Glassman, the school's English for Speakers of Other Language (ESOL) teacher.

"The kids just see these whiteboards as one big computer screen," she said.

But these instruction tools come at a price: about $4,000 each.

The school's PTA raised $4,000 for the whiteboards.

"The PTA gave us a very generous donation," Glassman said.

An additional gift of $2,000 gift from Becton, Dickinson and Co., a New Jersey-based medical supply company with facilities in Hunt Valley and Sparks, came as a complete surprise.

"The $2,000 we got from BD was about half of one of the whiteboards, which was a huge chunk," Glassman said. "We were totally shocked. We had no idea it was coming."

Glassman said the whiteboards might make learning easier for her ESOL students.

"They can come up and use the pen -- they can label pictures," she said. "I can download a picture of rainforest creatures and they can come up and write on the board itself."

Students also can take quizzes from the screen via "clickers" at each of their desks, which allow them to click on A, B, C or D. The results of the quiz, or whatever activity the students participate in, can be shown on the screen moments later.

"They get feedback immediately," Glassman said.

One of the whiteboards has been installed in a classroom and the other is waiting to be installed in the school's library after renovations there are completed. Teachers will be trained in August on how to use the whiteboards.

The donation to help fund the boards was not the first expression of goodwill from Becton, Dickinson.

The company's relationship with the school began in with a program called the Lunch Bunch. Glassman was on the school's community involvement committee, and explored the idea of having volunteers visit the school to read to students.

"I had seen the idea somewhere else -- my daughter went to Cromwell Valley Elementary and they had parents come in and read during lunch," she said.

But "most of our parents work, so it's not like we can have a lot of parents in during the day," she said.

Glassman wondered if Cockeysville area companies could provide volunteers now and then to read to students. It didn't take her long to find such a company.

"BD had so many volunteers that we just partnered with them -- it was really a good fit," she said.

Glassman credits Carolyn DiNatale, a speech teacher and member of the community involvement committee, with the program's name, "Lunch Bunch."

Six or so students at a time bring their lunch or buy it in the school's cafeteria and then meet at a table just outside the cafeteria.

"They all sit at the table and the volunteer brings a book," Glassman said.

Sometimes the reader brings fiction and sometimes nonfiction, but they don't just read -- they engage the students, Glassman said.

"Their volunteers might say, 'Has anything like this ever happened to you?' or 'What do you think will happen next?' " she said. "It's a very fun, non-classroom environment."

Glassman said part of the program's purpose is to read to students who might not be read to at home -- such as students whose parents don't speak English as a first language. But students never mistook the Lunch Bunch as a reading group for those needing help.

"Kids who aren't in Lunch Bunch were always asking if they can have a chair," Glassman said. So she began rotating students with a variety of reading skill levels through the Lunch Bunch.

"It's really nice to mix it up."

Currently, four volunteers from Becton, Dickinson visit the school almost every week and a couple of others visit once a month, Glassman said.

"We received a letter from Padonia Elementary School, so we responded and it turned into a really nice relationship," said Diane Polk, head of the human resources department at Becton, Dickinson's area facilities.

---

user comments (0)