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From cookie dough to interactive boards
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C.H. Campbell fourth-grade teacher Dana Zarlenga-Buist and student Ashleigh Haas, 9, work on a math problem on the new interactive boards in the Canfield classrooms.
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Cookie dough and festival funds led to interactive boards in the Canfield elementary schools.
Those fundraisers, operated by the Canfield Parent Teacher Organization, raise about $20,000 yearly, said Travis Lavery, C.H. Campbell principal.
His building purchased 20 interactive boards, Interwrite Touchboard by eInstruction.
They are magnetic, can be used as a whiteboard and also can be used as a touchscreen with the internet or drawing.
Hilltop Elementary now has 10 and will buy 10 more after the new year — also with PTO funds.
All of the boards have been purchased through Youngstown-based Turning Technologies, which got its start in the Youngstown Business Incubator.
The increase of technology was a campaign promise during the lead-up to the levy for the schools that was passed in 2013.
Teacher suggestions led to the focus on interactive boards in the classrooms, said Lavery, also a member of the district’s technology committee.
Wednesday was the first day that Dana Zarlenga-Buist’s fourth-grade classroom had the interactive board, and the kids were excited to talk about them.
Some had previously had an interactive board in their classrooms — Lavery said there were a few boards in the building from previous grant writing by individual teachers — while others said this was new, but like a computer tablet at their homes.
“I think because I’m short you can see it so much better,” said Christopher Thomas, 9, of the newly installed board.
Zarlenga-Buist noted that they had already used a program that taught her students a lesson in a way that she didn’t.
“It explains in a different way. I teach one way, and it’s just another way to introduce a concept,” she said.
The students can use the board for a variety of uses, from division or multiplication to watching videos.
“Watching YouTube videos about learning,” is what 10-year-old AJ Harvilla is looking forward to in class.
“I think it’s really cool because you can touch it and something happens,” said Ashleigh Haas, 9.
When asked if the students prefer paper and pencil or the new board, some preferred the board while others wanted a mix of the two. “We don’t have to print a paper out now,” said Wesley Rich, 9.
“It just makes it more interactive for the students. That’s the big thing,” Lavery said. “Having them come up to the board and interact and manipulate objects, that really prepares them more than a paper worksheet.”
Lavery said the boards have been installed by district employees in rooms that teachers aren’t in for extended periods of time.
He said the infrastructure was in place, but they needed longer wires to hook the boards into a computer.
The district has been installing them since Thanksgiving break and the plan is to have all 20 installed at C.H. Campbell in the coming weeks.